Portugal

Oi everybody! (That's hi in Portugese)

I spent my long weekend in Portugal with a couple friends from my program and had an absolute blast. I love being able to add a new stamp to my passport and add a new pin to my travel map. We woke up bright and early on friday morning to head over to Lisboa, Portugal and returned around 8pm on Sunday.

Our hostel was so awesome! I actually would call it a hotel instead of a hostel because we had two private rooms, complete with a maid, our own bathrooms and continental breakfast. Heres a few pics from our awesome hostel:

We called the chair "the Beetlejuice chair"

I willingly gave up the queen bed for the top bunk!

Bryn and Taylor's amazing wall mural

Bryn and Taylor's gorgeous view/ one of my favorite pictures

We spent the day exploring the beautiful beaches. They are truly a sight to see. I hope everybody back home caught a glimpse of me waving home across The Atlantic!

The trees had these strange seat/pot holder things.

Waving home!

All of the streets had different beautiful designs

The following day we decided to be touristy and check out all of the famous sights of Lisboa. Lisboa is the capital of Portugal and is Portugal's largest city.

Jerónimos Monastery -very famous, very huge. 

Inside of the Monastery

We then accidentally crashed an obedience class for dogs in the park. The owner had an AMAZING German Shepard that did all sorts of tricks like jump over her, jump on her back and weave in and out of her legs. The people were so nice, they even asked us if we wanted to participate. They had 3 of us bend over in a line and had the German Shepard jump over all 3 of us! It was nuts, and not to mention a strange encounter.

We then went to the famous Padrão dos Descobrimentos which is a monument that was created to welcome the explorers to Lisboa. Columbus stands at the very end holding a ship. Then we went to the famous Belém Tower.

That night we climbed up the steep streets up to a castel to watch the sunset. We were very amused by the little old man that we asked for directions from. Instead of pointing us in the direction of the castel, he decided to up and take us there. He was so cute and funny, he reminded me a little of my Grandpa. All of the Portugese locals we met were so so nice. They're probably the nicest people I've met here so far!

Our friendly tour guide 

All in all it was a fantastic trip. I really enjoyed myself and loved discovering a new culture. By the way, Portugese does not sound anything like Spanish. We were SO lost, but many of the locals spoke English. Also, the food was excellent, especially the beer!

Lisboa has this bridge called 25 de Abril Bridge that looks identical to The Golden Gate Bridge!

Sagres beer is very popular in Portugal and delicious!

Palm tree or pineapple?

The tiled buildings were my favorite part of Portugal. Everything is so colorful and unique.

Pastel de nata, best dessert ever!!

The street performers were much more creative in Portugal. I had to give this pup a tip!! I saw about 4 different acts that involved dogs in some way!

Although I loved the Portugese culture, I missed my Barcelona. Portugal was very dirty and run down in comparison to Barcelona. There was graffiti everywhere there!! I definitely learned to appreciate Barcelona, and I've learned that I picked the greatest city ever to study abroad in. I'm happy to be "home".