Lisbon, you had me from 'hello'...

[p]        "It is not life that is difficult, what's difficultis knowing how to live your life right." This is a word of advicethat I received this past weekend from a very influential person I met, and itdefinitely stuck with me. I spent this weekend in Lisbon, Portugaland, after deciding last minute we were going to book a flight and go, it endedup being one of the greatest experiences thus far. I couldn't have been in abetter mindset going there, with a better group of girls or in a more beautifulplace than I was. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I havethis opportunity and I am taking in every second of this, pinchingmyself constantly to ensure that this is not a dream.

        With that said,we had a pretty mellow week leading up to our vacation thisweekend.Not a lot of going out, for once, and A LOT of catching up onsleep.Noelle and I left EARLY Thursday morning to make our 9 a.m. flight out ofBarcelona and met our friends Katie, Maureen and Melody at the metro stop beforeheading to the airport. Dionne and Ash stayed in Barcelona because Ashley'sfriend Ian was visiting from Madridand staying with us. We literally decided we were going to Lisbon on Monday night and three of our otherfriends were down to go. So there we were, the first time getting on a planesince we arrived in Barcelonaand more excited than ever. The flight was only an hour and a half and the viewfrom my window seat was unreal. The abundance of greenery just besidethe turquoise water of the Portuguese beaches was so beautiful that I could nottake my eyes off of it.

        Upon arriving in Lisbon,we QUICKLY realized that the language barrier here was going to be somewhat of anissue. Portuguese is quite the odd language (to say the least) and Spain and Portugal do not exactly have thebest ties, and therefore do not recognize each other's languages in theirown countries. We are so used to speaking Spanish, and felt rudespeaking English, that we all stood in a circle with confused looks on our faces.What we found out is that almost everyone speaks English...whew. So we took abus to our hostel and awed at the beautiful city where we would be spending thenext three days.

        After epitomizing the stigma of 'tourists' while looking for our hostel,we finally came across our little hostel, right in the center of town, in themost ideal location. We met Joe, the young guy who owns the hostel(and who weread on reviews to be really cool and helpful) and he showed us to our 8 personroom and allowed us to get settled in. The hostel was sooo cute, clean and fun.Everything I thought a hostel was not, so we were pleasantly surprised. We askedJoe what we should do in the city and he told us we should take a scenic hike upthe hill, very close by, where we would find a castle at the top and greatthings on the way. So the five of us headed up, and did I mention whata beautiful day it was? It was 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

        We first stopped to have lunch at a restaurant called Nicola that wasso pretty, we thought the food 'must' be good. Well we definitely got a taste of'traditional Portuguese cuisine' when Katie ordered bean soup and it came outwith pig's ears, cow tongue's and God knows what else. We sat there laughing thewhole time, trying to decipher what part of what animal each thing was! Afterlunch we went into a little pastry shop and tried traditional Lisboan pastriescalled macau. They are Portuguese custard pastries that consists ofcustard in a crème brûlée-like consistency caramelized fashion in apuff pastry case. They were first made in Lisbon200 years ago in a pastry shop in Belem,a town we visited on Friday.

        With the entire day still ahead of us, we walked up ands topped a couple oftimes to admire the beautiful view of the water and some cathedrals. The shopsand cafes on the way up were so quaint and cute and we stopped to relax and baskin the sun for a little next to a cathedral, overlooking the ocean. We asked anolder man if he would take a picture for us, and once we began talking we didn'tstop for a half hour. It turns out that he is a reporter for CNN and has beenin Portugal covering a story for about three months. He got his first job fromWalter Cronkite who gave a speech at Cal Berkley, and this guy,John, went andtalked to him afterwards and ended up contacting him when he graduated andstarted working for CBS. Anyways, he has worked for a ton of different majorcompanies and is now one of the main reporters for CNN that runs out of the U.S.(the other one runs out of the UK). I told him I was interesting in broadcastcommunications and after asking him a million questions about his life andcareer, and being genuinely interested, he told me i was going to make a great reporter. haha.

        I asked him if I could have his email and he was so incredibly nice and told meto contact him by phone or email if I ever had questions about anything,consideringthis is how his career began... it's all about connections.When we left tocontinue our walk, he told me to remember one thing,and the quote I began thisentry with is what he left me with. It was really cool. So, when we finally madeit to the castle of St. Jorge and we looked at it from the outside, but didn'tfeel inclined to pay to go inside. After buying some postcards and a couplebottles of wine, we went back to the viewpoint we had been hanging out atearlier. We sat there for an hour, drinking wine and taking in every part ofthis gorgeous city, surrounded by water.

        By the time we headed back down, the sun was setting and we happenedto literally run into 7000 year old (or something close to that) Roman ruins. Wethought it was so interesting that things were still in tact.We got ready forthe night and met up with Katie's friend John that is studying abroad in Lisbon.We all went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner and then met up withJohn's friends at a statue in the center of town where they all drink and hangout before going to the bars. This area, where all the bars and statue were, iscalled Barrio Alto and is literally filled with bars and restaurants.Everyone drinks in the streets in Lisbon so all the bars give you plastic cupsso you just wander after you get your drink. It was really fun, andcrowded,everywhere we went. The people we met were so nice but we headed homeat around 1:30 to get a good night sleep before our day of sightseeing onFriday.

        We woke up Friday to find two more people in our hostel room. They happened tobe two girls from the U.S. studying in Barcelona too.Little did we know that wewould become instant besties with them and spend every waking moment for therest of our trip together. So the seven of us ate breakfast in the hostel andthen went on a hop-on/hop-off double decker bus tour throughout the city. We saton top and got some sun, while the bus made 13 stops around the city. It wasGORGEOUS and we went on the whole tour and then decided where we wanted to get offand walk around. I can't even put into words how picturesque the city was. Itwas great because everything is so condensed so you don't feel like there aremore things to do than you have time for.

        We got off at a park in Bellem with amazing gardens and then walked along thewater and next to a bridge that looked identical to the Golden Gate Bridge in SF(built by the same people too). We came across a restaurant that was literallysurrounded by water and you had to take a little bridge to even get to it. Itlooked so expensive, so we were apprehensive about eating there, but it endedup being super cheap, great food and an INCREDIBLE view. Afterwards, we walkedthrough Bellem, took lots of pictures and hopped back on the bus to go home.

        We were having so much fun in the hostel. There were 9 of us in a room and Ifelt like I was back living in the sorority house. Needless to say, it was agood time. We all wanted to go to a good dinner since it was our last night inLisbon, so we walked to Barrio Alto and were about to give up on finding a goodplace to eat, when this guy invited us to check out this restaurant where theyhad a guy singing traditional Portuguese music called Fado. Therestaurant was adorable, dimly lit with beautiful live music. The food... oh myGod. I had salmon (the best I've ever had) with a salad and sangria of course.It was amazing and we were so happy to find this place.

        This guy who owned a bar downstairs from our hostel invited us in for freedrinks the night before and again this night. He made us 'Caipirinha' which isa typical Brazilian drink and by far, the best drink I had ever had!!! It wasdelicious, and he even let us make our own, it was so fun. The rest of thenight was filled with cheap drinks (so much cheaper then Barcelona), cutePortuguese boys (way cuter than Barcelona) and amazing friends (ok, they areall from Barcelona ).

        Such a fun night and we didn't make it home until 5:30 a.m.... which is whatwe're used to, so that works. We forced ourselves out of bed Saturday morning becauseJoe told us about this little town a half hour outside of Lisbon called'Sintra'. This town is, no joke, one of the most beautiful places I have EVERseen. I know I say it all the time... but wow. This place was insanelybeautiful. We took the train and then a bus to the top of the mountain. Thescenery was indescribable and unfortunately, I was so car sick, or bus sick,that I was having trouble enjoying it. I just needed some fresh air and then Iwas ready to go. The main reason we traveled to Sintra is for this HUGE castleon top of the mountain. The pictures we saw and the descriptions we heardabsolutely did not do it justice. This castle was enormous, so detailed andbest of all, colorful. It was surrounded by green forest and you could see thebeach and other castles in the distance.

        We were taking silly pictures and having somuch fun exploring all the different parts of the castle. We all said we feltlike we were in 'never never land' because it was so fairy-tale-like (not tomention, we 'never never' wanted to leave this gorgeous place.) It wasincredible... there are no words.

       We had to catch our plane at 8 so we headedback to lovely Lisbon and prepared for our departure. We were so thrilled thatwe made two new amazing friends and the seven of us girls had the most amazingtime together. Lisbon was stunning and we couldn't have asked for a bettertime! We got home late and have been relaxing all day. We have had people atthe apartment all day and it is so nice constantly being surrounded by friends.

       I am leaving for Italy on Wednesday for tendays and I am so excited! It is going to be wonderful and I am excited to spendtime with the roomies! This is probably getting long, boring and drawn outbecause I am so tired and everyone is over here and I’m in conversation whiletyping.

       Anyways, I am truly living the dream here, andI can't thank my parents enough for supporting my rendezvous through Europe...haha. Ok, I think I'm getting delirious. So... Until next time...

Todo mi amor!