Porto, Portugal!

Thursday, we left for the airport straight after class at noon and finally arrived in portugal around dinner time. The flight was really easy, only about 45 minutes and $50 US dollars, so those were two big bonuses of this trip. We were blessed with awesome weather the whole weekend, during the day it was in the mid 60s and sunny, it was perfect! Thursday night we walked about halfway down to the river and watched the sun set, and it was absolutely gorgeous! Then we got a couple drinks at an outside bar and went back to the hostal to get some rest.

The hostal we stayed in was the first real hostal we've stayed at so far! We were in a 6 person room, had a community bathroom, and two random room mates. The first night was two german girls, who were nice but a little strange. The next two nights were two italian men. We didn't really socialize with them too much, they all pretty much kept to themselves. Friday we walked down to the river, which was quite the hike, and veryyy steep. We sat outside and ate lunch (second salad I've had in europe YET.. ugh) and tried some Portuguese beers at a cute little cafe right on the river. It was a beautiful day and hard not to enjoy. We got some yummy gelato afterwards and walked around some more before going home and taking a much needed nap! We took advantage of the kitchen the hostal provided for us and cooked spicy chicken pasta for dinner! It was so good and so much cheaper than eating out.

Saturday we walked to the center of the city to shop around. I found some really unique jewelry from a local vender for a couple euros, which was cool. We saw these random carts selling what looked like some sort of sea creature to me, but turns out they were huge smoked walnuts. They didn't look that appealing but they were SO good. We tried a couple wines and then went home to cook our 2 euro pizzas that we found at the grocery store for dinner. We were lucky enough to have a huge group of Irish kids around our age also staying in the same hostal, they were in porto to study architecture for the week. They were wild, and so much fun! Friday and Saturday night we all hung out and had singalongs because like all of them could sing or play the guitar. It was so fun, they definitely made our trip that much better! Overall, we had an awesome experience. I've been so blessed with everything I've done so far and really have appreciated every moment on this trip. It's safe to say I'm having the time of my life! I can't wait to see what else is in store...

                                  pretty church accented with blue tile!

                                              such a pretty sunset!

                                           reminded me of carolina..

                                                       the river!

                       when did i become such a good photographer?

                                            overlooking the water!

                                         some of my new irish friends!!

Spontaneous trip to Salamanca!

Last weekend we pretty much just hung out in Madrid all weekend... tried to find a sushi place for dinner but the one that we had heard of was closed so we just settled for some tapas. It was my friend Chris' 21st birthday so we all went out Saturday night as a group and had so much fun! I met up with a couple girls from Charlotte who are studying in Barcelona and were in Madrid for the weekend.. It was definitely good to see a familiar face!

This past weekend we decided super last minute to book a one night trip to Salamanca, Spain! It's a little college town about 2 hours east of Madrid. We took a bus and booked the cheapest one which of course had 29236492 stops on the way there, so the way there took almost 4 hours, but I lucked out with the seat with the most leg room so I tried not to complain. We walked around for a good hour before finding our hostal, which was actually really nice! We had our own shower.. which was a good square foot in size but hey I'll take it. People are such midgets over here so I guess it makes sense. Eric's like 6'2" and when we're walking down the street, he looks like he could be casted on TLC's World's Tallest Man. Even I'm taller than most Spaniards, it's pretty funny. So we checked in and put our bags in our rooms so that we could go explore! We found a tapas bar for food and had probably some of the best tapas I've had in Spain yet. I got one that was a piece of bread toasted with cheese, tomato, and ham on it! It was so yummy, kinda tasted like a Spanish version of bruschetta! And then I also had 2 cafe con leches. Man, those things keep me going over here. I'm not sure what I would do without them! We went back to the hostal later on, got ready, and then back out for the night! Eric got in a dance off at the club "cubic" we went to and it was hilarious. He's standing there getting spun around and showed up by this other guy and then out of nowhere Eric does a backhandspring... in the bar. It was hilarious and really unexpected, I didn't know he was such a gymnast! But yeah, needless to say, I think he won the competition.

Sunday we explored some more.. visited the Cathedral, plaza mayor.. and the building with the "frog" on it. It's like a town legend that says if you can find the sculpted frog on this building of intricate detail and design then you will have good luck! I was the last one to find it, of course... and had a couple hints so maybe I won't be so lucky, but I guess better than nothing. It was pretty cool though, that is one of the things that Salamanca is most known for throughout Spain! The bus ride back was only 2.5 hours so that was nice! We came home, showered, ate, and passed out. We leave for Porto, Portugal this thursday after class so just gotta make it through the next 3 days and then we're off on another adventure! :)

                                               charlotte girls!

                                           driving into Salamanca!

                                           Plaza Mayor in Salamanca

                                              beautiful at night!

                                               my favorite picture!

                                                the cathedral!

Chocolate and waffles and beer... oh my!

Brussels was phenomenal, everything about it. It's officially my new favorite city in the world! We flew ryanair and both flights went very smooth! except for they stole my tasty 5 euro belgian style peanut butter on the way back, apparently its liquids AND creams. ugh. Me and Eric decided to go a day earlier than the rest because we finished class earlier and could make the thursday flight so we were there around dinner, walking around like hobos with bookbags on and no place to stay. We ended up finding a hotel that after suddenly having 3 different "promotions" ended up being a pretty good deal. The receptionist was a lovely french woman and SO nice. Thats one of the main things we all loved about Belgium, the people were all so friendly! And loved hearing we were from America. We found a random restaurant and indulged in a delicious meal. Man have I missed good food. Then we were off to bed!

Friday we saw so much! After a delicious french breakfast at our hotel, we met up with the rest of the group! (4 more people) We met these random people who worked for the US embassy and they took us to the manneken pis, which is the famous statue of a little boy peeing. We got some waffles along the way and they were literally amazing. Then we were off to the Grand Palace and took tons of pictures of all the beautiful enormous buildings gilded in gold! They were incredible. It's hard to believe places like this really exist. We looked around the lace shops (got you a souvy mom) and hung out there a while before walking to the Royal Palace... which was absolutely huge and so beautiful! After walking probably 10 miles around Brussels, we checked into our hotel and stopped at this local sandwich place thats been open for 20 years! The old man working there was just precious, he was so friendly and so helpful and even gave us a little piece of chocolate after our incredible sammies. Talk about a man knowing the way to my heart... Then we stopped at bar to try some beers! The girls tried a delicious cherry flavored beer famous in Belgium that was so yummy! And then a belgian blonde and then one that was almost black! Most of their beers there average about 8% alcohol each, its crazy! That night we had yet another amazing meal and met a local who took us to this cool techno club, "club you." It was insane, belgians sure to know how to party!

Saturday we just walked around and dedicated the day to good food. The food in Brussels is unreal. I feel way over spoiled after only being there for a weekend! I ate two more waffles, tried some belgian french fries, lotsss of chocolate, and then my actual meals were incredible, ofcourse. Its safe to say i would be morbidly obese if I ever lived here. We were sad to leave early sunday morning. Our trip could not have gone any better, we were blessed with an awesome safe weekend in my new favorite place!

                                           a little piece of home!

                                        manneken pis.. chocolate version

                                          manneken pis with friends!

                                           sooo much chocolate!

                      in the grand palace! holding my dad's beer glass haha

                                           beautiful lace shops!

                                        trying some Belgian beers!

                                    potential business idea daddy??

                                   cherry beer! so fruity and delicious!

           one of my favorites! chicken curry with gargonzola, zuccini, and a lot more!

off to the capital of europe!

I've been swamped with school work this week but in less than 24 hours we'll be leaving for Brussels!! I couldn't be more excited. Good beer, chocolate, and more importantly waffles... I'm not sure there's anything else I could want. I'm definitely excited to get away for the weekend and visit somewhere new! I'll be sure to upload an update with lots of pics when I get back Sunday! Hoping everything with the flight goes smoothly and the airline doesn't try to pull a fast one on me. Hope everyone has a good weekend!