Hola from Portugal

Well Ryan has class every morning for three hours. I usually go wander Lisboa and talk to cute old ladies while he is gone but this morning I've decided to be lazy and just enjoy this beautiful morning by myself. So for all of you, and mostly my sweet little Raiyah here are some pictures of our trip so far. Portugal is beautiful. There are many things I don't like: EVERYONE smokes, including all of the high school kids, and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I smile or say hello. So it's not the happiest place in the world unless you get outside the main cities, which is what we have found we love doing. It's kind of nice to just let Ryan take care of everything, because although I like to pretend like I speak Portuguese really well obviously Ryan is a little better than me. :) The people we are living with sit and talk "at" me forever, and Ryan just told me to nod my head and smile like I understand because they are truly just talking without waiting for a response. Pretty funny.

This was my first Professional European soccer game. It was a blast. The crowd even yells at their own players for hogging the ball, getting off sides, or not moving fast enough. It was a lot of fun.

We went to a REAL palace. It honestly was the place of every little girls dreams. And it's Portugal so we just walked through the entire thing. It was absolutely amazing.

This is part of a castle we went to. For every girl who is in love with the galant knights of old, this place was a dream as well. Ryan and I had so much fun wandering the entire thing. It was incredible imagining what used to happen within those walls.

Took a ride on the wine boat in Porto. This is my favorite "big" city. There was something new, and incredible around every corner.

My favorite little village, Obidos. It was just a maze of cobblestone, tiny white houses, beautiful flowers, and churches.

So as we were driving to Nazareh I looked over and saw this bench full of cute old men just hanging out on a beautiful Sunday. It may sound funny but this is the scene I was looking for all over Portugal. I knew I would find it if I looked hard enough. It was so fun to stop and talk to all of these cute old me. They were so animated and happy. They all would stop each other mid-sentence, shake their fists, and were just so friendly. They all wanted to get cute and handsome for a picture with me, it was so much fun. I was giggling in the car for a long time after we left them.