New friends...new memories...new beginnings

Every week UIMP (my university) has a program that invites Spaniards to go to Santander for 1 week to take an intensive English course. When they say intensive, they really mean it. The Spaniards have class 9-2:15pm then lunch 2:30-4 and then class 4-6 and then 6:30-9pm they have an activity and 9-10 dinner. Now this immersion program offers anyone who speaks English fluently (or almost) the opportunity to be a language partner to these students and we get paid! We can choose to eat with the Spaniards for 1 meal=10 euros or eat both meals=20 euros and we can do the activity if we want. All we have to do is speak English with the students. It sounds perfect, right? I´ve been doing this 2 times every week, but I don´t like it very much because I´m not practicing Spanish, which is why I´m here. Almost every week, the spaniards I meet don´t want to talk to Emily and me in English because they´re tired from their classes and they don´t want to speak a language they hardly know (most are beginners or intermediate level). So it isn´t really that fun for these reasons.

Thankfully, last week (nov. 17-20) was completely different! Emily and I decided to do it for 3 meals and on a Monday (which is the hardest day because the Spaniards are just getting into the routine) we were so lucky because the table we sat at had 3 girls and 1 guy who really wanted to talk and get to know us (which was the first). I don´t want to sound lame or anything, but it was so nice to feel like I was helping them and they actually wanted to know me and vice-a-versa of course. Because the first day went so well, Emily and I added two more meals and Karaoke night (on Thursday). I won´t bore you with too many details (if you want me to tell you more about my new amigos, let me know), but I had such a fun time with them and we talked so much and I got to know them so well! So, here´s some info about my new Spanish friends (YAY!!!). Natalia: 24, she´s from Leon (the city where I had the terrible experience with the masked group of guys) and has lived there all her life, she´s finishing up her thesis and while she does that she is working at a day care. She offered Emily and I to go visit her and she would give us a personal tour of her city.

Veronica: 22, she´s from Cordoba (where Mario is) and went to school there, she works but I´ve forgotten what she does. She told me that when I go to Granada and visit Cordoba, we can do things together and that she will show me around. Lucía: 23, she and Natalia were the two girls who I´ve been in contact with the most since they were in Santander. We all talk on messenger together in Spanglish, which is a blast! They write well and the three girls are high intermediate in English. Lucía is from Avila (close to Valladolid) and that is where she works, but she goes to Granada on the weekends for school. She told me that when we´re both in Granada, we´ll do things together...yay for new friends! These girls were amazing and definitely made me feel like one of their friends. I can´t wait to see them again (we email/messenger/send comments on facebook to each other all the time :D ).

Now the 4th person I was able to get to know really well (there were 3 girls and one guy that Emily and I sat with during every meal) was Guillermo, 25. Guillermo is from the Canary Islands, specifically from la Gran Canaria. His Spanish accent is different than all the rest because he doesn´t pronounce the s and z with the th sound. He has a more latin american accent. He went to school in Madrid, but is getting his masters back at home in physical therapy. He wants to help people who have suffered accidents and can not walk or move their bodies, and he wants to help them be able to walk and move around again. His English was amazing; he is in superior. After he left Santander, we talked and decided to write emails to each other to help each other with the language we´re learning. So we write half in English and half in Spanish...finally I get to use my Spanish! He also is in a band so it made Karaoke more fun.

Karaoke: So from 6:30-9 in the cafe next to our class building, we had a karaoke night. Anyone could sing and some people were dancing while most were talking. I spent most of the night with Lucía and Guillermo. The Karaoke songs were all in English and not very good songs (except for some Beatles and Oasis). Guillermo sang two songs by Oasis ? and Yesterday by the Beatles. It was fun and he had a pretty good voice. Lucía didn´t sing and neither did I...I´m sure you already guessed that...hehe. Anyway, I had a great time with these 4!

I have a few pictures and Natalia has more, but I´m still waiting for her to send them to me.

Lucía and I.....awwww how adorable! (if you see something on her nose its a nose ring)

Guillermo and I outside the café.

Natalia (from Leon), Emily, me and Josefin. Josefin is in my grammar class and she is wonderful. She´s from Sweden and she speaks Swedish, English perfectly, and Spanish almost perfectly. She´s trilingual...and I´m so jealous. :)

Hope you enjoyed! Besitos!

My new haircut!

Some of you don't know this, but I got a haircut two weeks ago. I went into the salon asking for a trim and some layers and I ended up leaving with a totally different and new style. I officially have a corta de pelo de moda espanola (a spanish trendy haircut). I've learned to love it and I hope you all do too.

The most beautiful spots in Cantabria...Puente Viesgo, Santillana del Mar y Comillas

*Forgive me for taking so long to write about this trip.

We're standing in front of the beach, but you can't see it! Me, Pilar, Emily, Andrea and Corie.

Saturday the 15th of Nov. my ISA group had a one day excursion to three different, but all spectacular cities within Cantabria. Cantabria is one of the 17 comunidades autonomias (provinces) of Spain. Cantabria is the autonomia that I live in, in Santander. Cantabria and most of northern Spain is known for its beautiful beaches, which I must say are amazingly blue and clear. So on this excursion I was able to learn and see more of Cantabria, its history, and bella cities.

Puente Viesgo (puente=bridge)
This city is very historical because it is the city that has the oldest cave paintings in Spain. The caves of Altamira are beautiful and very colorful. When we went into the caves we had to go very deep into the ground to see the cave paintings. We were told that there are other caves in northern Spain that also were lived in by prehistoric people that have distinct paintings from the ones in Altamira. Our guide told us that it is possible that the paintings we saw in the caves represent the family "coat of arms" or their symbol. It was amazing to have had this experience to see real cave paintings. Most of them were "mano en negativo" which means hand in negative. Prehistoric people would use crushed red stone to make a negative print of their hand. We also saw many paintings of deer as well as of bison and bulls. It was fascinating. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside the cave, but it was definitely an experience. Just a fun fact: the city of Puente Viesgo is popular with the fútbol players. Every weekend before a game of the Spanish National team, the whole team goes to the famous spa in this city...hmmmmm. :)

Puente Viesgo...it was raining all morning, but I still took a decent picture...I think.

Santillana del Mar
I have a new favorite city(well as many of you know I have many favorite things in Spain). Santillana is another amazing city in Spain. It is a medieval town from the 1400´s and the city hasn´t changed since then, literally. There are no modern buildings or stores, it still has old bars, small shops, etc. The city was a perfect example of a medieval town. One of my favorite things about Spain (which is true for all of Europe) is all the history that is still here and how you can see it within the buildings and cities you visit. Anyway, the church that is in Santillana, La iglesia de Santa Juana, is one of the stops along the Camino de Santiago (the pilgrimage trail of Santiago that passes through northern Spain). The church was small and humble, but the cloister was large and very green. After the visit to the church, Carmen (our wonderfully incredible director) had a surprise for us. We got to eat some authentic/traditional Cantabrian desserts: sobao and quesada. It is hard to explain what these desserts are like, but the sobao has a similar texture and taste as pound cake, but it is in the form of a thin rectangle and is not as sweet. Quesada has a circular shape and comes in all sizes. It is a type of custard dessert and very good. We only had a little bit of free time in Santillana so Emily and I just walked around and went into some of the small shops there. After a few hours in Santillana we headed to Comillas.
A medieval building that is now a hostel. :)







One of the many medieval streets we walked down.
Here's a view from Santillana. It is beautiful.
The church of Santa Juana, it is roman architecture.

View of the cloister. The flowers on the walls are so colorful!
A different view of the cloister. I had a lot of fun experimenting with my camera here.
In the middle of one of the streets there was a place where you can tie up your horse and they can drink water out of the trough. As you can see there are no horses.

Comillas
Comillas is more of a beach town than a historic town, but it does still have its history. The town was absolutely beautiful this weekend...I fell in love with it. Everywhere we walked the leaves would be all over the ground and the leaves that were still on the branches were of all shades of fall colors (my favorite time of the year). It was enchanting! Carmen took us on a mini tour to visit some historical places in Comillas. This town's most historic figure is a Marques; I'm sorry but I have completely forgotten his name. Anyway, this Marques lived in Comillas most of his life. He was born into a low-middle class family and when he was older he ended up having a business in transportation by sea which helped him gain prestige as well as a lot of money. He built a large mansion on top of a hill in Comillas for him, his wife and four children to live. Next to the mansion is a small church where the family attended. Eventually, the Marques had a mistress (which his wife knew about and so did everyone else in the town). To show his love and devotion to his mistress, the Marques asked Gaudi to build a home near where the mansion is. The home that Gaudi built is very much his style and magnificent as usual. The house was lived in by the mistress and at times by the Marques as well. Now if you were to walk from the mansion to the mistress' house it would be about a 2 minute walk. They were very close together which is what shocked me because of the time period when it happened (1800's).
View of part of the town of Comillas. In the background of the picture you can see the University that is named after the Marques.
The Marques' mansion.

Behind the house there is a bridge that leads from the back door into some gardens and a fountain. In front of the fountain there is a statue of Gaudi, sitting on a bench, contemplating. It is a very cool place. We had free time so I went walking around the city with a few other girls in my group and we eventually walked up a hill that overlooked one of Comillas gorgeous beaches. Enjoy the pictures!

View of the Marques' home with the church in the background.

Sheila, Megan and I standing in front of the house that Gaudi built. It is also called La casa de girasoles (The house of sunflowers) because the exterior is covered in sunflowers.

The chimney of the house Gaudi built.
I have the most wonderful people in my ISA group! Top: Rachel, Michael, Bottom: Emily, Sheila, Gaudi, Naomi & I.
The main plaza in Comillas. There was a beautiful golden retriever puppy running around.
I hope you will be able to see this picture clearly because it was one of my favorite discoveries. The signs are very medieval and each has one of the most religious cities written on them and how many km away the city is from Comillas. The top one is Rome, the second Jerusalem, the third Santiago de Compostela (the pilgrimage of Santiago) and the last Santo Toribio. Que guay!

Hope you enjoyed! Besos, Celeste

Casillas, Real Madrid & Danny Zuko!!!

Once again I left Santander for the weekend and went to one of my favorite cities in España....Madrid! Just to update you on all my travels (so you can truly see how busy I´ve been) this is where I have gone every weekend: 1st Madrid&Toledo, 2nd Barcelona, 3rd Valladolid, 4th Santander, 5th Lisbon, and 6th Madrid. The upcoming weekends have all been planned, but this coming weekend I´ll only be gone on Sat. for an excursion with my group. Even though it´s been crazy traveling everywhere, I still enjoy it. Alright, let´s talk about Madrid....

Fri Nov.7
Emily and I FINALLY traveled the right way and took a plane from Santander to Madrid that was only 45 mins long. We arrived at the airport around 3:15 and then headed to the metro to meet up with Emily´s friend, Ashley, who was going to stay with us this weekend. Once we were all together, we headed to our hostel. Our hostel was in a great location, a 3 min walk from the metro, 10 mins to Puerta de Sol (one of the main places to visit) and 5 mins from Plaza Mayor. We had a private room for four; Mario stayed with us also. Since Mario wasn´t going to arrive until later that night, the three of us decided to walk around Puerta de Sol and find stores to look at. I remembered that the Real Madrid (for some of you who may not know-but you probably should because I KNOW I talk about them, Real Madrid is one of the best Spanish fútbol teams and my favorite!) store was on one of the streets leaving Puerta de Sol. We walked around a little, stopped in some small shops, and then finally found the Real Madrid store! I was so excited, and the girls wanted to go in to get something for friends. The store had almost everything you could think of with RM´s name on it. What I loved was that they even had things for babies (car seats, plates, bibs, bottles, clothes, etc)....maybe one day. Anyway....needless to say, I spent a lot there and because I spent a certain amount I got 2 FREE tickets to their Tuesday game. Unfortunately, there would be no way I could get back to Madrid on Tuesday to see the game, but still it´s pretty awesome that they were free. Afterward, Emily, Ashley and I went to a cafe to have a little snack and of course I ended up getting chocolate con churros...I seriously love it!

Around 9:30, Mario arrived in Madrid. After he dropped his things off at the hostel, the four of us headed out to Plaza Colon to eat dinner at Hard Rock (FYI their color is an aqua green). Well, apparently Hard Rock is pretty popular in Madrid because we had to wait a little over an hour to be seated. We walked around the area and finally were seated around midnight. We didn´t get back to the hostel until 2:30, but we had fun.


Sat. Nov 8: Mi novio Casillas and Real Madrid Game Day!
Well, as I´ve told you, we went to sleep late and none of us remembered to set an alarm so we didn´t get up until 1 pm! We couldn´t believe it, so we all rushed to get ready and headed over to RM´s stadium: Estadio Santiago Bernebeú to pick up our tickets (just for Mario, Emily and I) because I just wanted to have them to make sure everything would be right. Well the ticket office doesn´t open up until an hour before the game so we decided to walk around the area and find a place to eat. We ate lunch at a Mexican Restaurant called Sí Señor! which was pretty decent. We decided to go to the Museo de Reina Sofia, which has various exhibitions on modern art and that is where La Guernica is displayed (I also went there 3 years ago). It was interesting to go back there and I even got to see some new artists which was fun. It was interesting, but Emily and I finished before the other two so we went to the cafe to get a drink and then met them at the bookstore. We all returned to the hostel to drop off Ashley and get warmer clothes on and then headed to the stadium for the game. The game started at 8 and it was already 7 (it takes awhile to get around with the metro).
El Estadio Santiago Bernebeu
As soon as we got to the stadium, we took some pictures...sorry, none turned out of Mario or me because it was too dark and then I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get our tickets (first I couldn´t find the ticket office, and then I went to the wrong one, but 3rd time´s a charm). FINALLY we got the tickets and I was SOOOOOO excited about getting into the stadium. Once we walked through the hallway of the stadium, and like something out of a movie, and I came closer to the opening of the section where we sat, I just heard all this cheering and saw the bright lights. It filled me with even more excitement. I hadn´t even really looked at the tickets to see where we were to sit (online it told me the 7th row on the very bottom level of the stadium!). I just checked to make sure we had 3 tickets and the right section. Well, I handed my ticket to the man checking them and then, when he pointed me in the correct direction, I looked at my ticket to see our seat numbers and row and that´s when I noticed we were seated in the FRONT ROW!!!!!!!!!!

Marcelo, one of the forwards from Brazil. This is how close we were!
Drenthe keeping the ball from the other team.

This was a dream come true...I know it might sound lame to some of you, but I LOVE RM! So we were front row almost in the exact center of the stadium and maybe 10 feet away from the grass. Anytime the players went off the field to throw the ball in again, we could see them perfectly as if they were next to us! Anyway, it was a great game and very interesting to watch. Casillas was of course the goalie and did an amazing job (except he let one ball into the net....but we won´t talk about that). RM played against Malaga. Malaga made the first goal in the 4th min, then RM made a goal in the 7th min, then Malaga in the 34th min, RM in the 37th Min, Malaga in the 48th min, RM in the 53rd min and RM in the 65th min. Well this is roughly what happened, but RM won 4-3!!!! It was fantastic and we (well Mario and I) were jumping up and down for every goal that RM made! Needless to say, it was fantastic. The pictures below will show you how close we were. FYI my camera ran out of battery and so did Mario´s so I used Emily´s (thankfully), but her camera isn´t as great of quality so the pictures might be a little blurry.

Real Madrid won the game 4-3!


Mario and I in our seats at the game.

Casillas after kicking the ball away from the goal.

My future husband....hehe!

After the game, we went back to the hostel to get Ashley and we ended up walking down Gran Via (one of the main streets in Madrid) and found an Italian restaurant to eat at. Then we returned to the hostel around 1am.

Nov. 9th: El Musical de tu vida (The musical of your life)
Today we were smart and set an alarm to leave our hostel early. We decided to go to El Rastro (a fantastic Flea Market that is open every Sunday). People sell all kinds of things and it is probably about 3 miles long. I found one thing that I loved there, which I bought. It is a poster of the famous Spanish bullfighter Córdobes and in the poster (which looks like an authentic bullfight poster) he is posing with an arched back and the bull is next to him. The reason I liked the poster so much is 1. It didn´t show anything graphic, because I don´t like that they hurt or kill the bull, 2. I love the bullfighters because of the "art" of what they do (the dancing, swinging the cape, etc) and 3. It will be a great souvenir from Spain. We probably walked around for an hour and a half and then walked around some streets near the Atocha train station (where there was a terrorist bombing about 3 1-2 yrs ago). We had lunch and then Mario and I went to the RM stadium to take a tour of it. It was a self-guided tour which wasn´t too exciting, but we got to take our time and I enjoyed it so much. We went to the top of the stadium, went inside the museum (it has a trophy room, talks about the history of the team, shows pictures and fun things like the players id cards once a part of the team, etc), then we walked to the very bottom of the field (where we sat), went to the president´s box (where the president and the royal family sit for the soccer games), we sat where the players sit during the games, walked to the changing rooms, saw the bathrooms (pretty impressive) and ended up at the RM store in the stadium where I bought Mario a xmas gift. All in all, it was fantastic!
At the top of the stadium.

This is the news room. Whenever a new player comes/leaves the team or the president needs to report something it is all done here.

The futbol players seats during games.

This is their bathroom....jacuzzi and all.

Casillas' gloves and autograph in the RM museum.

After the tour, we met up with the girls and headed back for the hostel. Mario got his things together to leave (it was around 5) and then the three of us got ready to go see Grease: El musical de tu vida (Grease: the musical of your life). I do love that slogan. Inside the theater everything had grease all over it (different from other theaters I had been to in the states). The bathroom doors had a Sandy poster for women´s and a Danny poster for men´s, on one of the stairs If you look at it from far away, you can see an image of Sandy and Danny at the end of the movie and there were posters of the cast ALL over the inside of the theater. It was fun because it made it more exciting to see all the posters around. About 15 mins before the show, there was a 50´s DJ playing music from the 50´s (in English) to entertain us.
Teatro Alcala

Overall, the show was pretty good. None of the guys sang or acted very good, but the girls were amazing. The girl who played Sandy looked very similar to Olivia Newton John and sang like her even if it was in Spanish. The girls who played Rizzo & Frenchie also did a fantastic job. The songs were all in Spanish, which was a bummer because they are soooo much better in English. I did enjoy the play though and it was so fun to hear it in Spanish! But for the future, Grease should be only be done by Olivia and John Travolta and the songs are so much better in English!
Emily, Ashley and I in front of one of the many Grease posters.

Good ol' Sandra Dee

Tagline: Bailaras, Cantaras, Te enamoraras (You will dance, you will sing, you will fall in love).....perfect for this musical!

That's about it. Sunday night we had dinner in Plaza Mayor and ate gelato. Then Monday we left early in the morning to get the plane. It was a great trip and Saturday was the BEST day ever....I love Real Madrid!!!

Besitos,
Celeste de Casillas

For those Grease Fans:
RAMMA LAMMA LAMMA KA DINGITY DING DA DONG
SHOO BOP SHOP WADDA WADDA YIPPITY BOOM DA BOOM
CHANG CHANG CHANGITY CHANG SHOO BOP
YIP DA DIP DA DIP SHOO BOP SHA DOOBY DO
BOOGY BOOGY BOOGY BOOGY SHOOBY SHO WAP SHO WAP
SHA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA YIPPITY DIP DA DO
A WOMP BOP A LOOMA A WOMP BAM BOOM

Portugal-my travels to the most western point of Europe

This past weekend I traveled to Portugal. It was another crazy trip just to get to Portugal and to return to Santander, but our stay in Lisbon was wonderful. On Fri. Oct. 31, Emily and I took a train in the afternoon to Madrid. Then we took another train at 10:45pm to Lisbon and arrived in Lisbon at 8am on Sat. I slept almost the whole ride so I wasn't too tired when I arrived to the city. Emily and I took a taxi from the train station to our hostel. Now, when we arrived at the street our hostel was on, we were a little worried about the location because it looked a little sketchy, but once we got inside (and climbed the 5 flights of stairs) one of the owners, Francisco, greeted us warmly and showed us the hostel. The inside of the hostel was beautiful. It only had 4 rooms and ours was the only one that was a private double room. It had a community bathroom (which they cleaned daily), a kitchen for our own use and a living room with computer, books and a TV with dvds for us to use. The hostel is owned by a young woman, V (I forgot her name, but it started with a V) and she co-owns it with her brother Fernando. The room was small, but perfect for the two of us because we just needed a nice clean place to sleep.



Dia 1
We told Francisco that we were interested in going to Sintra. He spent about 20 mins explaining how to get there, what sites to see and he even gave us a map and a travel book to use while we were there. All the owners were very helpful during our entire stay. So around 9 am Emily and I left the hostel to find the train station that had departures to cities near Lisbon. We stopped at a bakery to get breakfast to go (which is not something that is done in Europe) and went to the train station. Our hostel was in a great location because on our walk we passed the metro, which was a 2 min walk, and to get to the train station, which was in the main plaza Praca Rossio, it took us a little less than 10 mins.
Placa Rossio

The train ride only took 25 mins to arrive in Sintra. The city of Sintra is absolutely beautiful. It is a small city, but spread out over a large hill. The city is a medieval town that still has preserved 3 palaces, a castle and many gardens that were used during the middle ages. Because we were on a time crunch, we chose to see 3 sites that we were told were worth going to. The first place (which is near the bottom) was the Palacio Nacional. Now the palace wasn't much to look at on the outside, but did have some beautiful paintings, decorations and wall designs on the inside. These palaces were used by Portuguese Kings and Queens in the past, but that is all I know, because we didn't have a tour. After the national palace, we took a bus to the top of the hill (it was worth the 2 euros because it would have taken us 2 hrs or more to get to the top). When we arrived we decided to go to the Palacio Pena (the palace of worth). Now this palace is said to be one of the most beautiful palaces in Portugal and when you look at my pictures you will see why. We had to walk up the hill a little farther to arrive at the palace, but once we passed the walls that were guarding it, it was easy to see the beauty of the palace. It had many colors and different architecture for every part of the palace. The majority of the architecture is Moorish, but I believe it has some baroque as well(don't hold me to it). We were able to climb the towers of Pena and at the top you have an amazing view of the entire city of Sintra and if you look in the right direction you can see Lisbon in the distance. It was amazing.
Palacio Nacional

The city of Sintra

The view from Pena.
Palacio Pena

The view from Pena. Pena in all its glory!

After Pena, we visited our last site and we decided to go to the Moorish Castle (which is what it is actually called). Now the castle isn't there anymore, it's just the ruins and the fortress of the castle, but it was still incredible to see. Emily and I hiked up another hill to get to the castle and went up the towers to have another breathtaking view of Sintra. We even got our picture taken there! Still standing were the walls and doorway of a church that used to be a part of the castle. After seeing these three sites, we decided to head back down to the train station. On our way, we stopped in little shops to see what they were selling and passed by so many adorable homes and shops.



We left Sintra around 3:15 and arrived back in Lisbon at 3:45. We decided to go back to the hostel to rest for an hour and then after talking to Francisco again we went downtown to explore the city a little bit. We ended up walking down Cais de Restaudores (street of restaurants) which also had many clothing shops. Then we walked around Praca Rossio, which has 2 beautiful fountains in the center and a statue of Don Pedro 1, who was one of their kings. We continued walking past Rossio and along the way found H&M and stopped in. Unfortunately, I bought a few things, a purse, cardigan and scarf. Then we made our way to Praca Comercio. This plaza reminded me a lot of Plaza de San Marco in Venice because of the size of the plaza, but it is nowhere nearly as incredible as the one in Venice. In the plaza there were many people selling their paintings of the different districts of Lisbon (there are more than 10!) and I found one that I couldn't part with. The man was very sweet and tried his best to explain to me in Portuguese (which I can not understand a single word of) what he had painted. He was speaking slowly, but all I understood was Alfama which is a district of Lisbon known for Fado music (more on that later). The one thing I find interesting about Portuguese is that the way they write their words is completely different than the way they say them. So, it is difficult for me to understand, BUT I can read it really well and understand what is written because their language is written very similar to Spanish. Even though I don't understand the language I LOVE how it sounds. The only word I learned to say is "obrigado" which means thank you.
Plaza Comercio

Now this will sound bad, but Emily and I noticed that there was a Hard Rock cafe on our way back to the hostel so we decided to eat there. Well, apparently Hard Rock is VERY popular with Europeans so we had to wait a while, but we went into the shop to look around. We ended up spending 20 mins talking to one of the workers at the shop. He was Portuguese and born in Lisbon, but he spoke English (surprisingly with an American accent) very well that I could have thought he was lying about being Portuguese. He overheard Emily and I talking and he asked us if we were English. Now we were so excited to be mistaken to be Brits (because we love their accent so much) and he didn't understand why so we ended up engaging him in conversation until our table was ready. One thing I learned from him though, is that every hard rock cafe in every city has a different color which represents that city and is unique to that city. Also, each city has its personally designed shirt. I thought that was interesting because it makes each Hard Rock cafe different. Well, to say the least we enjoyed our dinner.
Hard Rock Cafe, Lisbon

Dia 2
Today started off really well. Emily and I woke up around 9 am, had a banana and a croissant (that we bought the day before), and then went to talk to V about what to visit in Lisbon. We knew today (Sun) we wanted to see museums and monuments because V had told us that they are all free this Sun because it was a national holiday (Dia de los Muertos). She told us that the museums and monuments would be free from 10-5 today so we took advantage of those times and left our hostel around 9:45. We decided to first go to Belem, which is a district of Lisbon farthest to the west. I believe that in English Belem means Bethlehem. This area was one of my favorites because the buildings were not as tall as in Lisbon and everything was so close together. In Belem we saw many different things. First, we went to the Modern Art museum which was interesting, but because I don't really enjoy modern art I didn't get a lot of the pieces, but this one below I did enjoy very much. This is for you Mary!
Judy Garland by Andy Warhol
The Modern Art Museum in Belem.

After the museum we got a little lost in the town while looking for the Torre de Belem, but it was alright because the town was very beautiful. We finally found the tower and decided to go inside. The tower used to be a fighting base. The tower is from the middle ages and it was built to keep intruders out. On the middle floor of the tower there are cannons pointing out from every window. The bottom floor had a prisoner's cell, which was very small. Then, Emily and I were able to go on top of the tower. The view was wonderful because the tower is situated right next to the Rio Tejo. We sat in front of the tower for a little bit to take in the view and watch a soccer game in the park next to the tower.
Torre de Belem
Emily and I

Inside the Tower.

Next, Emily and I walked along the main road of Belem and passed the Monumento de Descrubedores. This monument was very interesting because it was built to be dedicated to all the famous Portuguese explorers. Some of the explorers are carved into the monument and the monument is facing the Americas to show the direction the Portuguese traveled to. Behind this monument, we saw El Puente de 22 de abril (the bridge of April 22nd). This bridge is a replica of the Golden Gate bridge. I think that most of you will find this interesting.


The last thing we did before we left Belem (because EVERYONE told us we had to do this) was that we went into a pastry shop (one that is VERY well known) and bought a very famous pastry that's made in Belem called a bolo. It is actually very good. I'm not sure what it is made of, but it has a soft, fluffy surface like a pancake and the inside has a little bit of what I think is custard. I never took a picture, but I found one online so here it is:


Around 1pm we took a tram back to Lisbon and we got off in the district of Bairro Alto, where we had lunch. It was very difficult to find a place to eat because many of the people did not speak English and we couldn't read the menu, but we finally found a little restaurant that made sandwiches similar to Paninis, where the cheese and meat is grilled, but the sandwich isn't thin. We both got a chicken sandwich and it was pretty good. After lunch there was one more museum that I really wanted to go to and Emily didn't care either way so we headed to the district of Alfama, which is known for all the Fado restaurants. The museum I wanted to see was the Museo de Fado. Now Fado music is the traditional music of Portugal even though it only began in the 19th century. The music is sung by a man or woman and the music can be happy or sad. The music is played by two guitars. One is a Fado guitar, which is absolutely beautiful and the other guitar is acoustic. In the Museum I wasn't allowed to take photos, but I found some online to help you see what the guitars looked like. The museum was wonderful. It only cost 3 euros to enter and it came with a guide that you listened to. Around the museum there were numbers posted and you used those numbers to learn about Fado. The museum had information about how the music started, what types of songs there are, how the fado guitar is made and even famous singers of Fado. It was interesting to find out that there are at least 3 very famous female singers named Celeste. While in Portugal, I found out that my name (both first and last) is very common. So not only am I a descendent of Spanish heritage, but Portuguese as well!!! Anyway, at the end of the tour there are two walls that are covered with photographs of famous fado singers and you are able to listen to their songs. Fado is very beautiful and the guitars are just magnificent.
Fado Guitar
Fado Museum

After the museum, Emily and I had only two more sites to see which were on the way from the Fado Museum. We went to the Catedral Se, which is Lisbon's biggest and most well known cathedral. Then we wanted to go to the Castelo de San Jorge, but we had to pay 8 euros to go in and because it was already dark we decided against it. We did walk around the gardens, which had an amazing view of Lisbon, since the castle is on top of a high hill. For dinner we ended up staying in Alfama and went to a Fado restaurant. It was so fun to just sit and listen to live Fado singers. There were both men and woman singing so it was really nice to hear the two. After the museum, Emily and I just walked around Lisbon's center where I bought a painting of Alfama and then went back to the hostel.
Alfama

Dia 3
The 3rd of Nov was our last day in Portugal. We had done everything we wanted to in Lisbon so we decided that after lunch (until 6 when we had to go to the airport)we would visit two more cities in Portugal that were close to Lisbon so that we could know more of Portugal. We decided to go to the cities of Estoril and Cascais (the Portuguese pronounce it as Cash Caish which is very fun to say!). We first stopped in Cascais because it was farther away. Francisco, from our hostel, told us that the lighthouse in Cascais is the most western part of all of Europe. Before we left we had lunch at this really fancy Italian restaurant which was delicious! We were so excited to eat there and the best part is that we were surrounded by Italians because everyone who worked and ate there were Italian.


We decided to stay for 2 hours and we went to a tourist office to get a map and info on how to get to the lighthouse. We ended up walking 40 mins to get to the lighthouse, but along the way we saw the port where all the fishermen are. We walked by the town, which is adorable, and the buildings, which are painted in all different colors, and we finally arrived at the lighthouse. It sits above the ocean (of course) and it drops down to a rocky area. After we visited the lighthouse, we decided to go to another site in Cascais, that the tourist office told us about, which is La boca de Inferno (the mouth of hell). Now the reason it is called this is because when you get to where that point is, the land curves so that it is like an open mouth and then below are lots of large rocks at the opening of the caves. The person helping us told us that when the water is calm you can see into the caves and we were lucky enough to be able to do so. It was incredible and the water was a wonderful mix of blue and green. We took LOTS of pictures there.

La boca de inferno.
La Boca otra vez.
One of the beautiful buildings in the city.

This is the fisherman's port.

Around 4:15 we took a bus from Cascais to Estoril. When we arrived in Estoril we realized that there wasn't much to do there, but they have one of the biggest casinos. We decided to go take a look, but unfortunately it was closed. So we walked around the main street, passed by a fortress by the ocean, and then went back to the bus station to go back to Lisbon. We went back to our hostel to get our things, then went straight to the airport, and then once again took an all night bus (from 12:30am to 6am) to Santander.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I had a wonderful time in Portugal!
Besitos, Celeste