Obrigada Portugal

So, off it was to Portugal last weekend! What an amazing trip! There were good times, bad times, crazy, funny, scary, and bonding times. Here are a few teaser pictures before I go on with my long story:

The most AMAZING Gothic cathedral I have EVER seen!

Me at this gorgeous little castle on the river in Lisbon (yes, finally... water... rivers and the Atlantic Ocean!)

First we hopped a 6 hour bus trip that left at 6:30am... whew! We arrived at our darling hotel, Hotel Roma, and ate lunch. We took some time and visited a cathedral in Lisbon, a castle in Lisbon, and some monuments by the river. We toured around Centro Commercial and found a nice little place to enjoy some Portuguese Pizza and Vinho Verde. Ever heard of Vinho Verde? It's famous in Portugal. It's made from young little green grapes, but is a white wine. It was so tasty! That evening I went with my friends Katie and Rose to Los Dockes (the docks). Los Dockes were amazing! There were about 20 restaurant/bars/clubs on the docks by the river where all of the young beautiful people hang out. We sat down at a little karaoke joint and enjoyed some tunes and a couple of pitchers of Sangria. We had a great cab ride there and back... about 15 minutes each way for only 7 euro... good deal!

The next day we visited a few places, but further north and on the coast. One town, Cascais, was absolutely adorable. We saw Boca do Inferno (mouth of the devil in Portuguese), which is a famous natural cove off the shore, where the Atlantic Ocean is. It was great... here's a picture of what it looks like:

Afterwards we went to the beach in Cascais and enjoyed the sun for a while. Wanna know the fun part? Like most beaches in Europe, the topless option was very well followed. Me and my girls decided to follow suit and ditch the suit (don't worry... just the top!). That was an experience! We played in the water, at lunch a little place, bought some local jewelry, and finally headed back to Lisbon and our hotel.

That evening Kate and I ventured back to Los Dockes with Zach and Barton, two of our favorite guys on the trip. We had some beers and sangria, then we went our separate ways. But first, we found out that someone in the group that ate a big dinner together used a fake 50 euro bill to pay for their share of dinner!! No way, right!? The server showed it to us and it was SO fake it wasn't even passable. Well, Zach ended up shoveling over 50 euro to save the day and got money from everyone else the next day... what an adventure, especially because the four of us weren't even eating dinner with the group! After that, Kate and I joined up with a few others and we left Los Dockes for the more grungy young person scene in Lisbon, called Bairro Alto. I don't know how else to explain this except to say that young people just party and drink in the streets all night... like blocks upon blocks upon blocks of young people just partying in the streets. Here's a pic to prove it:

Note the guy right up front pounding that 40... hahahah

We got home around 3am and hit the hay before waking up again at 7am for breakfast and to check out of our hotel. We hit up a few great places on the way, my favorite is pictured here:

This is Óbidos, by far my favorite place in Portugal. It was quite, quaint, and outrageously beautiful. The whole city is surrounded by a tall castle wall and the castle within the city was also gorgeous. This little street is just barely an idea of how great this place was, but I'm glad we stopped there.

After Óbidos, we spent the next 6 hours on the bus (with no A/C and the temperature well over 100*) while we sweated greatly and tried our best to catch some z's. We finally got home around 8:30pm and I crashed to prepare for class Monday.

Speaking of class Monday, I got a B on my grammar exam! Not the best but also not the worst... I can settle for a B. Whew!

Now I'm off to plan my free weekend to some exotic place... stay tuned to find out what I decide... I'm suuuper excited!!!!! :)

PS "Obrigada" is "Thank You" (when a girl says it) in Portuguese... now you know!

catch me later :)