Joan's Birthday, Portugal & Salamanca

Joan turned twenty on September 21st yay! Elena got a cute ice-cream tort for the three of us :).

View of Coimbra 

Me and Caroline on a terrace at the university in Coimbra

The 8:00 AM departure time last Friday was rough, but totally worth it in the end considering how beautiful Portugal and Salamanca are.

The city of Coimbra is quaint and lovely--it has a beautiful river view. Coimbra is actually a college town which means that there is a great university to check out. The old buildings are amazing and the library is one of a kind. I would have loved to take a picture of it, but unfortunately that's not allowed. On Saturday morning, at the start of our tour of the city, we were able to walk through a market. Many venders were dressed in traditional clothing and were selling delicious looking pastries, cheeses, breads and more. Books and collectable were being sold, too.

Market in Coimbra

We had a lunch sponsored by NYU consisting of soup with cabbage and vegetables, bacalao (cod fish), potatoes, and onions, and of course dessert...orange cake yum! 

The strangest thing about Portugal...we couldn't speak Spanish! I realize this is obvious, but it was quite strange being able to communicate relatively well in Spain for the past month and then suddenly be back at square one again. I will not hold it against the Portuguese. 

That afternoon we were off to Salamanca. I forgot to mention that before heading to Coimbra, we stopped at a small town near Salamanca--Ciudad Rodrigo. It has a beautiful church and a great homey feel. 

Salamanca has the most amazing (and likely the most famous in Spain) Plaza Mayor. At night it's beautifully lit and is surrounded by cafés and ice-cream shops. It was amazing to explore an old university and compare the library here with the one we had seen the day before in Coimbra. 

Inside the University of Salamanca 

View of the river in Coimbra

And now for something totally unrelated to the trip to Portugal and Salamanca--my Arabic class. I've had two classes now at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. There are only about fourteen students in the class and the professor is super nice and knowledgeable. 

My mind was blown away the first day when she handed out sentences in Arabic to translate. I was so proud of myself because I was fully capable of translating them (yay!)...into English. I suddenly realized that I would have to translate them into...Spanish. There's nothing like trying to translate sentences from your third language into your second. Although by the end of the class my brain had had all it could take, it was possibly one of the best, if not the best experiences I've had so far. It's amazing to be learning two languages at once and something I highly recommend to anyone willing to give it a go. It certainly helps that all of the students are really nice and welcoming and that the professor is so approachable. Yay to continuing to learn Arabic...and this time through Spanish :) 

The end of this post is for my brother. Every time we have an amazing dinner (which honestly is practically every night...I mean there's nothing like homemade soups, delicious rice dishes, and fish to die for) I always tell Elena how sorry I am for my brother who's living alone in Missouri in the middle of nowhere and has to cook his own dinner :(. She always laughs and seems so confused as to why I'm so concerned haha. What can I say, a sister looking out for her coolest (and goofiest) big brother :). Anyway, so before Joan and I went to Portugal and Salamanca, Elena made us fidao. It's a dish that is basically paella, but with special noodles instead of rice. One of her daughters, Sonia, was also there for dinner. Because another night Joan and I said we should take a picture of her food, she said get out the camera for this one! And of course I mentioned how sorry I was that Andy couldn't be there to join us! So...these pictures are for you: 

We are likely starving and could devour this entire pan of fideau because we usually eat around ten pm. Not a joke.