The day following the Festival de San Juan (on the beach) my friends Andrew, Callie, Jessica, and myself took an overnight bus to Lisbon, Portugal! I know in an earlier post I said that I wasn't going to go anywhere for the break, but I couldn't help myself. I mean, I'm this close....When in Rome, right? After a mixup in meeting place and not knowing if we were all going to make it on time we were on our way! We arrived in Lisbon at about 6 am the following morning. Our room wasn't ready in the hostel so we took napped in the common area. About 8:30ish we woke up to get coffee and explore this new territory. None of us knew any Portuguese, but thankfully, most people in Lisbon speak English. Our walk led us to an old church that was now a museum-type place. From the top was great views of the entire city. Here, we randomly started what soon became a MUST at every place we visited. We got Callie's camera, set the timer, and took a jumping picture. After only a few tries, we had the timing down perfectly. We probably took between 20 and 30 jumping pictures in our 3 1/2 days there...
After the church we went and visited the castle in Lisbon. It had even better views of the city and from this angle we got a glimpse of how large Lisbon actually was. After the castle, we explored the city more stopping at another church and exploring a popular neighborhood of the city called the Bairro Alto. While trying to find neighborhood, we realized that our map wasn't really the best fo us. I think we walked in a complete circle before realizing that the Bairro Alto was only a few blocks away from where we started. haha. The Bairro Alto is one of Lisbon's oldest districts and serves as home to many restaurants, clubs, and shops. Just beyond the district we found a quaint park to rest in...and take more jumping pictures, of course. We had had a big day and it was only Thursday, so we decided to stay in the hostel that night. We struck up a conversation with two American girls who were from around Denver, Chelsea and Jayme. When they told us what they were doing in Lisbon, I almost freaked...well, I did. A few weeks prior, Chelsea and Jayme quit their jobs, broke up with their boyfriends, and left the United States to tour the world for a year! They had been planning the trip for about a year and a half. I believe they said they were visiting 55 countries in the next year. They'll be in Australia for 4 months working when they get there. They were able to pack light because they are following summer. Traveling the world AND no winter?!?! Sign me up! We played some card games with them and our new Portuguese friend Rui before hitting the hay.
The next day, still running on the high I got from hearing Chelsea and Jayme's story, we took a train to a neighboring city to hit the beach at Cascais....on the OTHER side of the Atlantic Ocean. It's crazy to think that I've been in the same ocean on different sides of the world almost. After the beach, we wanted to explore more, but a nap just sounded SO much better. That was one of the charms of Lisbon. It was more of a getaway than the usual go, go, go you experience when traveling. We had all intentions of going out that night, but the hostel was just too fun. It started out we would just have beers there, because it was cheap. Sadly, Michael Jackson passed away the previous day and in his memory the hostel was hosting a tribute party to MJ. Also, guys were to dress like girls and vice versa. We decided to go mingle, in our own clothes, maybe have a beer and chat with some other travellers. 20 minutes and a few beers later, Callie and I traded clothes as did Jessica and Andrew. We all looked GOOOODD! Who knew I could rock a dress? After we changed our clothes back, our friend Rui took us out for a drink. We thought we were going out after, but he informed us that no one really goes out on Fridays...what is this?!
Saturday, we slept in a little bit then made our way to the Oceanarium. It was a huge aquarium that represented 4 out of the world's 5 oceans...animals and all. In the middle was this HUGE tank that held over 1500 different fish, sharks, etc. After a few hours and more jumping in there, we explored this side of the city. It was a lot more modern than the rest of the city. There were some cool "park" type things then we took a gondola above to get a better look. Went back to the hostel, more naps, etc. The rest of the evening, we sat in our room in the hostel talking about life and whatever else crossed our minds. Sounds kinda lame, but it really was fun.
Lisbon was VERY different from anything I'd seen in Granada or the rest of Spain. The architecture was more or less similar but there was no one on the streets. For a while it seemed like Spain was the country that never sleeps and Portugal was the country that did nothing but sleep...haha. I'm exaggerating a bit, and the change of pace was quite nice. The trip overall was very relaxing. There's nothing in Lisbon that is a MUST see. Nothing like the Eiffel Tower or Stonehenge at least. Yours to do with what you want. Our approtiately named hostel, Home, turned out to be just that. I think we had so much fun because it was just us, getting away, and spending time together. We laughed the entire trip. It was perfect.
We took a bus back to Granada on Sunday to finish up our last few days there. Before we knew it finals were done and we were at the reception Tuesday night. We left Granada early Wednesday morning for Madrid. I'm really going to miss that place. Orange trees lining the tightly packed streets with their tiled sidewalks, FREE tapas, Puerta Real and the fountain, Garcia Lorca park, Sra. Carmen (our teacher from Granada), her midriff revealing shirts and unique ability to relate Spanish grammar to sex constantly.
Madrid was incredible as well. The day we got there we took a bus tour of the city and got to see a lot of it. Thursday we went and toured the town of Toledo, Spain's previous capital city. It really was gorgeous, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures in a lot of places. The streets were very narrow. Most of the inner streets only allowed "authorized vehicles" inside. Friday we went and toured the Palacio Real (royal palace). It was quite a site, having over 2800 rooms inside! After that we went to the Museo del Prado. Here was the artwork by many of famous painters of Spain. More of the older stuff. Saturday we went to the Museo Reina Sofia. Here was more of the contemporary artwork. It was an unbelievable experience to see, in person, works of art by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí that I've only seen in books before. Last night (Saturday), our last night of the program and in Madrid, we had a Flamenco dinner a restaurant. Maybe my favorite part of the trip. The food was incredible, but the Flamenco dancing was 10x better. Watching the dancers was an honor in itself. You really could see the passion, the discipline, their love for it as they danced. These people weren't just dancing the Flamenco, they were living it. It was a part of them. I still get chills just thinking about it.
Later in the hotel we all said our good-byes as some of us began to part ways. I hated to see everyone go but was truly grateful for the time I'd had with them. They're part of the reason I have had such an incredible, life-changing experience here. My dad flew into Madrid this morning. We have this next week to tour Spain. With the two of us, there is no telling what could happen. I'm ready.