Happy Thursday! In 2017, I visited Europe for the first time ever. I tagged along on a girlfriend's trip around Portugal for a week, then I flew to London to meet up with my then-boyfriend (now-husband!) for London, Rome , and Paris . Today I am finishing the last travel diary of the trip, with London!

Lagos was the last stop on my Portugal trip with my girlfriends! After visiting Porto and then Lisbon , we took the train to Lagos on a Thursday morning, where we stayed until Friday afternoon.  We had left the U.S. on a Friday, landed in Portugal on Saturday, and left Portugal the following Friday -- so we managed to hit 3 cities in Portugal in 7 days on the ground!

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and its largest city, and it was the second stop on my Portugal trip, after Porto and before Lagos .  Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and we spent a lot  of time just walking the city, taking it all in. If I'm being perfectly honest, I did prefer Porto and Lagos to Lisbon, although I still loved the city. As I said in my Porto travel diary , I think the reason was because Lisbon had that familiar feeling of being in a city. But it was still a stunning city, with historical sites throughout, and a day trip to Sintra just a short train ride away. As a side note, it's funny that Portugal was my first European trip because my first trip to South America was Brazil in 2016 with my friend Amy... so we kept joking that we just really loved the Portuguese language! As an FYI, "hello" in Portuguese is "olá "; "sorry" is "desculpe"; and "thanks" is "obrigado" (male speaker) or ...

Portugal -- the place that started it all for me! Portugal was the very first country in Europe I ever visited and the first international trip I planned that wasn't an all-inclusive or through a study abroad program. After visiting Portugal, I was hooked on travel -- the history, the food, and the general excitement of exploring somewhere new and learning about other cultures.

I visited Rome in September 2017 as part of a two-week trip that included Portugal, England,  and France , and Rome was immediately my favorite city of the trip. I loved being able to just wander the city and see history everywhere. It was unlike any other place I've been, mostly in part because it felt ancient in a way no city I'd ever visited did.

In 2017, I visited Europe for the very first time. Because it was my first time in Europe and I didn't know the next time I'd be back, I decided to make the most of it by staying for 2 weeks:  1 week in Portugal with two of my girlfriends, then meeting up with my then-boyfriend (now husband!) for a 2nd week in London, Rome, and Paris.  I joke that the 2nd week was such a stereotypical basic girl Eurotrip itinerary -- but I thought they'd be a good intro for my first time to Europe, and I'm so glad I visited all of them!  Seeing the Eiffel Tower was a magical experience, and I loved all of the food -- escargots, bread, champagne, cheese, chocolate. I also appreciated the opportunity to take day trips, especially to Normandy. And my boyfriend loved Paris so much that less than a year later, he proposed in front of the Eiffel Tower. :-)