First Day : from Porto To lisbon
I just started from Porto on Saturday 15th March 2009 travel to Lisboa. Its the capital of Portugal. I have been there for two times before but I could not visit any places that I wanted to. This time I wanted to explore many places. Manel (My prof) borrowed me the Guide of Portugal. I read the guide and I planned to visit many places. It was the trip actually to go to Indian Embassy to get my Police clearance certificate in Lisbon to process my Visa in Portugal. So I had good chance to visit Lisboa. its 312 km from Porto. I started from my home and it took 45 mins by foot to reach the bus station. It was at the early morning 5 o clock. I could see lot of people going back to their home after the party. It was a big surprise for me to see lot of people walking in a street at early morning.
So I started in bus (in the bus company they said that, it will take 3 hours 30 mins to reach Lisbon. The digital dispaly started in 00:00 and reached exactly at 03:30 mins. Hats off to Rede eXpress. I was so much surprised by the timings. This was the bus I travelled, so comfortable.
After reaching the Lisboa i bought the day ticket and took the metro to reach Cais do Sodre. It is the well known juction point for many transportation. I had to go to Calcilhas its in the other side of Tagus river in Lisbon. I needed to take the Boat to cross the river. The charge for the trip is 85 cents. The price was so cheap was very interesting too.
the view of Lisbon from the other side of Tejo river was great.
My friend's mother (Here I have to mention about my friends help to stay in her home at Almada, Lisboa. Her name is Carla Porthughese girl working with me When I was in Dortmund, Germany. I asked her help to stay with her mother for three days. Her mother agreed for that and I was so lucky for that) and a frined of Carla has to come there to pick me up. I was just waitng for them and enjoyed watching the view of lisbon.Carla's motehr (Gracinda) came and introduced herself. She doesnt speak english and I dont speak Porthughese. it was bit difficult for us to cmmunicate first. the otehr girl came and introduced ourselfs, it was good for the first introduction of course translating and helping to communicate me with Gracinda. I explained her about my plans and said i have the one day ticket to visit Lisboa city. and I suppose to go to Indian embassy on monday thats on 16th march. The girl adviced me to go back to Lisbon have a visit in the old part of city since I had a ticket to travel for the day also my friends mother doesnt want to walk, also she is from Lisbon she knew the place very well. I went to my friends mother home in a car. we bought fish and reached home. It was very nice home in an apartment, Almada (where the christ rei is located). she prepared the fish very fast. it was so tasty.
I had a chance to meet her uncle. He is a calm person.
After the great lunch she took me to the Carcilhas the place where I can take the boat and reached lisbon. I took the 28 route bus from cais do sodre, where i got down from boat. its a tourist bus can take us to many tourist palces. You can just travel and you can get down and visit places whereever you liked.
There were good trams also available to visit the old part of city. i could not have enough time to go by tram. but i took the photo.
I took the bus 28 and wanted to go to Jeronimos. I was in a bus and was so tired slept unknowingly and got down in jeronimos when the bus returned. I drunk the orange Juice and refreshed myslef sitting in a beautiful garden.
I went to visit Jerononimos Monastery (prominent monuments in Lisbon). can look more details in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jer%C3%B3nimos_Monastery. Its one of the beutiful places to be visited in Lisbon.
I visited the chapel too inside the Jeronimos. (
Vasco da Gama and his men spent the night in prayer before departing for
India in 1497 - It interests me as an Indian).
And the museum inside the Jeronimos was great.. It was free for the student. I was happy for that.
After the visit to jeronimos Museum I went to see the Monument to the Discoveries. (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) is a monument that celebrates the Portuguese who took part in the Age of Discovery of the 15th and 16th centuries. It is located on the estuary of the Tagus river in the Belém parish of Lisbon, Portugal, where ships departed to their often unknown destinations.
I went up th etower and I had a great view of Lisbon and also the map on the ground impressed me.
It was very interesting to see the map with the mark of travels from Portugal to differnt parts of the world. 
I went by foot to visit the Belem Tower located on the Tejo river side. You can see more informations in the following link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel%C3%A9m_Tower
I could not go inside the Tower since I was late for the visiting hours. But I had a chance to see the sun set in Tejo River. I enjoyed so much watching the sunset.
After the sunset I just started walking back to get the tram to reach Cais so Sodre where i can take the boat to reach home. when I was walking back I saw the jeronimos tower with lights. it was so beutiful to see the buildings with lights.
I reached the cais do sodre by tram and when I started I just gave a call to Gracinda and she was waiitng in the other side of the river to take me to her home. You cant imagine how lucky I am.
The dinner was ready. important note is taht all the lunch and dinner was served with wine.
Then I went to sleep. finshed the first day.
second day: I woke up at 8 o clock and got ready to go out. the braekfast was ready with good coffee (I prefer with Milk).
Myself and Gracinda were ready to go out to explore some places. First we went to Christ Rei in Almada. see more informations at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristo-ReiWe both went up the building to see the view. It was very nice and you can feel it from the photo of the bridge.
After she took me to Sintra (Sintra (
pron. IPA:
['sĩtɾɐ]) is both a town and a
municipality in
Portugal, located in the district of
Lisbon. The town is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site on account of its 19th century
Romantic architecture).
The Royal Palace was good. We went there on sunday morning. The entrance was free on sundays until 2.30 pm. We were happy again for that.
The royal palace by the name we can imagine how it was constructed. I was amazed by the way they constructed. I was so happy to see Julius Caeser room in the palace.
Here I saw the one of the bed rooms in that royal palace. (if i contruct a home my bed room will be like this for sure- Ha ha ha)
After we started to go up in the hill (Serra) to visit Palacio de Pena (Palace of Pena) -immmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm you must go to this site and see then you will fel it......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pena_PalaceWe could go by car upto some height then we took the bus (seen in the below picture)
to visit the palace..
Unfortunately it wasnt allowed to take pictures inside the palace. there were so many securities for watching people. You cant make any picture. that was bad. But I felt my eyes are fortunate enough to experience the royal life.
we took some pictures from outside. W ehad our lunch (Grancinda brought it) also we ate ice cream enjoying watching the palace. i was inspired by th contruction .. I am still having the question how they could contruct on the hill with so much royal facilty.
After we went down the hill reached Cascais (Richest Municipality in Portugal - so imagine how it looks)...
I ever saw such a beatiful houses in my life. so oooooooooooooooooooo attarctive porthughese old houses..
Uunfortunately my camera battery charge went down and I could not take the pictures. Then we decided to go home to charge the battery. that was a good idea of Gracinda.. it was 30 kms away from Lisbon. She took me all the way beach side to Almada.. i enjoyed so much travelling sea shore..
After reaching home i charged my battery. After she took me to Caparica near by place in Almada and We had a good coffee and sat and waiting for the sun to set. mean while I am so attracted by the baby (girl) playing well with her parents.. I enjoyed watching her..
After watching the sun set in the sea (was so beautiful) with so many colors..
we went back home late because of heavy traffic. again had a great dinner and went to sleep...
Third Day:
I suppose to go to Indian Embassy to register myself also to request for the Police clearance certificate. (the job I came for).
Gracinda called the public ervice and asked for the adress... She took me to the Embassy (after searching for quite long time). I was surprised to see so many people there.. I was in a big queue with filled forms.. When my turn comes the lady verified my phone number and said she will call me back and give me all details.. I surrender my passport.
We were hungry and went to have the lunch in the new part of Lisbon. the food was good but not good as Gracinds.. after we decided to go to Ocenario..
We had a very good time in ocenario... I was surprised to see many kinds of fish.. I took some videos.. I was so happy to see Penguin.. there were soooooooooooo cute...
after visiting ocenario I wanted to go in cable car. we tried. it was a good feeling and the view of the bridge vasco da gama was wonderful.
Then finally she took me to the train station where I caught train and reached the place to catch the bus at 21.00hrs in Sete Rios, Lisboa. I sent message in Porthughese (my first porthughese message) to Gracinda informing her that I am already travelling back to porto.
I reached Porto before time like 30 mins and surprisngly my friend (Anzul from Poland -very good friend of mine, so helping)was waiting to take me back home in a car. that was again a big surprise and was so lucky as usual..
I reached home and slept well and came to lab next day. But still I feel something good.....
i suggest you to visit Portugal .. i wish everyone should feel the happiness as in the same way i am feeling now.......
(Birthday Girl sitting at the corner of the table with Cakes & drinks)
(My friends in our floor- at faculty)
(Helena, Mariana, Porkodi, Zé & Natércia)
(look at the big cakes- (one is chocolate and one is with strawberries)-need more birthday celebrations - right????????????????)
