I woke up quite late this morning, so I couldn’t make the trip to Tomar. Plus, I didn’t want to get stuck there since buses don’t run very often on the weekends. Instead, I decided to take a relaxing day and just explore Fatima. So I took my time getting ready. Once I was done, I headed towards the cathedral. Fatima is very well known for people seeing an apparition of Mary. On May 13, 1917, three children saw it. No one believed them; in fact, they told them that they needed to be punished for it. A little while later, 60,000 people saw the apparition. It appeared every month on the 13th and ended in October. Every month on the 13th between the months of May to October, people come from all over to see ... read more

I woke up early this morning so I could get to the bus station by ten. I packed all of my things and walked to the nearest bus stop. I lugged my suitcase about a mile, and quickly jumped on the bus that was already leaving. Once I got to the main bus station, I waited for my 7 hour ride to Portugal. A bus came up that was going to Lisbon, so I grabbed my stuff and tried to get on it. The guy informed me that it wasn’t the right bus. So I nervously waited. Finally, the right bus came up; I put my luggage in the bottom, and got on board. At our first stop, I really had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to get off and then have the ... read more

I got up a little bit earlier today so I could make my way to Santiago. I packed the rest of my things up, and walked around for ten minutes trying to find the elevator. Finally, I found it and took my luggage down to check out. I wasn’t quite sure on how to check out so I just went to the front desk and gave the guy there my key. He smiled and said thank you, so I said thank you back and walked out into the pouring rain. Of course, it chose the day that I have to walk a mile uphill carrying my suitcase to rain. Yet when I stepped outside, it stopped raining. Just a little reminder that God has my back. I made my way to the train station to find ... read more

I slept in today, waking up around 10. After I got ready, I went to go find somewhere to eat breakfast. I walked through the wall into the city until I found a bakery named Don Leon. I found a delicious pastry that look like an elephant ear covered in chocolate, called a palmera. I took it on the go, deciding to try to find out how to walk on top of the wall. I found a map, deciphered were the stairs were, and went up them. I got to walk around the entire wall seeing the city. It was pretty awesome and reminded me of another walled city in Italy named Lucca. Inside the city there are some beautiful old roman buildings, but a lot of the buildings look old and run down. The city ... read more

After breakfast this morning, I made my way to my last Spanish classed at Mester. I have had so much fun in my classes, that I am really sad about ending them. Although I did find out that I passed my exam today with a 90. After class, we went home to eat lunch with our host families for the last time. I took some time to pack up all of my things, pick up some last minute things, and look over how to get to the next city. We had a farewell dinner tonight with the headmaster at a nice place called Vida & Comida. It is a nice restaurant located outside of the plaza major. They fed us 6 courses, starting with ensalada primavera. It was full of fruits like strawberries, apples, and pineapple, ... read more