Beach in Autumn??

So just like in the good ol' USA we had a long weekend for Columbus Day. However, here it is for Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta de la Virgen de Pilar.

Interesting little digression, I asked my students why they didn't have school on Monday, and one responded, "Because it was 'Pilar's Party'." I naturally laughed because it sounded like some girl (Pilar) was having a party at her house (complete with keg and Solo cups), and we were all invited. I had to explain the difference between a holiday and a party. Entertaining though.

So, Día de la Hispanidad is basically celebrating Spain conquering the New World, in essence, Columbus Day. Over that long weekend, a couple of friends and I decided to go to Lisbon, Portugal. We took an over-night bus from Madrid to Lisbon, which arrived at 5:30 am. So we set out exploring the city as the sun rose. It was so beautiful. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of visiting Lisbon, the sidewalks are mosaics with white tiles which are unbelievably clean. I think that its mandatory that people mop the sidewalk in front of the buildings because the sidewalks literally reflected the sun. Since it was so early, the bakeries started baking their delicious portuguese breads. From 6am-6pm the entire city smells like freshly baked goods, and from 6pm-6am the city smells like cigarette smoke. It's an interesting transition.

After a good day of taking in the sights of Lisbon, we took a day trip to Sintra on Sunday. Sintra is a small town outside of Lisbon with a couple of castles and a moorish fortress from medieval times. It's quite an impressive sight because the town is at the base of this mountain that just shoots up, and you have to take a bus from the town up these winding mountain roads. The whole time I was praying that I wouldn't plummet to my death because it was a very steep fall. After seeing the sights, we ate dinner at an Italian/Indian Restaurant in the town, and took the train back.

Monday, we went to the beach! It was mid-high 80s, and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect beach weather. The beach is called Estoril, which is a little town about a half hour from Lisbon. It was a very nice beach, and there is a castle on the beach. Not a sand castle, but a castle... on the beach...

We came back from the beach, showered, and got on our overnight bus back to Madrid. Overall a productive, interesting weekend. Nothing really interesting happened last week, or this past weekend, but the tongue twister for last week was:

• A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump sunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

They had a rough time with that one. That's all for now. Until next time, Adios.