España tiene mi corazon...

All I can say is WOW. This is the best country in the world. There is a little bit of everything for everyone and it is so clean. In Madrid we stayed at Las Musas about 5 minute walk from the Plaza Mayor. The first night we went on a pub crawl with our hostel. The night started out with 20 of us playing Kings cup aka ring of fire aka circle of death, with sangria, needless to say this was the best game of kings ever. The pub crawl was 3 bars and one club that is open until 6 am. As you can imagine this whole night was a blur, but we met the coolest people two girls from England who ended up being our roommates and have since met up with us in Granda. Madrid had an amazing open food market and the churros were to die for. Sevilla was absolutely beautiful a quaint little town with an amazing cathedral where Christopher Columbus´ body is. Our friend John from Madrid happened to be our roommate at the Garden bakcpacker in Sevilla. Every hostel provides a free walkling tour at 11am which has been awesome to learn all about the history of each place. Sevilla ia famopus for Flamenco and we saw a show our last night there. It was beautiful. There was a pub crawl where we learned salsa moves and then went to an indoor outdoor club on the river. The cathedral in Sevilla is amazing and the view from the tour was insane. We are currently in Granada. Last night we met up with our friends from England and two other teachers from Germany. We had beer and tapas. Here whenever you order a drink you get food for free. It consists of papa fritas, ham sandwiches, fish, cold salads, croquettes and pork. There are many different varieties. After we went to a club on the mountain called el Camborioit overlooked the palace. Most unreal view. I feel so blessed. Granada is a city at the foot of a mountain and the views are unreal. There is a palace here called Alhambra, we are going tonight to watch the sunset there and tomorrow we are taking a tour. Tomorrow onto Valencia for paella.... adios xo

but mom, I dont want to leave yet!

In a nutshell I love it here and I dont want to leave. Everyone here is so friendly and helpful. In the past four days we have traveled to Belem, Sintra, and Cascais. Our hostel the Travelers House was awesome and we met so many people. The first night we went on a tour of Lisboa and experienced authentic street fado, which is singing. We ate chorizo and tapas and drank sangria. The nest day we headed to Belem it was beautiful we went here http://www.mosteirojeronimos.pt/pt/index.php . The tower of Belem had an amazing view of the view river where we saw a sail boat race.  After the tower we stopped along the river at a cafe where we had our first taste of Portuguese beer called Super Bock.  Belem is where the famous Portuguese pasteries originated and they are to die for. Served with expresso and topped with cinnamon and powered sugar. Sintra is by far my favorite place so far. We visited two palaces my favorite was the Pena palace the gardens were absolutely beautiful. We explored the grounds via underground passage ways that we complete with waterfalls and grottos. After exploring we headed to a local restaurant off the beaten path and had lunch. The food is delicious mainly based around fish.  Cascais was a beach town reminded me much of Miami. We didnt get a chance to swin but enjoyed our visit nonetheless. At night we headed out with friends from our hostel to have drinks outside. Here it is legal to drink in the streets at anytime anywhere. The bar district is insane at night. So many people and over 200 bars and clubs within 1 square mile. Needless to say  i am having a great time here. Overnight train to Madrid tonight.... until then adeus! btw my Spanish has gotten so much better and I can actually communicate with the Portuguese rather well!

Lisbon

Three flights and over 18 hours later we arrived in Portugal. FYI Heathrow airport is the WORST! We almost missed our connection to Portugal. But this city is absolutely beautiful. We are right on the coast and our hostel is in the center of the city. We explored today and saw the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen thus far. For lunch we had bacalhau, a traditional cod dish. It is served with the skin as well as the bones. I have already taken 50 pictures and I will upload them soon. One of our roommates is from Rio de Janeiro and a photographer, she said that she wants to come to NYC next April, I told her that we could trade places for a week or two ;) The people here are so friendly and I can't wait to go on the tascas tour with the hostel guide Gee tonight, taste testing traditional Portuguese liquor as well as enjoying traditional music. Miss and love you all xo