Obrigada, Portugal! (Thank you (Port.), Portugal!)

This past weekend, I spent an absolutely wonderful weekend in Portugal. I went with a company called We Love Spain, who basically just organizes trips like this for students my age. There were about fifty total students on the trip. A few of them were from Barcelona, a few from Italy, and the rest were all exchange students from Sevilla. Some of them attend my university here, but a lot of them didn't.

 I booked this trip with a group of 6 friends, and we were honestly a little apprehensive about the trip as it got closer. The weather in Sevilla was awful leading up to the trip. It rained all day. No, it poured all day. As my friend, Kaley, put it: "The rain in Spain does NOT fall mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in Seville and it falls ALL DAY LONG." We had three days of constant gray skies and pouring rain. And cold! The temperature dropped very suddenly, and I got to see all of Sevilla take out their winter jackets and boots. While all of the exchange students were grumpy and complaining about the rain, though, our professors were ecstatic. They don't get a lot of rain in Southern Spain, so all of the Sevillanos were practically giddy to see weather that I would deem "depressing". 

The forecast for Portugal wasn't much better. Everyday was supposed to be cloudy with about a 50% chance of rain all day. My friends were a little less excited when we saw that. The trip was called "Portugal Paradise Weekend" by We Love Spain, and the point was pretty much to relax and see beaches in Portugal. Bad weather doesn't work with that. But I tried to be optimistic - either way, we were going to be in Portugal! I tried to tell myself that the weekend would be incredible even if it poured the entire time.

The morning we left, my roommate (Marcela) and I walked the 1.5 miles to the bus stop.. in the pouring rain.   Despite our umbrellas, we got pretty wet. But spirits were high ("we're going to Portugal!") and we were all pretty stoked to get there, even if the weather was horrible.

Sevilla weather from the bus. Cathedral in the distance.

The drive was about 3 hours. The cross into Portugal was basically nothing, I didn't even see a Customs booth (although I could have just missed it). But I know we didn't stop driving, we just sailed right into Portugal. Our group leader yelled "We're in Portugal!" and everyone on the bus cheered. 

Portugal!

Portugal!

Portugal was really pretty on the drive in. I didn't realize how hilly it would be there! But all around us were rolling green hills with random patches of white houses. It was very very pretty. Quite different from the area surrounding Sevilla, which is reasonably flat and pretty dry.

Just to give you a little bit more perspective on where I went, here's a map: 

The left-most blue dot is Lagos, the other blue dot is Albufeira. The red dot is Sevilla :) 

We arrived to Albufeira around 1P on Friday. The hotel was very nice, with apartment style rooms with kitchens and balconies. I was staying in a room with Marcela and Kaley, and then the other four girls I came with were staying in another room together. 

Our hotel in Albufeira

Inside our hotel.

We settled into the hotel for a while, and then went to the beach, which was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. I would say it was "across the street" but you had to walk down a pretty steep hill to get to the beach, so I feel like "across the street" doesn't really fit. It was kind of nice to come to the beach from on top of a hill, because we were walking and suddenly we were at the climax of the hill with beach all around us. It was a little shocking and gorgeous.

My friends and I had lunch at a place on the beach, hung out in the sand for a little while, and then decided that we wanted to check out the town center. 

Omelet.

Lunchtime on the beach

Kaley and I split two meals.

Delicious chicken salad with pineapple, peaches, and LOTS of chicken. 

American diner in Portugal. Yessss.

Sunset in Albufeira.

Stopped for drinks at this little bar.

Portuguese beer!

Next we went to dinner at a little place that prided itself on good Portuguese food. It was delicious!

Our complementary bread came with sardine paste (Russ, I know you probably hate the thought of it) that was actually really good. Very fishy tasting.

My dinner, a big ol' piece of tuna. Really really reallly good. People are right when they say fish is very good in Portugal.

We were at dinner for a very long time. There were 7 of us, which might explain why it took so long. But even for a big group, the wait was very long. It was kind of nice :) I feel like in the US, I always have somewhere I need to be or something I need to do. But there was no agenda for us, so instead of complaining, we just hung out and enjoyed the company of good friends. It was nice.

After that, we went on a bar tour that We Love Spain organized for us. Basically they just got us into a few bars for free, and most of the free entries included a free shot. The first bar was my favorite, it had live music and a BIG variety. I think at one point I heard Journey followed by Metallica. It was awesome.

Drinking Vodka with Coke out of a coffee mug, Classy.

Elesa, Marcela, Me, Lindsey, Katie

Marcela, Linsey, Katie, Me.

Me and Kaley!

The next morning, we got up early to drive out to Lagos. We stopped at a few sites on the way. The first was Cabo San Vicente. Cabo San Vicente was once thought to be the End of the World until Columbus discovered America.

We all ate breakfast before we headed out.

We then went to Ponte de Piedad. I don't think I can really explain what that looked like, so I'll just post the pictures. 

I tried to capture it in these photos, but the water was super super clear. And a gorgeous shade of blue.

After that, we headed to the beach. This beach wowed me. It had crystal clear, blue water with high cliffs surrounding the sand and big rocks in the water. I'd never seen anything like it before. We ate lunch on the beach and then spent the entire afternoon there. 

Agua!

DELICIOUS Tuna Salad for lunch. Soooo sooo good. 

That building tucked into the side of the cliff is where we ate lunch,

Our whole group.

Kaley, me, and this other guy swam to that rock on the right and jumped off of it. It doesn't look hard, but the rock was really sharp, so we all got some scratches on our feet and hands from it. Totally worth it :) the water was so so so clear!

Me and friends.

We went and got some dinner in the city center of Lagos after that. Lagos seemed like it was pretty much a huge harbour, there were lots and lots of boats there. We had some time to eat and go shopping before we got back on the bus for the 2 hour ride back to our hotel in Albufeira.

Dinner at a small cafe in Lagos. Every place we went to had omelets, so I decided to try one! Really good!

Chocolate milkshake :)

After that, we headed back to Albufeira, which took about 2 hours. We got back around 10:30. I had planned to go out again with my friends, so I took a nap so I could have enough energy to go out. I wound up never getting up from my nap. Kaley stayed home too (she was worn out as well). And we both slept for 10 hours. It was the best sleep I've gotten since I got to Spain, haha. And maybe that's lame - sleeping on my last night in Portugal - but it was sooooo wonderful that I don't care if it's lame :)

The next day we went to the center of Albufeira, where they had shops and beaches. And it was gorgeous, again.

Part of the remains of the castle that used to stand in Albuferia. Most of it is gone, except this building and a small wall next to it.

We were walking along the beach and I saw a huge gator made out of sand! And of course, since I go to UF and our mascot is a gator, I had to do our Gator Chomp next to it. I was so excited! And I didn't care at all if I got weird looks from Portuguese people.

Gator chomp!

Lunch on the beach.

Chicken Piri Piri was a dish we kept seeing advertisements for, so I decided to try it. It's basically just chicken cooked in chili and olive oil, but dang, it was delicious.

The cat that sat next to me for the whole meal. She/He looks exactly like our cat, Margie, at home. She swam across the Atlantic just to join me for a meal :)

The sign I saw in Albufeira. I was very excited to read "the bull is not killed". Not quite like the Spanish bull fight I saw....

I had an incredible time in Portugal. I don't feel that I learned a lot about Portuguese culture or history while I was there, but I don't think that was the goal of this particular trip. I saw some incredible sights that I greatly greatly appreciate, and that's enough for me. I think the theme of this trip was quite different from how my trip to Italy or Morocco will be, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

It was really cool to be there, because I always spoke Spanish to everyone I interacted to, like waiters, shop owners, etc. But because we were in Portugal, their Spanish wasn't very good either. It was nice to interact with people more on my level. However, I did try to pick up some Portuguese while I was there too. I thanked everyone by saying "Obrigada" ("Obrigado" if you're a male). 

It was a very strange feeling returning to Sevilla on Sunday afternoon. I had this "home sweet home" feeling that I did not expect. I felt that nice relief that you feel after a vacation, that "yesss, I'm home" feeling. And while I know my true home is in Florida, it seems that Sevilla is becoming a bit of a home here too. And that seems wild to me.

I learned a phrase that I love in my Spanish Conversation class today. It's "Tómatelo con calma" which is pretty much just Spanish for "Take it easy", "Calm down", "Relax".

Tonight, I went to a cycling class at the gym. A TOUGH class. These Espanoles know how to do work. I think I'll just stay in for the rest of the night, do some homework, just relax. Friday morning I leave for Barcelona bright and early :)

Thanks for listening. Abrazos to everyone! Love you, guys!