Adventure is out there!: A Week in Paradise

Spring break of 2012 rocked!!! I just got back from spending a week in Spain and Portugal. Our itinerary consisted of spending three days in Barcelona, two days in Lisbon, and one day traveling back. Here are a few highlights from the week:
Unfortunately, my first impression of Barcelona was kind of rough. When we arrived at the airport, we had to take a train into the city, and after stepping off the train and walking 50 feet to the stairs, my wallet was gone! Either I was pickpocketed (not surprising for Barcelona), or I somehow dropped it and it was picked up. Regardless, I was left a penniless beggar in Spain. Thankfully, I have wonderful friends who lent me money all week, and I have wonderful parents who cancelled my debit card and sent me new ID's. I was also lucky enough to have my passport safely on me, which saved me a huge hassle there. Needless to say, I wore my goofy looking money belt for the rest of the week, and despite how much of a fashion faux pas it is, it's great for preventing pick pocketing. Our next stop from the station was lunch by the hostel--but it felt close to home. Oh yes, we ate Mexican food. We nearly died when we got there and they brought us nachos with fresh guacamole, enchiladas, and tostadas. I have missed Mexican food so much since being abroad, but I got a fix for my addiction, which was everything I thought it would be and more. With full bellies and after a long night of traveling, we took us a nice siesta in the afternoon like true locals do. My friend, Jodi, has a friend who is studying abroad in Barcelona this semester, so her friend took us out on the town that night and showed us the city. There was a concert on the beach that we went to, and we had a blast! How much fun does this day sound like? The correct answer is a ton, and this was only the first day! The next morning I got up and went across the street to Paul's (my family's favorite French bakery) and brought back breakfast for everyone. An assortment of croissants, mille feuille, lemon tarts, breads, and more. Not a particularly healthy breakfast, but a delicious one. Hey, I'm on vacation, right? Our post breakfast adventures took us to the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral constructed by Gaudi. Now, since I've been in Europe, I've seen a lot of beautiful cathedrals, and they are all beautiful as well--but they're also very much the same. The Sagrada Familia cathedral was out of this world. It's the coolest cathedral I've ever seen because the lighting, space, and shapes are so different than anything I've ever seen. The outside of the cathedral almost looks like it's melting in the sun and the inside looks like a giant forest because Gaudi based his design on organic shapes found in nature. I could have spent all day there examining every inch of the place and not gotten bored, since the style changes every few feet. I am so glad we decided to venture in. Around the corner from the cathedral was the Picasso Cafe. Inside the cafe was paella. Very delicious vegetable paella. It's a very traditionally Spanish meal, and I ate way more than I should have. We window shopped around town until the evening, and that night we heard about another concert to go to. Spain has a very hopping night life, and their music is great, so we went out and enjoyed another night out with the locals at a place called Razmatazz. One of the most exciting concerts of my life. Sleeping back at the hostel concluded our night. A side note about our hostel: it was epic. For only a few euros a night, we had an apartment room all to ourselves with a kitchen and a bathroom. No more sketchy hostel stays for me. The hostel is very much a youth hostel too, and any time we went downstairs, there were tons of college students our age to talk to and hang out with. We loved the ambiance of the place. Day three in Barcelona began at a Spanish restaurant by the hostel where we got tapas, another traditional dish. Tapas are basically tons of hors d'oeuvres, and you get to pick which ones you want to eat and snack on. I got a Spanish omelette (think like a quiche), a bunch of fresh olives, and this bread with tomatoes. Very yummy meal. After lunch was the Picasso museum. I can't believe that Picasso made enough art to fill up an entire huge museum, and that's not even including all his art that's scattered around the world in other galleries. I like weird, unique art, so Picasso's stuff was right up my alley. There's a really cool fountain that they light up at night near the museum, so we stopped by there and shopped our way home down Las Ramblas, their famous shopping street. Our next adventure began in the morning with a plane ride to Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is a gorgeous city, and our hostel was right in the center of it all in Rossio plaza. Our hostel in Lisbon was great too! We had free homemade breakfasts in the morning (eggs, toast, crepes, cereal and tea), and our room was decorated in an antique chic style. Very cute. For dinner I had what is called a franchesinha, and it's a sandwich thing with toasted bread, melted cheese, an egg cooked on top, a sauce poured over the whole thing, and some meats inside. Ooh man, it was great. And cheap. We walked off our meals by exploring the city and getting intentionally lost for about 2 hours. We saw the coast, got to walk in the sand, and look at all the architecture of the city. By the time we got back to the hostel, it was fado time. Now, what's fado, you ask? Well, it's a traditional kind of singing that is extremely famous in Portugal. A local, Marco, took us out on the town to the best fado places where we met up with his Portuguese friends, and we got to live like true locals of the city. Marco took us to various music venues, and we stayed out until 5 in the morning listening to local bands play cultural music. It was a really chill environment, and after the band stopped playing, they offered if anyone wanted to play, so I sang Adele's "Someone Like You" with Marco while he played the guitar in the little club. That was one of the most epic singing moments of my life, and I'll always remember it. Based on Marco's suggestion, we went to Sintra the next day. We didn't know what to expect at all, but he said it was "the most beautiful place in Portugal." Turns out, he was correct. We took a train 40 minutes out of the city to Sintra and the Palace de Pena. It's where the kings and queens of Portugal have been living for years, and it's a giant palace set on top of a mountain. We climbed the mountain, and had the most breathtaking view of Portugal. I wouldn't be surprised if we could see Spain from up there. The palace looks like it could have been in a movie, and Cinderella could have stepped out from there with her Prince Charming. Sintra was a great find too because it's not a huge touristy destination so we kind of had the place to ourselves, and we weren't herded around like cattle. After touring around the palace we walked about 10 minutes to a 900 year old Moorish Castle. With it's stone walls, secret passageways, and stunning views, the castle was somewhere I'd definitely go back to. Once we made it back to Lisbon, we ate dinner at Santiago's in a cute eating district. I had a huge plate of fresh swordfish, potatoes, beans, and carrots for only 8 euros, and it was easily a $40 meal. And clearly God was looking out for us because 30 seconds after we left the restaurant and turned the corner, 3 gunshots were fired, and a slew of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the scene. We felt incredibly safe in Lisbon, much more so than Barcelona, but that was a potentially scary event that didn't end in disaster. Thank goodness we dodged that bullet (literally)!! We had to fly home the next day, however, and it was sad to leave because I could have spent weeks there. It's kind of cool though that I was in three countries yesterday (Spain, Portugal, and England). I don't get to say that very often. I'm so incredibly blessed to be here because I'm having the time of my life!