Cheap Flight= Let's Go to Germany!

Two weekends ago, a few friends and I took a trip to Berlin, Germany. It wasn't on the original list of places that I had wanted to visit while in Europe but my friend Erin found roundtrip tickets for just 40 Euro so it was a deal that was hard to pass up. We arrived in Berlin at about 5:30 pm on Thursday evening and we're told by friends that the best way to get into the city was using the metro, so we followed signs form the airport to the metro station. The friend said "the signs are very clear as to how to get into the city" but apparently her version of "clear" is a lot different from mine. After trying to decipher multiple signs in German, we weren't having any luck as to which train to take into the city. After about 15 min of walking in circles, I asked a local and got an answer in broken English as to the way we were supposed to go so we decided to just follow what (I thought) he had said and hopefully we'd end up in the city. After diligently paying attention to the stops, we got off at the metro station stop that the hostel had recommended. At this point, we found a spot in a local mall with free Wi-Fi and Laurel was about to get the GPS directions to the hostel, just a mere 5 minutes away. We finally arrived at the hostel around 7pm or so and got settled. After getting a recommendation from the hostel about dinner places, we found the place they recommended but the prices were a bit about our college budgets so we decided to keep looking. Before we knew it, we were walking in what I figured out to be the expensive part of town after seeing numerous luxury cars and menus containing 40 Euro steaks. After about an hour of searching, we ended up at an inexpensive Italian restaurant which had great food. After finishing, we went back to the hostel and called it a night. On Friday, the four of us woke up, went to a local bakery for breakfast, and then headed to the monument called the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe".

Memorial containing 2,711 rectangular concrete structures

Museum for the memorial

The museum was incredibly solemn and containing a lot of diaries of people involved in the Holocaust. It's one thing to learn all about the Holocaust and its effect on Europe but it's a whole other thing to read excerpts from diaries of people involved at a memorial in Germany; going to this museum was tough to take in but I'm very glad we took the time to go. After seeing this memorial, we headed to one of the other main monuments in Germany, the Berlin Gate.

From left: Me, Erica, Erin, and Laurel

After the Berlin Gate, we went to a food place nearby and order some traditional German food such as currywurst. As we were about to leave the restaurant, it began to drizzle, which turned into a rain, and then a downpour. We wanted to walk around a bit but not with this rain so we decided to trek to this area called "Museum Island" which is exactly what it sounds like: a bunch of museums on a small island on the Spree River in the north part of Berlin.

Didn't have the chance to take this picture because of the rain; taken from Google

We all purchased student passes which gave us access to all 5 museums on the island but we really only ended up going to two, the one pictured and another one because we ran out of time. After the museums, we trekked another mile or so to a cathedral. As with any cathedral we encounter, we went inside, saw the beautiful historic architecture and then climbed to the top of the dome. It was an incredible view to be able to walk around the top of the dome and see 360 degree views of the city.

By this time, we were starting to feel really hungry and had wanted to get kebabs that were recommended to us. We stumbled upon a row of food shops and to our luck, one of them had a kebab place. I order the kebab exactly how it looked in the picture to get the full experience (pun intended) and man oh man was it delicious. Made with lamb and a whole lot of toppings, it sure was a mouthful to put down but worth all of the mess. And the best part was, it was only 3.50 Euro, one of the best food bargains I've encountered in a while for the amount of sandwich there was.

On our way back to the hostel, I caught a glimpse of a full size Porsche 911 Carrera being displayed in a store window along a main city street. A few steps later, my jaw dropped as I saw a $400,000 Lamborghini and a Bentley in the next window. I was in awe as I looked in this building and saw almost a dozen luxury sports cars on display. Intrigued beyond belief, I told myself I'd come back the next day and check it out in the day light. We went back to the hostel, got ready to go out, and headed to one of Berlin's most famous clubs, Tresor.

It used to be an industrial manufacturing plant and then was converted into a multi story techno club. It was a very unique experience and no place like we had been in any other city and we all made it back to the hostel in one piece following me as the guide, as happens in every city because I not only enjoy being the leader but am also very good at figuring out how to get places without a GPS.

The next morning, we woke up and ate breakfast at the same place that we had the day before...yes it was THAT good. I split off from the girls and went back to the car showcase while they went to check out this place called Checkpoint Charlie. When I got back to the building that I had been at the day before, I realized it was called the Volkswagen Group Forum which had various cars on showcase from a few of the brands that Volkswagen owns. I saw a lot of Porsches, an Audi R8, a Lamborghini Huracan, and even the Porsche 918 Spyder, a $900,000 semi electric hyper-car which was only produced 918 times and is very rare. It was nice to be able to spend as much time as I wanted there and drool over cars to my heart's content.

Volkswagen Group Forum

2016 Porsche 911 GT3

Porsche 918 Spyder

After I had my fill (or some portion of it) of the cars, I went back and met up with the girls and we headed to the metro station to take it across Berlin to check out what's left of the Berlin Wall in East Berlin.

After seeing the wall, it was time for us to head back to the airport to catch our flight. Although we only spent about a day and a half in Berlin, it felt like plenty of time to be get a good vibe for the city and see most of what it has to offer. It was different than most of the other cities I've visited; it gave off a different vibe per say. It had its historic regions but also was very modern in some parts. Berlin itself is also a very wide spanning city and therefore we didn't get to see the whole city; we mainly saw the central area along with some of the east parts where the wall stands. For a 40 Euro roundtrip flight, the company of 3 fun girls, and beautiful cars, it turned out to be a great trip and I'm happy to say it is on the list of places I visited while abroad.

-BR

Beavers Exploring the 'dam For a Weekend

Thursday April 7, 2016. After waiting the whole day, we finally caught the bus to the airport at about 4:15pm. It felt like we had scheduled this trip an eternity ago because it was the first official trip we had scheduled, despite it being in April. We made it to the airport with plenty of time (felt like almost TOO much time given how many close calls I've had missing flights) to catch our 7pm flight. After making it through security, we were informed that our flight had been delayed until 7:30pm. After a few more delays, we were finally able to board the flight at about 8pm and took off around 8:30pm at which I point I captured this sweet panorama of Dublin at night. Maybe I'll send it into Ryanair so they can use it as a promo picture given the plane wing snuck into the picture.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 11pm, a short 1.5 hours flight plus the time change of 1 hour. I couldn't believe how BIG Amsterdam Airport was...when we landed, the plane had to taxi about 15 min just to get from the runway to the terminal. On top of that, the airport was huge once we got off the plane and walked to the exit. I was in awe because I think airports are fascinating. Upon leaving the airport terminal to get transportation to our hostel, we were approached by a large bearded man asking if we wanted an "official taxi". At first he seemed legitimate but then realized he seemed a little sketchy so I politely said no and continued to walk away with my three friends. He continued to follow us pestering us about a taxi as we continued to ignore him. Eventually we got to the transportation desk and requested an official taxi...the man pointed us in the right direction outside to where a lot of taxis were lined up. He even said we could take a Tesla Model S taxi for the same price as normal. My jaw literally dropped to the floor upon hearing this. Given that I am a big car guy and worked at a country club the past two summers where I'd see one of those cars a day and had always wanted to ride in one, it was almost a dream come true.

 To think we rode in a $80,000 car as a taxi for the same price as a junky 5-seater in Dublin was a great feeling. I got to ride shotgun, of course :). Our taxi driver drove the car like he stole it, zooming under the dimly lit streetlights weaving in and out of cars on the freeway. He must have been just as excited as we were to be in the Tesla.  After getting to the hostel, we checked in, put our bags in our rooms and my friend Laurel met up with a friend from home, Lauren.

We went out in town to get a bite to eat and boy was it rowdy for a Thursday night, just as busy as a Friday in Dublin and we were on the outskirts of the city, about 20 min from center city. We found a place that looked good and ordered traditional Dutch food right off the bat. Erin had researched places to go and things to eat, one of which included "bitterballs" which were basically a deep fried meatball. I ordered a different type of traditional meatballs and gravy and they were delicious (slurp slurp). After this satisfying meal, we headed back to our hostel and went to sleep.

On Friday morning, we woke up bright and early at 8am. After going to bed around 3am, it was definitely a struggle. By the time we were all up and moving, it was about 9:30am and we headed towards to city. We had a few places here and there that we wanted to see but no real plan of which way to go; rather, just walk around and act like tourists. The first place we went to, given that it was about 10 minutes from our hostel, was the "I Amsterdam" sign. Luckily, there weren't too many people there so we were able to get great pictures from climbing on the letters.

The Amsterdam Crew from Left: Me, Erin, Kelly, Lauren, and Laurel

Representing my family (Roda) on top of the letter r

Right as we were about to leave, a group of about 200 kids ran towards the sign like a pack of monkeys trying to find the last banana on earth. After about a minute of them starting to climb on the letters, their group leader made a motion for them to go somewhere else and all at once, they continued the stampede in a different direction while I captured this all on my GoPro. Speaking of stampedes though, the bicyclists and moped riders of Amsterdam are INSANE. There are dedicated bike lanes which they do a good job of sticking to but if you step foot in the bike lane for a few seconds, your head better be on a swivel or you'll get hit in a heartbeat. It wasn't much of a concern for me as I am a bike rider myself and can think like the bicyclists but as for the girls I was with, one of them were bound to get hit by the end of our trip. And Laurel did get hit later on that night and it wasn't too pretty; no injuries luckily, just an embarrassed look on Laurel's face and a lot of laughs.

We continued on into the city, taking in the picturesque views and of the canals running along the roads. There was no shortage of sweets bought in Amsterdam by our group and by the end of the day we probably had purchased five desserts each. Also, being in Holland, an area known for their cheese production, we stopped by the Amsterdam cheese museum to sample all of the cheeses from gouda to goat's cheese to kinds I had never heard of it. It was all delicious but no one ended up buying any cheese at this time; we would later though.

Yes I actually took this photo, no it isn't from Google :)

Anne Frank House (didn't have time to visit; 2 hour wait consistently) 

After a long day of walking around, we headed back to the hostel to nap and get ready for dinner. At around 6:15 we all got up from napping and got ready to go Gijs downtown at a nice restaurant. Gijs was a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands to my cousins 6 years ago and we've kept in touch since so, from the beginning since I had accepted the study abroad program in Dublin, I knew I had to take a trip to Amsterdam to visit him. The restaurant we were going to was on the exact opposite side of the city from where our hostel was so I knew it was going to be a hike to walk there. As the navigator (with no cell service which meant no GPS as most people from our generation are used to finding places), I had mapped out the route before hand. After a long (but scenic) walk through the city for 45 min, we finally arrived at the Eastwood Restaurant which stood on the bottom floor of a Hilton Hotel.

From left: Me, Gijs' cousin, Lauren, Laurel, Gijs, Kelly, and Erin

The best part about this restaurant was that, because Gijs worked for a different branch of the Hilton at the Amsterdam Airport, he got 50% everything at this restaurant. So Kelly and I splurged and got the 800 gram steak that Gijs recommended for 50 Euro which was to be split between Kelly and I, still giving us a 15 oz portion each. Therefore, we only paid 12.50 Euro each for this incredibly tasty Tomahawk steak. After a filling dinner, we headed up 11 floors to the SkyLounge which overlooked the north end of the city. It was a bit chilly outside but we each bought a beer and talked outside listening to the live music.

After spending about an hour here, we went downtown to a few of bars that the locals attend, something we wouldn't have been able to do without the help of our trusty tour guide Gijs. We called it a night around 1:30am because everyone was tired from a long day of walking around the city.

On Saturday, we woke up around 10am and had decided to take on a daunting task not many tourists should: rent bikes to ride through the city of INSANE bikers. Gijs' cousin who was at dinner with us the night before had given me some areas outside of the city centre that we should bike to and I was very eager to try it out. The girls...well they were eager to ride bikes as long as they had a fearless leader; that was my claim to fame. It was only 12 Euro to rent the bikes for 3 hours which was the prefect amount of time before we had to leave for the airport around 3pm.

Leading the pack while balancing the camera for an action shot

We rode around for a while towards the west side of Amsterdam, the less crowded more wealthy areas. It was a nice place to ride bikes because there was a lot less hustle and bustle which meant less of a chance of an accident occurring. We stopped by the Noordermarkt which was an outdoor flea market with tons of yummy food stands. I had quiche for lunch and bought a block of authentic Holland cheese for the road, vacuum sealed so it would make it back to Dublin!

We rode back to the bike rental place, returned the bikes, and bought another dessert to eat in a park near the "I Amsterdam" sign. We collected our bags at the hostel, called an Uber, and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

It was a 'dam good weekend for sure

Amsterdam sits nears the top of my list with Lisbon, Portugal as one of the best places I've visited while abroad. From the entrées to the desserts to the picture perfect canals, it didn't fail to disappoint in the slightest. 5 trips in 5 weeks coming up and trip 1 was a huge success. Bring on the next 4.

-BR

Road Trippin'

After spending nearly a week in Dublin, the time came to travel around the beautiful country to explore other parts of Ireland. My best friend Casey had a friend coming from the United States to visit for a couple of days and to make the most out of the journey, he rented a car and we had plans to travel around Ireland for 3 days. And by plans I mean we would book where we were staying the day before arriving at the destination. This was contrary to most of the trip planning I do where I have the reservations to stay at hostels close to a month in advance but I liked and embraced the idea of spontaneous traveling around a country in a small 2016 Peugeot hatchback. Bright and early Sunday morning at 8:00am, we woke up and we're off. Our first destination was the Ring of Kerry, a cool 4 hours away in the very Southwest tip of Ireland. It was on a list of the 10 Best Places in Ireland to visit so we knew we had to make the journey there at some point. One of the best parts about having a car rather than riding a coach bus was the ability to stop whenever. And by this I mean that when we saw a picture perfect moment, we could pull over on the side of the road, stretch our legs, and snap some pics. While getting close to the Ring of Kerry, we saw a beautiful mountain range with a stream leading up to it. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and the panorama turned out surprisingly well.

Some peninsula on the south-western tip of Ireland

We continued on our drive to the lodging which took us to a small town of (according to the B&B owner) just 1200 people. There wasn't much in the town, just a few bars and some small shops but most places were closed given it was Palm Sunday and Ireland tends to follow old traditions. We finally arrived at the Ocean View Bed and Breakfast around 4pm. The owner was (ironically) an older American lady who had moved to Dublin just 4 years ago, we think after retiring. She recommended we go check out this old castle and we took her up on it. It was really cool to explore this old castle that was once used by settlers to stay on the lookout for oncoming invaders and as the owner of the hostel put it, "If they saw the invaders coming from a far, they would finish their beers, and prepare to die because they really had no weapons to defend themselves with!"

Forgot to take a picture of the castle itself but this is the view from the top

By the time we were done exploring the castle, we decided to call it a day and head back to the B&B. Since there wasn't much night life in the nearby town, we stayed in for the night and placed a few card games in our room. In the morning, we woke up around 9am and had an amazing home-cooked breakfast with pancakes, bacon, and eggs. This was a nice treat for us for once given that when we travel, we normally only stay in hostels (which give you a piece of toast for breakfast) to save money. We were on the road by 10:15 en route to Connemara National Park which was north of Galway, Ireland, about 4 hours away from the Ring of Kerry. The drive to the park was unbelievably beautiful; an open road with large mountains surrounding it on both sides, along with lakes, grassy plains, and TONS of sheep. We stopped quite a few times to try to pet a sheep (it had been Laurel's goal since coming to Ireland) and surprisingly enough, they are very hard pet because they always run away. I have a few videos of us trying to pet the sheep which will surface at a later date.

We finally got Connemara National Park and took one of the hiking routes that they had up to a great lookup view where the Atlantic Ocean could be seen and the surrounding landscape was breathtaking.

From left: me!, Laurel, Casey, Kelly, Alex

Around 5pm, we decided to head back to Galway which was an hour away. We arrived around 7pm, ate dinner, and headed to our hostel to get settled. We went out that night and had a craic at the main pub in Galway called the Quays that my cousin Brendan who studied in Galaway for a semester had recommended. The next morning, we woke up bright and early around 6:30am in order to drive to the Giant's Causeway by early afternoon given it was a 4 hour journey. Before arriving at the Causeway, we stopped at the Dark Hedges, a beautiful avenue of beech trees thought to be one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland. It was also a feature scene in the popular tv show, Game of Thrones.

It looks way cooler in person, the wide angle GoPro makes the trees look farther away from each other than they really are

Finally, we arrived at the Giant's Causeway! I had already been there but it was one of my favorite sites in Ireland so I was excited to have the chance to see it again.

At around 3pm, we drove home in order to get home in time to get settled and take Alex out one last time before his flight back to the US on Wednesday morning. It felt like the longest drive of all of them, although it was about the same distance as all the other drives.

And so finally our 3 day road trip was coming to a close. Everyone else fell asleep for most of the ride home but I stayed awake to keep the driver company because I know how hard it is to drive when you're tired and everyone else is asleep. 3 days, 1400 kilometers, and still no one got tired of each other. It was incredibly successful given the amount we traveled and as passengers of the car, it was agreed that we only had to pay for gas which came out to be about 15 Euro a person for the entire trip, an amazing deal considering everywhere we traveled.

Gas: 15 Euro

Gas station sandwich on the go: 6 Euro

Memories to last a lifetime: Priceless 

-BR

Popping the Cork for St. Patrick's Day

Not long after getting back to Dublin on Sunday afternoon, we had yet another trip to embark on. Given that our two friends both had friends visiting from the United States, we wanted to take a trip to another part of Ireland so that they could experience its beauty. Monday morning, we boarded a train en route to Cork, home of Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone. It was about a 3 hour train ride which put us in Cork at about 12pm. We walked to the hostel, threw our bags in our room, and had lunch. Then, we went to the bus station to take a trip out to the Blarney Castle. Honestly, I'm not really sure of the significance of the Blarney Castle other than that it has a stone that you can kiss for good luck. As the website says, "Its powers are unquestioned but its story still creates debate." Regardless, I wouldn't have been able to come back to the United States without saying I had kissed the Blarney Stone.

We climbed to the top of the castle, waited in line for a bit, and then got ready to do the awkward pose to kiss the stone. Who knows why it has to be kissed in such an awkward way but it's just the tradition. Nothing like getting a little mid day back stretch in, that was for sure.

After visiting the castle, we had the opportunity to walk around the surrounding landscape of the castle which included a few gardens, some big rocks and trees to climb on, and an hour loop around a lake. We also found a table and decided to try to recreate the famous painting of Jesus with his disciples at the table.

After having a (luck) filled day at the Blarney Castle, we took a bus back to Cork. We had dinner at an amazingly good gourmet burger place and headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out. We frequented a few bars that night and had ourselves a good old craic, comparing the night life in Cork to that of Dublin which was good but Dublin always has a soft spot in our hearts and therefore you can imagine which we liked more. On Tuesday, we woke up and went into the city to explore a bit, walking around the city centre and checking out some cool churches and we even found a labyrinth.

 Later that night, we took the train back home, arriving in Dublin around 10pm and called it a night in order to rest up for the long awaited day on Thursday....Saint Patrick's Day. As you can imagine, even since I had accepted this study abroad program in Dublin, every time I told someone about it, their response would be "Oh man I bet St. Patrick's Day is gonna be a lot of fun" and man could they have not been more right. We all went out on Wednesday night to one of the best bars in Dublin called DTwo to kick off the Paddy's Day celebrations. After staying out for a while, we finally all went to bed around 3am. A mere 5 hours later, I woke up to the sound of my roommate breaking into my room yelling, "Get up its time to celebrate!". In a hazing but excited mindset, I got out of bed and got ready. I walked into the kitchen to find that my friends had cooked eggs and home fries, a perfect way to start off the day. What wasn't perfect is that I got Iced about 20 minutes later. What this means is that someone hides a bottle (16 oz) of Smirnoff Ice (an alcoholic mixed sugary drink) somewhere and when they trick you into finding it, you have to chug the whole bottle on the spot. Normally, a 16 oz bottle is used; given that it was a special celebration today, my friends decided to Ice me with a FIFTH of Smirnoff Ice that I had to chug on the spot. The irony of the situation is that I had hid a bottle myself and had planned to Ice someone else but someone got me FIRST. Handling all that sugar in my stomach wasn't too pleasant because it was so early in the morning and I had also just eaten a lot of food. AS horrible as it was in the moment, I Iced someone else 10 minutes later and got to enjoy every second of laughing at him try to drink it because I knew what it was like. It was all fun and games and something we could laugh about after the fact. Dressed in all the green I had in my closet, we headed into town at about 11am in order to see the parade which started around 12pm. We had a great time in one pub for about an hour and then went to get lunch at a local fish and chips place.

There was no shortage of green in this pub

Nothing but happy faces on St. Patrick's Day

Inside joke with some of my favorite girls in Dublin

Probably not one of our best ideas but no injuries occurred in the making of this photo

 It was all fun and celebration during the day and then at night it got a bit rowdy so we went home around 10pm. It was definitely a memorable day and one to look back on for years to come. On Friday, we went to the fishing town of Howth for their annual Prawn Festival. I had never had prawns but I really like shrimp so I had high hopes for fresh prawns from the Dublin Bay. The food we ate there was incredible and although it was a bit overcast and rainy, it was a great way to spend a few hours on a Friday and I mean c'mon, whenever food is involved, it's bound to be a good day.

-BR

Legendary Lisbon

Wednesday March 9th. 7:30pm. My Statistics for Engineers midterm was about to start. This was the only thing that kept me from thinking about spring break for the past week. Once that was over, I was bound to be home free for the next 2.5 weeks. Yep, you read that correctly, I was about to be free of school work and worries for the next 17 days. To say that I was excited was an understatement. 8:30pm. My facial expression switched from a worried little kid to a little kid who just received a three scoop ice cream cone. Our flight to Lisbon, Portugal was the next morning at 6:15am. I went home, had dinner and had every intention to pack my backpack for Lisbon. Intentions are good if you follow through with them; this intention had gone to waste. I ended up falling asleep without packing. Before I knew it, my roommate Kelly was in my room saying it was time to go because it was 4:30am. In a panic, I sprung out of bed, threw on some clothes, and frantically packed my 22 Liter North Face Backpack. Given that I chose to take Ryanair flights which only allow you to take a carry-on if you chose not to pay a hefty fee to check a bag, I've become very good at packing only the essentials and making the most of the limited space in my backpack.

We boarded the flight on time and finally I had a moment of relaxation and pure enjoyment as I embarked on a 3 hour flight to Portugal. I had the privilege to receive a window seat for the plane ride and witnessed the sun rising, one of the (very few) perks of such an early flight. It was incredible to see the sun rise above the clouds which looked like a giant blanket of white cotton balls.

At about 8:30am, I looked out the window to witness the photo above, a beautiful bird's eye view of the coast of Lisbon. We got off of the plane, took a shuttle to the terminal, and given that I was ahead of my other friends who came on this trip, I waited in front of the immigration queue. After a few minutes, my friends caught up to me and just as we were about to head to the immigration line, I heard "Wait, Brian?" only to turn around and see a friend of a friend who I had met three days prior at a bar. In excited shock, my eyes lit up and I ecstatically said "Alex?!! Wow I can't believe you are here, like what are the odds of this happening!" After a few minutes of introductions among my friends and hers, they asked us what hostel we were staying at and to our surprise, it was the exact same one as ours. I was just in shock at this situation, a good shock though. We took a very early flight on a Thursday morning before spring break had technically started for other people (since I don't have class Thursdays and Fridays) to a lesser frequented destination and some how I ended up running into people from my college in Dublin- I guess it pays off to network and get to know a lot of people! We all took the metro to a stop relatively close to our hostel, navigated like aimless tourists to our hostel, and settled in. We were all pretty hungry at this point but luckily the hostel was still serving free breakfast which consisted of pancakes with Nutella on top, enough to hold us over for a bit. We requested to be put in a room with the other people we ran into at the airport since I had 3 friends with me and my friend Alex had a group of 3 other girls. We threw our luggage in our room and set out to explore the city, and of course grab food.

One of the unique things about Lisbon, Portugal is that there are 7 peaks within the city which offer great views but at the same time strengthen calf muscles immensely. We walked around for awhile with intentions to visit the castle but somehow the guys of the group, Casey, Rankin, and I, got separated from the girls and ended up at this outdoor restaurant which offered phenomenal views of the water. The weather was perfect, sunny, 60s, and breezy, and since the girls had left, we were able to sit back and relax for awhile. We ordered a few brews, sat back in the chairs on the patio, and took everything in. The view was surreal and we were all commenting on how happy and satisfying the moment was. The pictures don't do these moments justice but it was just absolutely incredible. By pure luck, the girls eventually stumbled upon us; we had figured we wouldn't see them for the rest of the day since no one had cell service. We all continued to take in the views a little while longer before continuing on with exploring.

 We walked to an indoor market area which was recommended by the people in the hostel. It was very modern looking and a little more upscale than your typical city market. There were roughly 40 places, most of them selling food with different cultural varieties of meals. I ended up getting swordfish since I had never had it before and it turned out to very good. It seemed like a cross between fresh ahi tuna and salmon. One of the best things about Portugal was that even though they use the Euro as currency, things are cheap. I was able to get this meal for just around 11 Euro which seems very good for fresh swordfish.

After this meal, it was around 6pm and since we were very close to the water, we thought it would be a great idea to watch the sunset from beach or a pier nearby. We found one small pier near the water and reflected on the day as the sun reflected on the water.

After this, we went back to the hostel to get settled and ready for a night on the town, trying to figure out if Lisbon had better night life than Dublin :). We signed up for a pub crawl which proved to be a good way to get to find some of the good places for night life. That night, we went to 3 bars and a night club and although they were all fun, they didn't beat the experiences back in Dublin.

The next morning, we woke up and wanted to go to find a beach since we were on spring break, in a coastal town, and it was warm(ish) and sunny. We took a train to a town about 30 minutes away and arrived around 3:15. It was a great sensation to have my toes in the sand and the warm breezy air hitting my back. Although I had brought my swimsuit, the ocean temperature felt like taking an ice bath so I only dipped my feet in the water.

After the beach, we took the train back to Lisbon and walked to our hostel which was about 30 minutes and 500 feet of elevation change up a hill the whole time (wasn't kidding when I said my calves took a blow this weekend). That night, since it was Friday, we went downtown to a region known as Pink Street which was home to bars and clubs on both sides of the street. Just like every other night that I've gone out during study abroad, it was a blast.
On Saturday, we woke up and followed one of the staff members from our hostel who was one of the coolest Australians I've met named Jack into to town. We were en route to a market area known as the Thieves Market. According to Jack "half the stuff they sell there has to be stolen because the prices are just so cheap, only 5 Euro for a jacket". It was nice to be lead by a local through the city and since the market was on the complete other side of Lisbon, Jack took us some back ways which were much prettier than the route that all the other tourists take.

We browsed around the market for awhile, ate lunch there, and then wanted to catch the train by 2pm to take it to this place called Sintra. Spoiler alert: this was one of the best places I had ever seen. We took a bus from the train station up to the top of a mountain where a castle was set. The bus driver was incredibly talented and maneuvering a city bus through twists and turns up the side of a mountain as if we were on a high speed chase in a movie- can't imagine the training the drivers go through ot learn how to be fearless bus drivers. We made it to the top with no scratches on the bus and honestly I think the passengers were more afraid of the bus getting damaged than the driver was. We paid the 14 Euro entry fee (I've learned that all castles cost money) and walked for another 20 minutes up the mountain to get to the actual castle. The area surrounding it was beautiful and very well landscaped.

The views from the castle were nothing like I had every seen before, I was in complete awe. From the top of the castle, you could see miles and miles out into the distance, rolling hills and the coast on either side of small towns. No amount of words can describe how happy and amazed at the beauty of this view-plus the weather was perfect and made it easy to see everything.

I felt like I was on top of the world with everything at my fingertips

The Lisbon Legends in all of their glory

My best friend Kelly and I attempted to recreate the famous Titanic scene

After getting my fill of marvelous views and sunshine, we decided to call it a day. We took the train back to Lisbon and went back to the hostel. That night, the hostel was having their feast night where each member of the staff made a different dish and everyone got to enter a food coma. It was 10 Euro but for the amount of food I had eaten, it was a great value. They had pasta, salad, Shepard's Pie, loaded nachos, scalloped potatoes, and a bunch more.....I'm getting full just thinking about it again. My roommate Kelly and decided to take it easy that night and stay in rather than going out because we were exhausted. I ended up talking to a girl in our hostel from Barcelona for a good portion of the night and learned a lot about life in Barcelona given that she has lived there her whole life. That's one of my favorite things about studying abroad: meeting people from all over the world and having the opportunity to expand my cultural horizon.
The next morning, we got up to catch our 9:15am flight back to Dublin. It was a bittersweet goodbye to the best city I had visited in Europe so far. From the incredible views to the cheap food to the great people we met at the hostel, it was a picture perfect trip and everything went as planned. I had a hunch before going there that I would fall in love with the city's beauty and I absolutely did. I will definitely plan to take a trip there later in life but until then, thanks for a legendary trip, Lisbon.

-BR