Well it has been a while since I have published a worth while post. I have been living out the European life and have neglected to keep my story up to date. Although I have missed out on giving full details, I think the overview will suffice.
(Sorry future, reflecting self-hopefully the old fashioned memory will fill in the blanks.)
1. PORTO, PORTUGAL
November 8th – 9th
My wild month starts with a school weekend trip to Portugal. We left bright and early Saturday morning and headed straight to the National park that is located on the border of Spain and Portugal. The river divides the park and the two countries alike. We took a river cruise and afterwards we sipped on port wine as we watched a bird show. A hawk and two owls made their debut. The hawk swarmed us, the white owl had the Harry Potter theme song upon his entrance, and the brown owl had grand eyes and an unbelievable wingspan.
It was night by the time we got settled in the hostel. Allison, Autumn, and I freshened up and went for food. We enjoyed a cheap meal and a cheap bucket of beer. We called it an early night since we ended dinner around that awkward time that is too early to go out but late enough that if you went home, you would not go back out.
The next day we enjoyed the city by daylight. We admired views of the river, went to the Sandeman wine place, and toured an old cathedral and its catacombs. The catacombs part was interesting. There was a place you could look down and see a pile of bones under the water-apparently in the 1600s there were no public graveyards so everyone got thrown under the cathedral. After all of that we explored the city, ate amazing Italian food, and went home around 6.
Overall, Porto was an amazing city and I loved the life it had. Allison said it best when she said that Portugal was a hidden gem. The artwork around the city was beautiful, the people made me happy, and best of all there was free city wifi. I also liked looking around at the Portuguese everywhere. It looks a little like Spanish, but sounds nothing like it. It is more like if German and Spanish had a child, it would be Portuguese.
2. BARCELONA & MADRID BIRTHDAY WITH MOM AND LINDA!!!
November 13th – 18th
coming soon…. I decided I need a whole blog post to describe this week in order to give it justice.
3. FRIENDSGIVING
November 27th
As a special holiday back in the states, we did a special rendition of Thanksgiving and we had Friendsgiving. The 6 of us got right to it, made a spreadsheet, bought the food, and then called our parents to figure out what the heck to do with it. It was all of our first Thanksgiving away from home and we managed to pull it off pretty damn well if I say so myself.
I hosted this celebration of giving thanks and eating until we hate ourselves. It was us 6 American girls and my roommate and her boyfriend. We managed to have everything we could ever want, turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes etc. The food was great but one of my favorite part of the evening was when we all went around and said what we were most thankful for (in Spanish of course). And as we went around I was realizing what an experience this was and how many amazing opportunities we are all having. It was nice hearing what everyone had to say and I think it brought us all closer in some way.
My other favorite part of the evening was when I was able to skype my dad and family. I got to see the faces of my loved ones and that meant a lot. I was so happy that my dad got his ipad to work and I got to say at least have a little bit of time with family on Thanksgiving.
Despite the 10 bottles of wine we went through that night, nothing was burnt down (blew a fuze once or twice) and everyone made it home safe.
4. LEON – Caves and Waterfalls
November 29th
I was signed up the moment I finished reading the word FREE. The language center put on this weekend excursion for us. I just knew there was something to do with caves. Typical Spanish event, no itinerary and no idea of what all it entails. The kept us on our toes and we not only visited caves, we saw a waterfall and dazed off into the mountain range. I loved the adventure. Leon has so many hidden beauties to it that I am so happy the language center exposed some of them to us.
5. NUTCRACKER
December 2nd
The Russian Ballet: a sophisticated night in our discombobulated lifestyle. The 6 of us dressed up, looked hot, and took our seats in Leon’s auditorium. The curtains opened, and for the next hour I had mixed emotions of love and puzzlement towards the production. The songs were familiar and some of the characters, but the story line was a little off for me. As I enjoyed the dancing and the ice skating (yes, the back half of the stage was an ice rink) I could not follow what was going on. The Russian version is very very different than the American version. There wasn’t even a Sugarpulm Fairy. Anyway, I am not going to complain about something that gave me the excuse to dress up for the night. I even wore heels that night which was my first time doing so since I have been in Europe. I don’t think I will do it again while in Spain because without a doubt, that night I was taller that every person in Leon.
Highlight of the night was afterwards when Dani needed to get a Christmas card photo. This was a total team effort to try and make this shot work. It was dark and hard to have her face visible when the background was so bright. So everyone not taking the picture used thier phone’s lights to illuminate her face.
Anyone from the outside watching this had to have thought that we are crazy. But hey, we’re American, it’s part of the definition.
6. DUBLIN, IRELAND
December 4th – 8th
I booked this when I realized that I needed to get somewhere where the people speak English, and fast. Ryanair had cheap flights and I was good to go.
I left Thursday night and had a surprisingly smooth route to the airport. It wasn’t until we were boarding that I realized I had messed up. I was bored in line reading my boarding pass when I read the small print that said “This must be stamped before getting on flight, and if not, travel will be denied.” I went from mellow yellow, to crazy lady in .5 seconds. That stamp was all the way at luggage check in, before security. As I put on a show for the people in line I ran to the front of the line and panicked to the attendant. He asked for my passport, signed off my boarding pass and let me on the plane. In another half second I was calm again. I was so relieved, I didn’t know how that happened. I thought to myself that if I were in any other country besides Spain, they would have sent my booty right back to the check in. Thank you Spanish social norms.
My time in Dublin was incredible. I was excited to travel alone and see what I would get into. I did the free walking tour and pub crawl the hostel offered. Meet a Croatian couple in my hostel room who were in Ireland looking for work. Another girl in the room was Christina who was a lot of fun. And as for the other two people I didn’t get to know them that well.
During my time there I went to the Christmas markets, shopped, got lost, and ate hummus. More importantly I did a Traditional Story telling tour, the Guinness Storehouse tour, and went on a hike from Bray to Greystones. The storytelling tour started off slow but by the end we all had beer and were singing traditional Irish songs. The Guinness tour was spectacular and it ended with a free beer at their 360 bar on the top floor. The hike was maybe my favorite thing. It was a small footpath along the cliffs. It was pretty isolated and there were not many people on the trail. It was a perfect day for the hike. Kudos to the tourist lady who informed me about the hike. I told her I wanted to get out of the city and she told me which train to take and what I needed to do.
The nightlife in Dublin is pretty amazing from what I gathered. The pub crawl consisted of everything from Live music to beer-pong, to a club. It was a jam packed night and I would do the exact one over again. The next night after the storytelling tour, Christina and I found this packed bar with a live band. These two guys played and sang to every classic rock song you could imagine. It was basically a sing-a-long night. We kept saying to each other “we’ll leave after this song,” two hours later we were still there.
Dublin was a great city. I loved the food, the beer, the accent–I can’t wait to go back.
Now that I have gotten all of that out. I hope to stay a little more up to date with my posts =)
A Semester Abroad-ening my horizons 