Pictures from my trip to Lisbon

Two weeks ago (sorry for the delay in posts!), I headed out with sixty or more students I traveled around Spain with at the beginning of the semester to the lovely country of Portugal. We had a long drive from Madrid to the town of Cascais, a suburb of Lisbon where we would be staying for the weekend. Before getting to our hotel, we stopped at the ruins of Castel Sao Jorge in Lisbon and were given a brief history of Portugal. Although we were told we were taking a trip to Lisbon, that was all we saw of the big city. Here's what we did the rest of the time:

Our little apartment community in Caiscais

A windsurfing beach near our hotel

Lookout tower/prison called the Torre of Belem. Although I was tempted to ditch lectures and hit the beach like half of my group, I'm glad I went. This was beautiful. Aren't you proud M&D?

We climbed the Padrao dos Descombrimentos - a monument to Portugese discoverers and a lookout over the Tajo River (which runs from Spain to Portugal). We had this beautiful view of Lisbon and its famous bridge that looks like the Golden Gate bridge in San Fran.

We spent one day on this beach, which reminded me of a much more rugged, natural Malibu. There were no houses or hotels anywhere!

We did a little hiking on that mountain pictured above. We found some really colorful flowers, like these.

Almost time to say goodbye!

Although I miss the red, white and blue, I'm not quite ready to leave here yet! I made a bucket list of things I'd like to do before I leave this city, and I've got a few more items to check off before Thursday. Here's the list:

1. Eat lunch at House Burger Bar (the restaurant next to my apartment)..check

2. Go to a Real Madrid game..check

3. Get an empanada at the pastry shop near my apartment

4. See a bullfight at Las Ventas..check

5. Go out to lunch near school with friends..check

6. Hang out in Retiro Park..check

7. Have drinks at Bar Miguel Angel before psych..check

8. Go to the El Rastro market..check

9. Watch the sunset at the Temple of Debod..check!

Barcelona

Just returned from my trip to Ireland..which was amazing to say the least! I have a bit of free time now before class so I'll try to upload all my pictures from the last few weekends.

La Sagrada Familia, a massive, privately funded church built by Gaudi that has been under construction since 1882. It is considered to be Gaudi's most impressive work. Too bad he never got around to finishing it!

The back side of the church, constructed to look like melting chocolate.

The roof of another Gaudi building, a house that he custom built for one of the royal families in Barcelona.

The front of the house.

A huge open-air market, with fresh fruits, juices, fish, wine, and everything else you could possibly imagine eating. I bought a coconut and some mango juice. Delicious!

On our last night there, we went to see a water-lights show. We sat on the steps of the National Palace and watched the fountain change colors in tune to different songs. We loved when they played Lady GaGa!

Andddd then a volcano erupted. Who woulda thought?

After trying to book a train and a car, we waited in this line at the bus station. Luckily there were still tickets left (at 1:00a, nonetheless) when we got the window!

Picture Post: Berlin

Once again, captions save us all. There first few are from the Alternative Tour that we took, where we walked around the city and checked out some non-touristy, more culture-focused spots:
1. Bomb damage in Berlin is everywhere - it's crazy how present WWII was all over the city.
2. Europe's largest indoor skate park
3. This place used to be a sprawling area with buildings and apartments. After WWII everything was destroyed and it was turned into an "adult playground," or a community center with bars, an outdoor theater, a cafe, etc.
4. A bomb shelter turned rock climbing wall at the playground
5. Community center/house for homeless in the city centre
6. I don't even have a caption for this one.
7. Mobile brotwurst vendor.
8. The Berliner Dom (Cathedral)
9. Just an anti-oil gassing/human rights/animal rights parade
10. The Reichstag, German House of Parliament

Catch Up: Picture Posts

I haven't updated in quite a while with pictures! Not entirely my fault though. I tried twice to do picture posts, but my computer was being weird. Here are my photos from Amsterdam & Berlin. These pictures are a bit out of order, but something is up with the HTML so I'll just add captions. I will catch up with pictures eventually I promise, I've just been so busy traveling and getting ready for the end of the semester (eek!).

1. We traveled from Amsterdam to Berlin in one of these Harry Potter-style train cars, complete with food cart, but no Bertie Bott's, sadly.
2. Our boat hostel (bostel? boatel?) in Amsterdam, the Vita Nova.
3. Dutchness!
4. The city of Amsterdam. I'll spare you the Red Light District photos.
5. A (seriously awkward) shot of us in front of the I Amsterdam sign.
6. Walking along the water on the way to Vondelpark.
7. It took 4 police cars, 2 ambulances and a fire truck ladder to get this guy down from the "D." Dangerous/hilarious to watch. Especially when he got the crowd to do the wave.
8. Awesome seats at the Heineken Factory. Amsterdam's all about comfort.

Home Safe!

After an extra day in Barcelona and an 8 hour bus ride, I am once again back in Madrid. Once we got word that the Barcelona airport was shut down, there were so many options available to us: train, rent-a-car, bus, etc. We heard on the news that there was a free in-country shuttle, so we planned on taking that from Barcelona to Madrid. However, right before we were about to leave a friend called to tell us that it was only for certain airlines, meaning, not ours. Eek!

We started looking into those other options only to find that the trains were booked and the automatic cars were all rented out. We hopped on the metro to the bus station, waited in line for an hour and finally got ourselves some tickets. Thankfully they weren't too expensive. I guess that's the trade off for being on a bus for 8 hours.

Anywho, I got in yesterday morning and slept all day long. But Barcelona was great! It reminded me a lot of Madrid, but more liberal and bohemian. The city itself wasn't incredibly beautiful, definitely a lot more gritty than Madrid. But the mix of ocean and mountains was stunning, and the nightlife was great because most of the clubs are right on the beach. We got to see some Guadi buildings too, which were incredible. It's awesome to know that there were artists and architects designing such innovative structures, even back then.

Semana Santa: Italy

This is what happens when your flight leaves at 6a and you're too broke to pay for a cab in the morning. You have an airport slumber party.

First stop: Venice, Italy!

Such a cute little town, Mom you would love this place.

We stopped off at the island of Bergamo, famous for its glassblowing factory.

And the island of Murano.

Gondolas! Expensive to ride but free to view.

Florence, Italy

Daaaaave.

Trevi Fountain

Watching the sunset on our last night in Firenze.

Next stop: Rome

The Spanish Steps, longest and widest staircase in Europe!

What doesn't belong?

Ancient Roman ruins

The Roman Forum

Heeeere it is.

After hearing me quote Gladiator all weekend, my friends vowed to never watch the movie with me. Or anyone else, ever again.

We did a great job finding beautiful sunset spots.

The Homeland - Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

Where the Pope sits during Mass

Ceiling of the Sistene Chapel, obvs. See if you can find Adam.

The Last Judgment

Goodbye Italia!