LISBOA

Well, I can officially say I’ve been to PORTUGAL. Never thought I’d say that! I’m starting to realize that all of my posts are about my trips and not really about my weekly endeavors here in Sevilla. After all, my blog is titled “Sevilla nos inspira” (Sevilla inspires us) and I haven’t really been proving its inspiration.

This last week flew by, having been in three different countries in seven days. It’s amazing to think I travel on average Friday to Sunday and go to class Monday through Thursday. By the time I unpack my suitcase from one trip, I have to repack for the next (hoping my house mom can squeeze in the laundry in between) and it is so thrilling. I have almost mastered the art of living out of a suitcase.

All semester, I have been waiting to get an “intercambio”, which is a Spanish native assigned by the university, as a friend to practice your Spanish with.  After waiting and waiting and not hearing anything, I decided to be more proactive about it and find one myself. Long story short, I now have three intercambios and my circle of Spanish friends is growing, and I LOVE it. Emma and I joined them for a cerveza on both Tuesday and Wednesday night and we spoke Spanish the entire time. It got so much easier to speak and we loved every minute of it. They are going to show us more cool places in Sevilla sometime this week and I can’t wait.

It’s crazy to think that this weekend was my last excursion with my program. We left Thursday for Lisbon and spent four days in beautiful Portugal. I had never thought a lot about Portugal or the Portuguese language, but it is definitely different than Spanish. 

We started Friday off with a panoramic bus tour of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and saw the mini version of the Golden Gate Bridge! I actually died seeing this bridge because it was such a great piece of home. I had no idea such a thing even existed and apparently the same company that built the Golden Gate, built the replica in the late 70’s.  

 Mini Golden Gate Bridge

 Our bus dropped us off midday at the beach for some free time to get lunch, so naturally we hit the cheapest/most authentic looking place and took it to go. We ordered kebabs, which were not what I thought they were. They were almost like pita sandwiches but they were SO GOOD. Beef, corn, lettuce, carrots and garlic sauce all tucked into a perfect little pita pocket. Oh and we got some vino too, claro.

 Kebabs and vino

 La playa

After lunch we visted “Boca de Infierno” (Hell’s Mouth) which is a massive cliff that jets off the coast of Cascais (close to Lisbon) into the Atlantic Ocean. It was absolutely incredible. It’s called Hell’s Mouth because of the jagged rocks and vicious waves that would sweep you right into death if you took one wrong move on the Cliffside. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. 

Saturday night we met the group for a “Fado Show” which is a traditional Portuguese show, comparable to the Flamenco of Spain. We tasted some fresh (and amazing) strawberries as we waited for the show, probably the biggest and best strawberries I’ve ever had.

The singers in the show had beautiful voices, but it was difficult to follow because it was all in Portuguese. After the show we broke off for dinner and enjoyed a tasty not-so-Portuguese plate of pasta, preparing for Italy this week!

As we were heading back to Sevilla earlier today, we crossed the longest bridge in Europe, 11 miles long! I have a thing for bridges, I even took a video almost the whole way across. It was pretty neat.

Longest bridge in Europe

Once again this weekend was a whirlwind of events all happening faster than I can even document. I’m sitting in my room in Sevilla multi-tasking over this post, uploading pictures from the weekend, researching places to see in Italy for this next week and oh yeah, school tomorrow. Needless to say it is muy loco but I love it. The only thing that I do not like right now is the fact that I cannot watch the KU GAME AND WE ARE IN THE ELITE 8! It’s so difficult not being in Lawrence during this exciting time, but obviously being in Spain comes in a pretty close second to places I’d want to be right now ;)

Un beso!