After waking up at 4 am in the morning to fly from Ponta Delgada to Lisbon, I slept the entire plane ride. When we arrived in Lisbon, we hopped on the busy subway and went into the city center, where we dropped off our bags in a luggage storage area. Unfortunately, the place closed at 6 pm, which was really unfortunate because we didn´t even get there until 12- however, we tried to make the most of the 6 hours that we had. We walked around the pretty city center along the bay and then ended up stopping for lunch in a local hole in the wall restaurant, where I ate traditional Portuguese cod. After lunch, we joined a free walking tour of the Alfama District, which is the quaint artistic section of Lisbon, made up of a maze of small hilly cobble stone streets. Yuri, our Portuguese/ Dutch tour guide, organized the best tour that I have been on thus far in Europe. In addition to telling us the history of the city, he really tried to immerse us in the culture of the city. He introduced us to several locals along the tour, and we tried both green wine and homemade cherry liquor shots from local shops along the tour. At the end of the tour, he took us to the top of the hill on which Alfama is built to look over the rest of the city and the bay down below. I wish we could have spent more than one day in Lisbon, because the city (as everywhere else we had been in Portugal) is absolutely beautiful, and the people there are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. After rushing to pick up our bags after the tour, we walked over to the bays edge to watch the sunset over the bridge, and then ate sandwiches in one of the city parks. The day flew by quicker than I would have liked and it was time to head to bus station to catch our overnight Flixbus to Madrid. Despite getting there with plenty of time, we almost missed our bus, as we went to the wrong station. However, we eventually made it on, and tried our hardest to get comfortable for the next 8 hours. I slept fairly well other than waking up a few times with my leg asleep, but apparently everyone else in our group barely slept. Thus, when we arrived in Madrid, we all napped until the afternoon.
Being in Madrid was quite strange, as I was finally in a European country other than Germany where I could sort of understand what was being said. Despite taking Spanish in school for 3 years, I realized how much Spanish I had forgotten after learning German for 3 months. However, I quickly started picking back up words as I read different signs and ordered food in restaurants. Hopefully I will get to practice my Spanish even more by speaking with my guest sister from Mexico, Mindel. In the afternoon, after napping and grabbing lunch, we all headed into the city to join a free walking tour of the "new" part of the city, which covered the history of Madrid after 1700 and delved into Spanish culture. Our tour guide, Louisa, took us past the Spanish government buildings and other pretty buildings and squares in the heart of the bustling capital city, and told us about all the places to go and foods to try while we were there. After the tour, we squeezed our way through the middle of a massive protest in the middle of the city to get to the subway. I haven´t seen that many people in one location since I was in times square along time ago, and I was glad to get out of there before it got dangerous. That night, we ate at an all you can eat Spanish buffet and then headed out to a bar to relax and partake in the nightlife that Madrid is so well known for.
The next morning, I got up earlier than everyone else and took the metro into the city to visit the famous Sunday flee market. After wandering around for a couple of hours and buying "Espana" underwear, I left to grab a tradition Spanish breakfast of chocolate con churros y Cafe con Leche. I then met up with Madeline and Lauren, who were also in Madrid at the same time, and we walked around the downtown for a bit before they had to leave to catch their flight back to Germany. After grabbing lunch, I met up with the rest of the group and we went over to the Royal Palace. I was the only one who actually went inside and did a tour, while the others waited outside. The palace was pretty, but it was very similar to the Palace of Versailles which I had just visited the week before. Nonetheless, it was interesting to learn about how the Royal family still uses this grand building for many large political events. Afterwards, all us of continued to explore the old part of Madrid, which was full of old buildings and churches. We attempted to go up inside the stock exchange to gain a vista of the city, but we did not realize that it was closed on Sundays. While there was still a lot that we had not done in Madrid, our group (including I) was really tired after traveling for 2 weeks straight, so we ended up coming back fairly early to the Airbnb to pack up and get to bed early in preparation for our early flight back to Bonn. I would definitely enjoy going back to Spain and exploring more of Madrid, along with other cities when I have more time. Finally after 2 weeks, my spring break had come to an end. Although I had the trip of a lifetime, I was definitely surprisingly ready to return to Germany, which has definitely begun to feel like home.
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