Portugal - general information

http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/portugal-4040350

Moimenta da Beira and the surrounding area

http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/moimenta-da-beira

Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra

http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/portugal-2010-lissabon-porto-coimbra

Portugal - the age of discovery

http://www.slideshare.net/merikekk/the-age-of-discovery

Tuesday - the 8th day

We had to be at school at 10 o’clock. Everybody were there on time, but we just stood and talked – waited the time, when we could go in the assembly hall to start the dictionary. All the students from the group were divided into groups. Every group had 3 Portuguese, 1 Estonian, 1 Polish, 1 Turkish and 1 Italian student. Every group was given a theme of what they would start making their dicitonary. Our theme was shopping, but there were also entertainment, at a restaurant etc. While the students were making the dictionary, teachers had a project meeting, so the students were alone in the assembly hall. Then we ate lunch.

After lunch we went to Quinta da Carregosa. Quinta da Carregosa is located deep in the Corgo area of the famous Douro region that is arguably the most well known wine producing region in Portugal.

The weather was very hot, at least for the Estonians. The sun was shining most of the time and the temperature was pretty high.

After the trip we went back to school to have dinner.

It was our last night together, so we had a little party in the school, there was a man who sang and played the synthesizer. People danced and had fun! But later we went to a party which was organised by my host family. All the students of the project were there, we sang, danced and talked. People realised, that it was our last night together, so a lot of us cried. Later we went home to pack, but we were very tired, so we went to sleep soon.

Trip to Guimarães, Sunday (the 6th day)

The sixth day of our trip in Portugal started with waking up and having breakfast in our hosting families. This day we went to the acient city of Guimarães, the place where the kingdom of Portugal was born. For that reason it is called the cradle of Portugal. We had to be in the school by 10 o'clock and I (Riin) fortunately arrived on time. But some people were late and so we set off and headed for Guimarães 18 minutes later. The bus trip lasted for about 2 hours and 45 minutes. We arrived in Guimarães at 1 pm. Then we had 1,5 hours of free time to spend in shops.

After that we visited the chapel of S. Miguel. It was built in the 12th century in Romanesque style. It has a symbolic link to the founding of the Portugese nation as tradition states that the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques was baptised there. The floor of the chapel is paved with the tombs attributed to the noble warriors who fought alongside King Afonso at the founding of the nation. The chapel is also classified as a National Monument.
Then we walked from the chapel to a nearby castle which dates back to the 10th century AD. Throughout its history the castle served as the backdrop for dynastic conflicts, none more heroic than the exploits leading to the foundation of the kingdom at the Battle of S. Mamede. It is also the place where King Afonso was probably born.

After that we went to the central part of the city. There we were also allowed to look around by ourselves. But before that we walked along an acient street which was lined with old houses, many of these had coats of arms of old families on their facade.

This evening we didn't have dinner in school. We went to homes to dine with our hosting families. It had been again a long day and we went to sleep, our heads filled with impressions of the seen places and things.

Saturday- The 5th day- The cruise day-17.04.2010

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Saturday.
We had to wake up really early on that morning. Met in front of the school as always and started going. First it was like 1 hour ride by bus to the port in Régua. Then the Porto Cruz started. First it was raining and we just sat inside the cruise ship. The ship itself had 2 floors. The first floor was a fancy little restaurant and the upper floor was a deck for people, who were interested in dancing, making good photos of the nature, tanning etc.
It was not a big ship and therefore it was booked just for the people in the project.

Everybody had their cameras turned on and we were all stunned by the view in the valley.
The journey lasted for 5 h and ofcourse, a delicious lunch was included.
We had to go through 2 canal locks(2.pic), and had to do lots of waiting and siting on the deck.
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We used the free time for spending time together. We had 3 guitars with us, but we couldn't find lots of songs to sing all together. Some people were dancing or talking. Some enjoyed the songs and were just lying on the deck. We made pictures with almost everybody to keep this beautiful memory in our hearts, heads and computers.
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When we arrived to Porto, it was raining heavily. We visited only one church and then had some free time for shopping.
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We came back with 2 trains. There we communicated with each other and had a nice time. Of course some of us were sleeping, because it had been a long day.

In the evening there was a rock-concert in the school. Comenius people were all related to the first band, because one boy form our group(Filipe), was playing bass-guitar there. The band was really good and was playing popular songs! I believe all members of the project will keep their fingers crossed and wish to see the band on a big stage one day.
In the second band, the physics teacher form that school, performed. So the whole concert was fully connected to that school.

We left the school at midnight and went to our homes.

It was already the 5th day in Portugal for Estonians, first free-of-school day for the whole project and the only day on a cruise.
I hope we will remember the day as it was- fantastic!

Portugali muusika

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Portugali muusika

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Monday, the seventh day

In the morning we gathered to the school, where the first plan was to listen to and make the presentations about our country. Of course, as always, first we had to wait for about an hour, not knowing if anything is happening or not.
In there timetable there was 3 hours for 5x20 presentations. Seems enough? Eventually we didn't listen to the Portugese students' presentation, as we had run out of time. But the performances that we had time to listen to were all in all funny and interesting.

Italy had made 2 funny sketches and a fantastic Italian song, that we had a bit later an opportunity to sing as well.(still, in English)

The Polish students had made a little introduction of their home area, but unfortunately it was really hard to understand them. Then they showed us a video about maturity ball, the school event that our students will have an opportunity to participate in, as well. The ball seemed really a fantastic event, but the video was a bit too long.

Turkey had made their presentations about the main sights in Istanbul. We could also see panorama videos of these places, that made the presentations quite exciting. They also danced typical Turkish dances and they even wore their national costumes. After that, they also gave some Turkish delights and souvenirs to us.

After eating and waiting there was time to go to Viseu, the county center, to see the town and visit a huge shopping center. First, as everybody was already a bit tired of churches and excursions, we had about an hour of free time in the town center. We had to meet each other at half past 5, but Aida came at 6 o'clock and we were just waiting for her for half an hour. She had had some problems with the bus, but we were still upset.

Then we went to a shopping centre and had 1,5 hours of free time there. First it seemed to us, that it was absolutely too little, but actually the shop wasn't that impressive and huge as it seemed.

On this day we had an opportunity to eat at home. We had 4 different types of meat and 6 cakes!!!
After that we went outside with the others and had a nice night:)

Thursday - the third day

We were supposed to go to school at half past 8, but we were all a bit late. It seemed that nobody wasn’t upset because of that.Triinu and I (Grete) went to our host’s Portuguese lesson, but as everybody did not appear, teacher only gave them some homework- we had been there only for 10 minutes. Next we had principal’s welcome at school, we all got small presents, traditional candies from Portugal and teachers also got champange. Students from Portugal ( Filip and Carlos) performed with few songs which were very nice and we all understood them because they were in English. After that a huge cake was brought for us, there was a map of Europe on the cake and all the countries that took part of the project were shown.





After eating the cake we had some free time and we went to see the exhibitions which were made by the students of Moimenta’s school. We also checked the Biology lab, where were exhibitions for the cultural week.





In the evening we had major’s reception in the Town Hall. It was quite short – the major told that he was glad to see us and hopes that we enjoy staying in Moimenta etc. After that we visited very interesting and very beautiful places with amazing landscapes called Lapa and Barragem.


When we arrived back in Moimenta, we had a party in the school. The Portuguese celebrated their Republic’s Anniversary. There were a lot of people – students, their parents, teachers. And also all the Comenius Project’s students. We spent a little time there because we all were very exhausted from the trips and wanted to sleep. So we went home to have a rest to start a new day with full of enthusiasm!