My Eurotrip 2012

Saturday, January 21

took bus 28 to Jardim Botanico da Ajuda. we had to walk uphill for a bit. it’s the oldest botanical garden in the country. there were a lot of peacocks around.

oh we also passed by el Palacio Nacional de Belem which is where the president of Portugal resides. i found it odd that it was a pink building.

we eventually found our way to el Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.

after lunch, we went the Discoveries Monument (Padrao dos Descobrimentos) which is on the northbank of the Tagus River. the view was amazing. i was so mesmerized by it. it was absolutely beautiful!!!!

saw the Cristo Rei (the Christ the King) statue, 25 de Abril Bridge and the Belenenses Stadium off in the distance

next we walked over to el Torre de Belem

You MUST try Pasteis de Nata if and when you go to Portugal. it’s a flaky egg pastry that you eat with cinnamon and powdered sugar. if you get one, you should definitely go to the original Pasteis de Belem. yum!

after the bus back towards the hostel, a few of us went to an Irish pub. we watched the Liverpool v. Bolton game and had some Guinness. 

a couple of us went out to dinner at a restaurant called O Fernando! i ordered bacalhau (cod) with potatoes which is a popular Portuguese dish. it was pretty good but it was super salty “/

i tried Jinja, a sour-cherry liqueur, at the hostel. it wasn’t what i expected. i wish i got to try it with chocolate though. afterwards, we went out to a Cuban bar and then called it a night.

AUREA

Yes! Hostel is on Rua de Sao Juliao and Rua de Aurea… MY NAME!!! 

how cool is that?! .. i thought it was freakin awesome

and it says pharmacy underneath it. how much more perfect can it get? :DD

Friday, January 20 (continued)

after the oceanario, we took the Metro to the Baixa-Chiado station. From there, the hostel was only a few blocks away. it was called Yes! Hostel and i recommend it to anyone who plans on going to Lisbon! :D they gave free breakfast, the rooms weren´t too bad, the staff was very friendly, there´s wifi, dinner was 8 euros which wasn´t bad at all because it was pretty good when i had it the first night, and they have a pub crawl every night!!!

we checked out MUDE (Museu do Design e da Moda) which reminded me a bit of the fashion exhibit at FIT.

saw a clock tower near MUDE

then we walked over to Praca do Comercio which had a beautiful view over the Tagus River during sunset

then we saw the Santa Justa elevator but never got the chance to ride it :(

we explored the neighborhood.

and passed through Rossio Square and Avenida da Liberdade which is like 5th ave in the city.

we had vegetable bean stew at the hostel which was really, really good! i tried a bit of the Porto red wine which was really strong. then we did the pub crawl which was a lot of fun. i´m proud to say that my first pub crawl was at lisbon! :D

Thursday, January 19 & Friday, January 20

around 11pm, we took bus #6 to the Seville bus station: Plaza de Armas

the bus to Lisbon was half an hour late but the bus driver still managed to get to Sete Rios, the bus terminal in Lisbon, an hour early! kudos! and then we all realized that there is an hour time difference between Lisbon and Seville so we got there at 5:30am!! 

we walked to the Metro station: Praca de Espanha. from there, we took the metro to Garo do Oriente. 

we stopped at a mini-cafe at the station for breakfast.

then we went over to Parque das Nacoes/ Parque Expo

and saw the flags of the nations at Expo’98

watched the sun rise over the Tagus River which was amazing

walked to the Vasco da Gama bridge which seemed like an endless bridge!

then we checked out the Vasco da Gama mall.

went to the Oceanario

for lunch, i had Bitoque which is a Portuguese dish. it’s steak with fries and an egg. it was pretty good!

Tuesday, January 17

went to el Metropol Parasol de la Encarnacion with the school. took the bus here for the first time as well.

also went to la Plaza de Espana which was absolutely beautiful. it’s currently my favorite place so far in seville. i was so mesmerized by it. i really, really loved the architecture. gosh damn, i wanna go there again soon!

Sunday, January 15

Saturday, January 14

woke up late and missed breakfast

orientation: got a Piccell phone which serves solely as an alarm clock for me because the one i bought from CVS does not work too well with me

bus tour: saw most of the places we passed by the night before

went to la Plaza de America en el Parque de Maria Luisa. it was very pretty. i had to cross through “la glorieta de las palomas” which was a mob of pigeons.

after the bus tour, we had pizza. they’re sooo tiny! i could definitely eat like 3 pies on my own. i tried one of those sour oranges which wasn’t as sour as they made it seem to be. it was pretty good! 

after lunch, we walked around the city and explored on our own. we saw lots of fountains. we somehow found our way to the center and saw the cathedral and alcazar. we found a bunch of places that reminded me of back home like mcdonalds, starbucks, dunkin, haagen daz and burger king. i’m going to save those places and eat at them for when i’m really homesick. we walked a lot. we walked through some streets where it was so narrow that we were able to touch the walls with our arms outstretched.

at night, we went out to a bar called cancun which is a few blocks down from interjoven. it was fun. i learned that chupitos = shotglasses.

i had a lot of fun this day!! it was a really good day :D

thursday, january 12 & friday, january 13

i checked in really early. i just made the cutoff too at 43lbs with 2lbs to spare! anyways, i’m an idiot and went through security like 2hrs ahead. i’m sad i missed saying goodbye to everyone who came to send us off at the airport. 

i pretty much slept through the whole plane ride to Madrid. the food wasn’t that good except for the dessert. tiramisu, yum.

the connecting flight to Sevilla was really cramped and freezing!

then we took a bus to where the dorms are which didn’t take too long.

this is where I’m staying: Albergue Juvenil de Sevilla.

I have a pretty big room which i share with two other girls. there’s a balcony also!

the first night in Sevilla we walked towards the center and explored the city.

super delayed

so i haven’t tumbled in awhile, not since i left.. i’m 12 days behind blogging so i’m going to quickly try to sum up everything that’s been going on in the past two weeks.

first, i’d like to just take a moment to let that sink in… HAS IT REALLY ONLY BEEN JUST 12 DAYS?! i feel like i’ve been here for awhile now.. oh damn

Checked-In

just checked in online to reserve my seats! AHH! tomorrow night, i’ll be on my way to fucking europe. first stop, SEVILLA! IS THIS REAL LIFE?!

…now please excuse me while i go finish packing.