This is my first time being in Europe, and to start this trip off, Lisbon, Portugal was the first stop. I am traveling with my best friend from home, Jess, who has been to Europe before but never Portugal. I am writing this post at the end of a six day whirlwind of adventure, food, beaches, and interesting characters from all over the world. The last time I was out of the country I was in Thailand, so honestly at first Portugal seemed much more tame and navigable, and while I do believe that is true, since we were traveling by ourselves and not with a group it was a whole new kind of travel adventure for me. Planning every day was an adventure in itself, really. Rather than simply posting a ten paragraph essay of words, I'm going to try to share my experiences as organized and as best as I can. Accommodation Jess and I stayed at Yes! Hostel Lisbon. It was probably the best decision we could have made to help this stop on our trip be a success. This hostel was absolutely fantastic. Yes! Hostel is a very clean, super friendly, and incredibly social hostel. We participated in the hostel's 10€ dinner four out of the six nights, which came complete with hours of conversation, bread & dip, soup, main course & sides, dessert, and... open bar!!! Free shot every night at 11:30, be there or be square... saúde (cheers)! The food was a solid 7/10 on average but the meal really got its value from the social aspect as well as the open bar. Hostel dinner conversations were where this trip got its charm for me. Each person I talk to was from a different country, here for a different amount of time, for a different reason, with different previous/next destinations. Endless stories to be shared and lessons to be learned. Not only that, the main way that Jess and I would decide what we were going to do the next day was from the recommendations. And most of all, we made friends (imagine that)! More on those friends later... Activities I suppose the facade of travel is the sightseeing and activities. Portugal made this part wicked fun. Among other things we... participated in our hostel's free walking tour of the area, visited the Castle of St. Jorge (image above), discovered the mountainous castle town of Sintra, soaked up the beach (multiple times!) including a surfing lesson, and explored the abandoned/refurbished LX Factory and neighborhood of Belem. The first of my two favorite days was the day that we toured Sintra. Sintra is an unbelievable location, with huge castles planted on top of hills and a quaint little town nestled at the bottom. Most people purchase a tour which drives them to Sintra then up to the castles, but Jess and I decided to do this our way. We bought train tickets for not even 6€ round trip, then walked up to one of the biggest castles, the Moorish Castle. The walk up was through basically a botanical garden with tons of cool foliage and interesting smaller buildings along the way. Although we were dripping sweat by the top (well, basically the whole time), the view from the top really felt earned and I feel like most people totally miss the garden on the walk up because they are too lazy to do it. My other favorite day was our last day in Portugal. Jess and I met two Australians (not traveling together, just a coincidence) who we "squadded up" with, so to say. We all went to Cascais, a gorgeous beach town 30 minutes outside of Lisbon by train. Obviously Jess and I could have done this by ourselves, but it was our new friends (!!) that put it tied for my favorite day. We hung out on the beach for hours, talking about everything from our siblings to our school culture, to slang in our countries. When we got tired of this we rented a paddle boat with a slide on top!! That's right, a slide! We risked it (for the biscuit) and brought a speaker and a phone on the boat with us and had a hoot on the water! The day was completed with a nice halal meal by the beach and a very late dinner back in Lisbon of the best hamburger I've ever had. How lucky we are to be enriched by such cool people in such a cool place!! -click on the first photo below to open up the gallery and view captions- History and Culture Something truly fascinating about foreign countries to me is how old and rich their history can be, especially compared to America's short yet sweet history. For example, Lisbon used to be a bustling city of mostly wooden and stone structures, but in 1755 a massive earthquake hit and caused all buildings to topple. Unfortunately, this earthquake occurred on a holiday where everyone has candles lit, so all the wooden toppled houses caught fire and the whole city went up in flames. To add to the mess, the aftermath of the earthquake, a huge tsunami, finished off wrecking the city. What remains today of the original city is just that much cooler because it survived that series of unfortunate events and is the face of Lisbon's old history. Perhaps my favorite thing about the city itself today is that all sidewalks, many building sides, and most streets are tile. The tile on the sidewalks forms patterns and the buildings have colorful geometric sides. It really adds a beautiful charm to the city. Friends
I touched on this subject when I took my WFR course earlier in the summer and met some amazing people. My favorite thing about going new places is meeting new people. Hostel culture makes takes this to a whole new level. As mentioned earlier, each hostel dinner provided countless new conversations with some really incredible people. One of these people was a really kind kid, 21 years old, from California (he was actually one of few Americans I met but worth mentioning in this post because of our amazing conversation). Long story short, over the last year he had undergone some serious physical changes and noted that even friends he hadn't seen in a year hardly recognized him. We struck up a conversation because I related to that on some level, having gone to college, changed completely to someone I hardly recognized, but now I (would like to believe!!) am changing back to the healthy and motivated young adult that I used to be. We talked for hours about how change can be so jarring and overcoming that can be so difficult. We both agreed how one of the key characteristics of travel is learning to "be comfortable being uncomfortable" and to overcome new situations, and it is basically a training ground for life. We talked about how travel, especially social travel, teaches you confidence and a belief in yourself and your roots. This carries right over to overcoming those changes and growing into the person you've always wanted, or just discovered wanting, to be. I can't put into any more words how much this conversation struck me at the time and will stay with me for the rest of my life. It is times like these, when one conversation at the very exact right moment in your life can teach you more than a year in school or a year in therapy ever could. I've really come to realize more and more, that yes, I travel for the sightseeing and food and culture, but really what I get most out of it is huge personal growth and confidence building. These are life lessons that I have only begun to grasp as I begin my (roaring) 20s in this crazy world. Figuring it all out... Man! Six days in and I'll already consider this a life changing experience. We are taking this trip day by day and loving life as we do it. We are so lucky to be able to travel at this age and with such encouraging families, it really adds to to the whirlwind of it all. There's more to be learned from a country than its history, and there's more to be learned from a person than your first impression of them. Jess and I are having a ball and can't wait to see what Madrid has in store for us next! I am traveling this summer with three different companions. Each portion of my journey this summer is largely defined by my company, which is why I plan to share a profile/ interview with them as a blog post. As mentioned in my last post, my travel buddy during for Canada was my boyfriend, Fred. We had been talking about doing a road trip to Canada since the middle of this past spring semester, so after months of planning and waiting it was exciting to finally embark on our trip. We had an absolute blast, and I have done a brief interview with Fred in order to share his perspective on our adventure.
Q: What was your favorite part of the Canada trip? A: “My favorite part was definitely camping. As wild as Montreal was, as quaint as Quebec City was, camping was hands down the best. The national park was postcard Canada. Every little detail was exactly what I had imagined it to be and it was truly relaxing compared to our city excursions.” Q: Do you have a memorable meal or snack from the trip? A: “One memorable meal was dinner in the gay district of Montreal. After a day at the Botanical Gardens, chicken kebabs, salad, veggies and rice with a really dry beer reinvigorated me. Definitely a survival meal.” Q: What is a challenge you felt we ran into on this adventure? A: “Having no data/cell service definitely provided some difficulties. However, we learned to print out all of our instructions and maps ahead of time and used them to go place to place. It made traversing Canada that much more entertaining, almost like a puzzle.” Q: Where is on your short list of places to travel next? A: “Short term - Vancouver Road Trip… Long Term - Norway.” Q: What else have you done/ are you doing this summer? A: “I spent the end of June through July 12th touring Italy with my father and brother. Next I am heading home to State College to work and try to get in shape for the Fall crew season.” Q: What is your current favorite song? A: “Summer Bummer by Lana Del Rey ft. A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti (yuh yuh)” Fred was an awesome travel companion and we both are really excited that our trip went so well. We look forward to more road trips and travels in the future, based on our success in Canada. Our future plans also include a Weiner dog named Lebron. Compared to any trip where a flight is necessary, a road trip to Canada is a wonderfully easy way to travel. This was my first real road trip for strictly travel and vacation purposes, and I learned a huge amount about what goes into the planning of such a trip. I traveled with my boyfriend, Fred, and our itinerary included two nights in Montreal, two nights in Quebec City, and a night car camping in Parc National de Frontenac. Montreal was simply fantastic. The city is lively, even on a Monday and Tuesday, public transportation is a breeze, and the people-watching is A-grade. Our first night there we stumbled upon a street festival called Vive Montreal. Along with maybe 5,000 other people we saw The Village People perform on the street for this festival. Yes, we did the YMCA. Amazing!! The following day we took the metro to the Montreal Botanical Garden and got lost for 7 hours. I know this is not technically "in" the city part of Montreal, but I believe it was one of the most amazing things the city has to offer. It was like the Penn State Arboretum times 10. And when I say we got lost for 7 hours I really mean it. It was not until a security guard in a SUV pulled up along side us and told us the park was closed did we even think about leaving. At that point I wondered how the day could get any better, but then we took the Metro back downtown and when we came above ground we were in a trans rights/ gay rights festival street! Imagine that. So we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant then walked the length of the festival which was complete with a rainbow of flags above the street, numerous gay bars/clubs, and more unbelievable people-watching. After walking the length of this street and back we headed more downtown and stumbled across three more festivals including an African beats and culture festival, a game festival (complete with human foosball and street checkers), and the Vive festival that we had seen the previous night. At Vive this night we saw a drag Lady Gaga and her dance troupe perform Lady G hits. The energy was high and we couldn't have been happier to be entertained for free on the streets all night. Quebec City was the same kind of hype... if we had been 45 years older. That's not to say it was not a grand time, it was just quaint and cute as opposed to Montreal's hip and lit. We participated in Rendez-Vous 2017, a gathering of tall ships in the port. We got to board the ships and watch lots of street performances which kept us occupied for most of the day. We also had crepes and Fred enjoyed some poutine. We did lots of walking, street shopping, and marveling at the charm of the city. Our last stop in this road adventure was to Parc National de Frontenac, which was south of Quebec City. We had a car camping plot which came fit with a fire pit and picnic table. We set up the tent, started up the campfire, then headed down to the shore of Grand Lac St. Francois for a swim. The water was warmer than we thought it would be and the lake felt more like a refreshing bath than a recreational swim. Such clean water! We finished off the day with 5 games of Dominion (a relatively nerdy card game that takes at least 45 minutes per game) and roasting hot dogs over our campfire. The park was a tremendously fun and relaxing way to end our road trip/vacation. I use the word "vacation" hesitantly, and would prefer the word "trip" for this particular adventure. Relaxation was intertwined with lots of planning and stress, so when the national park finally came around it was the ultimate relaxation because there was no more planning left to do.
Overall, Canada was a really wonderful and do-able trip. Omitting flights is an awesome way to cut down costs. And to be honest living out of a car for a week was a ton of fun. I got to have McDonalds as like a legit lunch how often does that happen? It was awesome, Canada is a dope place. I leave in a day for Europe, can't wait to see what else is out there. Before this past weekend the only time I had been to New York City was in the summer of 2008. I was with my parents the whole trip, spent most of my time in the m&m store, and wore Kanye circa 2007 shutter shades the whole time. This was a lifetime ago, so now as a 20 year old having just experienced the Big Apple for what feels like the first time I have developed new insights. These are not revolutionary, yet they are new or reaffirmed beliefs to me. Much of this thought comes from hours of conversation with the two good friends whom I was visiting. We met in Thailand, and have remained close since.
"True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions." -Joseph Addison. So here it goes- my thoughts after experiencing NYC. 1. The most fun Times Square will ever be is when you somehow end up there at 3am
This past weekend marked the real start of my summer adventures (away from home). With Cape Cod, Canada, then Europe on deck, I'm excited to see more of the world and learn about more new places, people, and cultures. |
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