Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisbon

Sleep is something I am gaining so much of this trip. I woke up when I was told to by my body and I then migrated to the living room where I eventually created a delicious bowl of cereal, and a movie was watched where I happened to drift off back into sleep. That was when I really did take a nap. You may think I'm lazy, but don't forget this rarely happens in my everyday life back in Texas. (& I don't go to bed 'til late here anyway) 

Moving around the house in my pajamas, I went back to my room where I sat down with Jesus. I sat and read over Galations 5, and reread and read some other parts of Galations, and journaled... It was good. The very fact that the Creator of it all wants to set me free from my burdens and to give me freedom in who I am in Him is one of the most satisfying things ever. The fact that I can live my life according to what is righteous and I can bare fruit from the Spirit is such a beautiful blessing. I have not been aware of this said freedom in a long while, and with the reminder of what Jesus can bring for me, I rest in knowing that I can be the fruitful branch I was intended to be.

After having some time, the boys were ready to go off into the heart of the capitol of Portugal; Lisbon. We continued on with what seemed to be our recent routine. We put coins in for our train tickets and we waited for the fast train to get us to Lisbon. Once arriving I finally was able to indulge in a lemon Calippo (backdrop story: I had been searching many stands & they had all been out of supply) and we walked on through to get to the good parts. The streets where created to go up and down the hills, there were trolley's sliding through the streets, and the setting reminded me a lot of San Francisco, but more ancient and rustic looking. 

We walked through the port's main square where there were giant statues and royal buildings surrounding it, and we realized we had made it to the most historic section. This is where the Queen of England would walk into and underneath this enormous bridge with intricate designs embellished on it. We continued to pace ourselves up the hill and eventually ran into a really large cathedral that we stepped into. The place had an odd stench to it. Yet, it was still really neat to be in especially since it housed 10 tombs of the saints and that the very church was the church that basically originated Christianity in that segment of the country. 

After gazing at all the detailed work and the amazing pieces we stepped out to continue up the hill to eventually make our way to the Castle of São Jorge. We stopped at a couple scenic areas to 1. catch our breath and 2. glance below to all of the houses and the way the city was created. Once getting up a large hill, we glanced over and saw that there was an outdoor urinol that was designed for a man to go behind the not-so-big wall and to use the bathroom. Inevitably Jeff wanted to try this out, and after some families and other tourists walking by with their mouths dropped, he considered it a great success! Hilarious. 

Realizing that you had to pay to get into this huge castle, we realized that maybe it wasn't worth the 30 minute wait just for the ticket into it and we headed back down all of the hills to get to where we had started. Stopping to watch a street performer, we were automatically sucked into his entertainment. Which wasn't even good... But, essentially this guy was screaming in English, dressed in a weird black clowns outfit, and showing how he could juggle knifes and get on a large unicycle. It was odd, but he ended up with a large audience (including us, sadly.) He kept talking and building up and I think the only reason we stayed was because there was another drunk man who was bickering with him the whole time and we legitimately thought he may push him off of is unicycle that he happened to take 20 minutes getting onto. Well... We eventually made it and we jumped back on the train to S. Pedro where our home was located. Before making it back through the apartment doors we did stop and get a handful of pastries and a pizza for the hungry boy, Jeff. With the breeze blowing on us we walked back and hung out in the apartment. Luana eventually came and snagged me so we could go over to the Brownings (YL Committee family) to have a late dinner and watch Penelope. 

I maybe should've reconsidered going due to the fact that it was already late and had yet to pack with our flight leaving for Paris in the morning at 8:10. Whoops... but, I went anyway and enjoyed sitting around the dinner table outside eating a good home cooked meal and having delightful family conversations going around. We eventually topped it all off with brownies and Saniti's gelato, and made it in to watch Penelope. 

Tomorrow, I will be in Paris, France. 

Putz grila ...

"...We eat like priests."

It is becoming difficult for me to wake up in the morning... I'm having to roll out of the bed. Sad... I know. We put on our gnarly-bro swim gear and we headed out to the 'windy' beach called Guincho where the surfers come to surf. We arrived and parked the car with the other locals, and walked through what seemed like a desert to get to a good place to hang out for the morning. I already liked this beach better. There was no large amount of children running around and the waves were really, really large and in charge. We parked it on the sand and hung out under the sun for awhile until it was pretty steamy, and then... then we were able to hop in the water. This time the water was just as cold, if not colder, but this time there was also an exception: fun waves to play in! So, that meant... I was goin' in. No matter what. I wanted to feel like a semi-surfer for one day. Minus the wetsuit and the board and the bronzed skin... but close enough.

The tide was strong and we ended up staying for a long enough time and then it was our sizzling skin that let us know that it was time to head out. So we went back, and immediately jumped into the pool to wash off the extremely sticky sand. After feeling slightly cleaner, we went inside to order some Pizza Hut pizza. American food company in Europe? Around the that time Luana and I walked for a little bit and arriving back home was a brand new flat screen TV being installed by the boys and the pizza waiting for our munching. Which is what we did. We flipped through channels like it had never happened and ate a good amount of pizza.

With our bellies being full and the couch being available a sporadic nap came about. This nap accidentally led me into what is called as evening time though and that's when I got ahold of myself and got decent for our outing to Cascais which is another little sub-part of the Lisbon area. The sunburn was starting to take effect at this point, I could feel it. But, we got onto the train again and this time it was packed full of Portguese friends... even one lady asked me what time it was and I definitely just smiled back at her. At the last stop of the train we made it to Cascais and started to walk around the true bay area that was filled with many fisherman's boats and little tourist hot spots. There was a book fair going on, really intriguing statues that mirrored common day people, and other little hidden spots that Luey was able to lead us to. We walked around the outside of a castle and walked down a dirt road to see a landscape filled with overly sized rocks.

This part of town was so natural looking, which also made it naturally fancier. The houses were bigger and the cars were all similar, but it definitely was beautiful. We walked around to all this cool places and eventually made it over to meet Luana for dinner. While waiting we were able to see this guy attempt to water color this portrait of a girl, and while doing so he had on dark shaded sunglasses and was smoking a cigarette... poor girl.. As Luana walked towards us we went to this restaurant that Luiz had been looking forward to for a bit, due to the fact that it was a perfect place for men.

There was a buffet for those who didn't want to eat/choose between 14 different varieties of meat... that would be me. But, for everyone else, it was perfect! I went to the buffet and spotted salmon and I got overly excited, but I grabbed it before I grabbed the salad which I had wanted to eat first. So, I walked back over to our table and that is when the boys had switched the color red side of the cube to the color green which signaled for the meat to start being displayed to them. When the waiters would come around with a shish-kabob stick with one specific meat, they were able to tell them whether they wanted a slice of it or not... and eventually they would try multiple meats and get full from it.

There were some special kinds of meats and names that went with these meats, but the most interesting one (and maybe most disturbing) was this tiny little thing that once Jeff tried it, Luiz announced that it was a chicken's heart......... Oh my word... But, that is common and the two natives didn't find anything peculiar about it. So we finished up the assortment of foods that was served, and instantly as we stood up we felt the weight in which our stomach's contained... there would be no dessert tonight.

The night ended by once again crashing on the couch and viewing the moving "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" or as they know it, "Choven Almôndegas." It was good, except that all of us were hot from the heat and that didn't mix well with the comfortable couch and the full tummies...

Tão cheio o tempo todo.

Pastel de Belém

This morning we all had one mission in mind: da praia! We took our time (of course) to put together a meal to call breakfast and we eventually put together a beach-ready outfit and assembly. Except for no sunscreen for the pale whities... Problem. Solution: 20 SPF which was apart of an oil... But we arrive at the sand covered beach and we pick out a place to spread our towel and to catch some rays. This time, there were no chairs but many children field trips near us. It felt good to sit and soak up the sun once again.. I missed ya old pal... We lathered up in oil and laid down where immediately the hot day was upon us. The sun was bright and shining with no clouds to block its' power. To cool off naturally one would go over to the large, large body of water directly in front of them... so that's what I did. Minus the fact that the water felt like it was chilling even the bones in my body. It was so darn cold! Luey tried hard for me to go even shoulder length and no doubt that, that took some serious time and patience. I am a cat.

After taking in as much heat waves as we could, we headed back to make us something to chow on for lunch. But lunch only came after we immediately jumped into the complex's pool... so refreshing (and definitely not bone shattering temperature.) We were only there for a quick minute and then proceeded onward to the apartment. There was a concoction of food made and then a sprucing up before we were going to adventure out to the city for some site seeing. Once I was showered and fresh smelling, Jeff, Luiz, and I headed out to the tram. Walking through the neighborhoods, they related more and more to Cali-bro. We purchased our train tickets and we waited in the cooler shaded area for the next one to come along that'll take us to our destination.

We heard the bell chime and we hopped onto cart that was connect to the train that was leading us a historical part of Portugal. After a quick trip there, we were welcomed with a hot breeze into the coastal side of Belém. There is a multitude of historical figures and monuments in this part of the Lisbon area, and we were going to walk up to most of them.. if not walk, definitely look at them from afar.

First we walked past a bunch of parked sail boats, and across this intricate cobbled-stone artwork on the floor of the historical monument Padrão dos Descobrimentos that represented the Portuguese that took part of the Age of Discovery in the 15th & 16th century. Feeling like a small, tiny ant next to the gigantic figures, we decided to take over and go up the elevator the top of the concrete ship-esque statue. This allowed us to have a 360 degree view of the entire mountain side town. Really quite beautiful. But... hot. We went back down and spotted an ice cream stand, and from there we rehydrated ourselves. Moving on to another well crafted spot, we gazed at the extremely large Mosteiro dos Jerónimos... which was orginally built in 1497 for the seaman either entering or leaving port had a place of prayer. We weren't able to venture to the interior, but the exterior was just as pleasing to look at. Next but certainly not last we found the original spot of the famous Pastels de Beléms! Delicious little egg tart treats. These little guys were first created in 1837 by the nuns at the Monastery. Essentially there is a crispy, pie like crust filled with this delicious cream and has a flamed top covering that is sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Mmmm. We definitely bought to-go boxes. Heading back towards the train, we also spotted a new VW commercial being shot in the park.

We arrived back and relaxed with Chef Luana was preparing a lovely amount of food for their traditional 'Monday night dinners.' Eventually the Brownings, another YL friend Katiana, and Jessica all arrived for the evening festivities. After playing around with the heat's temperature from the charcoal flamed grill, and swinging and talking in the hammock, dinner was finished thankfully for the hard working hands of Luana. She prepared a special red meat for the boys, an entire fish for ole' non-meat eating me, salad with tomatoes, and cooked potatoes. Around the dinner table there was funny conversations happening between the 8 of us. Much sprouting from sarcastic jokes from Jeff or random YoungLife stories we had that were ridiculous. Then came the tarts for our dessert. Everyone was satisfied and full.

Apples to Apples was then set up for the whole gang to join in and play and that is what we did for three rounds. We slapped together a bunch of silly nouns paired with the appropriate adjective and we had a fun time doing so. After being noun-ed out, we all decided to take a stroll down to the beach. Once there, we found a little concaved area that was perfectly filled with rocks for some to explore and find large crabs or other sea creatures and for some, just the acoustic guitar sounds from Luiz was satisfying enough. The moon shone bright over the sea, and worship was played before we all headed back and said our goodbyes.

Hoje foi o preenchimento de várias maneiras ...

"When there are men around, women don't get tired."

This morning there was an actual alarm clock that was being used because this morning, Sunday morning, we were going to attend church! I put on my Sunday best and the whole gang of 5 headed out the doors to the cobbled stoned sidewalks to head on over to the Riverside church service. We walked down the hill, across the train tracks, passing a small convienent store where Mama Baptista once owned and ran.. and voila, we made it to our destination! We walked down a couple of flights, and I realized that this church was technically an 'under-ground church.' That's pretty 'spy'cial if you ask me! We walked into the small venue and I knew that the crowd here were true Jesus lovers. Churches weren't common in Portugal. Let alone non-Catholic churches.

We made our way into the sanctuary and learned that today's service was going to be multi-lingual. The band started to play on their instruments and the worship felt familiar. The words would then interchange between Portuguese and English, and even in that... the Lord was there. He is here. Wherever I am, where you are. Languages aren't a barrier for His love. They do not hold Him back from His great deeds. Countries are tiny little speckles to Him, and the reminder of He is big hit me once again. We listened to the pastor preach about Revelations in Portuguese first, and then the translator repeat in English. Truly beautiful. God's word is definitely for every ear.

Afterwards, Noah (the little boy) insisted that Luish and I go to his house to play. This was after he picked all the little bugs out of my hair and hugged my neck from behind, and that is when I realized I had a new best friend. We explained to him that we had plans to go the Avó Baptista's house for lunch. We got back to the apartment and jumped right into the car to head to old town Lisbon to visit Luiz's grandma, aunt, and uncle. As we were walking over to her apartment, I noticed a sweet old woman on her balcony waving down at us as we walked in.. and immediately I knew it was their sweet grandmother. When we walked right in to the quaint apartment, we were greeted with hugs and kisses and cheerful faces to see us. There were pictures all around the house of small Luiz and small other little trinkets. We all sat around the already food covered table. There were so many options to choose from! All new sorts of food were going to be tried there. The majority of the food was fresh vegetables mixed together to make a creation. Finishing off the homemade meal with a from scratch cake and jello, we all walked down to the little corner shop for coffee.

Kissing their grandma goodbye, Luiz pointed out a couple past memories he had from the place, and that also including that her belongings hadn't changed since when he was a little boy. We leave their place with saying our 'goodbyes' and promising to learn Portuguese for next times visit, and we left with happy, full bellies. We arrived home where it wasn't long or hard to decide that the pool would be an appropriate place for us. So, we threw on our clothes there created for such a thing and hung out and around the pool for the next couple of hours. Getting a darker tanning color and a bunch of pages ahead in my book, it eventually creep to being dinner time. I know what you're thinking... food so quickly?! But Jeff, Luey, and I all made our way down to the ocean shoreline to scout out some appetizing places.

After gawking at the rocks in the ocean and the tide being low due to the full moon, we made it to a little corner shop that would satisfy our eating wants and desires. We made ourselves at home outside of the area and Luiz had to translate just about everything for us that was on the menu & we had to put our trust in solely his word. We laughed and talked and eventually all of our of meals had been served and consumed by each of one of us. Topics changed quickly in our group, and once again the whole "Oh! This is vacation." factor sunk in a little more.

With being wobbly from all the food, we walked back to our place but not without stopping at the local Caffe to slip in and grab a sweet treat. Jeffs' excitement became like a little boys when he realized that they had mint chocolate chip and Luiz's mirrored the same when he ordered one of his favorite childhood ice cream cones. Arriving back to the apartment, we all sat and watched some television while finishing off our after dinner desserts, and eventually Luana and Jessica came back home from their YL dinner. That's when Luana pointed out that there was a full moon tonight, and the statement "when there's a full moon, I'm going to go for a midnight swim" once occured....

SO WE WENT! We went for a midnight dip in the pool when the sun was definitely no where to be found and the water temperature had dropped by a couple degrees... but... once every full moon, eh!?

GLORIOSO, BENFICA!!

Another late morning for the travelers' clan. I go to bed way too late, and expect myself to wake up at an actual decent time.. and I'm figuring out that, well, that doesn't really happen. This morning I did happen to wake up at a decent time and I was going to read.. and do so many productive things.. and then, then I woke up an hour & a half later. Real cool.

So yet again, there was the afternoon becoming my morning again. Yet, this time I did do some things that I am able to check off the check list. AND Luey decided to be really great and served me well when make me cheese scrambled eggs with tomatoes. He is good for my heart. (& belly) We then hung out and Luiz was in chef mode because then he decided to create a fresh mushroom sauce from scratch for some noodles that needed a seasoning. The ladies in the house hung out until the creation was complete, and let me tell ya... it WAS definitely complete. It was so good. He is so, very talented. Luckily he knows how to create something edible in the kitchen, because I sure don't... I put my book down and plunged into the food that was once again served to me.

By this time it was mid-afternoon and Luana went out to run errands, and I got all done up in my red & white gear for the Benfica soccer game we were going to attend later on in the evening. Luey started to play his guitar and his strumming eventually led me into drifting off once again on the luxurious white sofa. This whole sleep concept is sure taking over my brain. That's okay, right? I woke up right in time to gather up my Portuguese colored Kanye West sunglasses and our "Foreigner" sign for the airport, and we headed out the big wooden door for the evening.

We drove to the airport to pick up a friend from TCU that had just finished studying abroad in Scottland and was now here in Portugal to hang out; Jeff Hartman. Go frogs! Seeing that his flight was delayed we hung out and grabbed a (super cheap) espresso for me, and anxiously stood by the baggage exit waiting for him to walk out. We kept questioning all the people coming through the doors with a "Jeff?" and eventually when he turned, we threw up our "Foreigner" sign just so he would feel wanted.

Now that Jeff was in town, it was time for the main event for the evening... BENFICA FUTEBOL! That is why the red and the white were necessary. Even though dear Luey doesn't support this team due to the fact that he is the other Portugueses' teams die-hard fan. We got the the car eventually through swarms of red and white wearing fans on the streets and joined the crowd headed towards the ginormous stadium. This is also when we decided to invest in a Benfica scarf to become even greater fans.. you better believe that thing was around my neck! Getting through the security, we learned that large cameras (thus being what I was carrying) and metal water bottles were in fact not allowed in the arena. That means... no epic pictures to capture every ball being kicked or every fan screaming obscenities. (But, luckily for me, Jeff had is tiny compact one for the times to be captured.)

Getting ourselves situated behind the gates we walked down to our seats... down being the first row on the side of the goal! Do you hear that!? Our seats were located to where we almost thought we were apart of the team and had to warm up on the sidelines with them... We were so close! Luiz prepped Jeff and I, and told us the most important chant, and that being "SLB! SLB! SLB! SLB! SLB! GLORIOSO! SLB! GLORIOSO! SLB! BENFICA!!!!" Now you try... So when it came time to scream and shout, we got that down. We waved around our newly purchased scarves, and we devoured many stadium foods. I loved it. Every bit of it. Then to really get the game started, their mascot, an eagle, flew around the sportsplex with pride and glory and eventually made it down to the center where the crowd went nutso! Epic. This eagle I speak of also was being brought around to the fans, and since we were located on the first row, we were able to snap a picture with it! YES!

There were many corner kicks and fouls called by the referee, and the love that I once had for soccer started coming back. I could've been there.... haha, that is not true. But anyway, the game was so fun and the team ended up winning 3-2 and that means that the spirit was high. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be European. If it were between football and futebol games, I would definitely purchase season tickets to the European sport. The cooled weather helped with the deciding factor too. I wasn't sweating in the hot summer heat to watch a game, which ended up boosting my enjoyment level. It was also really neat to see some of the World Cup players on their actual home team... I wanna be a true futebol fan.. I do, I do!

After leaving the game and walking proudly in my red & white, we went back to our car which meant that going the mall was inevitable. I then noticed that the stores were open much later, and that maybe a snack from the food court would be quite lovely. So, we made our way up there and Jeffs' milkshake desire was quenched and I ended up spotting a frosted strawberry muffin behind it's glass case. We were able to wait until the crowds died off which meant that the traffic wouldn't be so crammed on the highway. The highway led us back home and we showed Jeff the place and then everybody settled in for bed.

I really am not sure I will be able to leave this place...
Sou oficialmente um europeu, devido ao meu amor por jogos de futebol!