First 4 days and discoveries

Here comes the first report from the special reporter in Portugal - Ruti. The first 4 days passed in the country that is the Europe`s farest point from Lithuania. The country where the land meets the Atlantic ocean....

... and where crazy AIESECers met Ruti at the airport.

My credo for the internship is: EACH DAY - AT LEAST ONE DISCOVERY.

And the first 4 discoveries are:

1. Lisbon - the WHITE city.
2. Meeting the guard - climbing up the rocks to the statue.

3. Bairo Alto - night life in the streets of Lisbon.

4. ´Local party´ with crazy Portuguese people.

People. Here in Porutgal people are really friedly and a bit crazy. Imagine my first hours in this country: singing and dancing people at the airport, a lot of posters around, a glass of local beer in a local bar, lunch. However, the craziest part is that most of the people I know here are guys. I tried to find out what has happened to the feminine part - and as they told this is the kind of the reception they have. They send boys to make the reception for interns-girls.

Other typical things for Portuguese people:
1. they really talk a lot:) much more than an average Lithuanian.
2. because Portuguese people have a culture of really intense communication - they have a lot of rituals for this. Coffee ritual - there are lots of cafes there and people enjoy drinking coffee with friends. Eating - they usually do not eat alone (the food is not that different from other Europian countries).
3. day schedule. If Portuguese do not have to go to work, the usual time to go to sleep is even 7-8 a.m. and then they wake up at 1-4 p.m. So, for me - morning person - it was a kind of shock:) Even after going to sleep at 5 a.m., I woke up at 11 a.m.
4. relaxed. People here are slower and their pace is not that intense as I am used to. Even the economy here is ´relaxed´ - see the bill of the cafe in photo. 5. greeting. Kisses to both cheeks.

Football vs. basketball. Football is called their first religion here. And this is really true. I got a chance to see people arguing about which is the best team in Portugal and they were really emotional (the best three teams here are Benfica, Sporting and Porto). One day I will for sure go to the football match and see what is happening in the middle of the heat.
Basketball is not very popular. Just a few people know that European championship is happening, not mentioning that noone looks the game even though the Portugal team is in another round. However, here I am, the real Lithuanian, crazy about basketball, who informs them about their and Lithuanian results daily:)

Beer. As I already wrote, I found out what Portuguese beer is very quickly. Actually, it is really tasty. Especially, I liked the black beer from their best brewery. However, the most funny story about the beer is that Portuguese people as well as Germans, Czeck people, Lithuanians and many other nations think that their beer is the best in the world:) Well, noone could judge the taste...

Lisbon.

Even when flying over the Lisbon by plane I saw what name I will give for this city – WHITE. And this is true. Here I found a lot less green colour then in Lithuania – most houses, pavements are white. And just after some time I found a connection – the architecture is really similar to the one they have in Arabic countries. This is not strange when you know that in VIII century it was concured by moores.

Sintra - PART 1.
A green spot near the Lisbon. If I wrote that Lisbon is white, so Sintra is for sure a GREEN place. This is the place who takes the second place among the places I am in. 2 out of three first days in Portugal I spent there. To tell the truth, most foreigners find Sintra in a very boring way - going around to some tourist sites, visiting palaces and other ancient buildings (I am going to do this as well).

However, my first acquaintance with Sintra was the following. Firstly, me and few local AIESECers (who know who they are:)) went to a park to one of the palaces. We climbed over the wall and entered the place absolutely `legally´. And we saw a very nice statue of the guard. And then came the proposal to visit that guard and say ´hello´. As you can see from the photos, it took us some time and alpinistic skills to use. At the end it was worth anything - this is what I like - finding out places in a local way.

Beaches and Atlantic ocean. The same day I was in Sintra, we also visited the beach there. And for the first time I touched the Atlantic Ocean. The water there is usually much colder than in the Baltic sea. That day it was 18 degrees Celsius. It was a bit exotic place for me with a really broad beach and rocks nearby.

Night life. There were 4 types of night life I have experienced in Portugal.

The first night we went to the docks of the river that crosses Lisbon - Tejo. We had a calm walk along the shore and had some beer in the pub there.

The second night was a real cultural experience for me as after the dinner and a coffee we went to a part of Lisbon where they have a lot of reaaaaaly small pubs - Bairo Alto. How do they cope with the situation that pubs do not have space even for 15 people? They simply buy drinks in the pub and go to drink and chat outside:) So, in Bairo Alto we had some ´shots´ (stikliukus) of really tasty cocktails (strawberry, peach, and kivi-peach taste, and they have many more that I did not taste). What is interesting in Bairo Alto is that people have a group drink - one person invites a group of people and pay for them. Afterwards, the turn goes to other persons. After drinking and chating in Bairo Alto (at around 5 a.m.) crowds of people either go home or to the discos.
The third night was devoted to know the ´underground´ night life in Lisbon. Me and some guys from Sintra (SINTRA - PART 2) went to one of AIESECers house and had a dinner there. And some Portuguese wine as well. The further part was an experience of night life in Sintra - ´killing´ driving in the narrow streets of Sintra, having some more sangrija, stopping to take a guitar, forgetting the guitar in the yard:), remembering it and coming back to take it, and the evening (or the morning) was finished singing some melancholic songs...

And the fourth one was a calm one - cooking and chats at home with my roommates.

Living place. I live in a flat with 5 bedrooms, living room, bathrooms and a kitchen with another people who rent that flat. In total 6 people (another girl from Spain will come soon). The flat is not big but it is really cozy and comfortable to spend that little part of my time there.

Summing up my first 4 days in Portugal I could say that I feel like being here for 4 months. So far I have many many more discoveries and impressions every day - absolutely ´drunk´ of this culture:) To be continued...

Kisses and regards!