Portugal!

So it has been over a week since Portugal, but I loved it so much that I think I can manage to remember everything! Our means of transportation were not the best as far as the route goes, but we made it there and back and that is all that matters! Lisbon reminded me A LOT of San Francisco, maybe it had something to do with this:

We arrived early Friday morning and headed to our Hostel to store our bags. The hostel was AMAZING and I was far too spoiled. Unfortunately for me that was the first hostel I have ever stayed in, thus I have high hopes for all future hostels, and I will probably be disappointed more than once. The rooms were great, we had free towels and linens, lockers (which at this particular hostel I felt like I didn't even need!), free breakfast--including homemade pancakes!, homemade soup at night, the nicest staff ever, and the friendliest guests! If anyone ever travels to Portugal, let me know, I highly recommend this place. In fact, I am sending Jonathon and Sharon there the weekend I am in Morocco! Anyways, enough advertisement, back to my trip ...

That day we walked around a little and explore the town, then we broke off into two groups and the girls I was with and I happened to find a little theater that was playing The Wizard of Oz! We went to the box office and asked about prices and times and decided it was the best idea to just go then, so we did!

It was in Portuguese, but I know the story so that helped, and it was soooooo good! I loved it! That day it happened to be all little kids on field trips and us, it was so fun! After that we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hostel. We ended up meeting some people that are studying in Sevilla as well and hung out with them for awhile. We went out that night and it was fun to see what the nightlife was like in Lisbon.

The next day we got up and headed to the aquarium with our new friends. Because I love animals, I had a fabulous time and the sea otters were my absolute favorite!!!

(**mom, that's what I want for Christmas :) haha) We grabbed some lunch after the aquarium and headed back to our hostel, but first stopped at the grocery store for some major necessities:

We played card games and hung out before hitting the streets of Lisbon for another night.

On Sunday we took a train to a town outside of Lisbon called Sintra. We intended on looking at some of the palaces and castles there and then going to another neighboring town to watch the sunset over the ocean. The second part didn't quite make the cut . . . We went to the first palace and it was so cool and beautiful, but by the time we made it to the castle it was pouring rain. We decided to catch a bus down hill/mountain/whatever you want to call it, and while the 8 of us waited at the bus stop it began to hail. What an experience. We finally got on a bus and reached the train station, but before we headed back to Lisbon we wanted lunch. The first place we could run into was a Pizza Hut, how adventurous of us. After our American cuisine we headed home and no one stalled in putting warm, dry clothes on. That night we took it easy and hung out around the hostel. I really like being able to hang out with my friends at night either before going out or just staying in all night. We don't really get that option in Sevilla because we all live with host families and we can't invite friends over.

Palace from afar & in the fog . . . I thought it looked awesome!:

On Monday, we had the best day ever weather wise, and our activities were a blast as well! We rented these little go-cart type cars for two hours and got to tour the city. It was neat because you could turn the radio on and it was connected to a GPS system and the car would tell you were to go, and would proceed to give you information about the most well-known parts of the city. I had a blast, except at one point when Mary and I nearly died. You may think that is an exaggeration, but honestly, we almost got hit and I don't think there would have been much recovery from that. Aside from that, it was one of the most fun things I have done so far!

After that, we walked up to St. George's castle and had an amazing view of the city! That was our last adventure of the weekend, unless you count the travel home. We got back in Sevilla at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning and proceeded to classes. Talk about a long day! That week I only had classes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then Thursday night I headed to Madrid! I will save that trip for my next post, which will probably be soon!