the last month stretch

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
–Mark Twain

WOW, it's already December! I can't believe how fast time is flying!

I had a great time in Portugal! We got there Saturday morning around 8am and walked around for a little bit, trying to find a bike tour place. But turns out that when we found it, everything was under construction and that they had completely closed down... what a sad day that was... But anyways, we walked back to our hostel (YES! Hostel) and asked for some tips on what to do. We took a train about 2o minutes outside of Lisboa to Belèm. It is home to a huge Monastery and another coastal town of the Atlantic Ocean. It also had this big Discovery Tower and carved people are into the building- to show all of the traveling/conquering Portugal had done. We were about to walk to a castle farther down the path but we hit a slight road bump. We couldn't walk any farther on the path because it was the Atlantic. So we decided to walk back and get some lunch at one of the restaurants on the coast. Later we walked through one of the parks on our way to Pasties de Belem. It has the first, original recipe of the famous Portugal Pastry! It's filled with custard and then topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. We rode back to Lisbon which is when it started to rain. We went back to the hostel for our Wine Tasting. They took us to 3 little bars in Barrio Alto and we tried some famous Portuguese Wines. We also tried a cherry Gingha in a chocolate shot cup. Later we got back to the hostel for our Hostel Dinner and met tons of people staying at our hostel.



The next morning, another full day was ahead of us. We took another train about 40 minutes outside of Lisboa to a small town called Sintra. Sintra is home to a big castle and little roads and shops everywhere. We stopped in a little park with all of these weird animal statues and took some pictures. Later we spent the whole day walking around, exploring and shopping. We also tried some authentic pastries and cafe there. We took the train back and headed to a bar for the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game and ordered a few bottles of wine. It was back and forth all game and Madrid ended up losing 1-0. We were pretty upset... :[

Monday morning, we had to get up early for our 7am flight back to Madrid. We got back to Madrid around 10am and then headed to class. It was a great weekend.

Today, we also had a little CEA event, Traditional Spanish Christmas Treats. Lots of different candies and cookies- which were all pretty different. Lots of nuts, sugars and chocolates.

In a few hours, I'll be on a plane to Amsterdam. I'll be in the Netherlands for 5 days and might be taking a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. This weekend is our long weekend for the Spanish holiday. We are off of school Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be able to get some more homework done before finals start the following week.... ugh!

Also on Tuesday is a big Madrid Parade, so I'll be checking that out as well!

I still can't believe I have a little less than a month here, even shorter for school. WOW!!!!!

Hasta Luego!