Portugal :)

After this weekend I am officially in love with the country of Portugal. I feel very bad for Portugal because I think that everyone over looks this small country when traveling in Europe. No one really picks Portugal as a destination. I never thought I would go there and never really had the desire to go. About a week ago I was trying to decide what to do with my last weekend in Salamanca. I had already spent a few relaxing weekends in Salamanca so I wanted to explore somewhere new. It came down to Lisboa or Santander. I ended up deciding to go to Portugal because a few of my friends were already going and it would be another country I could say I have been to :) We booked our train tickets and got reservations at a hostel. The whole week before we roughly decided what we wanted to do but didn't really have any set plans.

Thursday I packed my bags and stayed up all night to catch the train out of Salamanca at 4:30. Rachel and I were seated next to each other because we bought our tickets together. We ended up sitting behind a young American couple that was backpacking around Europe. They over heard us talking about how we were excited to sleep the whole seven hour ride. The man laughed and said we wouldn't be getting much sleep since this was the party car. We didn't really know what he meant by that because everyone seemed to be sleeping in the car and the lights were out. About an hour into the trip we knew exactly what he meant by that. There was a group of Portuguese people that were rudely talking loud and laughing. One man in particular was walking around and being so loud. They were not giving me a good first impression of Portuguese people. I did get a few hours of sleep but not much. On the train ride I got to see the change in landscape. Portugal was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Colorado. There were mountains and green pine trees and beautiful blue rivers. I love love loved it. I got to see the sunrise over Portugal. Over all besides the loudmouths I had a good first train ride in Europe.

Once we arrived in Portugal we left the train station and decided to walk to our hostel....that was a good and bad idea. Good idea in the regard that we got to see a whole neighborhood of Lisbon but bad in the regard that we were lost for an hour and a half before we finally found our hostel. I didn't mind. It was so beautiful and different than Spain. It was so hilly! We went up and down so so many steps. Also the roads were made of stones and were very badly laid.

Our hostel was a cute apartment building stock full of Ikea furniture. It was really cute and the people there were really friendly. So far I was realizing that everyone in Portugal spoke english. After unpacking we got our stuff together and headed to find the beach. In Lisbon there is not really a beach. It is on a river and a port so there is not really a sandy place to lay down and relax. You have to take the train to a small district outside of Lisbon. We took the train to Cascais. The metro system and the train system were very easy to work. Once we got of the train in Cascais I was overwhelmed by how cute it was. The buildings were all brightly painted and there were a bunch of cute shops. Of course it was crowded with tourists but I don't mind crowds. We walked around and found a place to grab a snack for Gordo. Then we laid out on the beach. I fell asleep with out even realizing it. I think the fact that I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep did me in. I got in the water and it was freezing. I also forgot what it was like to swim in salt water... typical michigander mistake. My eyes burnt from the salt. I am not a big fan of the ocean. It is pretty to look at but swimming in it is not really my thing. We laid on the beach for a little longer and snapped a bunch of pictures of the beautiful view. After we decided to walk along the coast and look around. We walked by a fort where Gordo preceded to take really mature pictures with some of the statues. Hahaha. then we went continued along the shore. It was so beautiful; rocky cliffs and sparkling blue water everywhere I was in love. It was prefect weather too. high 70s and a nice warm breeze. No clouds in the sky :) We walked all the way to the boca do inferno "the mouth of hell". It was breathtaking. It is so hard to describe these moments when you write them down but this was one of those perfect moments. Sitting looking out to the ocean with my best friends around me. It was great. It also is hard to describe how beautiful a place is but this place was the prettiest place I had ever seen in my life, and at that point in the trip it was my favorite place so far in Europe. There were a lot of couples PDAing it up there but as Gordo put it "I like it because it is an expression of love and it is nice seeing that". I mean I totally would be affectionate with my significant other if I was in a place like that. It is just too perfect not to be.

Anyway after that we walked back and we all were craving ice cream. I know this is horrible but we went to McDonalds. I know I know I have not spent any money at an American store until now but I must say that I was getting a very rare flurry. It was a magnum brownie flurry. Until recently magnum ice cream was only sold in Europe and this flurry was limited edition. Plus it was heavenly.

Once we got our snack on we headed to the train. All of us passed out on the train ride back and got up just in time to get off at our stop. We showered and cleaned up and got ready for dinner. We took the metro into the Baixa-Chiado district of Lisbon. This is where all the good food and bars are. We ended up going to an Indian and Italian restaurant, a surprisingly good combination. There is actually a lot of Indian people and food in Lisbon. I found it very interesting and still wonder why that is. At dinner I got mango chicken curry it was delicious. Also some of us tried the vino verde. The green wine that is authentic to Portugal. It was very good. We had a really fun dinner with lots of laughs and great conversation. My favorite part was the exorbitant amount of drinks Gordo ordered...water, pepsi, vino verde, and a large thing of beer. Our waiter probably thought he was crazy or was going to drown from all his drinks. After we headed back because we were all so exhausted. I slept like a baby.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel. It was like a community kitchen. They had toast and jam sitting out but also they had...wait for it...CEREAL!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH! I was so so excited. Only thing is that in Europe they do not have cold milk. at least my experiences thus far have observed this. So I ate it dry because I can't do the warm milk thing. It was so great though I was extremely happy. A great start to my day. After breakfast we walked around to try and figure out what to do and we had to wait for Gordo to get out of the hospital. Nothing bad happened he just had a cold. After we all met up we went up this tower thing that honestly I can't tell you the name but I know it was built by a student of Eiffel. It was really cool because it gave you a really nice view of the city. A guy on the top also asked Janie if she was italian or spanish. Also we checked out this free exhibit in the plaza that was a big blow up thing that you walked in. The inside was just a bunch of colors like something you would see on drugs. Haha it was free and fun.

After that we grabbed some lunch...salads...yum. It was very tasty. We then headed to the metro to go to somewhere anywhere we didn't know yet. As we were waiting this drunk scary guy came up to us. I was a little nervous cause I thought he was going to hit us over the head with his empty wine bottles. Haha but Gordo was ready to pounce and we walked away. We decided on heading to Sintra after much debating. We just missed the train though and it came every 40 minutes so we sat down and bonded over crazy stories while we waited. On the train we took in the scenery and rested. At this point I was just feeling yucky. I had been sick all week and this traveling was not helping but I sucked it up. When we got of the train in Sintra it was so cold!!! It was in the middle of the mountains and I was just wearing a sun dress. I felt like I had stepped into a completely different world because this was so different then Lisbon. The town was so adorable though. A cute mountain town with quaint buildings and cute people. We wandered around and grabbed some coffee. We also tried these cheery liqueur shots for a euro. They are famous in Portugal. Apparently if they are well made they will taste amazing but if they are badly made they will taste like cough syrup. They were served in chocolate cups and they were very yummy.

After our taste testing we continued walking. The streets were not very conducive to walking but we managed. We kinda just ended up hiking to the top with out even realizing it. When we got to the top we found the entrance to el castello do mouros. I was on the fence about paying 6 euros for entrance. I had enjoyed the walk and didn't want to spend money and be disappointed about a boring castle and bad view since it was foggy. I finally gave in and paid the money reluctantly. OH MY GOSH was I glad I paid. This place is my favorite place I have been to on my trip. It was so windy and cloudy but it was still so beautiful. I can only imagine what it would be like when the sunny is shining. It was scary at first because there was not much of a railing anywhere and it was super windy but we got some laughs from it. We explored for an hour walking around. There were some super scary stairs that were along the cliff with no railing. The view was amazing and I saw a castle that I decided would be my future house. haha.

After exploring we walked down...all tired cold and exhausted it took us an adventurous hour to walk down. We had no idea where we were going but we made it. We looked around a bit more than got on the train back to Lisbon. I was exhausted and did not feel good at all so when we got back to the hostel I stayed in. I felt bad because I really wanted to go out with everyone else but I would not have made it so instead I slept. Every one was so nice to me though offering to bring me back food and stay with me. I love my friends :) mucho!

The next morning we had breakfast and lounged around then checked out. We walked with Gordo to book another night in a different hostel then we checked out a park with view of Lisbon. It was very nice and we just took in the view for a while. Took a lot of pics and talked. After we walked around the city a bit more..played on a play set and then decided to grab a good dinner before getting back on the train. We got some pizza and Gordo got octupus..yuck! It was very yummy. I hadn't had pizza in forever and it was wonderful.

After a long relaxing lunch in beautiful downtown Lisbon we went to a pastry shop we had been eyeing and bought some. I got two. One to eat then and another for my dinner on the train. The two together were only 1.50 Euro!!!! They were huge and the first one was delicious. After we took the metro to the train station. There we had to part ways with Gordo with a hug and see you later. It was sad to see our buddy go. He was a lot of fun but I was happy to know I would see him in Ann Arbor in the fall.

On the train ride back me and Rachel just chatted. We also made friends with a girl that was couch surfing through Europe. She was from South Carolina. She had been traveling since May 5th and had a little while longer. I could not believe that some one could travel that long. I would miss my family too much. Also she never had staying in a hostel. She either slept on trains or stayed at strangers houses. I could NEVER do that. First of all that is not very safe and second of all I would not want to sleep on a train. She was very nice and interesting and talking to her helped pass the time on the train. It was nice to get back in Salamanca. It feels like home now but I was sad to leave Portugal.

Portugal was an amazing place and I am so glad I got the opportunity to go there. I would recommend traveling to Portugal to anyone. It had it all: cheap great food, a good night life, beautiful buildings, a beach, mountains. Also it is very easy to travel in Portugal. Every one speaks english because no one really knows Portuguese. So for an American it is very easy to get around. I love it and I WILL return someday no matter what.