Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal

I apologize for not writing for over a week! I don't know where the time went.  This past weekend I went to Lisboa, Portugal with 10 other friends.  It was a great time and the city was beautiful!

These trams were everywhere. It reminded me of San Francisco.

We took a 9 hour bus ride to Lisboa, not including the bus ride from Toledo to Madrid (1 hour) and the metro ride (15 min) to get to the bus station.  On the way there, we took the overnight bus so we would be able to have two full days in Portugal.  So we left Thursday night, and got there at 4:30am in Portugal.  The receptionist was nice enough to let us sleep for a couple hours, but we had to be up by 8am because thats when they clean the rooms.

Outside our hostel.

Breakfast was my favorite part of the food we ate there. I was so excited to have a "pancake" breakfast, which ended up meaning crepes but who can complain about that?? It was delicious topped with nutella.  They also had cereal, hard boiled eggs, and toast.  It was incredible.  The breakfast in Spain is very small, and they usually don't have more than a cafe and a small bowl of cereal.  To say the least, I was ecstatic to have a breakfast similar to the American breakfasts.

After breakfast, we went and explored the city.  The buildings are beautiful, and we were staying in the Alfama neighborhood which is the only neighborhood to survive the earthquake.  There must have been a big earthquake years ago; I still need to look up what actually happened.  The houses and building were old and beautiful.

After getting lost, and being redirected, we finally found the castle that  is famous in Lisboa.  It is more like a fort than a castle because everything was outside.  We explored and looked at the gorgeous views that overlooks the entire city.  There were also peacocks roaming the grounds, which was funny and quite amazing to see one in person.  Also, there are TONS of stray cats running around both Spain and Portugal.

Later we got lunch in one of the main plazas, and took a siesta when we returned to the hostel to officially check in.  It was very difficult to switch into only speaking English in Portugal.  We all had the tendency to speak Spanish with the Portugese, but they really don't know any of it, and Portuguese is quite different.

That Friday night, we went on a pub crawl with the sister hostels of the one we stayed at.  We went to 5 different pubs and were led around by a 20 year old named Gilbert. There were people from all over the world doing the pub crawl: Germany, Denmark, Latvia  Canada, France, and some more Americans.  At every pub we received a drink, which ended up being a shot.  I don't know what I drank half the time, but they were pretty good.  One pub had shot glasses that were made of pure ice.

It's interesting because everyone wants to "party with the Americans".  It's strange to me because I don't think we do anything that cool when we party.  Its more our drinking habits that they want to try (which I don't know if that's something to be proud of....).  But they thought it was so much fun when we circled up at one of the pubs and danced for 2 hours.  Most Europeans don't seem to dance often, which is bizarre to me. How can you not want to dance when there is music playing??

The next day was more low key, I took a bus tour around the city because it is too big to walk around in 2 days.  It was really cool and they have lots of cool monuments. The sister of the Golden Gate Bridge also made an appearance.  It was strange to me it was there but very cool at the same time. That night we had a BBQ at our hostel with some great food, other Europeans, and some music.  It was fun and the food was delicious.

Sunday, we had our dreadful bus back which seemed to take ages! It was terrible.... But we made it home in time for dinner.  Yesterday, I wrote my first Spanish paper that ended up being 3 pages long.  I was very proud of myself to say the least!

This weekend, I am going to London to visit other DGs (Delta Gammas) that are studying there. I am looking forward to it very much.  I will probably update this in about a week again after I return from London.  That is, unless something major happens in the next two days.

¡Hasta la próxima semana!

Hiking, and Relaxing

Saturday and Sunday of this weekend were very pleasant.  Saturday, after waking up at 1pm, we decided to go for a hike. It was beautiful out! The temp. was about 60 degrees and we had a lot of rain the previous week so we all wanted to get outside.  We climbed to the top of this "mountain" across the river and actually across from our view at the fund.  It was lovely up there and a great view.  A Spanish family with their 3 kids had also climbed up and was asking about our stay.  I swear the kids in Spain are so much cuter than the kids in the United States.... I don't know why.  We decided to walk around the entire city of Toledo, and then cross over the bridge on the other side of the city.  It was a great 5 mile walk (I mapped it out).

Later that night, the girls went out for dinner.  We went to this little cafe/restaurant, and the waitress didn't hesistate to show that she knew we were American and didn't like us.  We were handed an English menu before we said a word and still ordered our meals in Spanish.... Regardless, we all had a blast together and were happy that tipping is not custom in Europe or Spain, specifically.  I also spotted my first red mini cooper!!! I have seen many minis around Toledo, except none had been red. So I was very excited to see one that reminded me of my own car, but European style.

The cathedral at night.

Yesterday we had a pretty low key day also.  The weather was rainy for the middle of the day.  I went to a cafe to do my "homework" with a friend.  It was fun and a good way to get out of the fund.  Afterwards we relaxed, ate dinner, and booked our trip to Portugal for this weekend.  I am excited to go on my first trip even though its an overnight bus ride... I learned the hard way that the laundry room closes at 8 regardless if you are in the middle of a load.. So when my clothes finished in the wash, the receptionist wouldn't let me dry them... Instead I had to hang them all over my room for them to dry.. I was not amused. After dinner, many of us gathered in the tv room and finished the night off by watching Pitch Perfect.

The weather today is beautiful again, even though I probably won't make it out of the fund today between all my classes.  And when I leave the fund, that means I spend money, which I don't want to do either.  Tomorrow I hope to go to the mall to purchase some warmer clothes for London and Switzerland in the next couple of weeks. :)

Madrid!!

Today we had an excursion to Madrid! We had an early morning that started at 8:15.... We took the hour bus ride to Madrid and then had a bus tour through the main parts of Madrid.  It is SO BIG! It makes me happy that I am studying abroad in a smaller city like Toledo.  I am more comfortable here, feel safer here, and will be more accustomed to the city.  Someone made a good point today.  It's like studying in Minneapolis compared to New York City.

After our bus tour, we went to the Palace de Madrid Real.  It was where most of the monarchy lived until the 19th century, I believe.  It was absolutely beautiful! It is amazing to think that people actually lived in that place.  There was gold in every room and all of the ceilings were "Michaelangeloed".  I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside of the palace unfortunately, but it was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Museo de Jamón.  We had a huge delicious lunch which included gluten free dessert!  I have never been so full.  Afterwards we had some free time to walk around and do some shopping.  And I saw that both the Sound of Music and The Lion King are on broadway here! So that may be a future plan of mine.

Unfortunately, my purse that my sister's got me for Christmas broke today... It is still useable, but the part of the cross-body strap that is connected to the purse ripped half way.. I am so sad since I have only had that purse for a month! But I am going to try to super glue it.   It must not have been able to withstand the amount of weight I was putting in it from water, to cameras, to sunglasses, etc.

Sooo that meant when I went shopping, I was going to look for a new purse! As many of you might know, I have an obsession with purses.  I knew coming into this trip that I wanted to buy a nice purse from Europe.  But I did not expect to find one the same day my purse broke or my second week here.  I didn't want to impulse buy it, so we walked around, went for coffee, and thought about it with my friends.  After discussing, I realized that it was 50% off (which is a great deal), and there was only one left, and I don't know the next time I will be in Madrid.  It could be as late as March.  So I bought it! I am so happy with it!

Today has been a good and exhausting day.  Tomorrow I am sleeping in, and probably going to walk around "old Toledo".

Flamenco

My blogging will be pretty slow throughout the week because there is not much that happens when we have class.  I will for sure update my weekends since I will either be traveling, or doing something else fun.  Now that school has started, we don't have as much free time and planning for activities during the week.

Tonight is our second night of flamenco lessons.  They are a lot of fun and actually very difficult! I'm sure if there weren't 50 students trying to learn, it would be easier.  We had it on Monday as well and I enjoyed it very much.  Last night we had intercambio dinner.  An intercambio is when they match you up with a local Spaniard  and you go to lunch with them or for coffee, and you speak in Spanish for one hour and the next hour they practice their English.  It was strangely organized though because we were just thrown into a room of Spaniards and you had to go find someone to talk to.  I ended up talking to this woman named Ruth. She was very, very nice but did not have very good conversation skills so it was hard to hold a conversation.  And here I am the exchange student who doesn't know what to ask her about.  But it went fine.

I really like my classes and professors.  I think the classes I am taking will really help improve my speaking skills, so I am excited.  The food has been getting better. I don't know if I'm just that hungry that I will eat it anyways or if I am actually adapting to it.

Last night, I booked my trip to London.  I was never planning on going since I was there in 8th grade. But our other plans fell through for a couple of trips so I could spend my money on this.  We are staying with 2 DGs from the U so we won't have to pay for lodging which will be nice. And we can eat pretty cheap.  I am excited though! I loved London the first time, and it will be cool to meet up with friends from the U.

Lunes, Lunes

Today is another first day of classes. Except this is my first full week.  Today was also the first day that I ate a huge meal. The food was pretty good today with great potatoes.  I am very satisfied.

Yesterday shopping was a bust. We got all the way to the mall to find that is was closed.... Apparently, they don't open on Sundays but the food court does. And every first Sunday of the month the stores are open.. Weird. We were not too happy because this little detail is not written on the website and it is quite the trek to the mall. But I ate some Mcdonald's which was a nice taste of home! The french fries were different here because they use olive oil instead of the fat that we use in the US.

Today before class, I went to the bank and went shopping. I bought my first two souvenirs! I bought a warm scarf because it's a lot colder here than I expected and my fashion scarves aren't warm enough. Then I bought an España scarf.  They are the decorative ones that you can hang on your wall or wear.  Most people wear them to soccer games and such.  It was really cheap and I wanted to come home with one!

Please be sure to scan old posts when you read updated ones for pictures. I don't download pictures everyday, but I will be adding them into the posts they pertain to when I download them. :)

La Nuit

Yesterday was one of the laziest days I've had in probably my life. We were up until 3:30am planning trips so I slept until about 1pm... Which I have never done before! So I laid in bed all day and watched tv shows that were very hard to load... I miss netflix and hulu! Because I'm outside of the US I can't use those sites.

I finally got out of bed later in the day to book my trip to Switzerland! I am so excited! It will be so much fun! We are going to Interlaken.  The flight was amazing cheap compared to what it is in the United States.  And this trip will be one of my more expensive ones.  I am also planning a trip to Portugal in the beginning of February and hopefully one to the Spanish islands.

Last night was the funnest night I have had since I've been in Toledo.  We went out to the bars and clubs.  One bar reopened after being remodeled and it was a favorite of students from last semester. And really cheap! It was fun.  Then we went to the club La Nuit.  That was also a blast!

There was a TON of dancing, which was very enjoyable. One of the employees there thought it would be fun to give us a photo shoot.  He took us to the part of the bar that was blocked for the night and took pictures of us behind the bar, on the bar, next to a lion statue, in the VIP section, next to the dj; it was a blast and hilarious! Don't worry, he wasn't being creepy about it.  He knows one of the girl from last semester well and was being nice.  So after we stayed out until 4am....omg--I finally went home and went to bed.

Today we are going to the mall to shop and look around.  I need a blanket and some more clothes....I didn't bring enough warm clothes. Oh well!

Planning is stressful....

Well I had a great time with Molly and Shannon! We went to la iglesia de los Jesuitas and they have a tower that you can climb to see above the city. It was a blast. We walked around, shopped, ate lunch, and went down by the river for a bit. We found this great little souvenir place that has so much stuff handmade for a great price.  After that we found an antique shop for you, Dad! We can't forget about our crazy photo shoot either! After that and some down time, Molly and Shan headed back to Madrid so Shan could catch her flight today.  I missed the other Caraway this weekend (Cait)!

Last night we all decided to stay in and watch a movie.  While doing that, we went trip planning crazy! It is soooo stressful to coordinate everything, have enough time to do everything, and find someone to go with you to all the places you want to go.  I have narrowed my list down to the places I want to go and this is where I am currently at.

I am going to Paris in April, Switzerland in February, the Canary Islands in February (they are islands off the coast of Spain that are owned by Spain). I will make it to Barcelona, Granada, Seville, and Valencia at some point (all cities in Spain).  And then for spring break, I am going to Auschwitz!!! For those of you that don't know, I have an extreme obsession with the Holocaust and learning about it.  I know that this is a very depressing place to be excited about going to but it has been my dream for many years.  I think the history that was there is incredible.  After Poland, I would meet up with others in Prague, and then Amsterdam to finish off spring break.  Molly might come with me to Auschwitz! We are going to skype today to figure it all out.

I want to start traveling ASAP because Toledo is pretty quiet and boring during the weekends unfortunately... But it's good to be around the city this weekend.