my moms visits!

This past weekend my mom came to visit me in Portugal for a short (but sweet) time :) And coincidentally the day she got here I got diagnosed with toncilitis! Of courseeeee. But I got meds right away and felt fine the rest of the weekend. We walked around Baixa Chiado, had dinner with my host family which was lovely, went to visit this incredible vineyard Quinta do Casal Branco that my mom works with in NY, and took a visit to Sintra. All the time getting lost, running around and having a great time. Casal Branco was great I'm so lucky I got to go, David was so generous and gave us a wonderful tour and explained so much about the wine. We had a great lunch, great wine, saw some horses and beautiful land. I would definitely recommend checking out their website here and book a tour if you're in Portugal - truly lovely. My mom loved Portugal, and it was so nice to have her here. I wish we could have had a longer time but it's better than nothing! :)

Love you mom :)

Madeira!

I know this post is super late considering I got back from Madeira a week ago but there were a few photos posted on dragon fruit -- it's hard to have the time for 2 blogs! Haha but alas Madeira was amazing! (You have may seen my photos on facebook if we're friends!) We arrived and it was clear blue skies, sunny and high temperatures. We got so lucky with our hostel, 15 euro a night for a hostel with 4 twin beds (4 people) a private kitchen and bathroom. Not too shabby ;) We basically explored the "town" and then found a pool - layed out and relaxed with a few botttles of vhino and sunshine. We went to the cutest restaurant with that awesome "island view"... I love that while on vacations :) Madeira is beautiful but it's missing one thing: a praia. the beach. It has pools, exotic fruits and flowers and good food but no beaches... and there was a highhhh population of OldeR people - probably because it's quite expensive for the resorts and whatnot, many English and Irish because it's got awesome weather. We found where the kids our age hang out the last night and it was pretty cool, live music and dancin'. We went on an 11km trail/treck/walk (we thought it was a hike but definitely just a longg walk)... all the way from the top of the island. It was really beautiful, the trail was hard to find it was a very isolated area just completely surrounded by trees and waterfalls and nature. It was overall a really fun weekend and beautiful island to visit!

arrival at the airport :) 

exotic madeira flower.. i forget the name?? 

funny fruit 

oh yeah, and it rained on our trail. poncho was needed :) 

Lately

Okay I just wrote two huge paragraphs and they got deleted. Ahhh but okay here goes... The weather has been so beautiful here the past week it's making me not want to leave Portugal at all. On sunday I ran the Lisbon Mini Marathon, 7k, and it was a blast. So invigorating, the people cheering and music... running on vinte e cinco de abril bridge (the one that looks like san fran's golden gate). Luckily chelsea and I were running at the same pace so we ran together the whole time, didn't stop running once it was amazing. We finished in an hour, taking into consideration the huge crowd of people walking in the beginning. The Portuguese don't run marathons any better than they walk the streets. (huge pet peve: they take up the entire sidewalk and do NOT move out of your way when you're behind them, forcing you to go into the street. plus they walk slow and don't know the fast and slow lane aspect of the sidewalk. sooooo annoying!) On friday we went to the tile museum in lisbon it's supposed to be the "only tile museum in the world".. but I feel like that's not true? but it was really cool, tiles are a huge part of portuguese culture. The tour guide compared tiles to balcahau (cod fish)... because they're everywhere, in every class status in every part of portugal. we got to make our own tiles too it was fun :) haven't seen the finish product yet though..

But anyway, on saturday we went to Cascais and laid on the beach all day it was wonderful. Cascais is definitely one of my favorite spots in Portugal... we ate the bessstt food too! what else is new? :) That night we went to this fancy chic bar that Charity found out about, it was really nice, Brennan and I ordered some longislandiceteas... yum :)

After the marathon on sunday, a few of us went to eat by the castle that I c.a.n.n.o.t believe I hadn't been to yet. So beautiful going back ASAP, we had the cutest dinner and found many new shops and bars. Exploring that area on wednesday again :) Basically loving Lisbon and don't want to go to the US in a month!!! good thing there is no return flight booked ;)

video of cascais i edited :)

Carnaval weekend*

Just got back to Lisbon! I've been traveling through Lagos in the Algarve and Nazare, where Marisa's family has an apartment. Both beautiful beach scenes - would have been a little better if it was sunnier + warmer but not complaining :) When we got to Lagos it was basically deserted though, because it's totally based on tourism which starts in the summer. Still, it was beautiful and lots of fun. Then we got to Nazare, after about 8 hours on a bus -- got to Marisas apartment with those most incredible view of the village. For Carnaval, it's almost like Halloween except people dress up like old portuguese / spanish and have parades and it's a whole weekend festival. It was defiintely fun to seee on the streets. The whole group went to Pingo Doce (grocery store in portugal that is supperrr cheap, kind of reminds me of trader joes) and cooked dinner each night .. fun bonding time ;) Oddly enough, being away for Lisbon for a few days REALLY made me miss it! I can't believe there's only 2 months left here, I'm starting to get adjusted and really loving it more and more each day. Will have to make the most of it ;) And I'm looking into wwoofing for the summer. (world wide opportunities on organic farms). A friend here, Grace, did it in Ireland last summer and loved it... seems like a great way to spend your time somewhere and really relax & immerse yourself. I'm thinking france, australia, new zealand, hawaii, maybe stay in portugal?!! :)

some shots of the weekend..

p.s. I know that whole paragraph up there is super scattered and poorly written... hah, my internet is down and I'm in starbucks using wifi to try and update everything due to my lack of internet the past week 4 shots of espresso deep. sorry !

Oceanario de Lisboa

We went to the aquarium this last friday and it was amazing! I've always throught aquariums were kinda cool but I have a new love for them now, I don't know if it's because I'm older or if this one is just really rad. It's so relaxing just sitting, staring at a hugeee tank full of crazy, exotic fish! It gets you thinking. Gonna get alll hippie right now but... There is seriously so much out there we don't know about! Under the sea is the biggest mystery of them all, we know more about space than the deep sea. How amazing would it be to go in one of those submarines so deep and witness those crazy fish that look like christmas lights?! You've seen them on the discovery channel! How do they even live?!! This is soooooo intriguing to me. And, fish are always in their own packs, their own species. How weird. And penguins only have one mate?! And then I got to thinking about all the amazing places I want to travel in this world. Lisbon, check. But remote parts of Asia and Africa, to see the true wilderness.. Iceland, New Zealand, Dubai, so many places to see in this crazy world. How CRAZY would it be to see blue whale. I can't even imagine.

So yes, my friday was pretty introspective... A lot of thinking, planning, saving to do. Thankful I'm only 20, and have visited many places already thanks to my amazing parents ;) Saturday night I hung out with my host sister, Nocas, and her friends... it was her birthday weekend so she had about 15 girls come over and drink, eat, etc. Everyone was soooo nice but the language barrier became a problem so I ended up going out to Bairro Alto to meet up with friends. Thennn today, sunday, was the most unproductive day in years for me. Didn't. do. anything. I was literally in bed all day blogging and watching Gossip Girl, I probably should have been applying for internships and studying my Portuguese. Hmm. It was cloudy - don't judge. :)

Anyway, some photos of the aquarium:

On The 25th Day

I'm so bad at updated this blog! I'm sorry, I've never been good at "diaries." But here goes, the weather in Lisboa has gotten so much better it's making me really happy. Around high 60s in the day and sunny (most of the time) and low 50s high 40s at night... it's crazy how much the weather changes my mood. Classes started last week, so on top of my Portuguese language course (which is going.. and going... no real results yet) I'm taking Portuguese + Brazilian Literature, The European Union and Migration + Globalization in Portugal. It's all pretty interesting, just really really hard to pay attention to broken English for 2 hours each class. But I'm excited, it'll help me learn Portuguese and the teachers are all extremely nice.

There's this park by my apartment I've been going to a lot, called Jardim da Estrela (Star Park).. It's amazing, families and pups hanging out all over the place just having picnics or playing games. It's seriously like a movie. I wish I could take Cody :( There's this cafe there too that has awesome food, my go-to-lunch: tosta. Basically a panini with cheese and some other jazz. There's actually around 3 main park areas around my apartment and I live so close to the main attraction of Lisbon, I really love it. I constantly go around my neighborhood by myself for a walk or espresso and think to myself, "I can't believe I'm living in Lisbon for 3 more months." hahah- it's true!

Today I went across the river with my host mom (she leads excursions/tours around isolated areas of Portugal)... I can't remember the name of the town we were in for the life of me, but, it was where all the trade and commerce went down in 1915. Really old, interesting, amazing view of the river and the bridge that resembles the Golden Gate in San Fran! The bridge was originally named Salazar Bridge but then Salazar got overthrown and since 1974 it's been called the 25 de Abril Bridge (that's the date). Fun fact. The little trip was fun with my host mom, she's so kind and funny... but there's definitely a language gap. And most of the people on the excursion were older and knew very, very little English sooo that was hard. But so nice :)

Hmm... that's all for now. I'll update this more I promise. (mom, dad.)

Jardim de Estrela, that park I was talking about... so perfect!

Where I went with my host mom...>>

Pastel de Nata in Belem -

said to be the best place to buy this pastry, I agree! :)

Brennan and I, chillen at the sheep by our apartments.

Excursion: Évora and Esporão

We went a little south of Lisbon this weekend with the group to Évora and Esporão. It was really fun, the 20 (or so) of us took a bus first to Évora, which is a little village... We saw chapels and cathedrals, beautiful architechure and ate a lot of FOOD. I think we were at a restuarant 5 hours out of our one day there, (dinner and lunch).. but I'm getting kind of used to this long European meal time. It's definitely nice actually talking to whoever you're with and having time to rest between courses. Bonded with the group that night playing crazy, funny drinking games in the hotel (realization: I have no rhythm).

Then we went off to Esporão which is probably my favorite part of the weekend. We went to a vineyard (Herdade), and just relaxed. The weather was sooooooooo beautiful I wanted nothing more than to get in a bathing suit and swim, probably the hottest day since I've been in Portugal. The vineyard was gorgeous, when we got there they set us up a "buffet-style" lunch with little mushroom and cheese sandwiches, salads, olive oil and bread tasting, marinated fava beans, and my favorite new thing: really fresh cheese (I have to find out exactly which cheese) with pumpkin jam . SO GOOD!! And then a rice pudding dessert with vanilla bean, cinnamon and sliced apples on top - yumm. Oops. I feel like all I talk about is food, haha :)

We relaxed for hours just laying in the grass and talking, then toured the vineyard and I picked up a jar of their jam :) Beautiful weekend. Here's some shots:

aging, aging, aging wine.

Classes start tomorrow. Oh boyyyyyyy.

p.s. some of us decided on taking surfing lessons when it gets warmer.

SO STOKED :)