What were you grateful for this week?
PORTUGAL.

What was the most challenging part of this week?
Leaving my cute kids to go on vacation 🙂
 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.
On one of my days off the family invited me to go with them to eat. I was really tired and didn’t really want to go, but I decided to go and ended up having a lot of fun with the kids.

Tell us about your week! 
This week my host family went out of town, so I headed to Portugal.

My first day I got in about 2, found my Airbnb, and then headed up the hill to see the Cristo Rei statue which BLEW my FREAKING MIND. Then I had dinner and went to bed early.

The next day I went to the Calouste Gulbenkian museum (really cool art museum) and the aquarium (which, incidentally, was voted #1 in the world, and it was awesome). It was pretty rainy and chilly all day.

Friday it was nicer so I made a day trip to Sintra. All I can say is 1) holy leg day, like I wasn’t ready for the hike I went on and 2) Sintra is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I explored the Castelo dos Mouros for a while and then headed up to Pena palace and took the tour. Snapped some great pics ???? on the way back there were lots of cool artisan homies selling stuff by the road so I checked that out and had a good discussion with a Jehovah’s Witness.

Saturday was beach day! I got soooooo burnt but it was so nice to be back by the ocean. I had a dang good burger on the beach and that was pure heaven.

Sunday night I went on a fado tour, which is a tour all about a famous type of traditional Portuguese music. I ended up touring with a group from a hostel, which meant that I met people from all over the world. The company was so fun, the food was incredibly good and the music was indescribable. It was a perfect end to this magical trip.

Now I’m sitting in the airport and I’m so excited to see my host family again. But I know I’ll miss Portugal every day until I see her again. 🙂