I am officially home now, so I need to actually finish my story. Just fyi, The last week and a half was full of homework. Not that I had really been procrastinating. I had been reading book and doing other activities for my class, but the end was full of all the write-ups. Not too exciting. So, here we go!

Wednesday June 5 we had a tour of significant African parts of the city. It was pretty interesting to learn about how Portugal had brought in slaves and how they slowly worked to become free. We ended up in a very Africany part of the city. My roommate and I went to an African restaurant for lunch, and it was soooo good. We had this peanut stew stuff on rice. It was pretty cheap, and the restaurant was just full of Africans, so it seems legit. Then we went on a walk for one of our classes. I guess that day it was some sort of holiday or festival because the streets were all decorated with banners and people were cooking food. One place there was a choir and a band and people were dancing. It was a great way to see the culture.

Thursday we went to a fado dinner at night. Fado houses open at like 8pm, and the music starts at 9pm. So you could spend a lot of time. This place was a lot fancier that the other place we went to for fado. The singers were still amazingly good. I think it incredible that the guitarists can just know any song in any king and play at the request of the singer.

Friday we went and helped clean the new Lisbon temple!!! The stake center and temple are almost finished, so we went through and wiped some things down. The temple isn’t furnished yet, but everything about it so beautiful still. I was so glad to help and see such a beautiful and exciting place.

Saturday we took a day trip to some nearby cities. We first went to the Convento de Cristo in Tomar. It is huge and beautiful. The inside is very simple we small elegant decorations. There are huge pillars going up the aisle. And the windows are stained glass made up of very vibrant colors. I loved it. Then we had a quick lunch and went to a museum that was about a major battle in Portuguese history called Battle of Algubarrota. It was between the Portuguese and the Castilians. The Castilians had 31,000 troops, and the Portuguese had 6,600 troops. But the Portuguese used the terrain so well that they ended up winning. The museum was on those grounds. It was so cool to see where it all happened and learn about the strategies. Then we visited the Mosteiro de Alcobaça, which was also very cool.

Sunday we went to church. It was uplifting. When we got home we had lunch and then a Come Follow Me discussion. Then some of us went to a very old cemetery nearby which was full of hundreds and hundreds of mausoleums. It was gorgeous and very interesting.

Monday we went to the aquarium for Family Home Evening. It was very cool because it was all surrounding this major tank in the middle that was gigantic and full of tons of different fish. Also the otters. Then we went to the Neill and David Marriott’s apartment (they’re serving the YSA in Lisbon) for a mini devotional. They just talked about their lives and answered some questions. It had a great spirit, and it was nice because it was so intimate.

Tuesday we went to a cool museum that was in an old prison from the dictatorship. It talked about the prisoners’ lives, the effects of the war, and how they gained their freedom. It was very interesting. In the evening we all went over to the Nielsons’ for their son Eli’s birthday party. He turned six, so we all went to celebrate.

Wednesday we did laundry and went to the Berardo Museum. It is a modern art museum. I followed Natalie (our professor) around a little, and it was so great to hear her explaining some of the paintings. Some of it started to make sense. When some paintings look so simple, it could be focusing more on texture or how the paint overlaps and interacts with itself. Still, there were a lot of things that I struggled to understand.

Thursday was a lot of homework. All I remember is homework and Indian food for dinner.

Friday I finished up some revisions and finally turned in all of my assignments. Yay! Then I went out with some people to walk around the downtown one more time. A few of us went into this old museum of a church that had been mostly burned down, probably as a result of the major earthquake in 1755. The actual museum had 3 mummies, so that was pretty cool. After more shopping, walking, and sitting by the river, we went to a restaurant for our farewell dinner. It was sad seeing everyone together for the last time, but I was also getting excited to go home. Then I got home late and worked on packing.

Saturday I went home. It was an amazing trip. It was so sad watching all the white and red buildings go out of sight. I’ll miss it. It was a life-changing experience for sure.

So Monday and Tuesday were basically full of homework and hanging out. However, the rest of the week was spent traveling through the north of Portugal (Coimbra, Porto, Braga, Guimarães, Coímbriga).

Wednesday we got on a bus and went to Coimbra. Coimbra has a very old university (Universidade de Coimbra) which was established in 1290. However it only moved to Coimbra in 1537. It’s one of the oldest continuously functioning universities in the world. One of the most interesting things about this university was that it inspired Harry Potter. The students’ official uniforms have big black cloaks, so they look Hogwartsy. Then we went to Porto and stayed in a hostel sorta place. It was a pretty social place, but we never really participated in anything.

The next day we had a tour of Porto. We saw a huge train station that had azuleijo (painted ceramic tiles) all of the walls. We also visited the Sé Cathedral, which is like 900 years old and a mix of a lot of different past styles (Gothic, baroque, etc.). Also, we saw the Majestic Café where J. K. Rowling wrote most of the first Harry Potter book. Also, we went into a beautiful book store full of beautiful wood work. It also had a major influence on the Harry Potter books (it has a section celebrating Harry Potter in the back). We also visited the fanciest McDonald’s ever. It was huge and had chandeliers and painted glass windows. So fancy. Then we went to visit a modern art museum, which as usual was pretty interest. Thankfully it was a guided tour so the guide was able to explain some things. Then we went to a music museum, which was actually a building that was designed to have a concert hall with amazing architecture and sound quality. That was cool to learn about how the building interacted with sound. Then we went to get dinner. We all got this traditional meal called francesinha. It is basically a grilled sirloin, sausage something sandwich wrapped in cheese with a tomatoey sauce. It was alright. Very unhealthy. Then we walked along the river which was amazing. It was dark, but it is surround by bright lights and a big bridge that is lighted up. There are musicians performing everywhere and a lot of little restaurants.

Friday, we drove first to Braga where we first visited the sanctuary Bom Jesus de Braga. It sits at the top of a hill, and there are hundreds of stairs going up, and part of it they just go back and forth and back and forth in mini switch-backs. We were told that some pilgrims will kneel on each step while going up. The sanctuary has a ton of Christian symbolism. For example, at the bottom of the stairs there are a lot of Old Testament prophets depicted in statues, but at the top it’s the twelve apostles, showing like how each prophet lead to the coming of Christ. After that visit, we went had lunch and then visited a small Roman ruin site. It was some old thermal bathes, so we learned about how they worked. Then we went to a church/museum called the Sé de Braga. The museum had a ton of really cool artifacts. One of them was an old cross that Álvares Cabral (guy who discovered Brazil) used in his first sermon in Brazil. Rex (our teacher) was very excited about that. Then we left for Guimarães. We spent the night there.

The next morning we went to see the Palace of the Dukes of Braganza and a castle by it. The rooms in the palaces each explained the importance of each of the rooms. Then we went to a museum in the center of town. It had a lot of religious artifacts.Then we had an awesome lunch and left for Conimbriga. Conimbriga is awesome. It’s super small, but it has a HUGE Roman ruin site. The sad part is that the guy guesses that only 20% of the ruins have been uncovered, but still there’s so much. It has huge houses, a bath house, and a good part of a wall. A lot of the tiling in the rooms is still intact, and you can see where fountains were. It was fascinating to learn how the rooms functioned. The Romans were geniuses. That was an amazing part of this trip. Then we finally arrived in Lisbon.

Sunday was chill. We went to a museum called the Gulbenkian. It was a super rich guy’s private collection. It was amazing. There were a lot of ancient Egyptian pieces; some from like 4000 years ago. A lot of ceramic, tapesteries, statues. A lot of very famous painters like 3 Monet pieces and 2 Rembrant pieces. There was one that everyone swore looked just like me. Is that good? It was interesting to understand the stories from each piece and try to see how history and culture influenced it.

Monday was awesome. For family home evening we went to the zoo. I am a child. We first went to a dolphin show. Okay, so I have never been to one, but Rex said it was the best one he had ever seen. Dolphins are sooooooo smart. They were so synchronized and trusting. They would jump over each other or the trainers. Sometimes the trainers would get into the water and the dolphin would push the trainer’s foot so that she went flying through the water. But it wasn’t random. Like it was sometimes swirling down or across. And a couple times two trainers with their two dolphins pushing them along went into the bottom of the pool, and the trainers grabbed each others’ arms and legs and spun around for awhile. I was amazed. Then we had a picnic and looked at the animals. It was pretty big. I loved the rhinos. They are so dopey. There were some baby lions. SO CUTE! There were a lot of animal.

Today we had a cooking class where we learned to make a few traditional Portuguese pastries. They use a lot of egg yolks. We were told that this was because nuns used to use egg whites to whiten clothes or something like that, so they had a lot of yolks left over. So interesting. Everything turned out really well though! Go us! Now more exciting things to come!

So, last, last Thursday (5/16/19) we arrived in the island Faial and immediately started a tour. The island is composed of a TON of volcanoes. In the past 100 years they’ve had a major volcanic eruption and a major earthquake. A whole part of the island is covered in volcanic ash. And also, a whole part of the island appeared like less sometime in the past 60 years I believe. Pretty crazy.

Friday morning we took a ferry over to a nearby island called Pico. That island has the highest point in all of Portugal, and that point is a huge, active volcano. So we had a bus tour and basically drove all the way around it. Pico is known for its vineyards. The vineyards are pretty different though. To protect the vines from the ocean winds, they built maze-like short walls to protect the plants, and those walls are made from black volcanic rock, obviously. Our tour guide said that if you took all of those walls on the island and put them back to back, it would go around the world twice. Like who’s got time to do all that. Then we drove to our hotel, but when the bus dropped us off, we couldn’t see a hotel. It was just all white buildings. Turned out we were sleeping in a convent that was made into a hotel. So we got in and needed food. This area seemed like it was just full of little white red-roofed houses, no commercial stuff. But we walked along the ocean awhile and finally came to a restaurant. We had bread with butter there, and I’m telling you, something was up with that butter because it was amazing. Very fresh. Then we came back. After staying in that convent I was pretty excited to get back. They didn’t give us any towels, 6 beds to a room, weird beds, terrible wifi. I mean, I appreciate the people and everyone there, but the moderness of Lisbon started sounding pretty good.

So good old Saturday morning we got on a flight from Pico to Lisbon and went home. What a beautiful feeling to get back to a wonderfully clean room full of freshly made beds and freshly washed towels. Yay. We washed clothes and bought groceries. So exciting.

Sunday. Best day. Yay.

Monday was also chill. In the afternoon I did a walk around town for my class. I went to an old church and a museum next to it. The museum was said to have a thorn from the “crown” that Jesus wore when He was crucified. Unfortunately, the thorn was out for cleaning. Hmmmm… We had FHE. We did African dancing. Everyone was wearing jeans, and it turned out to be like an African zumba. Then we got AWESOME gelato at this place called Niva. There’s like 3 locations. I think I was told that the other two are in Italy. You know, whatever. I got chocolate (obviously) and salted caramel.

Tuesday… Class. We talked a lot about how fado (a traditional Portuguese music) came from so many different cultures that were living in Brazil like Africans and gypsies. My roommate and I went to a tapioca place that was called Ohlinda. Which is cool because I served in Olinda. I know what’s up. We went to a tile museum. Portugal is known for its painted, ceramic tiles that are used on walls and buildings. It is beautiful. So they had tiles from all different time periods. It was really cool. Then we got to paint our own ceramic tile. Mine looked pretty bad. Other people’s though were great! Good for them. Very talent.

Wednesday we went on a two-day trip because why not. We went to Évora which is about an hour and a half bus ride away from Lisbon. On the way we passed the Almendres Comlech, which is (according to Wikipedia [gotta site your sources]) a “megalithic complex”. Basically, it a bunch of rounded rocks stuck in the earth from 6000-4000 BC. Think Stonehendge. Also, that area was filled with cork trees. Cork is a MAJOR product there. The bark of each tree is harvested every 9 years, then it goes through a long process of preparing it to be actually used. When we actually got to Évora we got some lunch and then started a walking tour. We saw an old aquaduct, a cool church, an ancient Roman temple, and the Chapel of Bones. The Chapel of Bones was cool (and…. required a lot of pondering) because its walls and columns are lined with human skulls and other bones. They are from men, women, and children of all social classes, representing that we all end up there no matter who we are or where we come from. Then we went back and checked into our hotel. There was a pool there, so we swam around until it was about dinner time. We ate at this really nice restaurant that served typical dishes from that region. And it was like a course meal, oh so fancy. Meat, creamed spinach, french fries, bread with cheese… Nothing about it was too crazy, but the desserts weren’t my first choice. There were three small portions on the plate. One was basically made from eggs and sugar, one from pumpkin, eggs, and sugar, and the other from milk, eggs, and sugar. Or something like that.

THURSDAY! Thursday wasn’t actually like insanely exciting. We also had a traditional course meal that day. It was kinda similar to the other one. We had bread with cheese, a cilantro kinda fish soup on break, fresh potato chips, meat, salad, and some weird stuffing-like things but it was kinda sour… Similar desserts to the night before. Then we went to the city Monsaraz. It is a super cute walled city that sits on top of a hill. All the building are white with ceramic red roofs. All the cars have to park outside of the city, so it was very still and quiet inside. So peaceful. Then we had a long bus ride back and hung out.

Friday I worked on homework. I have to read a few books for my independent study class, and the one I’m reading now is Memorial do Convento by José Saramago. It was pretty ambitious for me to read that book. Please pray for me. So I read that in the morning. Then in the afternoon/evening we went on a walk for my class and got Asian food.

Saturday was miraculously a free day. Very rare. So we went to a beach called Cascais. It is about an hour train ride away, so it’s kinda a commitment. The beach was really nice, very soft sand. It was hot, but not terribly hot. But the water was icy cold. Still, we played frisbee and volleyball in it. Sandcastle. Laying out. Then some of us left early, got shawarma. Then we all went to go see the new Aladdin movie, which I liked but a lot of others didn’t. Then obviously the metro was broken on the way back, so we had to get a taxi.

Today was Sunday. Good church. We had a YSA class, which was basically BYU students. We talked about being an example by living the For Strength of Youth principles. Then we came home. Ate. Practiced a choir song we’re going to sing at church before we leave. Then since today was some sort of special day here, all gardens were open for free. So we walked around a garden. Now I am home. Ate more food. Pray that I will get a good chunk of that book read tomorrow.

Wow, as time goes along, I’m doing this less and less. It’s kinda like writing in a journal. Haha. Anyways, I will bring ya’ll up to speed about the past week.

So, last Thursday (the 9th I believe), we went to a nearby part of Lisbon called Belém (at least I think it still counts as Lisbon there…) and went to see this huge monastery called Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, which is basically just an extremely elaborate church place that kinda was made close to the river to show all the other people the awesomeness of Portugal back in the day. It has a couple of tombs for Luís de Camões (a famous Portuguese poet) and Francisco da Gama (the first European to reach India by sea). Then we bummed around at some shops and went to the Coach Museum. It is literally a floor filled with tons of old carriages. Some were for the good old common folk, but others were for royalty and nobility, so they were extremely gold and elaborate. Super cool. Then me and a few other girls went on a walk for one of our classes. We follow a book which tells us where to go and what to look at. Before going, we stopped to get food. My roommate and I split “Steak on a Rock”. It is literally a huge chunk of raw steak on top of an insanely hot rock. So you cut and sear your steak. It’s really fun. And then we did the walk. Saw cool monuments and a chicken made of tile.

Friday we took a day trip to a few near-by cities. We went to Óbidos, which is a walled city. Like, it’s a legit city with a massive stone wall around it. Super cool. We only stayed there for like an hour because we had to take the bus to another city called Mafra. There we ate our lunch (which was super fancy). They gave us all the utensils, and I had to figure out which knife was for the butter and which for the soup, etc. The struggle. But we had this rice kinda stew with shrimp and prawns. And we had this roast/potato/vegetable dish with it. Along with like soup and bread and a few other little fried thingies. And olives. They provide olives with a lot of meals here. Then we got desserts. I wanted the chocolate mousse (obviously), but they were out of it, so I got this pumpkin jelly, pudding, cookie sort of trifle thing. Then after all that fanciness, we went to the Palace of Mafra. And that thing is huge. Like Palace of Versailles place. But without many tourists. It has like over 800 rooms, 6 organs, a ton of little outside courtyards, etc. Also, there were some random owls, which I got to pet a small one. They were really soft. Anyways, so we got to tour parts of the palace. It was extremely fancy. Our tour guide talked about sleeping arrangements, toilet procedures, the history of the royal family there, etc. And that was only like a summer/hunting home for them. Pretty neat. Then we went to a nearby beach and bummed around there for awhile. Put my feet in for awhile. Then went home.

Good old Saturday I went to a kinda closish beach in the morning. It was fun. A little chilly. We made an awesome sand castle and messed around in the water a little. The waves weren’t crazy or anything. Then we ran home to take showers and go to the opera. Oh so fancy. It was The Thieving Magpie. However, it was the orchestra and singing with minimal acting. Still it was really good. I think there were quite a few Italian singers, which was fun. Then we finished and got food (which is always a blast once we finally figure out where to eat).

Sunday! Oh so chill. Church. Food. Come Follow Me discussion. Food. Studying stuff. Food. Watching the devotional from last week. Food. Sleep.

Monday. Awesome day. Amazing. We got up at like 3:45 am to take a plane to the Azores for our vacation within a vacation. I mean, I know I keep raving about about mainland Portugal, but the Azores is something else entirely. Many describe it as a mix between Hawaii and Ireland. It is so beautiful. I mean, it’s an island right, so you always see the ocean (unless you’re in a valley with a huge lake or in a gigantic garden. Whatever. So Monday we all got picked up in Jeeps (amazing start already), and started going up into the mountains. Let me tell ya, Portugal lives off of tourism, agricultural…… and COWS! There are cows everywhere in those amazingly green hills. They are completely free range just doing what they want. Bless their hearts. So that means cow products are amazing here. Anyways, we went up to this amazing pond/lake surround by trees with pink flowering bushes. I mean, it was beautiful. Then we went to some outlook places. It’s amazing. Beautiful green. Tons of lakes within like valley everywhere. And on the top of the mountain you can see everything. Then we went down to a big lake that we had been looking over, ate dinner, and went kayaking on the lake. Then we went up the mountains again and went to some more lookouts. Each was breathtaking. Then we got back into our Jeeps and kept going up and up and up the mountains. The roads were sometimes super bumpy and steep, so if we hadn’t been in Jeeps I would have been scared out of my mind. But we survived. Then we slept, thank goodness.

Tuesday we got right back into the Jeeps and went to the tallest mountain in São Miguel (the name of the island we’re on right now). Then we went to a tea plantation. It’s one of two on the island, and those are the only tea plantations in Europe. They offered us free samples, but none of us took them up on it. Surprise. Then we went to this thermal sulfur area of the island (because the place is a volcano), and they showed us how they put pots of food into the hot ground to slowly cook them. It’s full of meat and vegetables. Then we went to a restaurant to eat that. It was really good. Then we had pineapple for dessert. It was unreal. I mean, in Brazil I thought I had tasted some really good pineapple, but that was above and beyond. They have a different type of pineapple here (called ánanas) which is smaller and sweeter. Then we went to some thermal pools. They are surround by a huge and amazing botanical garden. So all of us wandered through the garden then changed and went to the pools. The main one is orange from a ton of iron. It was so hot. After awhile I couldn’t handle it anymore. But it was super nice. Now that swimsuit is kinda orange. There were a couple other smaller, hotter, non-orange pools then I stepped into. Then we changed and left. We stopped by a bakery which we ate some queijadas at (some sweet dessert made with some cheese or something). Then we came back. Some of us went to this sushi restaurant right off of the dock. It was amazing. Surprisingly amazing. I guess from all the fresh fish. But it wasn’t that expensive either. So good. The rolls were pretty simple, but all the ingredients were awesome. So that’s enough obsessing. Then that was about it.

Now, finally today was pretty amazing also. It was a free day. Some of us walked around a looked at nearby shops. Then we went to the beach. When we first drove up it didn’t look like much. It was all dark looking. Then as we started to walk on it, we figured out it was black sand. And that sand, other than really cool looking, was so soft. It was a little chilly, but so fun. The water was cold, but the waves were awesome. There was kelp everywhere. And there was almost nobody at that beach. Ugh. The Azores are awesome. Then we crossed the street to this strip of restaurants. I love restaurants here sometimes, because a lot look very unimpressive from the outside, but really their food is fancy. So a few of us went to one place to get some beef because (obviously), all the beef comes from the island. Then the server was like, you should try the regional beef option, it’s very popular. So it’s in Portuguese, but underneath it’s in English. So I looked at the Portuguese name and prices. The full piece was 18 euros (about $20), and the half was 12 euros (a little over $13). Then I look at the English name. Filet Mignon. So I obviously ordered the half. The classic plate is the meat with some sort of sauce, a ton of french fries, and a fried egg. Dude, when it came out, I was amazed. It was probably like a 9 oz piece of filet mignon. For like $13. And it was so good. I can never eat steak again. I did not need any sauce or anything. That was so flavorful and tender. Come to the Azores just for that. I mean, can you believe that. $13. Ugh, so good. Then we went home and showered (so much black sand). Then some of us went to these lava tunnels. It’s underground tunnels which were made by lava going through the earth. Then we went to a pineapple plantation. It was so cool to see all the pineapple plants and read about how they are grown. Then we all got pineapple, pineapple cake, pineapple juice (which tastes nothing at all like the can), and pineapple icecream. Ugh that icecream. I mean, the pineapple was great. The cream was obviously local. The amount of amazing food that I have had in the past couple days is amazing. Then we came home. My roommate and I got a couple salads from a nearby restaurant. Then we came home and relaxed a bit because of the long past few day.

Wow, I so recommend the Azores. Please, please, please visit them. It’s perfect here. And tomorrow we’re going to visit a different island. Then a different island the next day. What is life anyways?

Monday was a very relaxed day. It seemed like a pday on my mission. I studied, went to the grocery store, had FHE. Super chill.

Tuesday… I went to class and studied. THEN, we went to a palace. I mean, you know, I’ve been to a few palaces already, but this one is super cool. The family still lives there, and it’s one of the few structures still standing after a major earthquake in the 1700s. It’s called the Palácio Fronteira, and the gardens are spectacular. The hedges are very… boxy with roses by them. There are several fountains in the middle of it. Then there is a beautiful wall that has all the busts of the past Portuguese kings, and underneath them is a painting of the nobility (which upheld the kings). So we spent quite a bit of time out there, and then we went to a concert inside the palace. I mean, how fancy does it get? So it was like a chamber concert with three sections. First there was a solo violinist that played for awhile. Then we had a “light supper” with soup, little sandwiches, pasteis de nata, caprese little stick things, ect. It was all great. Then we had a concert with a solo singer and a guitarist. Then a break. And finally a small string group. The last part was the best. All of the instrumentalists were amazing and had studied all over. It was such a privilege to experience that in such a historical place with such talented performers and in such a small room. Then we had to get all the way home. It was tiring.

Today (Wednesday) was also awesome. The morning was just struggling to actually do my homework. Then we went to visit the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, which is an old monastery built in that used to sit on the edge of the River Tejo to impress people when came sailing up. It got a lot of gothic/baroque style going on. Extremely intricate designs. Like who has the energy to do that. Then we got some famous pasteis de nata (a pastery that like a small pie with a VERY flaky crust and a custard in the middle. Then we went to the Coach Museum. It has a TON of old coaches that kings, queens, nobility people used. It was very interesting. Then me and a few other girls were going to go a this book-guided walk that we had to do for class. In the middle of it we stopped for dinner. My roommate and I split steak on a rock. It’s weird sounding, I know. Literally all it is is an extremely hot rock with a thick piece of raw steak thrown on top. Then it cooks on the rock. You have to keep turning it. Then you cut off bits and lay it down on the rock to cook. It’s awesome. Then we continued with our walk. It was kinda rainy, but not too bad. We saw some awesome monuments and walked along the river for awhile. There were so many amazing things that I saw, but I don’t have the energy to talk about them because it’s like past midnight. Gotta be responsible I guess.

Another PSA, I will never read these over. Sorry if they don’t make sense.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a nearby city called Sintra. It is beautiful. Amazing. It is a very lush paradisey place. So first we went to the Pena Palace. Doesn’t that just sound fancy? It is on top of this huge hill, so obviously we had to hike for an hour to get up it. It wasn’t too hot, and most of the hike was pretty shady. Still, we all got super sweaty. Then we got up to the palace. It used to be a summer home for the Portuguese royal family. We were able to walk through it all see how everything was laid out. A lot of the original furniture was still there. And since it was on top of that hill it had awesome views. After a ton of walking around and pictures, we descended and started towards lunch. We got it at this buffet place. It was good. Then we headed over to the Quinta da Regaleira. This is a “fairy tale garden terrain” according to my roommate. It is like this 11 acre land that has winding paths, gardens, some underground tunnels, a palace, a little chapel, a fountain, and so many turret things that you can climb up. Pretty cool. We just explored for hours. There were so many places to explore. We kinda got lost. We did not see everything that there was to see. Highly recommend. Then we went and got gelato and looked at some souvenir stuff. Portugal is know for its cork (apparently, seems kinda random to me). So I bought this little cork wallet. Yup. Then we started heading home. I was sooooo tired. We had been walking around so much. We took the train back, and there were no seats, so we had to stand for 45 more minutes. Joy. I was destroyed. Therefore, today was chill demais. So, we went to a cute little branch. Then I came home. We had a little Come Follow Me session. Then I laid on my bed. Then we ate dinner together. Then I laid on my bed some more. Then we went to Mass (obviously, who doesn’t on a Sunday). Then I laid on my bed some more. I love my bed. Now I am mentally and physically prepared for the week! Yay life.

Well to start, yesterday was incredibly long. So, we had to make this treck out to the Castelo de São Jorge. Well, we got a bus that took us up to it. Other people weren’t as smart (or as lazy really) as I was and took the metro. They had to basically climb a mountain. Whatever. Anyways, the road was extremely windy, narrow, and kinda steepish, so it was pretty exciting. That castle is sooooo cool. It’s super high up so it has a great view. And it looks like a legit castle. It stones and has the whole like castley block up, block down on top of the towery things. Does that even make sense? So we had an hour lecture kinda out of the way of the tourist about Portugal history, Roman influence, and the history of the castle. It was kinda funny that at the end there were a couple of maybe Americans that were standing behind us kinda listening. Good old history. Then we got to explore and take pictures. We could walk up on top of the castle walls. Super cool. After the castle we decided to do this walk thing. For one of my classes, we have to do seven walks. They are all guided by this book, and it takes us through like 20-something stops. So this specific walk started at the castle. It did not start well because we spent like 20 minutes just looking for stop 2. They get kinda hard because sometimes the directions are ambiguous or the streets don’t show names. So we got lost quite a few times. And we were trying to find this restaurant that no longer existed. Good times. FINALLLLY, we finished that walk. We were literally doing it for 4 hours (minus the 30 minute lunch). It was supposed to only be 3 km. Whatever. Then we had no time to go home or freshen up because we had a lecture in less than an hour. So we found a metro stop thing and went to the place we needed to be. We had a lecture about fado, which is a Portuguese music. The lady was interesting, but everyone was so tired that you could tell everyone was struggling to keep their eyes open. It would have been funnier if I wasn’t included. Then after that 2 hour lecture we had to get up and go to fado. So how fado works, you go to a restaurant and eat food. Then a singer enters, the lights go down, and everyone stops eating to listen. Fado has usually two different guitars and one singer. The voice is nasally, chest voice, and quite a bit of vibrato. It might take some getting used to, but now I really like it. Then the lights come back on, and you eat some more. Then more singing, more eating, etc. So cool. So in the end, we got back after 11. It was a super long day.

However today was so chill. I worked on my independent study class in the morning (kinda). Then we all went to the Museu de Arte Antiga (Ancient Art Museum), which was super cool. They had a bunch of things from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. It took a long time to go through it all. Then we came back and got groceries and our laundry (we had given it to a lady to wash, kinda by accident. Long story. Oh well. It smells really good now). Then all that was left was eating, studying, and a little bit of Netflix. Awesome times.

Yesterday we had our first class. It was fine. Then we went to this museum that took us through the history of Lisbon. Right after that, we took the metro to the mall here. It is huge!!! It has three floors and a lot of American stores. We got some food at the food court (the people judged me for getting certain toppings on my pasta, geez), then we went to this super cheap store called Primark. I got a beach towel. I know, so exciting.

Today was pretty crazy. It was a holiday also. I spent all morning laying around the dorms, but then we left to go on a bike tour. Now, let me tell you, I have not ridden a bike in a long time. It was kinda embarrassing. I got better at the end, but man. Anyways, we rode around some historic parts of the city and stopped ocassionally to learn about different venues. It was pretty crowded, and we had to cross a lot of streets. Kinda scary. But finally we got close to the River Tejo and were able to just bike along the edge. This river goes out into the ocean, so we could see the ocean from far away. It was very relaxing. We saw a bridge that was made by the same guy that made the Golden Gate bridge. So I guess that was cool. It took a few hours to get to the end of our trip, but it was because we took so many stops. Still, I believe that it was about 5 miles. Yay, go us. The tour guide at the end said we had a really nice group. She said we had a “good energy”. I guess we were different than most tourists. So that was nice to hear. Then Dr Nielson was like, okay bye guys. And we were in Belém, we is kinda far from where we live. So, we split up in smaller groups and went to find food (biking takes it out of a person). We went to a fish place that our tour guide pointed out to us. Me and my roommate Sarah split an entree. It was pretty good, granted we did get one of the cheaper items on the menu. Also, side note. Here they come out and place some different appetizers on the table, but if you eat them you´re charged. So be careful. Anyways, then we left and got gelato. We saw a few other people from our group there. Then we decided to go home (it was pretty cold and breezy at that time). We took like 15 minutes trying to figure out which bus to get onto to get to the metro. We crossed the street several times. Finally, we caught a bus that would pass by the metro. We were so indecisive about where to get off, but we did at this huge Praça de Comércio, which is right off the river and used to be a palace or something. It turned out that they were celebrated the holiday and projected like a little video thing on the buildings around us. It was pretty cool. So we stared at that for like 5 mintues (by this time it was almost 9). Then we went down to the metro, and there was a delay, which made us wait awhile. Since we had to wait so long, we ended up running into a couple other people from our group. As we got out of the metro to go to a different one, my roommate Sarah didn’t get off in time. It was pretty funny. So we just waited for her to get one back. It’s kinda crazy because some people have data here, but most just don’t have a working phone. We have a group chat for everyone here, and people are always posting like, who has Emma, and is everyone accounted for. It’s pretty funny. Anyways, we finally took the last metro home. Literally, every minute seems full of adventure.

I have not looked at this, don’t judge me for grammatical errors.

After hours of sleepless flying and waiting, I finally arrived in Lisbon this morning. Me and two other girls took a taxi to the dorm that we are going to be staying in. Then, upon discovering that we would have to wait five hours to enter our rooms, we left and roamed the city for over an hour. Everything was amazing, and I was able to connect much of the architecture and cultural of Portugal with Brazil. However, I must say that Lisbon is cleaner and more organized than the Brazilian cities that I lived in. We returned early to our dorms, and they let us in early. For the rest of the day, I ate, met people, walked around the city, and took a short nap (that I could not stop). I have already gotten to know so many good people and see so many amazing sites. I’m so excited to start building upon these experiences.

So, it’s late on Thursday night. Swore I was going to go to bed earlier. But I have now started this blog. Honestly, I don’t have much experience with this, so if it’s stupid, I apologize. I just wanted to write a quick post before things get crazier. I have to completely pack up my stuff tomorrow so that I can fly out super early on Saturday. Then the fun begins. Oh gloria.