Lisbon Day 3! Fado music is life changing

 *** Another post that you will have to read from bottom to top please!! I don't know why they upload like this sometimes and the wifi here is not good so it would take forever to re upload :(

Later that night, we headed to our group dinner at O Corrido for the fado experience! I didn't really know what to expect, all I knew was that there was eating then singing then eating then singing then eating and more singing, and it was going to be 4 hours long. So you can imagine my apprehension haha. Let me just say now, that I have never been more happy to have been proven wrong about being unexcited about something. I can't even describe how incredible this dinner was. First, the food was soo good. I did accidentally eat some blood sausage - interesting but decided that I definitely don't like it, even before knowing what it was. I had pork in a red wine sauce with vegetable mash and it was phenomenal. The pork was so tender and yummy. And then for dessert I had chocolate mousse with berries on top and a toffee crumble on the bottom that was maybe the best dessert I have had so far.

There is a host who runs the dinner, and he was so personable. He came up to every table and talked to us about us, what we were studying, the places we were going to see, and told us a little bit about fado music and how it works.

Ok, now for the music. So for fado nights, there are typically multiple singers that go on for different sets. We had four singers and then there were two Portuguese guitarists. The sets are also completely improvised - the singers decide what they want to sing that night and then tell the guitarists song by song.

The first girl that sang was only 25, but I literally had to remind myself to breathe after the first note she sang. She was absolutely incredible and her voice was stunning. I was seriously transfixed and we all kept looking at eachother like is she even real?? The second singer was a man and he just had the most wonderful energy and personality. He sang a song called "Cantu fado" (sing fado) and he had us join in with him and sing the "cantu fado" part. The last two singers were two more women - one of them was the wife of the Fado host, and we found out afterwards that she had laryngitis... and she was still PHENOMENAL. I am still in awe at how she did that. She sang a set of Amalia songs because they knew that we had been studying her for our class. These are seriously the sweetest people ever! The last woman who sang was older and had so much sass and personality. She was so fun to watch and again had a beautiful voice.

Basically I could gush about this night for hours. The food, the people, the music - it was a spiritual experience for me, and one of my favorite nights on the trip so far. Enjoy the pics above!

Random, but we stopped at the grocery store after to grab picnic lunch for tomorrow and this was everything I got for 8 euros. Crazy how cheap groceries are here! We also stopped at a cafe for some chocolate cake that was recommended by the Hegstrom/Pratts and it did not disappoint oh my. It was fudgey and gooey and yummy, and the guy at the cafe was so nice to us! After we picked up cake, we headed back to the hotel to blog and pack since we head to Sintra tomorrow morning.

After the garden they set us free for several hours, until Fado at 7! Audrey and I really wanted to make sure that we got our Taylor Swift merch, so we headed to the arena, waited in line for a short period of time (an hour and a half), and the merch was secured!! I was soo excited to get my blue crewneck because I have been dying to have one since last year. It was really funny after we were telling the other girls about this later and they asked how long we waited, and we were like oh only an hour and a half, and they looked at us like we were crazy. They underestimate the craziness of Taylor Swift fans! The line moved fast and we had plenty to talk about so it was fun. After we got our merch we headed to the mall right next to the arena and grabbed some Pizza Hut from the food court, which was actually delicious haha. I don't know if I was starving or what but it was just what I needed.

After the museum we headed to a park that is named Jardim Amalia for Amalia Rodrigues! We talked about Portugal for a little bit there and it was nice to sit in the sun and enjoy the nice weather. Dale was sitting criss cross in the grass surveying his kingdom haha.

This one is for dad

We had a late start today, 10:30 which was SO nice!! I definitely loved the extra 2 hours of sleep. We headed as a group to the Gulbenkian museum, which is another museum that contains a private art collection. There was a ton of different exhibits of Arabic art, tile from Turkey, Renaissance, and you basically just followed the exhibits from the oldest stuff to the newest stuff. Nothing was really speaking to me until I got to the impressionist exhibits haha. I definitely have a favorite! They had Monet, Degas, Renoir, and even Mary Cassatt who is one of very few women impressionist artists. Her piece was one of my favorites! (another plug to read my school blog to learn more haha) One of my professors sent a picture of a lady in one of the paintings to the group chat and asked if anyone else thought it looked a little like me... unfortunately it was not the most flattering painting to be compared to HAHA. Leave your opinions in the comments. Outside of the museum there was a little pond and it had little baby ducks!! Actually the cutest thing ever, I don't think you can really see them in the picture unfortunately but just know they were adorable.