These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: Lisbon, Portugal Edition

Okay you guys, Lisbon, Portugal was dreamier than I ever could have imagined. I had very high expectations for this country and it soared high above what I had in mind. Maybe it was the non-stop sunshine? The healthy dose of vitamin D and warm weather? Buildings of every color of the rainbow with terra cotta rooftops and terraces for days?

Or maybe it was the very reasonably priced glasses of wine and jugs of sangria? The friendly (and might I add beautiful) Portugese people? The savory seafood paella? Stunning views from every corner of the city? An impressive 12th century castle…

OR ALL OF THE ABOVE AND THEN SOME!?

One post about Lisbon will not be enough, but I’ll do my best to capture what I can for you here before I get distracted. I’m currently typing on a desktop computer in my cozy Madrid hostel. Pardon any typos! The Spanish characters on the keyboard are throwing me off. Anyways … you might see more about Portugal from me in the future. (I might be documenting this European adventure for months or years after I arrive back in MN. Who knows!)

I’ve been using the website Culture Trip to help me find local, insider tips for the cities I’m visiting. I like having a fresh take on what the city has to offer from real people, not just whatever Google pulls up. Culture Trip writer Nina Santos explains Lisbon perfectly. I included an excerpt from one of her many articles below:

Portugal’s capital is a picturesque city full of beautiful streets, cosy venues, cultural finds and wallet-friendly restaurants. In Lisbon, history blends with modernity and a centuries-old landmark may sit side by side with a hip hotel. Each street has a story to tell and each corner may reveal a different secret, but these are the coolest neighbourhoods to visit when in Lisbon. – Nina Santos for Culture Trip

So now that I’ve given you a semi-helpful introduction, lets move onto looking at photos! I took so many pictures every day that I’m having a very hard time narrowing down a few to share here. So, here goes nothing. Enjoy!

The oldest working bookshop in Lisbon that opened in the 1700s. (Take that, Barnes & Noble!)

The city center has all yellow buildings. Eeeee!

The sunset view from my hostel.

Seafood paella and sangria. Very adventurous!

Okay the rest of my images aren’t loading thanks to the poor wifi and I’m getting hungry. Stay tuned for another post someday when I´m not traveling and can actually focus. YAY!

The castle in Portugal will get its own post — and so will the Palace of Versaille and the Royal Palace of Madrid. When you’re obsessed with royalty and their living quarters like I am, you take 100999 photos and absorb all the interesting facts like a sponge. I was practically drooling touring the grand rooms of the Queen and King today at the Royal Palace of Madrid. But you know me, dramatic as always. Thanks for reading! TTYL.

48 Hours in Belgium

A couple weeks ago I spent 48 hours in Belgium. I LOVED IT. What an awesome country. I spent one night in Brugge and the other night in Brussels. Everyone I met was so friendly!

In Brugge, I felt as though I stepped back into time. The town is so incredibly old – not “Boston old” by American standards – but really, really old. Centuries upon centuries old. Of course I’m already forgetting all of the things the locals and my boat tour guide told me, but the city is incredibly old. That’s all you need to know. I think I’ve made my point.

Walking through the city you’ll find an endless maze of cobblestone streets that are lined with gorgeous brick buildings. Many of the store fronts feature a selection of tapestries, chocolates, waffles, Christmas decor and so on. Belgium is known for beer, chocolate, waffles and chocolate – and yes I had all four during my stay. Brugge has a big square in the heart of town that’s surrounded by incredibly ornate buildings on all four sides. The churches and the town hall also showcased exceptionally ornate details. If you love Medieval and Gothic architecture, then Brugge is for you! I enjoyed walking through the streets and looking at the canals and old buildings. The sounds of concertinas and horse-drawn carriages echoed through the streets. It reminded me SO much of my Grandpa growing up who’d always play the concertina for us kids. Its a very calm and pleasant place with a wonderful atmosphere.

Did I mention how I found a cat cafe?!? It was called Puss & Books. I had a lovely cup of tea in the company of these cats. I hope they get adopted soon!

I also went to the Basilica of the Holy blood where they have a piece of cloth with Christ’s blood on it. I got an up close look. It was a very moving and powerful experience. A Belgium merchant brought the cloth back from Italy during the Crusades centuries ago.

I lit a candle for my parents and brother here.

A priest is sitting with the cloth of Holy Blood.

Brussels is a much bigger and more lively city then Brugge. You’ll also find incredible architecture here – especially at the square in the heart of town! I couldn’t believe how giant the buildings were and the great detail that was put into designing each one. It’s truly breathtaking. I have no idea how long I stood in the square in awe. It helped that my hostel was around the corner (seriously!) so I could spend more time there. Brussels is a city that’s bustling with life. You’ll find restaurants of every cuisine and little shops everywhere. Some are chain stores and some are mom and pop shops. It was nearly impossibly to choose somewhere to eat. What if you want it all!? Everywhere you turn you can feel the pulse and vibrancy of city life. I loved it. I felt as though I was a part of something greater.

This father and son duo was incredible! I stayed for three songs.

My hostel in the best location I could have asked for.

 

The view of the square from my hostel.

This very old Catholic Church has roots from the 9th century.

I woke up extremely early my last morning in Belgium. So, I decided to walk around Brussels before everyone else woke up.

I took a million photos but some of them start to look the same after a while. I think the ones in this post best represent Belgium. Brussels and Brugge have two totally different vibes but I loved them both for different reasons. I’m glad I got to take a weekend trip by train over there, even it was only for 48 hours. 🙂

Bonjour from France!

Bonjour! It’s hard to believe that ​I’ve been living in Europe for a whole month now. I hate the overuse of cheesy phrases but time is truly flying by! Also, how did I get so behind on my blog?? You poor souls haven’t had a proper update in two weeks. My apologies!

I’m enjoying my work as an English teaching assistant. Every day is different for me. I usually walk 25-30ish minutes to or from school – sometimes both – for exercise. So far I’ve given a presentation about myself to new classes and I’ve also helped teach lessons about Halloween. I’m grateful that I’m only an assistant. Teaching students is a very challenging job and I highly respect this profession. I recognize that I have an incredible amount to learn when it comes to classroom management, lesson planning and so on. I don’t want anyone to think I’ve jumped right into teaching!! I’m just helping out where I can. 🙂

My host family is awesome! They are hilarious and make me feel right at home. I play Uno and The Game of Life board game with the kids at night. I love board games. Growing up, I was always a control freak (still am?) and never let my brother Justin be the banker. Now, this is a good experience for me to let the kids be the banker haha. Our house is about an hour outside of Paris. I’ve gone into Paris about 5-6 times now on weekends or when I have a weekday off. So far, my favorite parts of Paris are the Palace of Versailles and the Montmartre neighborhood.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here and I’m loving it. It’s only dipped down to 50 degrees once. Other than that it’s stayed between 60-75-ish degrees. It was 80 when I was in Belgium the other weekend! I was sweating lugging by bags around but I’ll take a super warm fall over a traditional cold / rainy fall. I should say, everyone here uses Celsius instead of Fahrenheit so sometimes I have a mini heart-attack when people at school say “It’s going to be 26 degrees this weekend!” They mean its going to be very warm whereas in my head I’m thinking its going to be freezing.

Other differences that have taken some getting used to, besides how people tell the temperature, is that everything is in military time. When I say “4 pm” or “9 pm” I get blank stares. So, I’m getting used to understanding military time – which is great since my class schedule, plane tickets and train tickets are all in military time. Another difference is that when I say, “Oh, it was about a mile walk!” I also create confusion. Everyone uses meters or kilometers here. So I get confused when someone gives me directions and they use meters haha 🙂 I just keep walking until I find what I’m looking for.

The most significant difference is that everyone is speaking French. Thankfully some menus have English captions – which helps me greatly! By listening to French I’m not sure that I’m picking up on it very quickly… but when I read something in French I’m better at figuring out what’s going on. Maybe because some words are similar to English and others are similar to Spanish? Who knows! I like the challenge of not being able to read and understand everything. Its forced me to be patient with myself and trust my instincts. The Google Translate app on my phone has helped me out a lot. I highly recommend downloading that app if you’re traveling to a different country that isn’t your native tongue.

Well, I’m off to Portugal today so I’ll update you when I can. I hope you’re having a lovely Monday! Thanks for reading.

Exploring “Old Town” on the Greek Island of Rhodes

Okay so I spent six days, nearly a week, in the Greek islands and it was absolutely incredible. I’ve been putting off writing this post because I feel that whatever I jot down here won’t do the real place justice. Does that make sense? How do I put to words what the warm salty air smelled like? How do I explain how the bugs chirped at night (and they weren’t crickets!)? And how do I explain the color of the hot pink flowers everywhere? Magenta is the closet color I can think of but even that sounds a bit intense. See, it’s hard to explain but I’ll give it my best shot. 🙂

I was completely exhausted my first day on the island as I stayed up the entire night to catch my shuttle / flight out of London. Note to self: DO NOT BOOK A 6AM FLIGHT EVER AGAIN. I decided to drop off my bags at my charming Airbnb and go grab lunch. My driver recommended a place around the corner and I’m so glad he did! It was unbelievable. The owner working was so kind and friendly – and he gave me a complimentary stuffed mushroom and a dessert. I went back again that week! I had sautéed shrimp (super fresh – this ain’t Sam’s club shrimp!), bread, a fresh Greek salad with tomatoes, feta cheese, cucumbers and onions with a Greek beer too. What a delight and I even went home with leftovers! I sat there with the patio to myself and light breeze. It was one of those moments and meals I’ll always look back on and remember with a smile on my face. The fresh food here is the kind of Mediterranean/Greek restaurants try to recreate how many thousands of miles away. Oh, and when I was paying my check, a neighborhood cat jumped on my lap! See, I was meant to visit Greece. If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.

That afternoon and night I slept really hard so the next day I could hit the ground running. I explored the area of Old Town before most of the tourists were out and about. This gave me a chance to take great photos of the area before those schmucks from the cruise ships got dumped off. LOL But all jokes aside, Old Town is amazing!! There’s an endless maze of cafes, shops, restaurants and so on inside the walls of a grand medieval castle. YES ITS TRUE! So you see this castle and think, “Oh cool! A castle.” And then you walk inside and the alleyways and paths are endless. I spent hours here and didn’t see it all. You’ll find all kinds shops and even tourist shops with mass-produced stuff overflowing the shelf’s and racks. Some touristy stuff is garbage like cheap magnets with chipped painting or can coolies that say “IT’S BEER O’CLOCK” and whatnot. However, some stuff was really cool! I loved looking at all the olive oil products, wine, breads, ceramic bowls and glassware. There’s once again something for everyone!

I truly felt like I traveled back in time. This castle was built in the 1300-1500s. So incredible! The island was ruled by the Romans for a long time and then the Italians before WWII so you’ll find lots of Italian influences in the architecture and the food. In addition to traditional Greek restaurants, I saw many Italian pizza, pasta and gelato restaurants. Another fun fact about the island?? There are cats everywhere! Honestly they’re all over the place. Most were strays and scared of me but some tame ones let me pet them. Bless their little hearts. One morning I spent an hour talking to this Greek grandpa at a cafe. I was able to understand his broken English for the most part. He was so sweet! His son owned the cafe we were sitting at and he used to be sailor and saw Duluth many years ago when his ship came in on Lake Superior. So cool!

I think I took roughly 200 photos a day in Greece so here are some more:

Last Day in London

Hi there! Sorry for the radio silence. The last week has been an absolute whirlwind! My last full day in London was wonderful – even with the on-again-off-again rain showers. It wouldn’t be a true UK experience without a few sprinkles. I started my day with breakfast at darling cafe around the corner. I ordered eggs Benedict and an Americano coffee. The hollandaise sauce wasn’t as buttery or creamy as what I’m used to in the U.S., but it was still delicious!

Then I took the Tube over to the Picadilly Circus area where I wandered around for a bit. I spent some time dodging rain by darting in and out of stores. There were so many shops! I decided last minute that I wanted to see a musical so I grabbed a list from a ticket stand. WHAT A LIST. Minneapolis usually has 1-2 musicals at a time… here in London the options were endless. I felt spoiled rotten! I wanted to see everything, obviously, but I could only choose one. 🙂

I decided to catch the matinee showing of “CHICAGO: The Musical” and boy was I impressed. I read that Cuba Gooding Jr. was starring in it, but that wasn’t the case for my show. That’s totally okay! I was still absolutely blown away. They had a live jazz band that was absolutely incredible. I would have paid good money just to see them play! The costumes were mesmerizing and the choreography was electric. Also the voices of the actors and actresses was unbelievable – they were so talented! I loved all the harmonies. Since I bought a solo ticket just 30 minutes before the curtains closed, I was in the 10th row at center stage. Couldn’t ask for better seats. WHAT A GREAT SHOW!!! I’m not normally the spontaneous type, especially when it comes to spending money, but I’m so happy I treated myself.

On that day I got a kick out of walking around Hamley’s Toy Shop. This place was a kid’s dream! I loved seeing all of the happy kids and all of their smiling faces. This toy store would put even the grouchiest person in a good mood. Of course I had to browse the Disney, board game and the Barbie sections – I’m still a kid at heart, after all. There really is something for everyone here. This four-floor store had giant displays of Harry Potter, Star Wars, Barbie, Legos and so on. I didn’t spend a ton of time there but I’m glad I stopped in. People always say that kids these days don’t even play with toys – RIP Toys R Us – but I can tell you that kids DO love toys. At least they did at this store!

For dinner I stopped into a French restaurant near my hostel. It was delicious! Why not gear up for my 10 weeks in France, right?! I ordered a glass of wine, a salmon appetizer and some French fries. A pretty random meal but I liked it. I didn’t want anything too heavy or rich so this was perfect for me. Okay, I know fries can be rich but I was craving them so bad! I don’t remember what the cheese/dip was in the center of the salmon but I hope we meet again someday. I remember it had dill but I’m not sure what else.

Then that night I packed up my bags and stayed up all night (not kidding) to catch my flight to Greece. So that’s a wrap! I’m going to do a separate post about my hostel later so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading!