My Trip to Portugal: Outfits

Hey everyone! I know it's been awhile since I last blogged. Although I write for so many different publications, my motivation has been at an all-time low to write. I've decided to get back into the groove of things by posting all about my trip to Portugal (March 16-23).

Usually, when I go on trips with my school, I end up wearing jeans and a t-shirt for most of the time, but this year my friends and I decided to go all out since it was our last choir trip. I also wanted to bring clothes that I really enjoy and take really cute pics to blog about. Here are some of my outfits from my trip to Porto and Lisbon.

Outfit 1

For my first day, I decided to go with a casual look. My group was walking a lot in the day, so I wanted something that I would be comfortable in.

Ripped Jeans - American Eagle Outfitters 

Blue Polo Shirt 

Navy Sweater with mid-sleeves - H&M 

Blue and White Stan Smiths- Adidas

Sunglasses - Steve Madden 

Blue, Purple, Black Jacket  - Thrifted from AuH20

Silver Hoops - Cue Boutique

Outfit 2

Black Turtle Neck - L.L.Bean 

Gold Hoops 

Sunglasses - Steve Madden 

Jeans - American Eagle 

White Fluffy Jacket - Begreh (a clothing store in Braga, Portugal)

In this photo, I am holding a pastry called a Nata, which was so cheap and so delicious. There will be more to come on my times in Portugal soon. :)

Outfit 3

                                     

The only big thing different between this outfit and the last is the jacket I am wearing. These photos were taken on the same day, except I had switched my jacket and my hair. This denim jacket is from Forever 21. 

Outfit 4

If you can't tell, I was really into wearing black shirts with denim jeans this whole trip. I had four pairs of pants with me, and three of them were pairs of jeans. My thrifted jacket made another appearance on this day.

Outfit 5 

                                                  

Turquoise bag- Coach

High Waisted Jeans - American Eagle Outfitters

Black Boots - Steve Madden

Floral Shirt - Begreh 

Jacket - Eddie Bauer

There was a night where my friend and I went out to dinner, and we found a red photo booth, so we just had to take photos in it. I had previously only thought England had red photo booths. The two of us had gone to a restaurant in Porto called 'The Tram' and had wanted to dress up for it. 

Outfit 6

                                              

Two colored tights - Calzedonia 

Black Boots - Steve Madden 

Black Bralette - Brandy Melville

White Crocheted  Sweater - Cue Boutique 

Red and Blue Sunglasses - a boutique in Braga 

I really loved my outfit this day, My friend, Nikki, and I decided to dress up for our last day in Portugal so that we could get good pictures. I was a little bit fancier compared to the usual people who are spending the day sightseeing, but it was all in good fun. 

I am happy to be blogging again! What are some other posts I should do in the future? More outfit posts?

xx

Christina Madeleine 

A Day in Washington D.C.

Hey everyone! This week has been so busy for me. I started the week off in Boston, Massachusetts for three days and two nights. Then on Thursday I headed to Washington D.C for two days and one  night. What's the reason for all of my traveling this week? College Tours! It's cool that I get to visit all of these new places, but it's just so tiring. So, today and yesterday I visited two colleges and did some wandering of my country's capital.

This is mostly a photo post...but oh well! I need to go back to Washington D.C. because I really want to see the Smithsonian Museum.

 Here are some of the monuments and places I saw in this city.

 There was some official business going on in The White House when I was there, so unfortunately this is as close I could get to the building. For some reason I pictured The White House with more privacy to roam. It was cool nonetheless to see where the presidents of the United States have lived.

 This is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is the biggest building I've ever seen. It's huge! The whole building is filled with different details, but the architecture is identical no matter where you look on the building.  This building has a long history and many presidents have handled official business in it. 

This is the Washington Monument. It commemorates the first President of the United States... George Washington (who also appears on our one dollar bills).

Later on...

My family and I ate at a restaurant called "Founding Farmers", it's a pun on the term "founding fathers." The restaurant was so good! We originally weren't going to go in, but it was worth it. I had fish and chips.

 Later on, we stopped at an ice cream store called "Captain Cookie and The Milkman". Basically you have a choice of eight different cookies, and ten different ice cream flavors and you order an ice cream sandwich. I ordered Cookies N' Cream between chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were warm and it was delicious. It's a big ice cream sandwich, but it was a nice way to end a week of college touring.

I hope you liked this post! 
Have you ever been to Washington D.C? 

                                                                                 xx
                                                                  Christina Madeleine

OOTD: Golden Gate Park

Hey everyone! It's been awhile. This month I have traveled to California, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C. In California, I was able to visit San Francisco, Monterrey, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbra with my singing group from school. On the second day of the trip we visited Golden Gate Park and did a whole tour of the city of San Francisco.

Here is my OOTD:

My Outfit:

Bomber Jacket- American Eagle 

Floral Shirt - American Eagle

Ripped Jamie Jeans - Top Shop

Sneakers - Adidas Superstars 

I've been super obsessed with bomber jackets, and I finally was able to buy one! Mine was on clearance from American Eagle and cost about 36 dollars.

         My friends and I took so many pictures by the Golden Gate Bridge because it was so sunny and beautiful that day. New York has been rainy and cold, and the sunshine was a change. I'm always unprepared for the weather when I go on trips, so there I was in long sleeves when it was very warm out.

I've been to San Francisco before ( you can check out that post here ) when I was 15, but this time I got to see even more and be with my friends. The Golden Gate Bride was so pretty, and interesting to learn about. Did you know that it was originally supposed to be painted black and yellow?

 After visiting the Golden Gate Bridge we went to Sausalito (more photos coming soon). I was trying not to be too "tourist-y" but I had to take photos in from of the Golden Gate Bridge!

 Check out my friend Nina (featured above!) on her blog: http://rainyday-writer.blogspot.com/

Lastly, this bomber jacket is officially my favorite jacket. The details of flowers on the back make it more unique. I like this jacket because it goes with any type of outfit especially jeans or leggings. I usually pair it with solid colors because then more attention goes to the jacket.

I am so sorry that I haven't been posting. I am on Spring Break, and I've been college touring. I know it's not an excuse to not be updating, but I have been motivated to blog again because more interesting things have been happening. Thanks for the support with this blog! I can't believe it's been almost 4 years!!

                                                                             xx
                                                               Christina Madeleine

Pearl Harbor + Honolulu 2016

Hey everyone! Today is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii and I wanted to share some pictures from when I visited it. In August, I went to Honolulu and Maui. While I was in Honolulu, my family and I visited the Pearl Harbor memorial. At Pearl Harbor, there are memorials for the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, and the USS Utah, which were destroyed beyond repair during the attacks of December 7, 1941.

The USS Arizona lies in Pearl Harbor where it had sunk. The memorial is built over the ship, and visitors have to take a minute long trip on a boat to the memorial. The USS Arizona and the USS Utah are able to be seen by visitors because the remains of the ship lay on two different sides of the harbor. The USS Oklahoma had huge hole, and sunk a few miles from its brother ships. The memorial for the USS Arizona is the only one I saw, but it was such a nice experience because the memorial is a truly beautiful. If you closely into the harbor, you can see the oil that has continuously leaked from the ship for 75 years, and there is no way of knowing when it will ever stop.

The memorial is seen as a sacred site in honor of all the people who died on December 7, 1941. For survivors of the USS Arizona, when they die they have the option to have scuba divers put their ashes into the sunken ship. Currently, there are only six veterans from this ship alive.  On this sign, it talks about how when the divers put the ashes into the ship, it's like the soldiers are returning home to their fellow soldiers.

At the memorial, there is a list of all the people who died on the day of the attack from all the ships. The whole wall is filled, and it has the first initial and last name of the soldiers.

Pearl Harbor also has two museums about World War II, and the involvement of the United States during the war. Also, the museums had artifacts from the ships, letters from soldiers, old uniforms, stories, and so much more. It's like walking into a time capsule of this event, and it's so interesting. I loved reading about the people who gave their lives to their country. Also, going to the memorial and the museum made me more connected to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it made everything more real. There's a difference between reading about an event, and actually seeing the faces of the fallen, and the place where it happened.


Other Pictures from Honolulu ( Oahu):

Honolulu is so far away from New York, but once I go to the Island I was so happy. It seems like everyone is just so happy and friendly. Oahu is the most populated island of Hawaii, and is filled with tourists from the mainland and Japan.

 I lived for all the fruit that was accessible to me in Hawaii. All the fruit is so fresh, and almost everywhere has at least one smoothie option. For breakfast one morning I had a pitaya (dragon fruit) smoothie bowl with strawberries, bananas, mangoes, coconut shavings, and blueberries.

My family and I went on a bus tour around Honolulu, and the views were spectacular. I also got to see the veterans cemetery that is filled war heroes, celebrities, known and unknown soldiers. Hawaii is a place with such a rich history, and I was so glad to be able to experience it.

Right when I took this photo, the tour guide pointed out that Obama grew up in Honolulu. Since I have never been to Washington D.C, this is the closest I have been to something that is connected to the president. Although there are tons of beaches and palm trees in Hawaii, Honolulu is a metropolitan city.

If you have ever seen Hawaii 5-0, you might recognize this building... :) In reality, this is a government building, and there is an older, identical building right across from it that was also in Hawaii 5-0.

I obviously had to post some picture of me from Honolulu, so here is a picture of me when I learned how to paddle board  in the lagoon at my hotel. Coincidentally, people were filming for Hawaii 5-0, when I got out of the lagoon.

On my last day in Honolulu, before I went to Maui, I went on a walk to try to get to a mountain. After walking about 1.5 miles and then realized  that the mountain was very far away. The walk was very nice because of the view of the clear water and all, but since it was August, the sun was blazing hot.

 I hope you liked my post about Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. This month, I will be posting about my Maui experience, but I felt it was appropriate to post about Pearl Harbor today. 

                                                                            xx
                                                              Christina Madeleine

Guest Post: My Trip To Costa Rica

Hey everyone! I love having guest bloggers on here so I invited a really close friend of mine to write on here. She is a 15 year old from New York who loves to Travel, Write, and Surf. Recently, she went on a trip to Costa Rica for two weeks. Here is her trip to Costa Rica:

Hey, it's Yasmine! Christina asked me if I would be interested in doing a guest blog post and of course I was! I love to write and meet new people. Christina and I have been friends for as long as I can remember: 12 years to be exact. We grew up in NYC together, but unfortunately, I now live about an hour away. Anyways, I recently returned from my trip to Costa Rica with my family. I've been to many countries, but this one is by far the coolest. The Costa Rican people, wildlife and way of life is just simply amazing. Our 6 hour flight went from New York to Charlotte, NC and from there to San Jose, CR. I was sitting by the window and all I could think as we prepared for landing was, "Everything is so green!" Mountains, rainforests and valleys dotted the landscape. 

We spent the first night there in the heart of the country, capital San Jose. The people were so kind and welcoming. I was able to speak some Spanish, which made me realize what a good choice it was to pick it as a language in school. Children coming home from school were feeding pigeons and a little girl came up to me and gave me some corn so I could feed them with her and her friend. San Jose has lots of cobble-stoned streets lined with resteraunts, shops and stores. It's bustling with people, sort of like NYC. The next day, we got our rental car and were able to head to the mountains. We were on our way to Arenal volcano, the most active in the region for 43 years. We spent a lot of time driving on our trip, but it was so much fun. The landscape was always lush green meadows, mountains or small villages with dogs and people sitting outside their houses. As we drove upwards, the altitude caused a change in pressure and weather. Thick fog was all around us for about an hour. Once, we had to stop in the middle of the road to let a herd of cows continue walking around us.

 While we were in the volcano region, we visited La Fortuna waterfall, walked on suspended bridges in the rainfortest canopy, swam in natural hot spring created by geothermal activity and went whitewater rafting. I liked the food a lot, it contained a lot of rice and beans (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) so I tried to get different things every day. The fruit was really good, especially the mangos and pineapple. On the suspended bridges, a tourist spotted a Howler monkey and we heard it making noises. I copied its noises and it answered me! Soon enough, it came down on the wires beside us, followed by its entire family as they joined us in the crossing of the bridge. It was a magical moment. On our rafting trip, I made a friend from England. Rafting was scary and adrenaline-packed but so much fun! We ended up rowing 11 miles in the Sarapiqui river. At our resort, we saw hummingbirds and a snake. It was small and brightly colored, roaming the hallways of our resort. A bunch of girls and I touched the snake. The receptionist called the gardener to release it into the wild. He told us that it was a Coral snake, a very poisonous snake that when fully grown, can kill humans. Needless to say, I learned my lesson about touching animals I didn't know.

 Our next resort was on the Nicoya Penninsula, so we took the Puntarenas ferry. The Pacific ocean is so warm and the waves were so big. The water ranged from 85-90 degrees every day. Lizards and iguanas were constantly on our balcony and I went surfing twice at Playa Hermosa, "beautiful beach". It was lots of fun, but the waves weren't great. Everyone was just surfing the whitewash, which luckily was pretty powerful. There were a lot of friendly beach dogs running around and we played with them all the time. Our hotel was in Santa Teresa, a surfing town where everyone would go out to eat after a surf wearing boardshorts or shorts and a tanktop over a bikini. On our last day, we took a tour to visit Isla Tortuga, a paradise-like island with huge palm trees and crystal clear water. Our group saw dolphins and humpback whales on the boat ride and jumped off the boat to snorkel with loads of tropical fish and reef sharks. It was the coolest experience ever, which I was luckily able to capture with my GoPro. 

After our time at Santa Teresa, we headed to Dominical, another beach province. Our hotel had a wildlife sanctuary up the road, and had a beautiful view of the precious Pacific coastline. I saw toucans and Capuchin monkeys from the pool deck and our balcony! I met another friend, this time from France. We had lots of fun in the pool swimming untilit was pitch black out. My family and I visited Manuel Antonio, the national park and took a tour with a German family where we saw sloths, monkeys and other animals. It was so beautiful. Then I met up at Playa Jaco with my friend Aggie, an 8 year old from Florida who surfs like a little pro. We paddled out to the lineup, avoiding getting smashed by huge 5-6 foot sets. We met up with two other kids from Florida out there and had a great time surfing.  Our last day, I went fishing with my dad and my sister and after we caught some fish, the motor of the boat broke and we got stuck on the open ocean for about two hours. The two guides with us rowed until we saw a smaller boat and they towed us to shore.

I hope I'll return to Costa Rica soon, because I spent an amazing two weeks and didn't want to go home in the end. If you're searching for a place to travel to and Costa Rica is an option, it's definetly the best choice. You'll be sick of rice and beans in a few days, but never the animals and culture. The most important thing I learned on my trip is to enjoy life. The country's motto is "Pura Vida",  meaning pure life or good life, which I certainly experienced. 

Thanks for reading! If you want to see more pictures or videos, you can follow me on Instagram (@yasmine_hamdi) 

My video edit of my trip can be seen here vimeo.com/135800834

Thank you so much Yasmine for guest posting!
QOTD: Have you ever been to Costa Rica? What is the coolest place you have traveled too?
Let me know in the comments below.

                                                                  xx
                                                     Christina Madeleine