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 :)