Two weekends in a row of international traveling and one more coming up! Man, studying abroad is a rough life 😉
First weekend: Lisbon, Portugal
First off, Portuguese is nothing like Spanish. As soon as I stepped foot in Portugal, I had no clue what anyone was saying to me. We landed in Lisbon Friday night and had our first mini adventure finding our AirBnB. The directions said it was unreachable by car, so we ended up going from cafe to cafe, asking locals and getting Wifi to try to get a better idea of where we were. Finally, after walking up an obscure alley way about as wide as I am, we found it! Next step: food. We were all starving at this point, but quickly realized that restaurants in Portugal didn’t stay open as late as those in Spain do. However, we were able to find this cute little place that served traditional Portuguese pregos (steak sandwiches).
Since we only had one full day in Lisbon, the next day was all about hitting the tourist destinations. In the morning we happened upon an open air market where locals sold all sorts of knick knacks along both sides of the street. We then made our way to the Belém Tower, a medieval defensive tower by the ocean.
After soaking up the view over some lunch, we heading back to the center of town to see the Jerónimos Monastery (left) and the Praça do Comércio (right).
Things I loved about Lisbon: the random old ladies who tried to help you even though you had no idea what they were saying, how colorful all of the buildings were, and of course, the food.
That night we visited the main plaza of town and did a little more walking around, then caught the metro the next morning to the airport. After having to buy a new flight (remind me to NEVER fly TAPPortugal again) and a six hour bus ride, I was finally back in Oviedo!
Second Weekend: Tangier, Morocco
Friday morning I was off once again! This time to Morocco to visit my good friend Caleb who is currently studying abroad there to learn Arabic. While we were close enough that we could still see the tip of Spain across the water, Morocco was nothing like Spain.
Caleb met us at the airport and we all piled into a taxi to go to our hotel. We dropped our bags and headed to the streets to get some food. I can’t even tell you what I ate because I am not exactly sure, but it was all very authentic and very delicious. Caleb then took us around on a little tour of the city. We stopped by the Grand Hotel Villa de France to see the view from the top. The same view that the French painter Henri Matisse features in one of his famous paintings from his stay in Tangier.
The next day we wandered around the Medina, the old walled city within Tangier. All of the unique streets and Muslim architecture were incredible.
Everyday I was provided with a new insight into the Muslim culture. Walking along the streets you could hear the vendors trying to persuade you to enter their shops. The locals wore traditional garb with pointed hoods. Every morning we were woken up by the 5am call to prayer from the mosque next door. All bits and pieces of a life I had never known much about.
I must have experienced a bit too much of the culture because the next day I was a little sick from a chicken shawarma…. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing cards. Although at times I didn’t think I was going to make it, after a rough day of traveling I was back in Spain, happy to see my familiar bed.