The Southern Swoop!

Twas the month before leaving...so what do we do?

We planned...

"The Southern Swoop"

Porto, Lisbon, Portugal

Madrid, Barcelona, Spain

With the clock ticking, my friends and I have a been in a frenzy trying to cover and do everything. Since we have a few weeks off after completing our internships, we decided to celebrate our success of surviving our year (or least to 11 months at this point) in Europe.  So we channelled our inner "Americanness" and traveled at a fast pace to cover a completely new and unique region of Europe.

Through this pace and the through overcoming several unforced travel errors, Annika, Leighty, Rigel and I can officially say we're seasoned travelers.

So here's a gimpse into our trip...

PORTO...

Porto is one of the cutest cities I've visited in Europe. It's relatively small, hilly and scenic, which makes it give off a very homily, "Gemütlich" feeling. While there, we stayed in an awesome hostel and met all sorts of interesting young people travelling Europe. Each at their own pace and with their own style. Everyone bonded on their experiences and enjoyed hearing one another's stories. At one point during our stay, we had almost every native speaking dialect of English represented in the conversation (Canada, England, Australia, US, Ireland, and US). HOW NEAT IS THAT?!

The city's architecture is unique, carrying the Arabic influence in its work which was seen in the detailed tiles.

 The streets were tight, narrow and winded up and down the hills making it a good work out to work off all the Port wine! 

Drinking Port wine along the river

Leighty, Annika and I loved the skyline

LISBON...

Town Square

Lisbon was very similar to Porto, but on a larger scale. We loved exploring the city, but the most exciting memories from Lisbon were our little adventures...

In hopes of finding cheap food in the
 suburbs, we stumbled on a festival and market.
 Streamers were decorated accross builings
all over a neighborhood. It was stunning!

Annika, Leighty and I invented
 a game: dodge the waitors
They bombared us on the touristy
 streets with menus and bizzare comments.
We got creative at times...

But here's the best memory...

Since our overnight bus was overbooked, we ended up spending an extra night in Lisbon. This turned into a great adventure. It was 10:30 and we needed to find a new hostel so we stumbled around for a little before finding a place. To my satisfaction, pur extra day was spent on the beach a trainride away from Lisbon. The beach was incredible. Cliffs and rock formations were sprinkled across the coastline and the water was warm! I was a happy camper!

Poor Annika and Leighty though...the sun was not in their favor and they got terribly sunburnt to a point where they could barely move! So I bathed them in aloe and fed them pain killers. (Thank God for my Swedish skin and sunscreen) 

MADRID...

Due to our unexpected travel delay, we ended up only having one day in Madrid. Since the day at the beach turned Annika and Leighty into lobsters unable to move without feeling ng the pain of their sunburns, I traveled the city on my own. I did a free walking tour (highly recommend to all travelling Europe), went to a museum and walked and explored the city...I also attempted to apply my elementary Spanish skills which reminded me why I chose to learn German!

BARCELONA....

To sum this part of the trip up in a few words:

Gaudi, Tapas, Beach, and Sangria!

Family pic with Gaudi work!

Barcelona's artwork is like none other...In every way, shape and form, there is something truly unique about this city. I can't get a grasp on it, but the least I can say is it's vibrant and I couldn't get enough of it! I will definitely return to take this city on again!

The fresh squeezed juice and fruit was heavenly!

This market was definitely a highlight of the city. Every type of fruit, meat, candy and drink was represented there...I even saw mangostean (my favorite fruit from Malaysia)! We could've definitely eaten our way through the rows for days and wouldn't have tried everything! Our group foodie, Annika, definitely was content! And Rigel, had new juice in hand everytime I looked over.

I can't even begin to express how much I love this city!

Rigel- our personal lifeguard

And some more Gaudi............

We might have waited until 9:30 pm with all the
 other students to take this picture for free...

 Although the last has come to an end and there were several times where we got on each other nerves, this trip will always hold a special place in my heart. It allowed me to become even closer with Leighty, Annika and Rigel and to have lasting memories taking on Southern Europe with them. I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to be t