Obrigado

Hola! I just got back from my weekend in Portugal and I'm exhausted, a little stressed about booking more trips and finishing (aka starting) schoolwork, and having what seems like only a very short amount of time left in London - the city I've fallen in love with.

I traveled to Lisbon - the capital city of Portugal - this past Thursday with Molly and three other girls from Villanova. We traveled on EasyJet, one of the cheap European airlines that is a business based on scamming people. There was no free wine on this trip... there was no free anything on this trip. But it was fine! We landed in both Lisbon and back in London safely so I guess I don't personally have too much to complain about... though one of my friends was completely ripped off. So warning: beware of easyjet. Anyway, immediately after getting to Lisbon, I knew I would love it. PALM TREES and a warm night greeted us as the five of us scurried into a cab that we would, days later, realize had severely ripped us off. But I'll get to that story...

We arrived at our hotel, which was in an amazing area of Lisbon. Against calm weather of the night, the streets surrounding our hotel bustled with people enjoying themselves at outdoor cafes and restaurants as musicians played steel drums and guitar in the street. The whole time, we were there, as we would try to siesta in the afternoon after touring, this amazingggg guitar player would play loudly as all of his fans cheered. It was such good music that I didn't care it was interrupting my nap.. aka my reading (I'm currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife, which is not what I expected it to be but is pretty good regardless - I can't put it down). What good music........ I'll write about my musical internship/service thing later! - I officially play the cowbell.... but I'll explain in a different post at another time... I'm stuck on Portugal right now.

Every night we were in Portugal, my friends and I - for some reason - ended up having long, lavish dinners. Every single night we ordered four bottles of wine between the five of us and were legitimately the last table to leave the restaurant as the employees closed down for the night. On our first night, after getting lost walking around aimlessly - though we had a destination we never found, we ended up at this cute Italian place in a really cool part of the city that ended up being down the block from our hotel.... its funny how we always get lost or disoriented in new cities. Somehow, the two Liverpool guys sitting next to us got conned into buying us all roses from street vendors that relentlessly heckled tables at the restaurants so we chatted with them about England and Portugal and America and life...

Later we also befriended our waiter, Luciano, and talked to all the waiters there after closing about what to do in Lisbon -Spanish came in handy during this trip a little bit (but not that much)- and we somehow ended up convincing our new friend Luciano to come out with us! So he rushed back to get his "roommate," Andre, and they took us to some bar. This bar was very strange but I liked it. It was more of like a tackily over-decorated, multi-room, old school (aka traditional) parlor than a bar but the drinks were delicious and it was just funny to be in this strange place with two random Portuguese people - who we think may be lovers more so than roommates.

The next day we put on our shorts to enjoy Lisbon weather, ate lunch at an outdoor cafe in a really cute part of Lisbon a few blocks from our hotel where I ordered cod - which is the main thing to order besides Italian food in Portugal, and then we hopped on a bus tour around the historical part of the city. Lisbon is gorgeous. The buildings are right out of the old world and come in many different colors. However, you can tell that Lisbon - and even Portugal, in general - is a poorer place because though the buildings are beautiful, they're also pretty decrepit, some more than others. Some were perfectly fine actually but if it were a richer country, the buildings would most definitely be preserved or restored a lot better. Another day we took a bus tour around the modern part of the city, which architecturally (word check?) reminds me of Millenium Park in Chicago. Everything in the modern part of the city was named after Vasco da Gama, the explorer I know we all learned about during AP World History and forgot about, but after hearing it so many times on this tour, I will likely never forget that he is the Portuguese explorer who found the maritime route to India. What a good student.

Sintra. Oh Sintra, my love! Sintra is a city we took a 40 minute train ride to from Lisbon and it's where my heart is currently living. A cross between the road to Hana in Maui and Positano in Italy, this small town is out of a dream. I fell in love. We took a bus up the winding roads with hairpin turns - we thought we were going to die - to the Palacio de Pena up in the mountains. The palace, colored beautifully in deep purples and yellows and pinks and grays, stood on top of the mountain and was quite possibly the most peaceful place I've visited recently. The palace - inside and out - was gorgeous. Of course, I paid special attention to the ceilings, which apparently I have a new obsession with. They were decorated differently than the ones at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, both in England, without so much gold and silver detail, but were regal and beautiful in their own sense. You would think visiting castles would get old, but it really just doesn't... plain and simple. The cool thing about Palacio de Pena was that you could really explore it - it wasn't as stuffy as Buckingham or Windsor - though you still weren't permitted to take pictures inside (whoops, I snapped a few anyway). We walked up towers and in and out of state rooms and terraces. The view from the palace was spectacular. Through the stone railings of the palace you could see the entire town of red and white houses below with the Atlantic in the distance. All of this was just too perfect. I did not want to leave. I wish I was still there....

On our way down from Palacio de Pena, we stopped at another part of the town, which reminded me of Positano with its outdoor cafes, quaint alleyways leading to artisan shops, and beautiful views of the towns below and the ocean beyond. I had some amazing gelato - as I did everyday while in Portugal (which is why I've gained 200 lbs)- and searched through the little shops as I fell more in love with this quiet little town that I wish I was still in right now. There were so many more castles and churches to see in Sintra, but time just didn't permit.... I guess I'll have to travel back. I sincerely hope I have the chance to... I liked it so much better than Lisbon and it just seemed like one of those places where you could never be anything but serenely happy... all the townspeople seemed to be. One even fell in love with one of my friends... and expressed it on a napkin ;)

That night after another long dinner in a secluded restaurant behind many cobblestoned and tiled alleyways in Lisbon, we headed to Club Lux. We heard that the lady at the door was scary and hated Americans and would threaten to charge 240 euro for entrance so we went unsure if we would actually get inside the club - but we did - and without such a hefty cover. It wasn't a problem to get in because we showed up early - at 1:30 am! Yup, the clubs there don't really fill up until later than 2:30, which is extremelyyyy unlike London. Lux was cool ... clubbing isn't really my scene - I much prefer bars and pubs and live music to techno and warehouse-like settings... but it was a cool venue regardless. There was a rooftop terrace that allowed us to lay on these oversized comfy loungechair/couches that overlooked the river and the city as we waited for the crowd to arrive in the company of other earlycomers. In the warm weather, it felt similar to lying in the sand at Tobay beach on a warm summer night looking out onto the ocean - except I was actually wearing heels and a dress at a Portuguese nightclub and unfortunately, there was no sand. Those summer nights... it felt so good to be back.

Another night we went to Doxas, which probably means docks in Portuguese, though I'm completely guessing. Doxas was a row of restaurants, bars, and clubs set on a dock to the side of a main Lisbon bridge that looks just like the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and connects to the other side of the river. We ate dinner on the dock next to sailboats and the bridge and... as usual, we were the last ones to leave the restaurant before heading out to the bars/clubs on the same strip. Portuguese people - in Lisbon at least - were not the friendliest to us. We came across a few disgruntled cab drivers, and I don't know, something about us just did not lead us to making very many friends there. They don't have the same obsession with Americans as the Brits (lucky for me) seem to... though my friends did manage to meet some fellow American college students at Lux. ;)

Cascia was another town we visited during our trip - just yesterday I was there, actually. Cascia was a beachy resort town that people from other parts of Portugal and Europe travel to for vacation. Palm trees, outdoor restaurants and bars, gelaterias, boats, and beaches, this town was such a treat in the midst of October in London. I was reminded of coming home on Long Island late at night and smelling the ocean during low tide as we walked along the marinas and searched for good food and wine (ended up having delicious sangria... which made me miss Zim Zari even more) during our last hours in Portugal.

Similar to how Amsterdam was obsessed with marijuana and penises, Portugal was obsessed with roosters. I didn't understand why so I asked a guy in a souvenir shop and he told me a story about the roosters and how they symbolize good luck in Portugal. I meant to buy something with a rooster on it and I never did so I'm really upset because I love good luck! Who doesn't?! Dangggggg, I missed out. I did, however, buy myself boots, a dress, a little tile painting thing of Palacio de Pena, and rose-scented rosary beads... which are sooooo cool... my grandma will be sooo proud. hahaa

Cabs in Portugal are super cheap. Like, ridiculously cheap... we took them everywhere. Our cab from the airport, which was about 25 minutes away when we first arrived, was probably around 35 euro, which between 5 people, wasn't very much for airport transport. So we decided that would be the best way to get back to the airport last night. We couldn't find a van and the taxis are really strict with only taking 4 people, so we split up, upset that this ride would be more expensive. Maybe about 10 minutes after getting in the cab, we arrived at Lisbon airport. The ride cost 8 euro. It was at this point, three days after our 35 euro and 25 minute arriving ride, that we realized we had been ripped off by the first cab! Imagine our shock - though, it was actually kind of a pleasant surprise since we were expecting to pay a lot more, especially since we had to take two taxis between the five of us. Soooooooo I consider myself pretty smart & this is probably the second time I've been ripped off by a cab in Europe - though who knows, maybe it's been more times. Whateverrrr.... it was just a funny realization at that point.. whoopsss! Obrigado! ...... that's pretty much the one word I learned in Portuguese and used over and over and over and over and over and over... it means thank you - you say obrigado if you're thanking a male and obrigada if you're thanking a female.... I almost said obrigado to the passport agent in London because I got so used to it.... it's really a very catchy word.

So I'm back in London now. I just booked my flight to Athens & Budapest for two weeks from now and my train to Paris to meet up with Eileen. All I have left to book is my flight from Budapest to Prague to visit Colleen and my trip to Interlaken, Switzerland for my grand finale sky-diving trip with Amy, a friend from UCL. If I chicken out, I will be so mad at myself. So I better not chicken out. Period.

Anyway, I love London. So much. I am getting so freaked out looking through my planner and realizing I don't have that much time left here. I'm so jealous of everyone coming here next semester - like actually jealous, not even just as a phrase... I'm actually kind of mad about it. I want to stay... and if you know me at all, you know how much I'm obsessed with Villanova. And even though I miss everyone there, it's so cool living in a city & I'm not ready to even think about having to leave, which I guess is good since I have stillllll not booked a flight home yet. Maybe I'll stay here for another semester... too bad I definitely can't afford that after all these trips. I wish.

Obrigado for a great weekend, Portugal :) ............ so corny. don't care. loveeeee<3