Today in the Pedra d'Anca Museum children came into the museum in the morning and undertook a tour of the museum and also did arts and crafts. I assisted in helping the children colour and create their drawings and artwork. I learned that during the easter holidays the children come to the museum to do workshops. It was a fun experience to communicate with the young children- aged 6 to 10- as they had few English words but it was an enjoyable experience all the same. In the afternoon I went into town with Patricia and had to transport frames back to the museum carefully so they wouldn’t break. They were for a new exhibition in the museum. After lunch I then went to Praia de Tocha as they were setting up for the exhibition that would open over in Tocha next week. I saw the beach houses that the fisherman used to live in. The houses are painted with tar to keep it protected from things such as sand and water. Some houses have plastic sheeting outside the windows so the sand doesn’t get stuck to or that it doesn’t blow in through the windows. The houses are on stilt platforms with space underneath on so that the fishermen would put their boats under the house to keep it safe. The small exhibition building that opens for the summer months tells the story of Praia de Tocha, the beach and about the fishermen and the way they fished. It was interesting to learn the way they caught the fish, and the tradition of eating potatoes and the fresh fish and how they cooked it n the sand on the beach.
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Today was a very eventful day, I started work at 9am and we got straight into it. Carlota my boss took me around with her to the local villages to show me the old age homes. On this journey I met lots of people and learnt a lot of Portuguese. The local people are very nice being a small city everyone knew each other especially Carlota my boss as she has being working for the department for 29 years. Then we went to the City hall and she introduced me to the workers there who were pleased to have me. Then we walked back to my workplace and she gave me the task of organising files and gave me an insight to what kind of work they do, which was very intriguing.
For a small place they do a lot for the community and organise volunteer work throughout the city. I was printing files and handling some serious documents; I was very careful and did all my tasks in a professional manner. After work we went for dinner but quickly we realised that the Portuguese only serve dinner after 7:30 which was a cultural thing. They tend to eat late and stay up late, but still manage to work long hours. A typical day for them is 9-5:30. Today was our first day in Cantanhede and it was 29 degrees. We met Vanda our host and the tourist office gave us gift bags with maps and information about Cantanhede. First we went to União de Freguesias de Cantanhede e Pocariça where Haider will be doing his work experience. After the pictures under the orange trees were taken we went to Casa Municipal Da Cultura, where Orlaith will be doing her work placement. Vanda then gave us a tour of the school where she teaches and we ate lunch before she drove us to my work placement in UC Biocant. UC Biocant is a research and training building for The Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and Biotechnology in the University of Coimbra. We were given a tour and everyone found it really interesting. We are all really looking forward to starting work tomorrow. Today we went to Cascais. Cascais is a coastal town 30 kilometres west from Lisbon. It is a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal. First of all we went to one of the beaches as it was very hot - 28 degrees. Cascais is surrounded by popular beaches such as Guincho Beach to the west. After the beach we went to a local restaurant called Restaurant Dom Pedro that was recommended to us. It was obvious a very popular restaurant as there was a long queue when we entered and the queue was still there when we had finished. The food was quite nice and reasonably priced. For the rest of the day we spent the day walking around the streets barefoot exploring and visiting the town. There is a large yacht harbour and there was many boats along the shore. When we looked down into the water we could see a lot of fish as the water was very clear and blue. We went on touring the Cidadela Art District. It was very interesting to learn about the history of Cascais and to look at the artwork and monuments inside and outside of the art district. The Citadel of Cascais is more than just a scenic monument, it is now a space for cultural creation with the new Cidadela Art District (CAD), an innovative art project designed by Group Pestana. With this project, the Pestana Cidadela Cascais – Pousada Historic Hotel & Art District becomes the first hotel in Europe to have an Art District. The Cidadela Art District comprises Exhibition Rooms as some Galleries/Galerias, a Project Room, and several Studios/Ateliês where we learned that artists can be met during their creative process, by prior appointment. Overall we were very impressed with Cascais and enjoyed our day. As soon as we landed we decided to drop our luggage off and visit all the cultural sites in Lisbon. At 10am we took a tram around which brought us through amazing streets and we stopped at the castle, it was truly mesmerising the view was fabulous from the top of the castle and we got to learn about its history and its importance. We walked around the local streets away from the busy centre as we wanted to see the kind of lifestyle that people had. It was not hard to communicate within the City as most people could speak English. We went for dinner in a local restaurant and it wasn't my taste but the girls loved there fish. We visited the roman ruins which only open up twice a year and they were 30 feet below the ground, it was an amazing experience. We learned why streets were made the way they were and got to see a lot of flamboyant graffiti and the artists that do them around the city. The people were very nice and helpful, it was easy to get around the city and see many architectural structures and monuments. We met lovely while walking around for the rest of the day.
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