Lisbon, Sintra, & Belém: some more of Portugal

I'm back from Portugal, did you miss me?!

My trip to Portugal was the most spontaneous, short vacation yet with the longest travel time yet—7 hours on a bus sure does make your bum fall asleep & give you the craziest cricks in your neck. & although the travel was a bit nuts, Portugal in general was so relaxing & beautiful.

My bus for Lisbon, Portugal was scheduled to leave Tuesday at 11:59PM, putting me in Lisbon at 5:30AM. The bus was 30 minutes late though so I got to Portugal at 6AM, grabbed a taxi, & headed to my hostel, Oasis Backpacker's Hostel. My old taxi driver decided it would be a good idea to drop me off somewhere other than my hostel though, so 30 minutes later + a phone call to my friend Lizzie I finally arrived & crashed on the comfy hostel couch until 10AM.

Wednesday: We headed off to Sintra, a suburb about 30 minutes away from the Lisbon center. As soon as we walked off our train we saw a Pizza Hut...& I don't even think I could describe our excitement. We stuffed ourselves with a delicious pepperoni pizza & a cookie dough cake thingy & then set off to explore Sintra with our happy bellies.

Meet my travel partners: Bryce, Lizzie, & Emily! Lizzie is friends with my friend Anna (my college roommate for freshman & sophomore year), Bryce is Lizzie's friend & we happened to all meet while visiting Morocco! What a small world. Emily is Lizzie's roommate & she is from the UK. I decided to hop on their trip to Lisbon last minute, best decision ever :)

We hiked up the Caselo dos Mouros in Sintra...& just about died. The hike was ridiculously long, & no exaggerating I'm pretty sure I could feel the air thinning out with each breath I took! We were so proud to have made it all the way up top & spent a good 40 minutes just looking at the amazing view of Sintra & part of Lisbon.

Back in Lisbon: The 25 de Abril Bridge made us feel like we were visiting San Francisco! It looks just like the Golden Gate Bridge, & the hilly roads in Lisbon did not help at all. Right next to the bridge is the Cristo-Rei, a replica of the monument found in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So many mixture of cultures.

This is a picture of Tram 28, one of Lisbon's most iconic items. The trams take you up & down the hilly city, but I think they are more cute than functional. I didn't take the tram but thoroughly enjoyed photographing it!

We visited Belém during day 2. Belém, Portuguese for Bethlehem, was a 10 minute train ride away from our hostel & another cutesy suburb of Lisbon. Here's a picture of us in front of the Belém fountain, located right in front of the Jerónimos Monastery.

We then ventured into a Modern Arts museum...it was interesting! Here's a thumb, so artsy.

After the museum we all needed a bit pick-me-up (we were all running on minimal sleep after that long bus ride). We got some famous pastries of Belém & then hit up Starbucks...can you say Americans at heart? haha.

Next site to see: the Belém Tower. The weather was kinda grody, but the tower was great. We decided not to pay the 5 euro entrance fee, & just enjoyed the outside view instead.

& then we found McDonalds...I've never eaten so much American food in such a short amount of time. After reminiscing about how much we loved the 2 for $1 apple pies at MD, we decided to go for it & indulged in the yumminess. No regrets.

Last stop in Lisbon: The Rua Augusta Arch, which is located in a plaza very similar to Plaza Mayor in Madrid! It's cool to see that even though each city I've visited is different they all share some similar characteristics.

We wrapped up the trip at the bus station in Lisbon, where Bryce & I read our matching book, Eat, Pray, Love. I just started it & have already fallen in love with the novel. We hopped on our bus to Sevilla & arrived at 4:30AM, where I speed-walked back to my casa & slept until about 1:30PM :)

Lisbon is such a historical city & I wish I had researched more about it before visiting. It's one of the oldest cities in the world & was so relaxing & beautiful...I hope to return soon! I'm so thankful to have been able to travel with Lizzie, Bryce & Emily & hope to see them one more time before heading to the states (they are all studying abroad in Granada). Now what??

• Semana Santa has finally arrived in Sevilla! Unfortunately it has rained the WHOLE week...causing the pasos to be canceled. I'm praying that it will stop raining so that I can witness part of Semana Santa.
• I still have 2 papers to write that I have been procrastinating about for a while...time to git 'er done :/
• I only have 28 days left in Sevilla...where does the time go?! Leaving Sevilla will be the most bittersweet moment, ever. Anyone wanna pick this girl up from the airport May 21?!
• My camera is fixed!!!!!! El Corte Inglés called me Wednesday to let me know that I can pick it up on Monday, repairs free of charge. SO.HAPPY.
• I got an internship in Southlake! Unpaid, but an internship nonetheless. I'm not so excited to get back to real life full of work & responsibility, meh.

I think I've updated yall on everything! I'm off to catch up on HW & sleep & Sevilla in general. I'm missing my family & friends from home this week but I know we will soon be reunited. Until then I will be soaking in as much of the study abroad experience as possible <3

Sending my LOVE! -B