Let´s Go To Lisbon

Lisbon Portugal is just a stones throw away from Spain, so it would make absolutely no sense not to take a weekend trip over to the coastal town.

Instead of taking the twenty minute flight, we decided to check one more thing off our bucket lists while abroad and take the ten hour night train. So Thursday night we boarded the train in Madrid at nine o´clock and settled in for our arrival in Portugal the next morning.

Once we arrived in Portugal we settled into out hostel and devoured breakfast, absolutely devoured. We started our day with a free walking tour our hostel offered,we walked the major areas and took in some really pretty views. Our guide was real big on the history side of Lisbon, which was good since none of us knew anything about it.

Following the tour we grabbed lunch which ended up being ice cream, basically blizzards, as we were still pretty full from breakfast that morning. We then took the afternoon to pop into various shops and explore the area, taking a brief visit to the worlds oldest library still in it´s original place. It was actually kind of a disappointment, they didn´t make too pretty of libraries back in the day.

Augusta Arch

We then headed back to our hostel to clean up and rest up before dinner. We ate at our hostel, as they had a phenomenal chef, Anna, who made traditional Portuguese food that was to die for. That night we had a Portuguese cabbage soup followed by a pork sandwich with mustard, chips, salad and rice all finished off with carrot cake. After dinner we did a pub crawl with our hostel that hit up a lot of the major bars in the area and was a ton of fun.

Saturday morning we rose bright and early, grabbing breakfast at the hostel before heading out for our "We Hate Tourism Tour". This tour aimed at taking us around to all the hot spots of Lisbon and it´s surrounding areas while also letting us in on the local favorites and secrets. I would come to refer to this tour as the foodies tour, and I loved it.
We started the day off in Sintra, just outside of Lisbon it is the World Heritage City filled with beautiful architecture and winding cobblestone streets. We immediately sampled the local pastry, Queijadas, which were really sweet and good. once we arrived in the city center we tried ginja, a cherry liquor in a chocolate glass that was pretty good. We spent some time wandering the area and learning a bit about the history of Sintra before hopping back into our bright yellow van. From the city center we headed up to Quinta de Regaleira, an old castle and gardens that was closed to the public until the 1980s. It was seriously one of the coolest places I have ever been, the majority of the grounds are gardens and wells and waterfalls all connected by underground tunnels that are pitch dark, as out tour guide put it
"the whole purpose of this place is to get lost". We had a blast wandering around and finding dead ends as well as secret passage ways that eventually led to these castle esque structures, it was like living in a real life game of clue.

Sintra 

 Quinta de Regaleira 

 Quinta de Regaleira, Inverted Well

 Quinta de Regaleira

After Sintra and Quinta de Regaleira we headed towards lunch, we wandered the local market amazed by the fact that it was seriously some of the largest looking produce we´ve ever seen before hitting up the food truck for lunch. Our guide said that this food truck is one of the best kept secrets in Lisbon and I don´t think he was kidding one bit, we each had Pao de Chorizo, a traditional food in Portugal. The food truck had a traditional wood fire oven where it cooked the calzone esque sandwiches filled with chorizo (spicy sausage), cheese and tomato and then baked to the perfect crisp (to be one hundred percent honest it kind of reminded me of a Portuguese Smashing Tomato).

Pao de Chorizo

Market and the World's largest kiwi

After enjoying our lunch we made our way to the end of the earth, or as it is formally known, Cabo de Roca. It is the farthest west point in Europe and back in the day it was believed to be the end of the world before they found out about the whole world being round thing. We took time to enjoy the beautiful cliffs and views before ignoring our tour guide's recommendation and climbing over fences and up onto rocks and cliffs (he later loved us for this as we were an adventurous group). It was absolutely beautiful there and i could have stayed there the rest of my trip and been content.

After the end of the earth, we made a stop in Cascais a beautiful coastal town known for it's resort feel, it's Casino that inspired the Casino Royale James Bond book, and the gorgeous Marina. It is also known among the locals for the best gelato in the world, so we of course had to try it and they might just be right. I had strawberry, raspberry, and walnut gelato and the flavors were so obviously fresh and amazing .

We left Cascais and made our way to Belem, an area right outside of Lisbon known for it's beautiful architecture, history and pastries. We viewed the changing of the guards at a monument in honor of Portuguese soldiers, then took in the views of the monument of explorers and the Portuguese version of the golden gate bridge. We then ended our tour with the oh so famous pastries, Pastel de Nata at the original shop. Only three people in the world know the original recipe and it's secret ingredient. We ate them like locals with a little bit of powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. It was a great way to end the day.

Changing of the Guards

Pastel de Nata

Explorer's Monument and Bridge in Background

That night we grabbed dinner at the hostel again, this time it was a spinach and pumpkin soup, piri piri chicken which was a curry style sauced roast chicken, rice and salad, then finished off with apple crumble with homemade vanilla ice cream. It was one of the best meals I have eaten abroad.

Sunday morning we slept in a little bit before catching a train back to Cascais. We spent the day walking the streets of the coastal town and lounging by the water. The weather was wonderful and it was absolutely beautiful out. We grabbed lunch at a hot dog place as street food is the way to go in Portugal, and not being a huge hot dog fan I was amazed by how good this hot dog with bacon and cheese and onion and mustard was. We grabbed some more gelato down the street in the afternoon before we hopped back on the train to Lisbon city center.

Once back in Lisbon we took the winding long way back to pick up our bags from the hostel, taking in the sites and stopping in shops. We then grabbed our bags and headed back to the train station to head back to Madrid on our ten hour night train.

Lisbon was a wonderful surprise, everyone I knew who had been had loved it but could never really put a finger on why. I know I completely understand, Lisbon was beautiful and relaxed and fun and filled with amazing food, it was a trip I took because it seemed silly not to but I am beyond glad I did.

Let's Climb a Mountain: Granada and the Sierra Nevadas

This past weekend I hopped on a bus with my friend Alex to visit the Southern Spanish town of Granada and take a hike in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

We arrived bright and early Friday morning (like 6:30 am early), we had to take the night bus since there is currently a bus strike in Spain (Major Bummer), so we learned right off the bat that Granada is not a morning town. We finally found a coffee shop in a small hotel to settle into until our day really started.

Once the day started, it started strong. We visited the Alhambra for the majority of the morning taking in all the beautiful architecture. The Alhambra is an old fortress turned palace that was built under the moorish rule, therefor it is filled with traditional tiling and decorations of the Islamic culture. All of the buildings are as was and are in phenomenal state for being ten centuries old.
We explored both the Alhambra and Generalife and their gardens. It was absolutely beautiful. The pictures don't do it any justice.

We then made our way down the mountain, yeah the Alhambra is way up on a mountain, to the city center. We explored the several different plazas, the Cathedral, the Monastery and their main street of Gran Via before breaking for lunch. Since Granada isn't particularly known for a certain dish, we took this break to revert back to American food with barbeque pizza and diet coke.
After lunch we took it upon ourselves to explore the Albaicin neighborhood which houses a lot of great look out points and buildings as it too is built on another mountain. We walked through a bunch of local shops that we popped in and out of, sine Granada is in the southern part of Spain it has a lot of African, mainly Moroccan, influences, so the shops are filled with rich colors, fabrics, and lights that are breathtaking. We visited the Palacio de los Cordova on our way to Mirador de San Nicolas (the Saint Nick lookout spot), it offered great views of the Alhambra as well as the town.
We spent the rest of the night exploring the streets of Granada before settling on a pre-dinner snack of chocolate and churros that was so big it became dinner.

MIrador San Nicolas

Monestary

Palacio de las Cordovas

The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch a bus to Guejer Sierra, a small town just outside of Granada that is really up in the mountains. We had looked into some hiking paths and decided on a moderate level hike that promised great views and a neat break spot. What we got instead was a trek at a 70 degree angle up the side of a mountain on a small sometimes barely there path. But it was well worth it, they didn't let down on the views aspect of it, we arrived at the top of the mountain to get breathtaking panoramics of the city, lake, and Sierra Nevadas. We also to a little bit of time to rest in the old civil war trenches, the same exact ones I've been studying in my poli sci class (considering it was southern Spain, I'm guessing they were for the Republic but who knows, either way it was cool).

Civil War Trenches

We returned to Granada that evening absolutely exhausted, we took showers and grabbed dinner before literally passing out for the night.

Sunday morning we bid our farewell to the beautiful, vibrant town of Granada and went back on to the bus to return to home sweet Madrid.

Spring in Madrid

Considering I only had one day of class before the next weekend, I was dead tired from traveling so I decided to spend sometime exploring good ole Madrid.

Friday we found a cute little park on the south side of Madrid to relax and take in the good weather. It has the high hills that look out to the skyline of Madrid and there are all sorts of people running up and down the hills and taking in the views.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to take a train to Cercedilla, the outskirts of Madrid to go hiking. We spent all morning walking the beautiful terrain taking in waterfalls, mountains, and great views. It was good to get out of a big city and really take in the fresh air. It was a pretty easy trail and we plan to go back in the future for some zip lining and rock climbing hopefully.
Following the hike we hit up El Tigre for lunch which was as good as usual, but we did get quiet a few looks for how quickly we devoured our tapas. It was quiet the feat if I do say so myself.
That night we went down towards the palace, as Kerry's parents were visiting and had been staying in an apartment there. We caught up with them and then went out to dinner at this cute little Italian place that wasn't too far. It was good to be in a homey setting after hustling and bustling around from place to place surrounded by strangers speaking different languages.

Sunday morning, we hit up El Rastro in the morning and now that it is nice I think the number of people there as well as the number of vendors has doubled. You could tell it's spring break season as I saw so many tourist clinging to their fanny packs and heard quite a bit of loud English, for once I felt like I had the upper hand to someone in the market.
After the Market we went down towards Moncloa to take a cable car ride which has great views of the city as well as gives brief histories of the monuments you can see. At the top of he cable car ride is a cute restaurant with a terrace as well as a massive park to walk around. We spent a good amount of time taking in the sites and relaxing in the good weather before heading back down.
Since it was so nice out we decided to walk home as Lexi and I live on the same street, we got to walk through the Madrid College Campus which was surprisingly set up a lot like an American campus but was completely dead since most students commute. We did get a bit more of the traditional college vibe when we passed the off campus apartments were people were on the front porch taking in the sun, as well as the basketball court and baseball fields which were filled with pick up games.

We also decided to finally hit up the Madrid Rio this week as well. It was a great choice. While the river isn't completely full, the parks around it are super cute and the different bridges are really cool. You also get a killer view of the Atletico Stadium. I personally love all the swings and tire swings hanging from the underneath of the bridges (note to self: don't wear a dress the next time I go to the river).

Deja Vu Firenze

Since classes were cancelled till Wednesday this past weekend, following our trip to Belgium I followed Madi back to Florence for a few days.

This was a fun and different trip for me, as I have already been to Florence with my family. So rather than running from site to site trying to see every little thing, I wandered the side streets and hit up my favorite spots from before. It was weird walking the streets that I had walked just a few years before but with a new perspective and new people, I had a very distinct deja vu moment when Madi took a picture of me near the Ponte Vecjio in the exact spot my mom had taken the same photo of me on our last visit.

Familiar Spot at the Ponte Vechio

It was great to see the Duomo, Uffizi and plaza outside the academy again, but I really enjoyed spending the day exploring the various markets. The central market was really cool (but to be 100% honest, Valencia still takes top ranking in my opinion), but what I found really neat was the absolutely massive leather market that surrounded it. I have finally found that my guilty pleasure of traveling/ favorite reason to lag behind is watching the local street artists in different places. The artists throughout Florence were really neat, most were oil painters that mainly stuck to the landscape around as well as popular sites in the city, a few though had really interesting topics; I really liked one man who painted old cruising bicycles in front of various Italian buildings and doors, there was another who painted these beautiful pictures but with thick paint and then pressed glass on top to smudge all of the edges and make it slightly abstract, my favorite though was a man I talked with for a while who had a cute dog in a vest who picked his subjects at random, drawing inspiration from the people who walked past, he was currently working on a piece of the Tuscan countryside but filling it with these big beautiful and bright flowers that he picked up from the print of a woman's dress.

Central Market

Cathedral/ Duomo 

Outside the Academy

That afternoon we went up to the Piazza de Michelangelo for sunset, which was a new site for me, it has amazing views of the entire city. We also visited the Monastery that is just beyond the Piazza which had phenomenal views and beautiful architecture.

Piazza de Michelangelo 

Monestary

Tuscan Sunset

After the day we grabbed pizza for dinner which was really really good, and finished it off with a nutella pastry from the bakery across the street from Madi's apartment. And don't worry I also had my fill of gelato and canolis throughout the day.

I think I was supposed to be a Belgian

This past weekend I boarded a plane and headed up north to Belgium to meet Madi, my best friend from high school who is studying in Florence.

We arrived in Brussels on Friday afternoon and headed to our hostel, the place was easy enought to find as it was literally two doors off of the main square. We spent the night wandering the city center and taking guesses at what things were in this very friendly and happy city with good food.
Those questions were answered the next morning when we took a free three or so hours walking tour.We got the full history of the gilded and beautiful main square, the Grand Place, including how the Swan House which is conveniently attached to the brewery is where Karl Marx lived and wrote the Communist Manifesto. We also took a walk down to Mannekin Pis, one of the most famous if not the most famous piece from Brussels, it is about a whopping one foot tall statue of a baby on top of a fountain that he is peeing into. I do love that he was knighted after a french soldier found him but he had to be clothed to be knighted, so he was given an outfit and know he is dressed for the weather and holidays and has over 800 costumes. We also took a walk past the cathedral, through the royal parks, by the opera house, as well as many other phenomenal sites hearing anecdotes and stories along the way such as the story of how the sax was invented there.

Grand Place

Mannekin Pis

Swan House

Opera House

Playing the Sax in the Home of the Sax

We spent the afternoon attempting to find the atomium, the large statue of an atom that Brussels is famous for, key word is attempt as any information you are given about it is a lie, it is not a twenty minute walk from the city center, it's not even a twenty minute metro ride, we finally saw it from afar at the end of trip after taking a forty five minute metro ride out to it before our flight. So to make the rest of our afternoon better we entered ant took every free sample from all of the chocolate shops in central Brussels. Then for dinner we went to our favorite fry shop (behind chocolate, waffles and beer, Belgium is the home of fries and does them eight hundred times better than anywhere else in the world, the key is the double frying) where I consumed a large baguette with hamburger meat, lettuce, onion, fries, and spicy sauce on it. We also befriended the workers, as Belgians are the nicest people ever and speak like four languages each, who then let us sample things for free which created a constant craving for pineapple curry sauce on fries that I will never be able to fulfill again.

Heaven in a Sandwhich

Chocolate

Sunday we took a train from Brussels to Bruges, a small quaint town on the coast. I love Bruges, I believe that these are my people. To prove it look at this, Bruges in Flemish is Brugge, making the people of Brugge - Brugge men...Bruggemann. I think I was lied to all of my life. Besides seeing half of my last name and the family nickname everywhere I went, I also loved this town for it's adorable bridges and cobblestone streets filled with colorful buildings and houses and the smell of great food from everywhere. The main square is built around a large clock tower and his home to several cute restaurants and shops, my favorite square was a two minute walk from the center and was called Berg. Berg is home to the Brugge chocolate shop, a local guy makes phenomenal hand made chocolates there and sells them for a quarter of the price as everywhere else, we gave him quite a bit of business. We then stumbled upon the Beer Wall, a really neat place with a glass wall filled with bottles and their corresponding glasses from all over. In the back you can sample various beers from the area, we tried the Halve Mann Brewery's Zot, it is the only local family brewery in Brugge. For dinner I got the local favorite, Mussels, and they did not disappoint.

That name looks familar

The Main Square

The Beer Wall

Zot on the Water

And if you think I went to Belgium and didn't get a waffle, don't worry, if we weren't eating chocolate or fries there was a waffle in my hands.