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Though, this week in Lisbon went by so fast, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Lisbon is a gorgeous city and it is very different from most cities that I have visited in Europe. It is a very culturally diverse and open-minded city. During this week, I have seen people living in all kinds of conditions and with all kinds of backgrounds. Within only around five minutes of walk from the most beautiful parts of downtown Lisbon are some of the less fortunate and less wealthy streets of Lisbon.
Doing a historical tour of Lisbon was a wonderful experience because the city of Lisbon is absolutely marvellous. I learned a lot about how Lisbon was founded and what makes the city so wonderful and historically rich. This experience taught me a lot about Portugal that I hadn’t learned about or noticed when I used to live in Portugal.
I found it challenging to walk around the city in the heat because the city of Lisbon is quite hilly. The migrant tour that we did on our second day in Lisbon, was very interesting because I got to experience the diversity of the types of living conditions and people in the city. We walked from the most prestigious streets with the expensive brands to some poorer streets, where the population lived more cramped and in less good conditions. This was very shocking because I have never been in a city where there is so much contrast within less than a 1 km range.
The experience that I reflected on for my pre-trip reflection was the embroidering with the Grannies. The experience was very much as I expected it. It was very challenging for me to concentrate on the embroidering for a long period of time because I am a very active person and I don’t like sitting doing the same thing with no breaks. On top of that, I am very bad with manual activities which made the experience even more challenging. Although, this experience was challenging; I learned new skills and I was quite proud of how my final product turned out though, I did not have time to complete it. Aside from the embroidering in itself, the whole experience was a very wholesome moment to share with the Grannies because they were so passionate about what they were doing and were very happy to be able to share their knowledge with us.
Another experience that I found absolutely amazing was the Granny tour. This experience was mind-blowing not only because it was amazing to see all the local accommodations and places that the grannies spend their days surrounded by but also because the grannies we met were nothing ordinary. They were motivational and inspirational grannies, that lived their lives to the fullest despite their age. One of the grannies told us that she goes skydiving during summer whilst another goes skating with her grandchildren. It was crazy to hear how much mental strength and abilities these grannies had.
To conclude, the week in Lisbon might have been challenging and tiring but it was an amazing experience which I can take a lot of new knowledge and experiences from. This trip was very beneficial to my own learning and building new skills but also to my own adventure of experiencing new cultures and places around the world. I will forever cherish and remember this experience.
