We got back from the group trip at 7:15, literally threw a week's worth of clothes into a backpack, and were in a taxi on our way to the airport by 7:45. Madness.
We boarded a couple hours later for the 2.5 hour flight to Portugal. We arrived in Porto at 11:15pm (12:15 Maastricht time, 5:15 Dallas time, 7:15 Mendoza time-I think that covers everyone reading this) and got tickets for the Metro, following our somewhat vague directions to our hostel.
Waiting on the Metro at the airport in Porto
It wasn't until we got off the Metro that I realized how clueless we were. Cue Angel #1. We found a girl (who spoke English!) not much older than us walking through the apartment complex we had wound up by who told us exactly how to get to the street of our hostel. I think we would've wandered forever without her.
We reached the square and walked all the way around it before finally finding the door to our hostel. We were soaked and cold and exhausted, and we weren't entirely sure they'd let us in past midnight (this was at 12:45am). Cue angels #2 and 3. The sweet couple that owned the hostel let us in and got us settled in our cozy (read: tiny) rooms.
By this point, I was just so proud to have found the hostel and relieved to not be sleeping on a park bench. We put on dry clothes- my Toms will probably fall completely apart before making it back to the States.
Luzia, the owner, was so sweet, she drove us to a nearby bar to get food since we hadn't really eaten since lunch in France. We got back and crashed after planning a couple activities for the next day.
We got to sleep in a little on Tuesday morning and enjoyed a free breakfast of yet more bread at our hostel. We got ready for the day then Luzia pointed us on our way for the best sights to see.
Jacob took charge with the map, thank goodness, since my flawless sense of direction would've led us straight to the bottom of the river. We paid €2 to climb the famous tower overlooking Porto, stopped in the most beautiful bookstore (but no pictures allowed), and headed down to have lunch by the river.
Downtown Porto
The view from the top of Clerigos Tower
Livraria Lello (Bookstore)
Clerigos Tower
Dom Luis Bridge
Map at our hostel showing where former guests are from- there was already a pin on Waco!
The boardwalk along the river is what made this the favorite city so far. It was so peaceful and calm, and the sun was out so we finally got to enjoy some beautiful, 70 degree weather. After lunch we crossed the Dom Luis Bridge to the winery side of the city. There are different buildings along the river, and the ones with huge letters on top are all wineries. We only had time for one, but it was delicious- the best we've had in Europe for sure.
Porto had started out as just the city we had to fly into to get to Portugal, but it was more beautiful than we had expected, and I would go back just to visit Luzia again and sit by the river. I've now jumped in on Abby's dream of owning a hostel someday. The idea of getting to host kids and meet so many interesting people and live in a foreign place sounds amazing. Someday.
We arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday evening and made our way to our hostel based on screenshots of Google maps directions taken earlier- resourceful and effective! Again, I was so proud to have made it there without getting lost.
However, upon arriving at the hostel things fell apart. One of the guys with us, James, hadn't booked a hostel, so the first crisis was finding somewhere for him to sleep. Luckily the one we were staying in had a sister hostel just a couple blocks away, so that took care of that. Next up, Erin, another girl with us, realized she had ended up with her roommate's passport instead of her own. Luckily she had a copy of hers, but since we had to fly back to Maastricht later in the week, Haley (her roommate) had to have a passport. That crisis went on for a while. To be continued.
We checked into our rooms and got settled before finally going to dinner at a local-frequented restaurant. I had the first red meat I'd seen in Europe, which was delicious. We walked back to the hostels and booked our Madrid hostel before Erin and James went to bed. Taylor, Jacob, and I walked around a little and sat at a close by bar to talk. We had a little misdirection getting back since the way we'd come was gated off, so that was an adventure, but we made it back in one piece eventually.
This hostel experience was slightly less enjoyable due to the drunk, puking British girls I had the pleasure of sharing a bathroom with, but the beds were warm and there were pancakes (!) for breakfast Wednesday morning so we survived.
On Wednesday we made our way out to Sintra for the day via trains and buses. We hiked (literally, basically at a 90 degree angle) up to the Pena National Palace which gave incredible views from the top towers.
We rode the bus back into town to find some lunch and ended up getting some bread and cheese at a tiny grocery store. It was the cheapest meal we've found and one of the best! We took our sandwiches up the next bus to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of the continent. It had taken a while to get up there, but it was so worth it. This is what we got to see while eating lunch:
Photo credit: Taylor Brock
Crisis #2 averted.
We grabbed some groceries to take on the train for dinner then took a short Metro ride to the train station. We found our line without any trouble and met up with some other people from our group to wait. I stopped off at the ticket office to get a passport stamp before we boarded the train.
We met the most interesting man on the train. He was a soldier from Brazil, spoke about 4 different languages, and had a huge supply of stories. That kept us entertained for the first couple of hours then T and I at least conked out while the rest of the group tried to sleep.
Not the most comfortable 10 hours of my life, but we made it to Madrid a little earlier than scheduled. We grabbed a taxi and found our hostel. All by 9:30am. Great, except we couldn't check in until 2, so we had 4.5 hours to kill.
We booked some bull fight tickets and set out to find some breakfast. After breakfast we walked around to find the Royal Palace and got a nice student discount there. Sic em. There was a man outside making these HUGE bubbles, just as interesting as the palace (Europe's largest, I believe) itself.
Pictures to come, courtesy of my faithful photographer and editor...
We finished there and walked through the city to make it back to our hostel and get our key. I LOVE Madrid. Walking through it feels like Manhattan, and I just loved the city vibe it gave.
Our hostel was super nice, and we ended up sharing a room with another guy from Texas! He was a Tech student studying abroad in Seville for a month, but had gotten a head start in Madrid.
We all took a much-needed shower and an even more necessary nap after a night of little to no sleep on the train. We figured out the metro (we're getting to be experts at this point) and made it to the bull fighting arena.
The bull fight had been my grandpa's suggestion, and I'm certainly glad we followed through. It was so cool to see how into it they get. It's a huge part of the culture in Spain, and I just wish we'd known a little more about what was going on, but it was an incredible experience.
Las Ventas Arena
Photo Credit: Taylor Brock
Photo Credit: Taylor Brock
To congratulate matadors on a job well done, people throw tokens of their admiration down from the stands. One man got really into it and threw a chicken for the matador to catch.
We went back to our hostel to get a dinner suggestion then ended up at a place called Mercado de San Anton. It was mostly tapas, but since we had snacked through the bull fight it was enough. The 7-story club we planned to go to, the Kapitol, didn't open till 12, so after dinner we just waited. We shouldn't have waited so long, though, because by the time we tried our directions, failed, asked the front desk, and started the new route, it was too late and the metro was closing. It wasn't the most exciting night, but we had to be up super early the next morning anyway for our train to Barcelona.
We left the hostel at 6:40 and found a different train station than the one we had come into-another of my proudest accomplishments. We were standing there waiting to find out our platform and I looked over to see one of my Tri Delt sisters, Amanda, standing in the middle of the train station! Such a small world.
We found our train, got on, and slept for 3 hours. All my pride went completely out the window when it took us an hour to find our hostel from the train station. I probably should've done a little more in depth research on that front. Oh well.
Eventually we found it and got checked in to meet 2 of our friends, Maddie and Brennan, for the rest of the trip. We were starving, so we grabbed lunch on La Rambla and started our guided tour of Barcelona, courtesy of Maddie's guide book. We visited Sagrada Familia, the Columbus statue and nearby dock, and another Gaudi-style building downtown before stopping for a nice break at Park Guell. It was a gorgeous day, finally, so we just enjoyed being outside, but were more than happy to take a taxi home instead of making the trek back.
Pictures to come, courtesy of my faithful photographer and editor...
We all took a much longer nap than anticipated before going out to dinner at 11:00 and a club on La Rambla after. We were all exhausted by the time we got to bed at 3:45.
So much so that we ignored all alarms Saturday morning and slept until almost 11. Oops. We got ready, stopped off at the grocery store for some lunch foods, and hit the beach. It was a perfect day, so relaxing and beautiful sunshine. The boys came back early, but the rest of us enjoyed napping and just talking on the beach for the entire afternoon. We remained fully clothed, though others did not quite share the same courtesy. God bless America, that's all I have to say.
Our unintentional-albeit genius-snack for the afternoon
We came back to wash off the entire beach of sand that followed us home, and got ready for our last meal on La Rambla. I had some overpriced calamari, we shared our last sangria, then went back to the hostel to pack to return home the next day.
This morning came much too early, and after a perfect day on the beach none of us were ready to go home to start classes. We left the hostel in shifts, some at 5:15 and us at 6:30, to get to the airport for our flight to Brussels.
We got to the WRONG airport in plenty of time. Sweet. We frantically found a cab to take us to the correct one, 50 minutes away. €200 later, we arrived at the right airport 20 minutes before our flight left. A little line hopping despite a few language barriers got us checked in and to our gate on time, praise Jesus. Hopefully this expensive mistake has taught us to check more closely in the future...
By some miracle we landed in Brussels and took a bus to the train station, where we found our train to Liége easily. That train was an hour and a half, then another 30 minutes to Maastricht. A bus ride and a short walk finally brought us back to the dorm.
My biggest weakness so far is being so involved with how to get from one place to the next that I don't enjoy the places I'm seeing. The beach was perfect because someone else figured out how to get us there and all I had to do was lay out. I'm glad I've realized that in this first week so that future trips can be more relaxed.
So, as the count stands now for countries stayed in for a night we're at:
1. Maastricht, the Netherlands
2. Rothenburg, Germany
3. Lindau, Germany
4. Montreaux, Switzerland
5. Freiburg, Germany
6. Porto, Portugal
7. Lisbon, Portugal
8. Madrid, Spain
9. Barcelona, Spain
...and today marks just 2 weeks here so far.
Because our "planned" adventures are over, it feels like it's ended, but really this list is just beginning. Everybody's plans are already in the works for next weekend, and I'm sure after this first week of class I'll be even more ready to take off for the next place!
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