Study Abroad in Italy: School trip to Lisbon, Portugal

Hello beautiful,

Thank you so much for keeping up with me. I hope you are enjoying these almost weekly updates of my study abroad experience. Let me know by leaving a comment below after reading. Love you and let’s get into it.

Slight Backtrack: After my weekend trip to Barcelona, I had Midterm break and did a tour of Northern Italy that week. I was in a different city every day including, Verona, Milan, Venice, Lake Garda, and Florence. I was going to write a blog post on this week but it is too much to write about. If you are interested in what I was up to, check out my story highlights on Instagram. You’ll see posts of each city I visited. The most important thing you need to know about the week was that I had an awesome time exploring Northern Italy. Each city is unique and it felt like I was in a different country everyday.

Following mid term week /weekend, came an uneventful week of classes. That weekend however, I had a school trip to Lisbon, Portugal for my European Business class. We left for Portugal on Thursday evening. Funny story, I might or might not have left my passport at home and rushed back to get it before joining the other students at the airport. I’m just saying, that might or might not have happened, don’t start judging oo. We arrived at Lisbon super late and had dinner at this American restaurant (let’s not even talk about the food), then we went to our hotel to sleep.

Since the trip was for a business class, we visited a post office, the Portugal school of Tourism, and Nova School of Business on Friday. It was cool learning what these places did and how they contribute to the growth of the European Union. The Nova school of Business was a highlight because the school is by the beach and absolutely stunning. I kept thinking why my university would sabotage itself by bringing me there? I could have decided to switch schools but I won’t.

We were exhausted since we a day full of activities as we left the hotel at 9am and our visits were done after 6pm. Before I forget, Portugal’s food is a-maaa-zzinggg, I’m not even exaggerating. Lunch was awesome and dinner was even better. Apparently, Portugal is known for its soups, sausage, and sea food of course. They season their meats to perfection and it was a nice break from pizza and pasta.

Saturday was a touristy day which was nice of my school to include for us. We started the day at 9am again, checking out of the hotel this time. We got on a tour bus and had two tour guides explain Lisbon’s history to us. We explored the city’s historic downtown which was beautiful and interesting, we also saw the Lisbon Cathedral. We had coffee break at a Starbucks and I ordered Chai tea latte for the first time. Why did no one ever tell me about this? It was delicious and made me thirsty for Starbucks back in Philadelphia, since there is none in Rome.

We continued to explore Lisbon as we made our way to the Jeronimos Monastery. I did not know what the monastery was, so it was nice learning about it. It was also gorgeous inside. Some cool things about Lisbon are the gorgeous pastel colours of the buildings and beautifully decorated Trams shown below.

After sightseeing, we had 4 hours to venture out on our own and have lunch before heading to the airport. Everyone had lunch somewhere different and my group decided on a buffet place. I already mentioned above how delicious Portuguese food is, but this food was divine, it made me wish I was spending more time there. It was the perfect end to the day, then we headed for the airport at 5pm. I forgot to get souvenirs on this trip, so I got one for my mom at the airport. Our flight was delayed (shaking my head at TapAir Portugal) and we arrived back in Rome almost at midnight.

The trip to Lisbon was worth it though. I recommend Portugal to anyone for vacation and I’m definitely going to be back! Let me be honest, I wasn’t too excited about the trip in the beginning because I didn’t know much about Lisbon. Despite that, the beautiful city blew my mind and I’m sure the minds of other students. We were impressed and I’m glad that the school planned a trip there because I doubt any student would have gone otherwise.