Brave Goes Abroad: Week 14.0: Loving on Lisbon

BIG NEWS THIS WEEK: Momma Stallard will be done with radiation treatments tomorrow! If you're friends with her on Facebook, have her email, or phone number... give her a shout. She's not one to draw attention to herself but I say this is a huge step in the direction of healthy, cancer-free Katie. #BeBrave #KatieDidIt

I can't do this past weekend justice without being unladylike for a moment. My trip to Portugal began as a disaster and by disaster I mean that Tori and I both had food poisoning at 5 am in the Barcelona - El Prat airport. As if a 6 am flight wasn't bad enough, huh? Well throw food poisoning in the mix and yeah, disaster becomes the appropriate term. Also, at this ungodly hour, the airport seemed to be packed so many people were graced by the sight of me making a run for the nearest trash. However, nothing compares to the spectacle I made while boarding our flight to Lisbon. At the most important moment of the morning, I just could not keep it down. I was doing so well! Handed over my passport and boarding pass like a big girl and oh, oh, there it came...

Thanks to Tori and Sarah for letting me be a big baby about feeling sick. Tori, too, was feeling our meal from the night before and she handled it like a true champ. Me? Not so much.

When the three of us arrived in Lisbon, the only thing on our minds was sadly getting in bed. Unfortunately, our hostel wasn't ready to receive us until two in the afternoon so yes, we went in on a cheap hotel room to give our bodies a break. Five hours later, we woke up feeling only semi-refreshed and laughed hysterically on the phone with Sarah's mom as we explained how weird and awful our day had been thus far. After that, we decided it was time to check out of our gross and thankfully temporary hotel room to get back over to the hostel. From there... Day 1 officially began.

Because I bore myself by recapping these trips in chronological order, I'm just going to start rambling. Hope that's cool. First off, Lisbon has great vibes. On my last trip, I visited Prague and Berlin where Prague in particular felt overrun by tourists. You can't take two steps through Old Town Square without a middle aged man shoving a tour-related pamphlet in your face and Lisbon just didn't give off that "its all about tourism feel" at all. I overheard someone at the hostel saying that you come to Lisbon to see the city, that there is no attraction because Lisbon is the attraction. I had to ponder that for a moment but yes, I agree. My trip to Lisbon was so refreshing (despite the food poisoning) because Lisbon presented itself humbly.

Highlights from the trip! Although Barcelona boasts a beautiful waterfront, this past weekend in Portugal I got to spend time on the beach in a bathing suit. Yes, it was that warm! On Saturday, we messed up pretty badly and showed up at the beach in skinny jeans, t-shirts, and leather jackets, sticking out like sore thumbs. All too often I underestimate and overestimate the weather so of course I thought the beach would be too cold to actually enjoy. Well, we certainly took note of the temperature as we still attempted to lay out in our jeans. We returned the next day better equipped for a day at the beach and also enjoyed multiple pitchers of sangria because, well, we felt obligated while enjoying the waterfront. What else? We tried the famous tarta de nata that is made right outside of Lisbon in Belem. On Saturday, we passed right through Belem on the train to get to the beach and decided Day 3 required a trip to the bakery with a quick peak at the nearby monastery. The monastery ended up having a HUGE line around the block so our trip to Belem really only encompassed coffees and pastries but... still worth it.

While in Lisbon, we also made best friends with our roommate in the hostel. Tori, Sarah, and I had booked beds in a room for four people just hoping and praying that the fourth bed would be filled with someone normal. Well, our fourth roommate ended up being a 25-year-old man named Jason, originally from China but now living in Canada. We're not totally sure that his name is Jason because it was one of those long pauses followed by "you girls can just call me Jason." At one point during the trip we actually asked him about his real name and I have never seen someone dodge a topic better than our friend "Jason" did in that moment. Well played, friend. When we met up with more of our friends towards the end of the weekend, we joked that we had made best friends with our hostel roommate but we didn't actually confirm this until Sunday morning when Tori and I found a note Jason had left us. In his note he said that he found American women to be strong personalities, complimenting us in many ways and also attempting to reconnect with Tori some day if he's able to work in Seattle like he hopes to. Not sure when he developed the strong bond with Tori in particular (jealous over here!!) but the note was much appreciated. We love ya, Jas! Thanks for putting up with our spontaneous dance parties.

Sunday, after a perfect day at the beach, Tori and I were preparing to board our 8:45 pm flight when the airlines announced the gate would actually be released at 9:45 pm... wait what? While our experience on the way to Portugal was mostly positive with TAP Portugal airlines, this time we could not get any information out of them. Imagine pulling teeth with your airlines. We just wanted to go home!! At 11:30 pm, after playing on the kiddie playground, conducting our own airport wine tasting, and joking about what would go into our blog posts this week, we finally got to board our plane. While getting home at 3 am was pretty awful, it was worth having most of the day Sunday to enjoy more of Lisbon. Looking past food poisoning and delayed flights, Lisbon made for a great trip!

Today, Tuesday, April 14, I am now less than two weeks away from the end of my program. WHAT!?!? Did I not just get back from spring break? Thursday marks our last day of classes and by next Thursday, I'll be done with finals too. Yesterday, our program held reverse culture shock workshops for us, mandatory since they replaced our Spanish class. Well, if leaving here hadn't already been on my mind every second of the waking day, it definitely is now. In this workshop, they explained to us how most study abroad students have made their host city feel like home by the end of the trip. Each student has a unique routine and going back home to a new and different routine can be equally as frightening as entering a new country. They made us read testimonials from former students and then and there I became depressed. These students said exactly what I've been feeling. I've spent the past couple of days making frantic to-do lists of oh, you still haven't seen this or eaten there but you can't forget to do this one last time for the memories. Where am I going to find all the time for these checklist activities when I am studying for finals and packing up my apartment? Luckily, thanks to my loving parents, my time in Europe does not end quite as soon as my program does. After Barcelona, I will be returning to London to spend several days with my TCU friends studying there. From London, I will be making a brief trip to Ireland to visit old friends in Dublin and new friends in Kinsale! Therefore, there are certainly more stories and ribbons to come but for now, check out the pictures I snapped in Lisbon.