Welcome week in Lisbon

As the Portuguese are so friendly and open towards foreigners, the city hall organised a complete welcome week for the international students. The whole week events were offered for free for the international students. Of course, you had to register beforehand for the events to plan the amounts of people wanting to participate. Typical me, I only got to know about all this pretty late and was therefore already late for the best things to register and they were already fully booked. I managed to get into a boat trip on the Tagus river, a language tandem and a cycling tour. I actually would have liked to do the Portuguese cooking lesson, the visit of Lisbon’s aqueduct, a tuk tuk tour around the city or a surf class. They were already full and also, I had already classes on some of these days. But well, you cannot have everything.

So, I went to the boat trip on Monday. It had been described as a sailing tour, but actually it only was a normal ferry. In Lisbon is almost every day good weather and we got the one day of bad weather in a long row of days. It was completely cloudy, grey and rainy. A really good day to see the colourful city from the riverside … Not. We didn’t see much. Endless fog, but not much more. We had fun anyway and I already told you, that it is so easy to get to know knew people. Everyone is searching for friends.

On Wednesday, we had our language tandem. But this language tandem was actually not worth its name. Normally, a tandem consists of two people – as the word already suggests -, each of them native in one language and willing to learn the other one. Then, they will help each other and naturally learn a new language. Here, were only foreigners and no Portuguese people, which should in my opinion be the language to learn as we are in Portugal. We were only a small group of nine people even though almost hundred people had applied. The language tandem was more an international language meeting and we played some language games.

The first one was to put sentences in five different languages in the right order, meaning they were already written and just cut into pieces. As I speak five of the six languages and my polish partner made the last polish sentence, of course we were the first. Before getting the points, the coordinator wanted to show me a mistake that I made and therefore not give us the first place. I had to explain her that German is my mother tongue and it was completely correct they way I had put it, because in German you cannot say: “als ich noch jung ganz war” – in English it would be something like: “when I was young still very”.

After a few more games it was already over and we still talked a bit and exchanged our numbers. We have been a marrocan guy, me, the Russian, a Polish girl, an Italian and a Brasilian girl and another German. It was a bit sad that only so few people had appeared and it was not the only event. Many people just applied for many things and only afterwards thought about if to come or not and many times just didn’t. So many people, who wanted to come missed their chance – as me, for example for the events I told you before – and also for the city hall it was very stupid because they had paid everything in advance. It would just have been possible for me or others to simply go to one of the events and see if still places are free, but we didn’t know and thought it was really full.

On Friday, the weather was finally better and I luckily also was feeling a lot better – after my rough week in Ireland and then the cold and wet boat trip on Monday – and therefore went as planned on the biking tour. We were parted into small groups – which was mostly true for the last people to appear, the others were more bigger groups. Luckily, I was a bit late, because I estimated my time to go to the meeting point wrong. This rarely happens to Germans, but I never thought the traffic could be that bad, when I took the bus. Good thing was, I was in a very small group with the other people, who were late and I think like that it was more intimate and I could hear everything the guide said.

We got a bike and helmet as we were driving on the lively roads and you know how the Mediterranean people drive cars… And then we started from Marquês de Pombal downwards through the parque Eduardo VII and the Avenida da Liberdade. We always had some stops for explaining things about the places, the city and its history. At Rossio place, we got our first little surprise on the bike tour: we got to taste ginjinha, a Portuguese cherry liquor. It was the first time that I tried it and I wanted it since the day I arrived. So, we drank together ginjinha and shared the cherries from the bottom of the bottle. I can recommend the liquor, but not the cherries. The liquor is made with spices and the cherries can be very spicy. Then, we continued further down to the river and along the river in direction of the bridge 25 abril, which means 25th of april, which is the day of the Portuguese independence from the Spanish. It was very beautiful with the sunshine shining on the river and the bright red bridge, which by the way is not a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. Actually, it is the other way round, the bridge in Lisbon has been built first, about 20 years before, and is even longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. A little joke from the people living close to the bridge: they always wonder why it is raining nails… At the Praça do Comércio, we got our second surprise: pastéis de nata for getting our forces back. Pastéis de nata are the typical and most known treat in Portugal. It is a kind of pudding in puff pastry, very delicious. So, even culinary the bike tour was worth it. We took some group pictures and then made our way along the river to Belém, where we took again some pictures in front of the tower of Belém. We all agreed that we should do more often such bike tours or rent bikes as it has been very interesting and the road along the river is perfect for cycling. In the city, I wouldn’t recommend it that much.

After the bike tour, I spontaneously joined a friend for a Street Art Workshop. I hadn’t registered, but my experiences of the last days told me to just go and ask for free spots and of course, I could participate. We were also very few people when it started and only a few more joined us later. We all got a surgical mask and gloves to be safe of the colours and its odour. Without many instructions, we were allowed to spray whatever we wanted on the for us freshly painted wall. Sounds easier than it is, when you are as uncreative as me. What am I going to spray on a wall? Just start with some abstract forms. And actually, it didn’t evolve much more. It was fun, but until the end, I didn’t find any creative inspiration. The total wall in the end didn’t look so bad, with all the mixed styles of different persons, but it was pretty obvious that it had been made by beginners. The best part of the wall, was of course, the part of our teacher, who is a famous street art artist in Portugal. I passed this street several times on my way to somewhere and our art indeed stayed there for some weeks, until some more talented persons oversprayed it.

The same day in the afternoon until evening, was the official welcoming ceremony of the international students in Lisbon in the city hall. The mayor, some students and other important people held some speeches about the country, the city and Erasmus life. Of course, we got some presents including a bag, a t-shirt, a pen, a bottle opener from uniplaces, a survival guide about life in Lisbon and a sardine made from carton – this seems to be a typical sign for Lisbon, or even Portugal, I am not quite sure, but you see it everywhere: on t-shirts, as magnets and many more to signal the close relationship to the sea. Most of Portuguese food as well as richness that comes from the trading exist thanks to the sea and also, they are the people mostly known for their seafarers. I am not quite sure, what I shall do with it, I mean, it is a big fish on carton, but I am gonna keep it for some time. Afterwards, we were served pastéis de nata and drinks, mostly wine, softdrinks and even more ginjinha. All in all, it was a nice day and great week and it was obvious that the city hall didn’t spare any costs to show us Lisbon and Portugal from its best side and to give us a more than appropriate welcome!

Obrigada para todo!

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