This past summer, I had the opportunity to venture overseas for the first time. I headed over to Lisbon, Portugal for the International Tang Soo Do Federation’s World Championship. Naturally I took tons of photos, after all, how could I not??

Portugal is definitely a whole new world, while I could get bits and pieces of the language well enough to get around, the actual city is completely different. EVERYTHING is paved, and not by blacktop. It’s miles and miles and miles and miles of individual 3”x3” ceramic tile. It’s mind blowing. Seriously, we use blacktop like it’s water, and they lay billions of little tiles. And there’s graffiti everywhere. Not just tags or initials like we have here in America, I’m talking whole building sides, giant murals filling every available space. It takes some serious planning, and while maybe being a crime like it is here, it’s incredibly beautiful.

Just the fact that it’s so old too, like our country only goes back a few hundred years, Europe is OLD. Buildings centuries old, buildings on top of buildings, generations of architectural styles. There’s just so much. I only spent a few days there, but came away with several thousand pictures, so here’s just a few! I may post more on my Facebook page eventually, so keep a look out on there, too!