Days 14 & 15: Lisbon

Yesterday I woke up with basically no voice. What’s been frustrating is that I feel pretty good other than that, just kind of tired and achey. We had a new roommate come in, and she offered me some oregano oil. She explained that it would burn, and that I may feel like I couldn’t breathe for Five to ten minutes. So, of course, Kenzie and I tried it. She put two drops on a spoon with warm water, and told us to gargle it as long as we could before swallowing. We took it, and it definitely wasn’t pleasant, but you could feel it working. Immediately, my face and ears started to decongest, and we felt the effects all day. 
Next, we headed towards the metro to go to the aquarium.

 Oceanaria de Lisboa was beautiful, and we explored the area around it as well. It sits on the river, and there’s a boardwalk, restaurants, a large mall, and a few monuments dedicated to their fight for natural resource conservation. Oceanaria had a large focus on conservation, and aimed to get children excited about maintaining and supporting our resources. 

Each area of Oceanaria represented a different ocean or area of the world. I was most excited for the Pacific, because that’s where the otters live. Kenzie humored me and let me watch the otters for much longer than necessary. We ended up arriving at feeding time, so we got to watch the handlers give them mussels, then the otters would take them to the rocks and crack them. I couldn’t hang, and was obsessed and laughed maniacally as they’d smash their dinner against the rocks and then carefully carry it on their little bellies. These otters also seemed much larger than the ones we have at the zoo in Portland, so I’ll have to research that a bit. 
​​

All the exhibits were beautiful and very well done. We finished our visit at the temporary exhibit, which featured Florestas Submersas (Forests Underwater) by Takashi Amano. It combined art and nature beautifully and was very unique. Amano passed away shortly into the production of the exhibit, leading this exhibit to feel like a bit of a commemoration to him and his efforts in conservation. 
More aquarium pics:

​​
​​

After the aquarium, we wandered the mall for a little while. All of our clothes are for cold weather, so I wanted to buy a dress I could enjoy the sunshine in. It amazed me that although the weather here is very warm, most of the stores are still carrying the typical fall fashions. But, I found a dress I love and it was on sale!

Next, we headed back to the hostel, made dinner and went to bed earlier than we have been. 
This morning, we woke up early and extended our stay at our hostel, as we had originally planned to leave today. Due to my sickness, as well as our love of our hostel and Lisbon, we extended our stay to this Monday and will then be traveling to Barcelona! 
Today was uneventful for me. After visiting the pharmacy, I stayed in bed all day long trying to beat this bug! Kenzie visited Sintra, which sits at the base of the Sintra Mountains. She went on a hike with some friends she made, and enjoyed some beautiful views. When she got back, we ran to the store, then came back and made dinner. There’s a group of about 15 French children who arrived yesterday on some sort of field trip. They are very kind and polite, but tend to take over the kitchen for hours in the evening. So, we’ve learned to time our dinner prep appropriately! 
Sintra:

Tomorrow, we will head to the beach to lay out and relax! I figure if I have to rest, it might as well be in the sun!