Sandy Candy

Friday morning I was westward bound to Lisbon, Portugal!

Costa do Caparica

Once we got to the airport we realized we had made a bit of an error somewhere in the booking process because Megan was staying at a completely different hostel than we were. This caused a few problems but the workers at our hostel were really nice and sort of adopted her. They knew we were doing some sneakin' around and pushing our beds together to get her in the hostel every night but they always looked the other way. The hostel was GREAT! The workers were so fun and had lots of suggestions for us. And the breakfast included eggs, fresh baked bread, cereal and yogurt! (which is a huge step up from the typical hostel breakfast of wonder bread toast). I was a happy camper.

Praca do Comercio

Friday afternoon was hot and sunny and we walked around downtown Lisbon. We bought a kilo of fresh picked strawberries and enjoyed the sunshine. My favorite part was finding a scenic overlook of the city. But there are a lot of hills in Lisbon and that meant a whole lotta stairs. That afternoon we were lucky enough to find a free wine tasting! This was my first wine tasting and we were pretty excited that it was completely free.

overlooking Lisbon

Saturday morning we had booked an all day tour with a company called We Hate Tourism Tours. Many of our friends had done it on their trips to Portugal and it was their favorite part. Right before leaving for the tour at 10am we called to double check the location of the meeting point. At this point we were informed that the tour left at 9, without us, and the website we booked through had incorrect information. This prompted a few less than kind phone calls and 6 very disappointed girls. We had planned our whole weekend around the tour. But there was nothing we could do so we went to Caiscais, a beautiful beach, to soak up the sun and go swimming. We had quite a ball. It turned out to be one of the most fun days this semester! And I am still finding sand everywhere, including in the sandwich I ate for lunch today and the pockets of all my clothes...

beautiful Caiscais

Saturday night we had a delicious meal called chicken piri-piri at the hostel. Then we made some British friends, one of whom had lived in Lisbon before and wanted to show us the fun places to go in Lisbon. We went to a street that was filled with people. And when I say filled I mean filled. We were shoulder to shoulder and could hardly walk. I was holding my purse to my chest the whole time! It was like a big outdoor street festival except there was no special occasion.

It feels good to be back in Madrid but I am already leaving again in 3 days! This week is all about the homework and the sleep, playing major catch up before a whirlwind trip to eastern Europe.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Antes de irme a Portugal, no sabía mucho sobre las relaciones entre Portugal e España. Obviamente los dos países comparten una frontera y probablemente hay tensiones, acuerdos y cambios. Muchas personas me han dicho que no es buena hablar español en Portugal. No sabía por qué, a mí me parece que español sería más común que ingles. En Portugal yo no hablé español, solo ingles. Pero una noche un hombre me dijo que es común para hablar español en Portugal. Entonces estoy confundida y no sé si está bien hablar español. Rey Felipe II se incorpora Portugal en el año 1585 y permaneció parte de España hasta 1640. En 1585 la familia real en España no tenía ningún heredero. Entonces el rey de España también se convierte en rey de Portugal. Bajo la reina de España, Portugal luchó mucho por las causas políticas de España y más tarde por su independencia de España. Hoy Portugal es una republica democrática.

Hace tres días que hablo español y hoy es muy extraño hablar el idioma. Fui al tabaco para comprar un billete de autobús y estaba tartamudeando con el cajero. ¡Espero que mi conocimiento se vuelva muy pronto!