Europe > Exams: Lisbon (Day 7)

Hola todos,

I woke up in Lisbon and went to bed in love with the city. Y’all, if Lisbon isn’t on your list, put. it. there.

The view from our Airbnb.

It was Sunday morning, and we wanted to go to church. Kaitlynn’s grandpa knew a pastor in Lisbon, so we connected with him and went to his church. He graciously drove us there since it was a bit of a commute. During that drive, we drove across the famous Lisbon bridge, which some people compare to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

The bridge (this was taken from the west of the bridge, so Lisbon is on the back left).

The pastor’s son spoke English very well, so he was a mini-tour guide for the drive. He explained some aspects of Portuguese and Lisbon history and culture. Their family is from Brazil, so he offered some interesting insights and comparisons to life and language there, too.

He also translated the whole message at church, which was a huge help. I picked up on a few key words that were similar to Spanish or English (or unique enough to get context clues, like books of the Bible) but I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to understand the message.

Pastor, his wife, his son Gabriel, and us.

The church is small (we doubled its population on Sunday) but appears to have a faithful group of attendees!

They surprised us by asking us to sing at the end. We hadn’t prepared a song, and we literally had to quickly google some lyrics to make sure we were all on the same page.

After church, the pastor and his family took us to lunch. We went to a Lisbon mall and ate at what I gathered was a fast causal restaurant for traditional Portuguese food. I’ve been to a few malls around the world, and I think it’s so interesting that malls are basically the same around the world (at least where I’ve been). Maybe some different stores, clothing offerings, or food court choices, but they all have the same structure and flow and purpose.

After lunch, we were dropped off near the start of our walking tour. It started just off the main street called Liberdade, which was basically a wide street running between two big statues and plazas, covered with a tree-canopy and lined with fancy stores. It looks very French, similar to the Champs Elysées. It’s beautiful, and we would have walked more of it but it’s on a steep hill. I was still emotionally recovering from Porto.

Our tour was a free walking tour where you tip the tour guide at the end. I’ve used these in almost every city I’m traveled to and I love them: you get local insights and history of the city and country that help you understand what you’re seeing. And it’s so much cheaper than a bus tour or paid tour.

Our guide was Claudia, and she was so fun! She had lots of great tips and tricks for pictures, museums, food, and saving money. We also learned so much more about the history of Portugal, the various monarchies and political turmoil, and the cultures that have contributed to what Portugal is today (Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, Jews, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some).

Some scenes of Lisbon from the tour.

We also saw two different churches that had been burned during a series of natural disasters that occurred in 1755: an earthquake of roughly 8.5-9.2 on the Richter scale, followed by a tsunami, followed by a huge fire that took 5 days to put out. Lots of the city was reconstructed after that, but you can still see fire damage on some of the older buildings.

They had to reconstruct the roof of this church entirely after the fire damage, but you can see some of the fire damage in the stone. The church also decided to restore itself in an austere fashion, as opposed to the more ornate original.

This was from a lookout in the Carlo neighborhood. So many hills, so many views. I cannot get over the combination of the vibrant colors. (And, blue and orange are Pepperdine colors.)

The tour ended at the Praça Comercio, or Commercial Plaza. It’s a large open square surrounded by yellow buildings on 3 sides and the river port on the other. We got some gelato and hung out at the riverfront for a bit. We met another DC-er on the tour (she had also just finished law school!) named Justina, so we hung out with her a bit too.

Bad picture; good sunset.

gelato 😎

On our way to dinner, we stopped by this bookstore in the Chiado neighborhood. Bertrand Bookstore is the oldest operating bookshop in the world and was established in 1732. (It’s free to go inside!)

We ended the night with a late dinner at an Italian place around the corner from our Airbnb. (If you’re keeping track, yes—we had dessert before dinner. What can I say? At least I’m consistent across continents.) (And yes, we had Italian food. It was our first non-“local” cuisine in Portugal, but we desperately needed any restaurant that was 1. open at 9PM on Sunday and 2. not going to break the bank.)

Step tracker: 133,380

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora