Lisboa, Rainha do Mar

Lisbon is the capital or Portugal and a major port city that sits on the river Targus.  It is pretty large (8th most populated in the EU) but still has a cool coastal town feeling about it.  It is also one of the oldest cities in the world (people have lived there continuously since around 1200 BC)

Last night, the hostel that I am staying at had a soup for everyone in the hostel and it was fun sitting around a big table and talking about where we are all from and why we are all here.  I met people from Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Finland.

Today, I went to the Monastery of San Jeronimos.  That is an old monastery with some cool history, including where the famous explorer Vasco da Gama is buried.  That monastery is in a parish called Belem.

Also in Belem is a tower appropriately named... the Belem Tower.  This was a tower that was designed as part of a defense system that the Portuguese King John II ordered built in the late 1400s/early 1500s.  It was built on a small island in the middle of the river Tagus and then in the 1950s there was a conservation effort which moved the castle close to the shore.

After that, I headed to the Estadio da Luz (Stadium of the Light) which is the home soccer stadium for Benfica and many of Portugal's national soccer team's games are held there.

Then I went to the Cathedral of Lisbon.  That cathedral was first built in the 11th century, but there have been earthquakes here that have made them have to rebuild the cathedral many times so it has many different styles of architecture in it.

 Front facade of the Monastery of San Jeronimos.

 Fountain in the park right across from the monastery.

Tall tower overlooking the river... Not sure what it's for yet.

Belem Tower.

Ponte 25 do Abril... (April 25th Bridge) with a Christ the Redeemer statue in the background.
This bridge gets compared to the Golden Gate Bridge.