Well to make things a bit easier (both for me to write and remember and you to follow along) I’ll simply write out our schedule and add in little comments and pictures here and there. Here we go!!

Friday, Feb 26, 2016

• 00:00h- Leave Granada (For the record, everything in Europe is in military time — good thing I’m already used to it!)
• Sarah* and I had a bit of trouble trying to find the bus! We walked around the mall a couple of times until we finally saw it.
  • *Sarah was My traveling buddy and she’s the one with the short curly blonde hair un all My pictures. Just FYI.
  • This was around a 10 hour bus ride….O.M.G.
• 09:30h- Arrival in Lisboa (Lisbon)
  • First impression: Lisboa is one of the most colorful cities I have ever seen! Every building is a different color so it’s very bright.
• 12:00h- Tour through the city (Center of Lisboa and Castillo de San Jorge) and free time
• It was raining like crazy! On top of that it was also very windy so….goodbye umbrella!
• 21:30h- Dinner and FIESTA
  • My dinner was a prosutto piza (smoked ham pizza). I was a little cautious about trying new food since my trip to Morocco *ahem, food poisoning — not good*.

Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016

• 07:30h- Breakfast
• 08:30h- Leave for Sintra and Palacio da Pena
  • Sintra has a macroclimate which means they can experience 5 different kinds of weather in one day! It’s unique characteristics has had UNESCO name it as a world heritage for it’s “cultural landscape”.
  • The Palacio da Pena (the really colorful castle in my pictures, IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL) is the characteristic monument of Sintra. It’s on the Sierra of Sintra and it is surrounded by a garden in which thousands of botanical species live.
• 14:00h– Quinta da Regaleira is another site that we visited on this day. It´s enigmatic and very mysterious. There were underground tunnels and beautiful views.
• 16:30h- Cabo da Roca
  • Welcome to the westernmost part of the known world!! ….At least until 1492 when Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas.
• 18:00h- Return to Lisboa
• 19:00h- Free time in Lisboa
  • Here Sarah and I made our dinner (pasta al dente….jk we’re not Italian, we can’t make pasta al dente =( but it was still good!)

Sunday Feb. 28, 2016 (Día de Andalucía)

• 09:00h- Breakfast
• 10:00h- Belem- Free time in Lisboa

• Belem is where during the Golden Age the Portuguese ships would set sail towards new discoveries.
• Here we also saw the Torre de Belem.
  • In Belem there is also the famous pastel de nata which is a pastry filled with custard and OMG it is DELICIOUS!!
• 17:00h- Return to Granada
  • We didn’t get back into Granada until around 5 am! The bus driver got lost and so that added a bit of travel time.

Well there ya go! My crazy trip to Portugal was something I’ll never forget. I’m glad I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and go on this trip. I was afraid that I would be one of those that are too shy and would be isolated from the rest of the group, but that wasn’t so. The group leaders made it so that everyone was involved and overall had a great time.

I’d like to say that at the end of this trip I had a great revelation about myself and what it’s like to be abroad blah blah blah, but I can’t. This trip literally just was me enjoying my time here and experiencing a different culture. It’s good to once in a while just do something for yourself, even if it’s just drinking a cup of tea in the morning and reading a book or taking a spontaneous trip to Portugal where the weather is unpredictable and you’re freezing your butt off! So this is me telling you to get off that couch, put your coat on (cause I know yall are in the middle of a blizzard over there ;D), grab a couple bucks and go on a mini road trip with your family and enjoy your time together. Life is short so enjoy it while you can! In the end, it’s the little moments that matter the most. =)