Lisboa. There's just a lot that goes on there

Traveling as a study abroad student is a little different from going on family vacations.  You can't stay in five star hotels, or go on every tour, or enter every museum, or sample every local delicacy.  Sometimes, you have to sleep on cold linoleum airport floors. Or buses. Or questionably sanitary hostels.

But you can say Night Prayer with two new friends on a cold linoleum floor, tasting the beginnings of bonds you didn't expect.
And sleeping on buses can actually be restful, if you can curl up in fetal position and pregame sleep with a conversaton about books.
And questionably sanitary hostels leave lots of room for playing mom and cooking dinner for 13 hungry souls. They are also a great place to meet classy Portuguese women who read Paul Auster and give you advice on discotecas. 

And at the end of the day, you're still in Lisbon. Or Lisboa, as the locals call it. The capital of Portugal: a land of tiled buildings, handbags made of cork, Pateles de Nata, and abandoned, Disney World- esque castles.

Hey there Jesus Cristo, thought you were in the other Portuguese speaking country

Pastel de Nata: rich creamy caramelized custard in buttery pastry. Also the only local food we could afford. NOM.

 

Ignore these goons and check out that sunset over that hilly city.

"What's your princess like?"

Ok so I don't know this kid, but he loves Sintra just as much as I do.

Madre mio

The Portuguese are much warmer than the Spanish people--and that first impression is coming from the first hour off the plane during which we wandered rather aimlessly with terrible headaches and sleepless bodies trying to find our hostel in the multi-leveled city.  We were constantly complimented on our Spanish in a country where the writing looks like Spanish but sounds like German.  And even after all of that, the end of the weekend brought with it a surprising longing to get home--Toledo home--to speak a language that I kind of know, sleep in a bed that's starting to form itself to my body, and play MarioKart with the closest I've ever had to a little brother. 

Autumn is finally here.  It's my favorite season back home, and I'm sure that much will stay the same regardless of location.