Back during my epic semester break trip, I ended in Portugal and I just got super behind in posting pictures and stories. Theresa told me I really need to post an entry about Portugal because it was the *best* part of the trip. I don't know if can compete with Morocco in terms of cultural awesomeness. However, being with two amazing friends definitely made it the best part!
Theresa and I flew into Lisbon to meet Lissi, another friend from CMU who's spending the year in Germany. Our flight got in a lot earlier than Lissi's so we went to discover Lisbon. I was really sick! Having woken up at 3 am to make our flight, I wasn't the most energetic and adventurous person, but we made it work.
Since it was Ash Wednesday, our first order of business was finding a church for services. We weren't sure
if we'd make it to Fatima in time for the last Mass of the day...so we were playing it safe. By the grace of God, the first church we stumbled upon was having Mass in ten minutes. This was obvious because lots of people were going into the church and none were going out!
After Mass, we started roaming through the street of Lisbon and came upon the ocean. We didn't have a map and I didn't really know Lisbon was on the water! But we sat by the water and enjoyed the sun for a little bit.
Our wandering led us to find out that Lisbon has a large castle overlooking the city. Theresa (being new to Europe) wasn't tired of castle seeing like me. But we made a decision that we would walk up the giant hill to find the castle. Remember how I said we didn't have a map? Well, our wanderings led us around and around (perhaps in circles) Lisbon's residential districts. However, we never found our way to the castle!
The residential area in itself was neat to walk through. It looked like there had been a huge party the night before for the beginning of Lent. The streets were lined with confetti and streamers. And it kind of made me wish we had been there!
It was kind of disappointing that we walked for hours and never found the castle, but Theresa will never let me live down my "I'm going to pass out if I don't sit down right now" moment of breathlessness. I couldn't breathe and we were climbing up mountains!!!
When we got Lissi, we met up with a car rental agency...because I thought it'd be a good idea to drive around Portugal. I'm sure the rental guy panicked a little when we called him for advice on how to use the GPS system and he asked if we had turned it on. Whoops! In my defense, my parents never use GPS....ever! If he gave me a map, we would have been fine!
We arrived in Fatima in time to go to another Mass...which was no big deal because we were IN FATIMA!
We also wandered around for forever trying to find dinner and stumbled into the home of the Fatima football club. This wouldn't had been so strange if the only people there weren't exclusively men or if we spoke some Portuguese. Regardless, we got a good and cheap meal and went back to the hotel for bed!
The next morning, we went to Mass earlier in the day and then decided to take a road trip. We were less than an hour from the ocean and it WAS Valentine's Day! So we picked up some picnic materials and headed out towards the ocean for a picnic.
It was a fantastic decision! The beach in the small town we went to was gorgeous. So we took our sweaters off and rolled op our jeans and played in the water. Unfortunately, none of us realized how large the waves actually were and we got rather wet. But it was WARM! Even in February so we didn't mind too much. Just laid out on the sand and ate our sandwiches, letting the sun dry us off!
We broke the rules and walked out to the edge of a pier. It was safe enough because all the Portuguese people were doing it! Then Theresa decided she wanted to be even sillier and started to climb on all the rocks on the pier. Breaking the rules of common sense wasn't enough, so she convinced Lissi to join her!!!
After drying off, we moved on to the largest monastery in Portugal. It was really close to the beach town and so we thought it'd be cool to check it out. Unfortunately, the inside was closed because we spent so much time having fun on the beach. But just walking around the outside of the monastery made quite an impression of the scope of the building.
On our way back to Fatima, we were passing through the beach town as the sun was beginning to go down. Since we were independent with the car, we decided to swing back by the ocean to watch the sunset...a very romantic Valentine's Day with two wonderful ladies!
Friday was the first Friday in Lent, so we decided to stick in Fatima. There was a special Way of the Cross that went towards the villages the children lived in and actually went through one of the locations of Mary's apparition. It was incredible to realize that Mary had been THERE right were we were at one point. So we prayed the Stations of the Cross and a few Marian prayers. It was pretty cool to explore the houses of where the shepherd children lived.
My experiences here in Fatima led me write blog post for The Apostolate that more closely examined the spiritual growth I felt during this trip.
Early the next morning, we left Fatima and headed back to the airport it Lisbon. Lissi went back to Germany and Theresa came with me to Poland where we spent two more very short days together! Portugal was BEAUTIFUL though! And it was the perfect escape from the cold Polish weather in February.
Theresa and I flew into Lisbon to meet Lissi, another friend from CMU who's spending the year in Germany. Our flight got in a lot earlier than Lissi's so we went to discover Lisbon. I was really sick! Having woken up at 3 am to make our flight, I wasn't the most energetic and adventurous person, but we made it work.
Since it was Ash Wednesday, our first order of business was finding a church for services. We weren't sure if we'd make it to Fatima in time for the last Mass of the day...so we were playing it safe. By the grace of God, the first church we stumbled upon was having Mass in ten minutes. This was obvious because lots of people were going into the church and none were going out!
Our wandering led us to find out that Lisbon has a large castle overlooking the city. Theresa (being new to Europe) wasn't tired of castle seeing like me. But we made a decision that we would walk up the giant hill to find the castle. Remember how I said we didn't have a map? Well, our wanderings led us around and around (perhaps in circles) Lisbon's residential districts. However, we never found our way to the castle!
The residential area in itself was neat to walk through. It looked like there had been a huge party the night before for the beginning of Lent. The streets were lined with confetti and streamers. And it kind of made me wish we had been there!  |
| The closest we got to the castle |
It was kind of disappointing that we walked for hours and never found the castle, but Theresa will never let me live down my "I'm going to pass out if I don't sit down right now" moment of breathlessness. I couldn't breathe and we were climbing up mountains!!!
When we got Lissi, we met up with a car rental agency...because I thought it'd be a good idea to drive around Portugal. I'm sure the rental guy panicked a little when we called him for advice on how to use the GPS system and he asked if we had turned it on. Whoops! In my defense, my parents never use GPS....ever! If he gave me a map, we would have been fine!We arrived in Fatima in time to go to another Mass...which was no big deal because we were IN FATIMA!
The next morning, we went to Mass earlier in the day and then decided to take a road trip. We were less than an hour from the ocean and it WAS Valentine's Day! So we picked up some picnic materials and headed out towards the ocean for a picnic. It was a fantastic decision! The beach in the small town we went to was gorgeous. So we took our sweaters off and rolled op our jeans and played in the water. Unfortunately, none of us realized how large the waves actually were and we got rather wet. But it was WARM! Even in February so we didn't mind too much. Just laid out on the sand and ate our sandwiches, letting the sun dry us off!
We broke the rules and walked out to the edge of a pier. It was safe enough because all the Portuguese people were doing it! Then Theresa decided she wanted to be even sillier and started to climb on all the rocks on the pier. Breaking the rules of common sense wasn't enough, so she convinced Lissi to join her!!!After drying off, we moved on to the largest monastery in Portugal. It was really close to the beach town and so we thought it'd be cool to check it out. Unfortunately, the inside was closed because we spent so much time having fun on the beach. But just walking around the outside of the monastery made quite an impression of the scope of the building.
On our way back to Fatima, we were passing through the beach town as the sun was beginning to go down. Since we were independent with the car, we decided to swing back by the ocean to watch the sunset...a very romantic Valentine's Day with two wonderful ladies!
 |
| Calvary |
My experiences here in Fatima led me write blog post for The Apostolate that more closely examined the spiritual growth I felt during this trip.
Early the next morning, we left Fatima and headed back to the airport it Lisbon. Lissi went back to Germany and Theresa came with me to Poland where we spent two more very short days together! Portugal was BEAUTIFUL though! And it was the perfect escape from the cold Polish weather in February.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.