oct. 14-16: lisbon, portugal

This past Friday afternoon I boarded a bus from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal. It was a seven hour bus ride, but after the travel seminar it was all too familiar. We arrived in Lisbon and checked into our hostel around 9 pm. This was my first experience in a hostel and it was definitely an experience. I was in a room with 6 sets of bunk beds, and 11 other girls. I knew three of them, and the other eight were strangers but everyone was nice so it wasn't too weird. We changed clothes and headed out into the city to find some dinner and explore the night life. We picked a great weekend to go to Lisbon because at night the weather was around 68 degrees and about 80 degrees and sunny during the day. We walked up what felt like a million stairs to the famous Barrio Altho, which is an area of the city high up and full of bars and restaurants. There were tons of young people and everyone was just socializing in the streets and drinking and singing and just having a great night in general. We wandered around until we found a good looking restaurant. 

Walking up to Barrio Alto, I stopped to take a picture of one of the many outdoor restaurants on the way up.

My friends Alex, me, Cecily, and Kellen at the restaurant.

I ordered grilled sea bass and boiled potatoes. Portugal is famous for its seafood and it did not disappoint. It was sooo delicious. I ate the entire thing, even though I had to pick my way through all the bones. After dinner we explored a lot of the outdoor bars of in Barrio Alto and met many Portuguese people. Their English was much better than the English in Spain and they were all very friendly and eager to talk to us. 

Waiting for our friends outside our hostel in one of the main plazas. 

The next day we left our hotel and toured the city. The architecture of Lisbon is beautiful, and it kind of reminded me of USD in a way. The streets were more narrow than in Madrid, but still all stone. The air in Lisbon was much fresher and cool, because it is located on the water. It was really nice to be near the ocean again after being landlocked for the longest time since living in Texas!

We went up a million stairs again to the Castelo de Sao Jorge which was a huge castle overlooking the city. It was exactly what you picture a castle to be, with lots of towers and canons everywhere. 

Queen of the castle!

The views from the towers were beautiful.

After the castle we walked back down to the city and walked out to the port, where there were lots of outdoor vendors and you could see the water and it was beautiful.

That afternoon, we went to the prettiest beach in Portugal, about 20 minutes outside the city, called Cascais beach. The sand was warm and the water was freezing so I only went up to my knees. There were lots of people surfing and laying out and playing soccer. It was so nice to be on a beach, which is what I miss most about San Diego. 

Happy feet! My toes missed the sand.

We stayed until sunset and watched the beautiful colors over the water.

The next morning we went to an area called Barrio de Belem that had three very important historical sites: Torre de Belem, El Monumento de los Descubiertos, and El Monasterio de Lisboa.

Below are my friends Audrey, Alex, and I in the garden in front of the monastery. Of course I have a Starbucks coffee in my hand.

The Monument of the Discoveries: a monument dedicated to the conquistadors overlooking the harbor.

The view from the top of the monument. It was pretty foggy because we went in the morning but it was beautiful. It was really windy that day so a lot of people were out sailing. In the distance on the right you can see a huge statue of Jesus Christ, replicated after the one in Brazil. The bridge is a replica of the Golden Gate bridge... I guess Lisbon does a lot of replicas.

The monastery

El Torre de Belem

This is a picture I took as we left the city across the wanna-be Golden Gate Bridge on our bus ride home. 

We were only in Lisbon for two days and two nights, but the city impacted me in a big way. It was so beautiful and relaxed. The atmosphere was different than that of Madrid. It felt more like home, maybe because it's a city on the water, but I just felt very comfortable and welcomed there. I am so happy I chose to go on this trip. It was my first without any of my roommates and it made me rely on myself much more and gave me more time to think and reflect on all the beautiful and amazing things I saw there. 

I miss everyone from home! Love you all.

Next up: Marrakech, Morocco

september 29 - october 2: munich, germany

This weekend, I traveled to Munich, Germany for an annual beer festival called "Oktoberfest." I left on Thursday night with my roommate Kaity and took a quick two hour flight to Munich. When we arrived, we struggled with public transportation to figure out how to get to our friend Colton's hotel where we were planning to meet for dinner. I thought public transportation in Spain was tricky, but Germany was a completely different struggle. German is easily the hardest language I've encountered to pronounce. We purchased a train ticket and hopped on the right train toward the city center, Hauptbahnhof. After about twenty minutes on the train, we found out there was a fire at the station closest to the stop we wanted to get off at... this was said over the speakers in German but a nice British woman translated for us. So we got off the train and took a cab, with a driver who spoke no english at all. Then we walked about ten minutes to the restaurant for dinner. German food is SO good. I had shrimp and mashed potatoes and tomato soup, and of course a pint of beer. Then Kaity and I caught the last train back to our hotel where we found two twin beds awaiting us and our two other roommates. Good thing we like to snuggle!

Me in the German Metro at Moosfeld (aren't the names funny?)

Catching the last train!

The next day our friends from USD who are studying in Florence came over bright and early (around 7:30 am) and we all got ready in our tiny hotel room. At about 8:30 we headed out to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is essentially just a huge festival of beer. There is a giant fairgrounds area full of massive tents. Each tent has a different kind of locally brewed beer and lots of different kinds of German food inside. Inside the tents there are tons of wooden tables and benches. You have to be seated at a table to order beer, at least in the morning before it gets too crazy. We had heard that you had to line up outside at 7 am if you wanted your own table, which we obviously did not do. The first tent we saw was called Schottenhamel, so we decided to try it out. It turned out to be the biggest tent at Oktoberfest, seating 10,000 people. It was also the tent that most locals went to, and it was less crowded with Americans and other Europeans. Needless to say, we walked in and all the tables were taken, so we split up into two groups and made friends with locals and shared their tables. Germans are definitely the friendliest Europeans we have encountered thus far. They were so excited to meet Americans and hear about our study abroad experience and to teach us about all the German cultural norms that take place at Oktoberfest. 

Now, to the beer. The beer is served in 1 liter mugs called steins. You cannot order a smaller glass. Waiters come out carrying eight at a time (don't ask me how, they're really heavy) and they cost about 10 euro each, but it's a necessary part of the experience. They start serving beer at about 9 am, so by 10 everything is pretty crazy already. There's a tradition that if someone stands up on their table and chugs their entire stein of beer, everyone goes crazy cheering and chanting different drinking songs and it was great when a guy at our table did it. My roommate Tallia got tricked into it as well by the Germans at our table when they all started chanting her name, and she had no choice but to finish her stein. 

Go Tallia!

Kaity and me with our German table-mate Stefan

All the Germans wore authentic lederhosen, which I always thought was a silly American misperception.

The next day we went to the most popular tent among Americans, called the Hofbrauhaus. 

Me, Kaity, and Tallia with our steins!

Trying to give you an idea of how crowded the tent was...

If you can see the guy standing above everyone, he had just chugged his third stein on top of the table and see how everyone is going crazy! It was so fun whenever people did this because literally the entire tent would be on their feet cheering and screaming for the person on the table.

Some of my sorority sisters on the second day

My friend Natalie, who is studying in Florence

The drinking was obviously really fun, but what was more fun was getting to know locals and really feeling like a part of a German tradition. Every single person we met was so kind and eager to learn from us, just as we were to learn from them. It was a really amazing trip. I can't wait to someday go back to Germany and enjoy their hospitality again.

We almost missed our flight home, but made it just in time and headed back to Madrid for dinner with our host family. We also have two new girls staying with us for the remainder of the semester. They are juniors at UCLA and seem very nice so far!