Portuguese Paradise!

I am long overdue on this blog, but hopefully you will enjoy it anyway! :)

Portugal...a country I've never given much thought to in my life, and quite frankly had to remind myself of its exact location, turned out to be one of the most incredible places I could have ever dreamed of visiting. A very happy surprise and a perfect last minute vacation! 

I was scheduled to attend a conference for work in Cascais, Portugal, and decided to accept an invitation to join Peter and some of his very sweet Dutch friends a few days early for some beach time. We rented a cute little convertible and stayed in a "surf house" which I wasn't sure of to start with (it was actually someone's house), but by the end of the week, didn't want to leave! It was a great retreat from the real world and I wouldn't hesitate to go back someday. 

We started out spending a bit of time in Lisbon, Portugal. It was such an interesting city. The city hills very much reminded me of San Francisco, and even found trams that went from the bottom to top of the city. It was a beautiful place at night, and it was really cool to see the graffiti everywhere (for those who know me well, understand my appreciation of this!).

We visited an international church on Sunday morning while we were there. I never thought I would have been able to say I had visited multiple international churches but that was my third in the 4 weeks I had been in Europe and each experience was incredibly different. I found one cool thing in common- they all worshipped the same Jesus! It actually was very exciting to be in several different countries and although the styles were different, I felt a similar tie. 

I was incredibly excited to visit with an old friend from high school while I was there. Yes, that's right. On the other side of the world, two Tri-Cities Christian School graduates from East Tennessee met up and caught up on life! If you would have told either of us this would happen in high school, we would have laughed at you. But here we were, in Portugal! My friend, Sarah, and her husband are actually missionaries in the Lisbon area. It was incredible to hear about how life had changed so much for her and I felt really proud to hear the amazing things that God was doing through their ministry!

The next few days, the girls tanned and the boys surfed! Our hours were spent enjoying the gorgeous golden beaches and watching surfers dance over the waves with their boards. It was surreal.

We visited a tiny town by the name of Sintra one evening. This was an incredibly beautiful old place. The town was established between the 8-9th centuries by the Moors, which is the castle at the very top of the mountain in Sintra.

It seemed like everyone in this little town had their own castle. I really enjoyed the beautiful colors and architecture here. The porcelain tiles on the outside of the homes, the family crests on each place, the beautiful flowers and simply untouched elegance was incredible. What a view from here!

Sadly, the vacation ended on Wednesday as work called. We attended the conference and it was really great. Lots of productive insights and meetings...and some great networking! The conference group arranged a unique experience where we visited a several hundred years old port wine cellar. It was beautiful!

Our last evening after the conference finished, we found an incredibly beautiful beach about 5 minutes from the surf house. I wish we had found it sooner in the week! I have never seen water and a sunset so beautiful. It was cool to watch the kite surfers too! It was an amazing week in a piece of paradise. I hope I get to go back someday!