Ah, Portugal. What a country. Two weeks before we left, Laura and I decided that we'd like to make a trip to Lisbon because 1. We are three hours away and 2. Everyone says it's lovely. One week before we left, Tim joined and then two days before we left, Kyle joined. That's the beauty of traveling throughout Europe: you can plan a trip in two weeks, or two days, and leave without a problem (although if you're a planner like me, I would advise at least two weeks for planning). Anyhow, we left early Friday morning and arrived in Lisbon around 10. Fun fact: Portugal is actually an hour behind Spain. So when we got there we had more time than we anticipated! We grabbed a snack and started touring around the city. We only had the day to spend in Lisbon, so we had to make the most of it. With all of our overnight stuff in tow, we climbed our way up many stairs and windy, uphill roads to the Castle of Sao Jorge. You would think with all of our class excursions of going to palaces and castles would make us less likely to go to them on our own, but nope. Each castle is different from the next, and I love to see how each different culture built their own, unique palace. We had just about finished with the tour of the palace before it started raining. So, we walked around outside of the castle a little more and made our way to the cathedral.
The cathedral was incredible. The outstanding walls and some of the support beams are all that is left of this building after an earthquake that occurred in 1755. This anomaly was so insane that Voltaire wrote a poem about it. After visiting the cathedral, we made our way to a suburb of Lisbon called Belém where we were told was home to this famous sweet treat called Pastéis de Belém. This things were fantastic. Flaky, buttery, almost filo dough-like cup filled with this delicious custard-ish creme and brûlée on top. And that's not all, when they come to your table, it would be a sin to not top those bad boys with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Sadly, I failed to take a pic of this delicious treat, so I took one from the inter web for your enjoyment (P.S. these are definitely going on my list of things to master cooking/baking when I get home, so I'll let y'all know when I need some taste testers).
Getting to our Airbnb was a little bit of a challenge, but we put four heads together and figured it out pretty easily. We made it to our Airbnb in Sintra, but the train didn't seem to want to let us out just yet. We had issues getting out of the little station in Sintra, but long story short, technology is only great when it works. Our host, Tiago, was great, and our little Airbnb was the cutest. We had a kitchen and two bedrooms and a nice little living room area where we could watch Portuguese television.
Now, this trip was over a month ago, so I don't remember everything in fine detail, but I do remember that Sintra was one of the coolest places I've ever been to in my life. The Palacio de Pena was gorgeous as was la Quinta de Regaleira. It's so hard to describe or even show, but I do have some pics to give you all a little sneak peak of what I experienced.
Also, the crew, Laura, Tim and Kyle, were so great to travel with. That's one of the coolest things about studying abroad. I just met these people two and a half months ago, and we're already taking these trips of a lifetime and experiencing different cultures together. You really get to know someone when you travel with them!
So, I have just under two weeks left here, and I still have to tell you about spring break (Semana Santa) and the trip I have to take next weekend!
Thanks for all of you reading and following my blog! It really means a lot to me that you take the time to read up on what I'm doing over here!
Adventure Awaits,
Maddie
