June 24- Adeus Lisboa

Today I had my first SAS Field Lab. Basically, for every class we are enrolled in we have one day at one port where we have to go on a field trip with our professor and our class. For my architectural history class, the field lab happened to be on our last day in Portugal. So this morning, I got up, had breakfast, and met up with the rest of my classmates. Our tour guide gave us a "brief" (it was actually very long) lecture on the history of Lisbon. It was pretty much the same information we'd been cramming into our heads all week, so it was difficult for me to stay awake while she was talking.

Finally, we were able to leave the ship. We went to the Lisbon National Tile Museum. For those of you who don't know, the Portuguese are famous for their tiles. The tour guide took us around the museum and taught us about Portugal's tile history for the past 500 years. Not the most engaging subject, but the tiles were beautiful and fun to look at. Plus, the museum is actually in an old, renovated church from the 1600's, so that was pretty neat. At first I thought we were visiting the museum because it was a cool part of Lisbon's history, but it wasn't until the tour guide said something that I realized the connection between Lisbon's tiles and it's architecture. She explained, "The tiles are like a second skin to the buildings. Without the tiles, the buildings seem bare. The tiles were created to be a part of the city's architecture."

The Nativity Scene

Tile Panel

Typical Azul Tiles

Ceiling of the Church

After the tiles museum, we went out to the streets and waited FOREVER for our bus to pick us up (as you can tell, I was a little impatient today). We took a bus to a tube station which took us to another part of town where we had to walk along ways until we got to the restaurant we were supposed to have lunch at an hour before. The waiter sat us down very quickly and we got a bunch of free bread! My mood improved dramatically after that. We were offered either steak or fish, I obviously chose fish. The meal was strange but good. It was like a mixture of cod, hash browns and cheese all baked together. Yum! I unashamedly ate three entire rolls and nearly all of the fish mix. I was full and satisfied at that point, but there was more! They brought us out chocolate mousse AND a free shot of espresso. T'was the perfect way to end a great meal.

Of course, all I wanted to do after that was take a nap, but instead we had to start our walking tour of the city. We visited a lot of beautiful churches and learned about their architecture. It was really interesting to compare the different types of designs and styles of each church. I won't go into detail, but the one church that stood out to me the most was the Sao Domingo Church or the "Burned Out Church." It is an old, Catholic church that was built in 1241. In 1959, it was almost completely destroyed by a fire. The architect who took over its reconstruction project in the 80's decided to leave most of the damage in the inside of the building. As a result, the entire interior of the church has this very raw and powerful beauty to it. It's hard to explain.

Sao Domingo

Or the "Burned Out Church"

By far my favorite place we visited on our field lab.

We ended our field lab at the Sao Jorge castle on top of the biggest hill in Lisbon. Now the Pena Palace was definitely my favorite castle I've ever seen, but the Sao Jorge one was pretty amazing too. It looked like it had hopped out of a fairytale. The castle also had a brilliant view of the entire city below us.

At Sao Jorge Castle

Overlooking the beautiful city of Lisbon

It was beautiful, and I wish we could have spent more time there. But it was already late in the day, and I still had some souvenir shopping to do. So I set off with my new friend Reggie in search of a high-quality souvenir shop. Along the way we stopped at a little cafe/bar and decided to try some of Portugal's famous cherry liqueur called Ginja. Reggie said it was really good, so I thought I'd give it a try. To my surprise, they served it in a little, edible chocolate cup! It was amazing!! I'll freely admit that I was more excited about the miniature chocolate teacup than the actual alcohol. The Ginja was good. It just tasted like cherry cough syrup that wasn't disgusting. But the cup guys!! Look at how cute it was.

I wish all drinks could be served in a cup made out of chocolate. How good would iced-coffee be if it were served in a chocolate mug? A million times better.

Okay, done with my chocolate rant. I found my souvenirs, and we went back to the ship. Honestly, it was hard to leave Lisbon. I'm not sure I'll ever come back to Portugal, but I really hope I do. I'd love to be able to explore more of Sintra and spend some more time in Lisbon. it was a crazy couple of days, but it was very fun. I think I said this about London too, but I feel like my trip should be over. I feel like I should be going home tomorrow. It's so strange to think that I still have nine more weeks of classes and cruises and countries. I'm not sure when the reality of this is going to sink in. Maybe it never will.