Thanksgiving in London

London Pictures are posted! Check out the link of the left or click here!

Here is a very abridged recape:
Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, my roomie Jess and I made it into a long weekend by taking off Friday and going to England! (Also was able to renew our visa, so that was good.) So London was amazing- a bit cold, but we got lucky with great clear skies and even some sun! We stayed in a really nice hostel a bit outside of central London in more residential Swiss Cottage, where we slept with 17 other travelers in bunks. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving by going to a pub and hanging out with locals, eating nachos and drinking pints. We saw the palaces, the gardens, the cathedrals and the castles. We took a ride in the London Eye - the ginormous Ferris wheel that gives you breathtaking views of the entire city. We met up with Joana my Portuguese friend who was in England visiting her boyfriend Steve, and strolled around the city, checked out one of the street markets on Portabello Street in Notting Hill, and also walked through famous Harrod's department store in awe.
My favorite part about London was the face-paced, on the go, something always going on feel. Although everything is INCREDIBLY expensive (as in a pint of beer was 6.50 USD and a subway pass was like 10!!) it was well worth it. Really if the exchange weren't so horrible it wouldn't have been so bad. Going really made me realize the laid back pace of Lisbon, especially in comparison. But again, coming back felt like coming home. Have some funny stories about coming home and lokcing ourselves out of the apt that I will update about soon and I will put up some pics on here shortly :)

What's going on?

So I haven't had a good internet connection at home in forever, and have been busy with things and not blogging. Excuses, excuses yes. So here is a min-recap of the past couple weeks.

So Italy was fantastic. I went to Milan to visit my friend Federico that I met in Buenos Aires. He and his family live in a small town about an hour and a half outside of the city up in the mountains. Simply beautifulll. For the weekend, the town had a big big party to celebrate St. Martin's day, who apparently is the patron of chestnuts and wine. The whole town, all 9000 people or so, were out in the main plaza, partying, drinking wine, eating chestnuts and other delicious cheeses, hams, etc, and having a great time. It was probably around 25-30 degrees that night, but luckily I survived with the help of Fedo's sister's ski jacket.
On Sunday we headed to Bergamo, between Fedo's town and Milan, and walked around. Bergamo probably has about 300,000 people (I totally made that up), but the main plaza and the little streets with towns of designer shops and restaurants felt very Italian to me.

That evening we went into Milan and spent the night at the apartment of some of Fedo's friends. They took me to have real Italian pizza, was was amazing with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and Basil. On Monday morning, we headed to Fedo's university so he could turn in his thesis, then did a little sightseeing before heading to the airport to catch my plane home. Some highlights include seeing the Duomo, which truly is magnificent, and strolling down Milan's equivalent of Rodeo Drive, seeing Prada, Gucci and everyone else and their 14,000 EURO purses (no joke, I nearly fell over after seeing that price tag for a seemingly normal leather bag. It made the beautiful long coat next to it- with a price of a mere 800 euros, seem like suck a steal!!!) So unsurprisingly, Italians in general dressed really well and had great style, making me feel like a big bum in my puma sneakers and corduroy jacket. like when we went out of pizza, people were showing up in these designer outfits left and right- and the men as well as the women! Even all the kids at Fedo's university were dressed like they were about to hit the run way instead of to wake up at 8 am and go turn in a paper. Makes me wonder what they wear out clubbing!

So I really had quite a lovely weekend, and hope that you will check out the pics by clicking the link on the left!

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This past weekend we spent in Lisbon, and my roommate Jessica and I walked around and enjoyed the last warm days of the season, because today, to my dismay and sorrow, we awoke to a horrible drizzly gray day. Looks like our St. Martin's summer is finally over. (One of the Portuguese employees at the embassy was telling me that when the weather continues to be warm and beautiful until November (aka St martin's day Nov 11), its called the St Martin's summer). Anyway, we saw Lisbon's botanical gardens, which are pretty, cool, had a barbecue with the Marines that guard the embassy, did some shopping, and slept in!

This week is short but looking to be pretty packed- since it's Thanksgiving, we have Thursday off and are taking Friday off as well and taking off for a new adventure: LONDON! Should be thoroughly exciting,and a very different Thanksgiving for sure. Hopefully we will have regained internet at the apartment by the time I am back so I can post and blog about it. :)

Things are going by so quickly, it's crazy! And before we know it, you all (aka the fam) will be here :) Can't wait!

A Belated Weekend Update!!

This post will give a little insight into my Portugual Roadtrip from a few weekends ago.
So over the past weekend (okay two weekends ago!!) we rented a car and saw pretty much all of Portugal. I will begin by the trip we took on Thursday, Nov 1.

It was a Portuguese holiday- Dia dos todos Santos- so we decided to take a trip down south the the Algarve region. Before coming to Portugal I had been told that the Algarve was infested by English and other European tourists for its nice warm climate, beautiful beaches, and tourist accomodation. But once getting there, I could tell why. It was simply beautiful!!

Silves, Portugal

We went to various towns along the coast, first to Silves where we saw one of the most imortant Moorish Castles, and Monchique, then further south to Lagos, Portimão, and then ate dinner in Faro, the capital and third biggest city in Portugal. The water is crystal clear, surrounded by amazing cliffs and bluffs and perfect beaches. I felt like I was almost in California ;). There are lots of tourist things to do involving the beach, and during the winter also there are many golf courses, and various shops and restaurants.

Algarve, Portugal

In Faro we ate cataplana, the typical Portuguese dish from the region which contains various shelfish, vegetables and pork. Simplyyy deliciousss! We stumbled upon this random restuarant and were quite happy after a dinner of cataplana and also this baked octupus dish- baked in olive oil and tons of garlic and parsley. We drove back late thursday night to work on Friday..

Then over the weekend we took off bright and early Saturday morning and went up North. After about an hour we got off the main highway and ventured off into the little town of Batalha, where we saw this huuuuge amazing monastery from the 13th century in which famous globalizer Henry the Navigator, and his family, are buried.

Batalha, Portugal
Coimbra, Portugal

From Batalha, we continued north on a two lane highway through the countryside to the city of Coimbra. Coimbra is known for its University, which is one of the oldest still running in Europe (third oldest I believe). After a lunch of fish, potatoes, sardines for Jessica, and more Octupus (with rice this time) for Dalmira, we hopped in the car again and went to Porto.

Arriving around 4ish, we first went to across the Rio Douro to Vila Noca de Gaia, which is its own town but houses all of Porto's famous port wine houses. Along the river they are al lined up, with people milling about in front, tons of restaurants, bars and etc. We took a tour of the Cálem wine house, where for 2 euro we got to walk around in the winery and see the huge barrels, learn some about the different ports, and of course do a tasting of a white and a tawny port. From VN de Gaia, we crossed over the Dom Luis iron bridge to the Ribeira district of Porto- along the water on the other side, it also has many tourist attracts, bars, shops, and a riverfront promenade. I really liked Porto- it had such a great atmosphere, and we spent the evening along a long pedestrial street, did some shopping, ate a little dinner, and then hopped in the car again.

Porto, Portugal

From Porto, we went about another hour or two north, crossed the border into Spain, and found our little hotel in a little village across the Vigo river from Vigo, Spain. On Sunday, one of my roommates Dalmira drove the remaining hour up to Santiago de Compostela, the site of the famous pilgramage to see St. James. (Didn't join her since I had already been to the town and the cathedral when I was in Spain a few years ago). So Jessica and I took a ferry across the river to explore Vigo, which was basically shut down. But fortunately the weather was wonderfully warm and we strolled around, drank coffee at various cafes, and had a nice tapas lunch before hoppin hte the car and coming back home.

Vigo, Spain

So... this post was long awaited I'm sure -and probably not worth the wait - but I had a great time with my roommates. Portugal really is a beautiful country and it was great to rent a car and explore. I can't wait for the family to come so we can do it again! :) And make sure you check out all of the pictures HERE

ROADTRIP! New Pictures

Haven't had much time to update or write anything worth posting, but have finally uploaded some pics. check the link on the right in Albums to see our Portugal Roadtrip! :D


View Larger Map


Will explain where we went soon, promise! But check out the interactive map to get a general idea of the country :) The route selected is not the one we took but shows how much of the country we covered. We stopped off in various towns in between and had a lovely trip :)