The perfect weekend

So as you can see I've given my blog a little facelift! I've decided to take my blogging a little bit more seriously so expect more posts from now on! This weekend just gone was my last weekend in Porto before I head home for Christmas, so we decided to make the most of it.

On Friday we headed to Rua Santa Catarina, Porto's best shopping street, and had brunch at Café Majestic. It is the oldest Café in Porto, still with its 1922 original furniture. It was traditionally the hang out of artists, musicians, politicians and other intellectuals, and now me :] I had a fabulous breakfast of poached eggs, croissants, fruit, juice and champagne, whilst André went for the lunch of smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches with a selection of pastries and coffee. 

After brunch we headed to Bolhão Market, now I have been waiting to go to this market for weeks! It's Porto's famous market and I have heard so much hype about it! I was walking there thinking "I’m gonna buy a nice bag, some vintage jewellery, maybe a coat"... but oh no, all that was there was flowers, fruit and fish! I was so disappointed I think I actually shed a little tear, I felt like it was my birthday and someone dropped my cake on the floor! However André bought me a beautiful pink rose and walked me back to the high street and told me to get my shop on!

So I roamed around the shops for a few hours trying on this and that and in the end bought a leopard print cardigan from Bershka and a cream blouse from Zara, all this is irrelvant mind you as all i really wanted to buy that day (as everyday), besides a vintage gold charm bracelet from a famous market, was a pair of leather trousers! My hunt for the perfect pair of leather trousers has been going on all season and you know what, I think i'm near the point of giving up! I just hope Santa brings me the perfect pair for Christmas. After about 4 hours of shopping I headed to Breiner house for a goodbye meal for the Belgian girls. They cooked "traditional northern european food", it was strange but kind of tasty I guess! (As i'm writing this I can hear a little Portuguese boy singing what sounds like "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music lol!).

So the next morning/ more like afternoon I was woken up with the promise of a chocolate croisannt aka heaven in a pastry and a trip to THE CIRCUS! I ate my croissant, got showered and dressed and off we went to the circus. I was so excited, I felt just like one of the hundred 6 years olds sitting in the audience. The show was really good and I think both I and the little girl who was sitting next to me, dancing like Shakira the whole way through, have realised that we want to join the circus when we grow up! The circus women were so sexy and cool... and flexible! If only!

After the circus we went out for dinner. Now I am a huge exagerater, however this was definitely the best meal I have ever had in my whole life! André ordered a seafood platter for us which consisted of crab, lobster, prawns, snails, oysters and some other weird sea creatures. I loved every mouthful and when it ended I thought I was gonna die because I was that full! But there's always room for cake :] the cake was a homemade Brigadeiro cake and it was amazing!

After we'd stuffed ourselfs we headed to Breiner for the 2nd time this weekend for the Sexy Christmas Party. I felt bad because I didn’t dress up, but it would look a bit odd wearing a sexy Christmas outfit to the circus and then to a restaurant! The party was really good and all the house made a lot of money! But André and I were super tired so we headed home early and laid in bed to watch the Vampire Diaries. That night I found out some terrible news... ok so my friends know that I'm a bit of an American tv show addict, I love my Gossip Girl, my 90210, my Vampire Diaries, my Keeping up with the Kardashians, my Modern family and so on. It seems that America has a horrible Vendetta against me and all these shows have gone on a I hate Charlotte strike, meaning that they are off my screen until mid-end January! What the hell am I going to do for a month!!! I know its Christmas and I should be spending time with my family and friends who I haven't seen in months, but I need my shows! They're like my crack! :[ so I am a tiny bit depressed.

But let me leave you with an enlightening story...
 

Ok so I was on the Daily Mail website a few weeks ago and saw Frankie Sandford from the Saturdays wearing the most amazing leopard print coat I have ever seen. I tried so hard to hunt this coat down but couldn't find it anywhere! It's like she got it from space or something. Then I went out the other night and saw this Portuguese girl wearing it! But by the time I plucked up the courage to ask her (in Portuguese) where it was from she had disappeared! I was so upset but thought, maybe its fate, maybe I am supposed to be cold this winter (ok so I own like 10 coats, 4 of them bought since I’ve been in Portugal but shhhh). And then last night it happened! We were in a shopping centre to get some dinner (they have restaurants in their shopping centres over here) when from the corner of my eye I see this coat shining in the shop window. It was MY COAT! I've been to like 10 Zaras this month and haven’t seen this coat in any of them, and just by chance we go to the shopping centre that I normally dislike and it's there that I find my coat! Perfect.

Overall my last weekend in Porto was perfect :] 

Love you long time xxx

Wow my last post was on the 26th September... I do apologise for this! This is my attempt to write about 2 months worth of living in one blogpost! Hmmmmm where to start...

So in my last post I told you all a bit about a guy called André...
I am happy to say that when I come back from this year and someone asks me "So what did you do on your year abroad" I can reply "I fell in love" <3

In October André and I made a 4 hour car journey to Évora where we stayed in the Convento do Espinheiro hotel for one amazing weekend. The hotel is an ex-convent converted into a 5 star hotel, it has absolutely everything you could possibly want and need (I'm not gonna lie, I felt like a princess :] ). We were only there for 3 days so we had to make the most of the weekend and drag ourselves out of the hotel complex and into the historical and beautiful town.

On the way home we decided to go via Lisbon for "1 night" and stayed with André's aunt. We ended up staying there for 3 days but had an incredible time. André lived in Lisbon so he showed me around the city local stylee. I love Porto, but if you're visiting Portugal go to Lisbon! It is the most amazing city and has some incredible shops!

I also went to Aveiro with Lindsay and Ania (Breiner house mates) that month. We took the train to the "Venice of Portugal" and had an amazing time. Fair enough there is a canal running through the whole town, but it is definitely not the Venice of anywhere.


In November my mum, sister and younger brother came to visit. We had a really good weekend, even though it rained and was extremely cold! I showed them around Porto and they moaned about the walking!

The weekend after Breiner house had their first official party and it was Kitsch themed (don't ask). Ali and I organised it, and i think we did a pretty good job. People had to pay entrance and for their drinks and the house made a nice bit of money. I really enjoyed it however it didn’t seem very much like a party for me because I was the only sober person out of 400 people in the house and I had to run around with money all night.

                                    


The next party is this weekend and I have decided to step down as chief organiser and enjoy myself this time! Especially because I moved out of Breiner house last week!

Although it was a great atmosphere and I love everyone in that house, André made me an offer I couldn’t refuse... living in a beautifully furnished and warm house rent free. It made sense because I'm always there anyway and I will only be in Portugal for another month and a half.

Last weekend my brother and his fiancé Charlotte were supposed to be flying over for a visit. Unfortunately the snow on their end meant that their flight was cancelled. I was so annoyed because I was not only excited to see them, but also to see Charlotte’s engagement ring :] but it looks like i will have to wait until I go home for Christmas for that!


Last night I went to a party in Vila do Conde at the Forte São João. It was insane, a party in a fort with QUENTIN HARRIS, who is now my favourite DJ ever.

I am returning to England on the 19th December and am really excited. I love being in Portugal but I need a bit of English in my life! Also I cannot wait to hit the shops!  Westfield here I come :]

 
Love you long time xxx

Breyner fun

I haven't written anything for a while as I haven't really done anything interesting enough to write about and I didn't want to bore everyone.

So I am now living in Breyner house with about 20 people of different nationalities. For the first two days I was very homesick and found it difficult to mingle with everyone as I felt really shy and uneasy but as once we started to drink and go out socialising became a lot easier and I think I’ve made some good friends here. My first night out I went to a club (which I keep forgetting the name of) that was like a huge garden party! We were all drinking in the garden and playing some games when at 2am someone suggested that we move on to a club. The club itself is as big as a house with the upstairs playing rock music and the downstairs playing reggae (so everyone is smoking weed) but then the Garden is jam packed with people, food stalls and random jewellery stalls. It was an amazing first night out and we didn’t get in until about 7am. Lindsay and I went to the Uni pretty much every day for registrations, timetables etc. and the when we weren’t at the uni we were in Ikea! I swear my first week in Porto I spent 5 days of it shopping!

On Monday I had my first lecture, I was so tired because its at 8.30am and it was completely in Portuguese. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t understand much at all but the lecturer was really nice and pointed out that us English are really bad at languages. In the evening we went to the Ribeira, which is one of the famous bridges which links Porto and Gaia - the view of Gaia lit up at night is absolutely amazing. Everyone goes to the bars along the river and gets a Balde (litre of alcohol) and gets drunk and talks to randomers. It was a really good night because the Balde of Vodka and lemon which, was pretty much 70% vodka, only cost 5€ and that’s all I needed to drink all night, although I did buy another one but of Vodka Preta (black Vodka! Try it because it’s amazing!).

That night I met a really nice Portuguese girl who took me to the loo because the bar was shut, once we weed she introduced me to her boyfriend and his friend, they were all really nice and I stayed and chatted with them for the rest of the night. On the Wednesday the boyfriend’s friend Andre text me and asked if I wanted to go out with them all, I was a little bit nervous because I hadn’t been out on my own yet but I thought what the hell! You only live once! The club we went to was called Via Rapida, I think it’s a student club but none of my housemates had heard of it. The music was really good and I danced most of the night! The next day Andre asked me if I wanted to go out for dinner :] and we did and since Wednesday I’ve pretty much been with him every day, he is like my personal Portuguese tour guide and teacher :].

On Saturday we had a Pimps and Hoes themes house party at Breyner, it was really good and everyone dressed up and made an effort. I didn’t want to go to whorish and wore something I would wear on a Notts night out. It’s now Sunday; I’m not feeling too great today I think it’s due to the crazy amount of alcohol I have consumed since I’ve been at Breyner! I have a lecture in six and a half hours and all I can think about is what I’m going to wear to Ribeira tomorrow evening! I have to start going to all my lectures from tomorrow so that’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday all 8.30 starts! I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to go out and then go to these lectures! To be honest I’m not sure how I’m going to survive these next five months!

I would appreciate it if people would start planning trips to come visit me now because I have lots of things I want brought over :]

Love you long time xxx

For some reason I can't load my pics! :/

Sete Bicas

So I made it to Porto in one piece, I’ve been here for 5 days now and feel like I’ve done so much!

Thursday

Mum and I went to the airport for 7am which was a struggle as it meant I had to be up for 6am! When we were queuing up to go through customs we were standing behind a guy who we politely smiled at and he smiled back, I then commented to my mum that he will be the tag along that I ALWAYS get at the airport -the one that wants to tell you their life story and show you pictures of their dogs. We went on our way but later on as we were walking to our gate we found him again and got into conversation, the guy was called Henrique and as it goes he was actually a god send! He’s from Porto but speaks perfect English as he’s lived in England for 11 years. I slept for the whole journey but mum and he spoke the whole way and in the end he helped us with our bags, took me to the Vodafone shop to get a Portuguese sim and put us in a taxi to our hotel. The hotel wasn’t all that, more of a B&B but the staff were super friendly and the breakfast was good so I can’t complain. As soon as we got to Porto my hunt for a house began, I must have called at least 10 people that day but got nowhere! Luckily later on in the day I called someone who I had emailed previously and he said I could look around his house, so we went and I fell in love instantly. Unfortunately I’m unable to move in until Wednesday but thank goodness for Lindsay (a fellow Nottingham Erasmus Student) who is letting me crash at her house until then. We went to a Restaurant called Brasa dos Leões for dinner, which is undoubtedly the best restaurant in Porto, so if you ever come to Porto you have to eat there!!!

Friday 

I should have written my blog on a daily basis because I’m struggling to remember what I’ve done each day. Mum and I walked to the University on Friday and semi-registered. I couldn’t fully register because I forgot to bring passport photos with me so I had to wait until Monday to finish registration. There is so much walking in Porto and everything seems to be on a hill which is super tiring, by the end of the day I was ready to pass out. We tried to find the Brasa restaurant to eat at for diner but forgot exactly where it was so ended up eating in a random restaurant. The food wasn’t great; we had spaghetti bolognaise and lasagne but they didn’t have tomato sauce in/on them which was weird. Also I ordered a Batido da Fruta (smoothie) which was awful as it tasted like dirty water! So don’t get smoothies over here. Whilst we were waiting for our food to arrive there was a knock at the window; knowing that I didn’t know anyone in Porto yet I didn’t turn around but mum started smiling and said “look there’s Andre!” Andre is kind of my landlord, I think his brother –in-law or father-in-law or something-in-law owns the house. He came into the restaurant and had a chat, he then told us that there was going to be a party at Breiner (my house) that night and that we should go. So after dinner we went and we met lots of nice people. The majority of my house is either Polish or German but there are a great range of nationalities such as English, Brazilian, Portuguese, French, etc. The house is huge, it’s an ex-hall of residence and before that a nunnery so it isn’t a conventional house. Overall there are 22 rooms, three floors, a massive kitchen, a den (with a bar, sofas, TV and ping pong table) and a courtyard with a big table for us to drink at in the evenings. Apparently Breiner is known for being a party house and is “the place to be for an Erasmus student” so I am really looking forward to moving in on Wednesday! We didn’t stay at the party for long because we were tired, and also I was with my mum- not cool although she was loving it!

Saturday

So Saturday mum and I went on a bus tour around Porto which was really interesting (although I fell asleep for a little bit) as we got to see basically the whole City and learnt the history. The night before we were told that there was a free bus from A Casa da Música which would take us to the Ikea shopping complex. So we walked to Aliados and got the metro to Casa da Música where we waited for the “free Ikea bus” for an hour and twenty minutes, only to find out that it didn’t run on the weekends. In the end I got fed up and decided that we were just going to have to get a taxi. Whilst we were waiting for the bus Lindsay was already there and described the complex for me. The Ikea here is in a shopping centre so when you walk out you are amongst shops such a Zara and Bershka (which is heavenly for me :]) By the time we got there Lindsay had shopped and paid for her stuff but came round with us as I chose my bedding and towels. We also got hotdogs and ice-cream from Ikea which was much needed after that ridiculous wait for the stupid non-running auto-carro. Mum and I went to Brasa dos Leões again that night for dinner.

                                               

Sunday

Sunday was mum’s final day with me in Porto, so it felt like the holiday was over and I was going into the real world. We woke up at 8am to take my bags to Breiner for someone to look after until Wednesday, it was a traumatising experience as the cases were extremely heavy and we and even though we only had to walk 10 minutes away, it was swelteringly hot so it took double the time. What’s more the wheel of one of my suitcases basically melted off making it harder and noisier to lug about. After that experience we went back and had breakfast, I was so tired that after breakfast I went back up to the room and slept until 11.45am and we had to be out of the hotel by 12pm. We went on 2 bus tours that day, one was really good as we looked at the bridges of Porto and saw some lovely views. At 6pm we met Lindsay and then took mum to the airport. It was sad to see her go but it was exciting to think that my year abroad was officially starting! Lindsay and I got the metro back into town and I took her to Brasa for dinner, she loved it! After dinner we got the metro and a bus back to Lindsay’s flat where I struggled to get internet until we went decided to go to bed, not before we had a Skype convo with Hannah and Sam who are in Argentina. It was so nice to speak to them and somewhat emotional as I miss them loads! Thank goodness for Skype is what I say!

Monday

Today has been such a long day. We had breakfast in a café by the flat where we struggled to order tea, juice and a cake. We had a list of things to do today and we completed everything but one:

- Get passport photos  - Check
- Register at uni  - Check
- Get lunch - Check
- Buy leggings - Check 
- Buy sunglasses (to prevent blindness from the sun)  X 

Although the list isn’t very long, it took all day to complete and we didn’t get in until 10.30pm. We went to a shopping centre called Norte Shopping which is pretty big, but the shops weren’t that great so in future we’ll be going to the Ikea shopping complex as there are loads of good shops there! We did so much walking today that our feet have turned worryingly dirty (as we had shoes on) and Lindsay has a huge blister. By the time we got on the metro we were Lethargic and were acting like homeless drunks. It wasn’t until about 9pm that I realised that even though I was wearing a bra; my nipples were definitely visible through my t-shirt, however by this time I was too tired to even move so I let the commuters have a free show. I looked up the word for nipple in the dictionary and it is Bico which is really ironic as the place we went today was called Sete Bicas.

When we got back to the flat we came in and put our PJs on straight away, we went into the living room where we started writing our blogs but then we had an electrical emergency. The two Macedonian girls that Lindsay lives with blew a fuse cooking something in the microwave so the whole house lost any electrical power. They tried to fix it but because they couldn’t they went back into the kitchen and sat in the dark eating there half microwaved meal. It was so funny; they were just sitting in the dark chatting away as if nothing happened so it was up to Lindsay and me to save the day as our laptops were speedily running out of power. We flicked all the switches on the fuse box but to no avail so we headed down the corridor where I knocked on a random neighbour’s door. They didn’t answer even though we could hear them and they were shouting something Portuguese at us through the door. So all four of us headed downstairs in our PJs to find some help, in the end we found 2 Brazilian students that Lindsay had already met and they came up and within 30 seconds we had light again. As soon as the lights came on the Brazilians told us to get dressed because we were going out with them. We decline there ‘offer’ as I don’t think either of us would be able to stand up for more than 10minutes tonight. So here I am writing my blog but I won’t be able to post it until tomorrow because the internet actually hates us.

I hope everyone is well and I’m missing you all loads!

Love you long time xxx

The journey begins ...

So today should have been a pretty stressful day due to the fact that tomorrow I will be moving to a foreign country for the next year of my life. However, me being me; I woke up late as usual, I went into town and had a look around the shops, went for lunch with a friend and came home and had dinner. I even organised to go to the pub. It wasn't until about 8pm that I thought to myself "maybe I should start packing!".

For those of you that know me, I'm not one for packing light! I don't think I've ever got ready at someones house without taking a small suitcase / holdall with me. So this evenings task of packing my life into 40kg was somewhat of a challenge, but thanks to a lot of help from my mum and sister - who politely told me that it is not necessary to take 7kg worth of toiletries with me - I was able to do it, with about 1kg to spare!

For those who are reading this blog that don't know me particularly well, I'll just give you a quick summary about myself:

• I'm a self confessed shopoholic 
• I love clothes and hate people who dress badly!
• I have an unwarranted high opinion of myself and consider myself to be the next Gok Wan
• I like to exagerate so I would take everything I say with a pinch of salt. 
• I am a massive hypochondriac so if I claim that I have a life threatening illness, there's a 99.9% chance that I have a cold.

So I'm off to Porto tomorrow where I will be attending university until February Then in February I will be heading over to Spain to work as a language assistant in a secondary school in La Mancha (hence the blog title). I'm a little bit apprehensive because my Portuguese is awful and also I haven't found anywhere to live yet but I have 4 houses to look at tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some luck!

Sorry for the essay guys!

Love you long time xx