o)Man, I can’t believe we’ve been traveling for two and a half months already. It feels like just yesterday when we were dragging ourselves and our outlandish amount of over-packed luggage out of the airport in Lisbon. After traveling for 17 hours we stumbled out of the airport to meet two of my boyfriend Hazard’s oldest and best friends, Rainha and RAPS. Within an hour we were at the house of another one of his oldest friend’s, Jota, who lives in Baixa Chiado, a neighborhood in the center of LIsbon… I probably should have guessed by the amount of new best bros I had just met in the first three hours that there would be many more to come, but I definitely wasn’t prepared for how awesome they would be.

Jota took us to an incredible fish restaurant in Lisbon and then to one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen, the Se Cathedral. The energy in the building, which was originally built in the 1100’s, was indescribable. It was like an extreme calm washed over and through my body bringing me to a place of overwhelming contentment and peace, something that remained with me throughout the trip. Portugal feels like home. We’ve embarked on some incredible adventures, and I’ve met so many people who I feel truly connected to, my heart aches when I think I’ll be leaving her next week…

My boyfriend became my fiance on the top of a cliff overlooking the beach (Praia da Macas). We watched two of his oldest friends get married on a beautiful farm in Malveira de Serra. We explored Sintra, my Fiance’s family’s old Quinta, and some of the mountain’s paralyzingly gorgeous castles. This has been the trip of a lifetime.