Back with a Vengeance!

Hello World!
I am officially a college graduate now! After a whirlwind tour of Portugal, Ireland and the UK, flying back in time to walk, moving into my new apartment, visiting home for 3 days, I'm finally settling back into a normal pace of life in San Diego. Post graduation goals for this year include: finding a job, keeping in touch with college peeps, keeping up with my work out regiment, and of course updating this blog more! I'm shooting for weekly updates.

Sam and I spent 5 days in Portugal then two weeks road tripping from Cork, Ireland up to Belfast, Northern Ireland and with a quick flight over to Glasgow we continued our road trip down through Edinburgh, Liverpool and finally London. Here are some highlights:

Lisbon was by far my favorite city out of this trip. This beautiful city had some of the friendliest people I've met on my travels. People would graciously help us with directions before we even ask because they saw us struggling with a map. We saw these gorgeous purple trees all over the city, in plazas and lining whole streets! If anyone knows what kind of trees these are let me know :)

Sam with Pasteis de Nata (custard tarts) from Belem.

Making some new friends on a night out in the Barrio Alto ;)

Our last day in Lisbon, we visited the tile museum. Lisbon has so many beautiful old buildings covered in decorative tiles, which were brought over by the moors. Of course we got lost walking to the museum and attempting to bus back. But after all the frustration, we found this little gem of a place. My favorite meal out of this whole trip was a little street cafe where they served fresh tapas. We ordered a simple arugula with brie and walnuts and a honey dressing, Kale & Sausage soup,  and chickpeas with the infamous Portuguese salted cod. The chickpeas were so delicious :)






After an over night stay in Evora, we bused down to Faro, a little beach town on the southern coast of Portugal. Of course, we had unknowingly got off a city earlier than we should have and had to buy new tickets to finally arrive in Faro. So we decided to treat ourselves with a nice dinner. We started with delicious appetizers: evora cheese, cured ham, olives, garlic carrots and bread to go with our wine. Sam ordered veal steaks and I had shrimp porridge like thing (it was interesting, didn't love it or hate it). 

From Faro we took a day trip out to Lagos to see Ponte de Piedade. The Rock formations in the water are breathtaking. Granted, it wasn't the best of beach days (it was quite overcast), we still felt the need to jump into the water. That lasted about 5 minutes because the water was frigid, ha ha.

We warmed up afterwards with lunch: monk fish in a tomato stew.  The owner was so surprised when he checked the lid of the pot and everything was scraped clean!

Our new friend Adam; he drove us around the Algarve in his little Panda. Here we are admiring the view from a fortress in Sangres. We may or may not have picked up Finnish hitchhikers as well...quite the adventure :)

Pictures from Ireland and the UK to follow!
<3 Jo