Prevailing in Portugal
I finally ventured outside of Spain !!
Ever since I decided to go abroad, I knew I wanted to see as many countries as possible in the four short months I spent in Europe. As soon as I heard that my friends Cynthia and Emily had signed up for a half marathon in Lisbon, I knew I had to participate.
I expected this to be a normal, relaxing trip to another country where I would visit sites and have fun and although most of my trip was that way there were still some not so good times .
Most of those bad times revolved around the trip. Aka the nine hour bus ride we voluntarily signed up for to go from Salamanca to Lisbon. On this bus ride we made frequent stops and had to change buses three times. I’m sure you can imagine the frustration and exhaustion we felt after arriving in Lisbon at nine in the evening. Not to mention that some mean ladies also told us to shut up, obnoxious people had moved their seats completely back, so that they were almost lying on our knees. and to top it off, our cab driver got a bit lost getting us to our Airbnb increasing the cost for all of us as he drove aimlessly. Needless to say, we didn’t have a lot of energy to do anything but eat and sleep for the rest of the night.
On Saturday we spent the day touring the main town. Honestly, I liked it so much (maybe even a little more than I like Spain). The whole city felt cozy and small, much less “big city” than I expected. There was also a very artistic atmosphere; there were murals and colors everywhere along the road. And there’s always the added bonus of being so close to the ocean (I missed that salty breeze).
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Side note: my 48 hours or so in Portugal also made me realize that Portuguese is much more different from Spanish than I thought. Even though some words are very similar, the accent makes it almost impossible to determine what someone is trying to say to you.
After getting some much needed food from a cafe, we then headed to Saint Jorge Castle. I can’t even express how beautiful this place was. The castle is basically on a giant hill that overlooks the whole city so I’m sure you can imagine the view was amazing. The photos I took don’t even do it justice. I could have sat there forever looking at the city. I actually haven’t had one to find out about the history of the castle like why it’s there and who Saint Jorge is, but I think I should definitely research this now.
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After the castle, we went to the new section of Lisbon for dessert. We went to this pastry shop which probably had all kinds of candy you can imagine. Cynthia and Sophia got a few things from there, but Emily, Anthony and I naturally went for McDonald’s Mcflurrys (lol, we suck I know).
Sunday was half marathon day, so while Cynthia, Emily and Anthony got up early to go for a run, Sophia and I slept and then went to the area he was standing in later that day. Lucky for us the race was located very close to a mall where I did some much-needed but very unnecessary shopping (I had the cutest things though and I’m so excited about it). After the race was over, we had to rush to the airport to head back to Spain (we actually didn’t get to Salamanca until 11pm that night, again you can imagine the exhaustion).
Having so little time to explore an entire city (and a country) is quite difficult to manage, but I think we made the most of what we could. To be honest my biggest disappointment from my trip was the fact that they never even stamped my passport * insert annoyed face here *.
Overall I loved Portugal and sincerely hope I have the chance to return and see it more in depth.
Much love from Spain,
Julie
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