Monthly Recap: May 2023

6/3/2023

Destinations Visited

This month I went to Braga, located in the north of Portugal to visit my friend Christie. If you'll remember I visited her in Tavira in March and Lagos in April. She's here on a 90 day tourist visa and has been a month in each place.

We had a great time exploring the town ... and of course, the obligatory photo in front of the Braga sign.

There was even a re-enactment of a Roman festival called Braga Romana, where they relive the time when the city was part of the Roman Empire. Braga actually used to be named Bracara Augusta.

Trying on (and eventually buying) my flower crown for the festivities.

It seemed like the whole town was involved and really get into character. I plan to do some blog posts about it in the future.

We also visited Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte is a Portuguese Catholic shrine in Tenões, just outside the city of Braga.

Instead of walking up all of those steps, we rode the funicular up to the top of the mountain. The funicular was inaugurated on March 25, 1882 and is the oldest funicular in the world moved by water counterbalancing, loading water into the car at the top of the hill, weighing it down so it descends to the bottom, at the same time drawing the lighter, drained car up the hill, where the process starts all over again. Here's a time lapse of our trip up.

The gardens were absolutely gorgeous!

We even did a day trip to nearby Guimarães.

Then I did a 5-day trip to Dublin, Ireland. It was a quick trip as I was still in Portuguese class (Mondays and Wednesdays) until May 31st.

We did a lot in just 5 days.
Chester Beatty Museum
Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour with visits to Christchurch Cathedral, the Emmigration Museum, St. Stephens Green (where I ran into a high school friend - how cool is that?!) among others.
A day trip to Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry.
A day trip to hike the cliffs at Howth.
as well as wandering around the city and visiting the famous Temple Bar area.

Being a Local Tourist

Friends and I took at day trip to Sintra (about 40 minutes outside of Lisbon). We had lunch at Cafe de Paris and then visited Monserrat Palace.

Expenses

Highlights

Surpassing my previous highest daily steps in Ireland on our day trip to Howth. I did 35,104 steps. Previously, I did 34,626 steps the first time I visited Porto back on September 11, 2022.

Challenges

Trying to do all of this walking with a bum foot. My foot has been sore since I went to Tavira/Seville back in March. Probably all of that walking with shoes that were too old and no support left.

My Favorite Colorings This Month

These are the only 4 colorings I did this month. They are all from Johana Basford's Ivy and the Inky Butterfly: A Magical Tale to Color.