My Visit to the San Fran of Europe!

Lisbon, Portugal. How do I describe this amazing city to you? Two words: San Francisco. They are literally the same thing! Hilly streets, trolly cars everywhere, located on the water, sea food galore, aaaand its own version of the Golden Gate Bridge!

I visited Lisbon with my interest group through my program, so it was a stress-free trip guided by the staff at CIEE. One of the things that made this trip so fun was the awesome group I went with. I didn't know many of the people in my group very well before hand, but during the trip we got to know each other very well and ended up having a blast! It's sad that we didn't start hanging out sooner in the semester :/ The fun group along with the great city atmosphere made Lisbon one of my favorite trips so far.

Día número uno: 

The first day we got there it was POURING rain all day! It is hard to enjoy the city when it is super cold and rainy..but we did our best! Here is our aweseo view from the hostel!

To take some cover from the rain we visited this old, destroyed convent called, Carmo Church. It was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1755, and still is in ruins! Part of it was turned into an archaeological museum! It was kinda of an eerie atmosphere inside!

We then went to a nice lookout spot for a nice, rainy view of the city! 

Awesome quote I found! 

We then took a walk through the city (not many pictures because I didn't want to get my camera water-logged), but the city was beautiful what we saw of it!

Our program then so graciously bought us all the most famous pastry of Lisbon, Pasteles de nata! Wikipedia says it is a egg tart pastry (whatever that means). I just know that they weren't anything like I have had before, but SUPER DELICIOUS!! Let's just say that wasn't the last pastel de nata that I had in my few days there...

After the pasteles we were wet through and through. We all decided to head back early to the hostel and have a pizza, movie party that night instead! It ended up being so much fun! I haven't had a movie party in a loooong time!

Día número dos:

Today we visited one of the coolest places I have ever been. The Pena National Palace in Sintra, Portugal, a small town right outside of Lisbon. First of all, it had one of my favorite things in the whole world....NATURE! LOTS AND LOTS OF NATURE!! We took a bus up tiny, curvy roads up a mountain (it was pretty scary) and then proceeded to climb up the rest of the way..it was quite the hike! It was beautiful though, so I didn't mind :) It was unfortunately very very foggy that day as well.

I couldn't stop telling everyone how much I missed nature and how at home I felt in the woods. I bet everyone was real sick of me by the end of the day!

Muy contenta en la naturaleza :)

The palace started as a small chapel in the medieval ages, turned into a monastary in the 1400's, and got destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. Then in the 1800's King Ferdinand II decided to rebuild it into a palace for the royal family to live in. It served many different Kings until the republican revolution in the early 1900's, when it turned into a museum like it is today! The palace was like none other I have seen before. It was brightly colored and styled very unique! Each room was decorated like it would have been in the 1800's with very neat, old house supplies.

Kat and me!

Cool hand rails!

Inner patio

My favorite work of art I have ever seen.

What a beautiful view of the landscape from the top of the castle :p

Later that day we headed back to Lisbon to visit the area where the World Expo in 1998 was held. It was a pretty modern area with lots of neat looking buildings!

The mascot of the water-themed 1998 expo

We got to go on a gondola ride along the coast of the water...how pretty!

Alison, me, and Katherine

We then headed over to a castle in Lisbon! São Jorge Castle is a moorish castle  that is pretty well reserved and restored! 

And with every castle comes beautiful views :)

Alison, Shannon, Kat, Bettina, Katherine, and me!

A trolly ride was a must!

Later that night we had free time and had quite the adventure! We walked around the city, had some cod for dinner (Lisbon is known for its cod!), got caught up in a protest, found a concert with AMAZING music, and got some ice cream with a couple of Americans that we met living in Lisbon! What a fun night :)

Alison, me, Shannon, Katherine, and Bettina

The concert in a main plaza

Día número tres:

On our last day in Lisbon, we started off the day with a boat ride on the Atlantic! A little cold, but not too cold for selfies!

Shannon, me, and Alison

Lisbon was a pretty big deal back when America was getting explored. Many ships came to Lisbon with the treasures of America! Here is the Monument to the Discoveries to remember the importance of the discoveries of America to Lisbon!

We finished the afternoon visiting an old tower on the coast and then visited the huge Christ the King statue. It was modeled after the one in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It was built in 1959 to show thanks to God that Portugal was spared in WWII. It wasn't as big as the one in Rio de Janerio, but still awesome to see!

We could take an elevator up to the top!

I am coming back some day...I promise!

After Lisbon we had a week of school and then Semana Santa (our spring break). After spring break we had a week of craziness with lots of projects and papers due...we actually had to put an effort into our school work for once! We then had exams the next week which I think went pretty well! Ever since this past Wednesday I have been officially done with school!

 Many people have decided to travel this long weekend, but two of my good friends and I (Sarah and Casey) decided to stay in Seville and enjoy our last few days here. We have had so much fun sitting by the river, visiting all of our favorite restaurants and bars for the last time, going swimming at the pool, going shopping, and spending meal time with our host families. I am going to miss Sevilla soooooooo much!

 Feria (a HUGE flamenco festival every spring in Sevilla) starts on Monday night and then our program ends this coming Wednesday. It will be so hard to say goodbye to all of my amazing friends I've made here!! Luckily, I won't have to head back to the states just quite yet though, because I will be traveling through Europe for 16 days with my good friend, Amy, who is studying abroad in Florence, Italy. We will be taking the train to Southern France, Switzerland, Paris, the Netherlands, and ending in Belgium. It will be tiring, but I can't wait!