Meeting Highschool Students in a Lisbon Shopping Mall & Cheering for them at Their Military School Anniversary Parade

The best part about travelling is learning about different cultures, traditions, trying out new food and meeting new people. One of the highlights of our vacation in Portugal took place in a food court inside a downtown shopping mall of Lisbon. Enjoying some take out meals ordered from one of the many eateries at the mall, my husband and I were recounting our new experience in Portugal. There were a group of Portuguese highschool students hanging near our table waiting to order their ice cream cones. They overheard our conversation and a couple of them came over and started speaking to us in English. These young people were very friendly, curious about the visitors to their country, as well as enthusiastic about practicing their English. We carried on a friendly conversation with them and some of their friends also came over and joined us. We chatted for over 20 minutes. We found out that these young people were from a military highschool which was celebrating an important anniversary of their school the next day. The school would be holding a parade in the Pompal square and all the students would be marching in their army unifomrs. Some of the young men would be riding in their cavalry unit. They looked forward to the event with great anticipation and were very excited talking about it. Finally, they invited us to go to the parade and to join them at the church and school after the event.

We were thrilled and accepted these young people’s invitation . We made sure we were at the Marquês de Pombal Square right at 10a.m the next morning when the school parade was starting. It looked like the entire student body was out for this special event. Dressed in their military uniforms, the students look every bit like young trained soldiers. They had formations and marched in unison with the youngest students marching ahead first, then followed by older students.

We were excited seeing the older students riding out on horses. But there were so many of them all dressed exactly the same, we couldn’t recognize the young men with whom we had a good conversation the evening before. The calvary unit rode on horseback and they were riding and passing us in a good controlled speed. We kept waving and cheering for them hoping that one of them might recognize us. But those good soldiers in training were focused on what they were supposed to do and followed the commands of their leaders. They were proud, disciplined with undivided attention on the part they were supposed to do in this parade.

We didn’t get to meet the nice group of young people again but we had a fun time taking part as a spectator in this very special celebration for them. We also enjoyed a nice coffee and party at one of the popular cafe in the neighbourhood.

We wish these high school students all their best in their studies and future pursuits. Thank you for being such excellent ambarssadors for Portugal!

RT, Lisbon, Portugal