WEEK 14: Lisbon

Well, my last trip was a success.
I had been looking forward to going to Lisbon for a while but it always seemed so far out that I never really got excited for it. Well the last trip finally happened!!!! And it was an interesting one to say the least. Highlights: 

Day 1 was a disaster.

Let's just say it started with a 3:30am wake up call and a 6:30am flight. I don't know why we ever try and do that to ourselves? And food poisoning that started in the airport. We got to Lisbon at 8am and still felt sick so we decided to check into a hotel where we could sleep a little bot to try and feel better. Well we woke up at 2pm and decided to look for food and check into our hostel. We walked around a little but the weather wasn't too great so we decided to go get sangria and turn the day around so we went to Fabula's and ordered sparkling wine sangria which was amazing and sat outside. Liz still wasn't feeling great from the morning so we went back to the hostel...slept more (I know), got dinner, and eventually called it an early night. 

We became best friends with our hostel roommate.

So our hostel was awesome (s/o to Liz for booking it) and we had a 4 person room and that's where we met our roommate Jason...a 20-30 year old Chinese guy from Toronto. He was super friendly and just genuinely infatuated with Americans. He asked us everything from how much we paid for college to what cars we drove to if we were all Christian. It was so funny to see a different side of someone who knew nothing about Americans. He was traveling to another part of Portugal later that week. When we woke up on Sunday, we found a note from him saying how outgoing and friendly Americans were contrary to what he thought and that we should keep in touch because he wants to eventually work in Seattle. It was the most random/interesting encounter I've had traveling so far. 

Bring a bathing suit to the beach.

So we went to Cascais, a beach about 40 minutes outside of the city center on Saturday because we heard it was a must see. And it was beautiful. The weather was perfect and there was a little beach town with a really nice beach. Well, we came without a swim suit. I have no clue why...so we were on the beach in skinny jeans, sandals, and tshirts. Talk about feeling dumb. Thankfully the next day, Liz and I went again for a couple hours full prepared to lay out and enjoy the sun. 

Sangria and cream pastries are really the best things to get in Lisbon.

So we had sangria every day and it was really good. Even though Barcelona is known for having sangria, I never seem to order it when I'm out just because it can be really sweet but with the weather turning out so nice in Lisbon, sangria sounded amazing. The first day we had sparkling white sangria with passion fruit which was really amazing. Liz had read that Belem, a three stop train from Lisbon was known for their famous pastries called the pastel de nata. Essentially it is a cream pastry. Well right when we got there, we saw the line outside of Casa Pasteis de Belem and knew that had to be the place. I ended up waiting in line to get them and didn't even really think that I would like it. After a twenty minute wait.....t was so worth it. The little pastries were right out of the oven and the "cream" inside was essentially creme brulee and was amazingggggggg. I wanted like five more.

I'm never booking a late flight again.

Liz and I decided to book an 8:45pm flight home so that we could have the whole day in Lisbon on Sunday. We got to the airport relatively early and just hung out, got dinner and lounged for a while. After heading to our gate and waiting to board, we realized that we were delayed three hours....We went to the desk to get vouchers with money for the airport, but the line ended up being too long so we just went to a wine bar to try Vino Verde - a drink Lisbon is known for....and it was terrible. So then we got a different glass and the bartender hated us.

So now it's the last week of class and then we have finals and then I'm going to cry.

WEEK 13: Spring Breakin Part II

Fammmmm was in town!

Wow, the weekend went by so fast but being able to show them around Barcelona was really fun. I have a busy week coming up (don't I say that every week?) so I'm going to give a few highlights and pictures so I don't ramble and make this too long!

Thursday

The fam arrived around lunchtime so they set their things down in the airBnb and we went to Flax and Kale for lunch! They loved it. We then ended up walking around the Gothic Quarter, around La Boqueria, stopped at Chok for some treats, walked Las Ramblas, the outside of my school, and walked up Passeig de Gracia before heading back to our airBnB. We napped before heading to dinner at Isabella's, an Italian restaurant near the Muntaner stop. We ended up meeting the owner Isabella and I told her how much I liked the Instagram account for her restaurant and about @collegegirleats. She was super nice and the food was also amazing. After, I wanted to take my family to Dow Jones, a bar that gives prices of drinks based on what people at the time are ordering...like the stock market. They loved the place and atmosphere and obviously my dad became best friends with the bartenders by the end of the night.

Friday

After getting a little slower start to the morning due to jet lag, we finally rolled out the door around 1pm to go to Surfhouse, a bar on the beach I have mentioned before. I wanted to show my family the beach and walk around but knew it was going to be packed because of the holiday weekend and all of the tourists. We ended up waiting a little while for a table but ordered drinks and it was so nice outside so it wasn't that big of a deal because the food was amazing, again. We hung out there, walked the beach, and then went to Parc Ciutadella and hung out there before walking up to the Arc de Triomf. That night we went to Nakashita, a sushi restaurant I had heard about recently, for dinner. It was a really small restaurant so I was glad I had made reservations, but the sushi was incredible and you could see the chefs preparing it right at the bar. We had dumplings, edamame, rolls, eel nigiri, and mochi, and everything tasted so fresh and flavorful. Definitely the best sushi I have had in Barcelona. I then wanted to take my dad to Bobby Gin, a bar that specializes in gin and tonics...his favorite drink. The bar was really cool. Definitely more of an upscale bar to get specialty drinks because they were pretty expensive but the bartenders definitely knew what they were doing and the menu was unique. 

Saturday

I was so excited to take my parents to Quimet y Quimet for lunch, one of the most famous tapas restaurants in Barcelona. (Also, one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite restaurants in Barcelona.) Well, of course they were closed because of the holiday weekend. So we made a quick backup plan and decided to go to Federal Cafe, a brunch spot that I raved about a couple weeks ago. Luckily, we got a table right away and all ordered eggs that everyone loved. From there, we walked to Placa de Espanya and spent some time there as well as looking at the different Olympic venues which was actually really cool. The 1992 Olympics were considered one of the most successful Olympics ever...which I didn't know. We went to a wine tasting at 5pm at the Moritz Beer Factory in Barcelona and had such a good time. We go to have cava, white, and red wine, and the red wine was probably the best wine I have ever tasted, no joke. (I made my parents buy a bottle for me.) We were sitting next to some girls form London who were visiting and talked with them for most of the time...and my dad somehow ended up inviting them to Thanksgiving? Don't know how that happened. That night, we went to Restaurante Barceloneta, a seafood restaurant near the beach. We started with the traditional pan de tomate, a traditional Spanish tapa and all ordered fish which we loved. Andrew and I both ended up looking at the dessert menu and got the best dessert I have ever tasted. We actually licked our plates clean haha it was soooooo good. We had coconut ice cream with catalan custard which is essentially creme brulee. Yeah, it was amazing. We then went to George Paynes, the quintessential study abroad student bar to watch the first half of the Michigan State/Kentucky game. Irish bars are always a fan favorite.

Sunday

We woke up early Sunday and went to Farggi to get cappuccinos and croissants before going to church at Catedral de Barceloneta. Having mass in that church was one of the coolest experiences I've had here...even though the entire mass was in Catalan. It was packed with people visiting for the holidays and there were a lot of people out in the morning. We then went to Granja Petitbo for brunch. I had read about it on a couple of food blogs, so I wanted to try it while my family was in town and it didn't disappoint. We ordered a side of banana pancakes for the table which were really good too. After, we went to see La Sagrada Familia and then trekked up to Parc Guell to see one of the best views of the city. I then showed my parents my apartment and gave them a few things to take back with them. We ended up going to El Nacional for dinner which is a restaurant on Passeig de Gracia. Essentially, there are four restaurants within the place along with an oyster bar, meat and cheese bar, cocktail lounge, and wine and beer bar. We had drinks in the cocktail lounge before dinner and the mojito was so good. My mom also picked out some meats and cheeses for us which were really good too. Liz met us there and then we ended up eating at their fish restaurant inside called Llotja. After dinner, my dad was dying to go back to George Payne's so we went there for a little bit before calling it a night. 

Going to Lisbon this weekend with Snewt and Liz....superrr excited for some warm weather and my last trip before my program ends. That's depressing.