Sea life at Parque das Nações

Two lovely girls from NOVA who organized the Welcome Week for us Master's exchange students have kept organizing different trips and events for everyone to get together every now and then. Since people usually tend to find a smaller group of friends and stick to them quite quickly, it is really nice to have occasions that all exchange students can go to.  We are over a hundred students so you always still keep meeting new faces in these events.

One trip the girls recently organized was for us to go see Parque das Nações and visit the Oceanarium together. The area has a completely different vibe from the rest of the city - it was redesigned and built for the World Exhibition in 1998, and the modern buildings make you feel like you are not really in Lisbon at all. It is located northeast of the city center along the Tejo river and easily reachable with the metro's red line (an interesting fact to know is that this place is the starting point of Europes longest, 17.2 km long bridge, Ponte Vasco da Gama).  Even though in Parque das Nações you are surrounded with concrete pavements and high buildings, I had a really cozy feeling in the area and felt like it was a great place to relax and hang out for a day.

Visiting the Oceanário da Lisboa was pretty much the highlight of that day. A visit costs around 13€ which is rather high, but at least for me it is worth it to see one of the world's biggest aquariums. At the Oceanarium, there are not only different types of fish and water plants, but also birds, penguins and - my new favorite animal - sea otters. They are perhaps the most relatable creatures I have seen, spending their days just calmly laying and floating around in the water. The Oceanarium is built around a huge tank full of fish and other creatures which you can watch from every part of the aquarium, a scene I was completely mesmerized by.

If you feel like spending the day or some hours  in a part of Lisbon where it feels and looks completely different, I would definitely recommend visiting Parque das Nações. Apart from the Oceanarium, the day can be spent hanging around in the area's parks, shopping at the Vasco da Gama center, enjoying the feel of modern architecture or for example taking a ride in the cable cart that crosses the area.