el finde en portugal

This week I took my first trip of the year. Considering how much money I spent I probably wont be taking another one for a while, at least until I get paid. But it was worth it. I went to Lagos, a beautiful beach town on the southern coast of Portugal. Since Portugal is so close, I took a bus. It was a 3 and a half hour ride. The Spanish people think that is muy lejos but for me it’s so close. Its amazing to me to be able to get on a bus and in a little more than 3 hours be in Portugal.

It was kind of a last minute decision this trip. Alejandro and Amy had it planned for a while, but Chelsea and I weren’t signed up until last week. The trip was organized by an organization called Discover Sevilla, which has events and excursions for students/real people living and studying in Sevilla. Since Discover Sevilla mostly caters to study abroad kids, the trip was filled with college juniors. Not saying that’s a bad thing, in fact I was kinda jealous that they are studying abroad aka having the best semester of their lives. No complaints here though, I’m having a pretty awesome time here so far. I wouldn’t mind if the weather would cool down, its supposed to be 94 degrees on Thursday. And for those who aren’t sure, it’s the middle of October. mid 90’s are not meant for October/Joanna without air conditioning.

But Portugal had very nice weather, in fact it was perfect for the beach. On Friday when we arrived, we took a boat tour (“sangria cruise”) to see some cool rock/cave like formations called the grotto (I think, maybe I had too much sangria?). It really was quite amazing to see. All the places we went in Lagos were surreal. Every single corner I turned there was another photo opportunity. We spent basically the whole afternoon on the boat, dancing and swimming and talking and a little drinking. Later we went out to dinner at a place called Nah Nah Bah, which is famous for its one kilo burgers. I don’t know the metric system too well but I know that a burger with one kilo of meat cannot be healthy. While we were there, there was actually someone attempting to eat the €22 kilo burger that if you successfully finish you get for free. Needless to say, this brave individual did not finish the burger, or even half of it, so he had to fork over the €22. But good for him for giving it a shot.

Next day we went to a gorgeous beach called Meia Praia. I’ve concluded that there isn’t much to do in Lagos except go to the beach and see beautiful things, and I am perfectly content with that. All 100 or so of us Americans took over this beach and spent the entire day playing in the water, playing paddle and soccer and volleyball. I spent a fair amount of the day sleeping also. It was so relaxing to be there. The water was cold but not unbearable. Best of all—no sunburns, which is a major feat for me. I knew it was time to leave when hundreds of birds descending on the ocean like it was feeding time and we were their food. No one actually got eaten of course, but it seemed like the birds wanted us out of their way. This isn’t just me being scared of birds, I recall nearly everybody running out of the water when these birds attacked. Luckily, their timing was pretty good because it actually was time to go back to the hotel and get ready to go to the end of the world!

The end of the world, what they actually call it in Portugal except in Portuguese, is a spot where you can see nothing but water in any direction. So in the days of lesser scientific knowledge, people actually believed this was the end of the world. If you made it to the end of the ocean, you would just fall off. Silly Portuguese. Nevertheless, this spot is again beautiful. There are cliffs and rocks with waves crashing against them forming cool looking splashes. We went to the spot right as the sun was setting, which I have now watched twice in my life, and its amazing. Its actually kind of strange to watch because one minute its there and then it pretty much just disappears, I mean falls of the edge of the world.

After watching the sun set, we went out for a typical Portuguese meal, which is pretty similar to a Spanish meal. Since we were in Portugal, Chelsea and I tried a local specialty, a fish called Lica (not sure how its spelled but I know there is a fancy Portuguese accent on it somewhere) pronounced Lisa. We also had a bottle of vinho verde (yep that means green wine) another specialty of the area. It’s really delicious, and tastes something like a mix between white wine and champagne.

Sunday guess what, we went to the beach! There was the option to take a surfing lesson at a beach on the western coast of Portugal, but I decided it would be better for me to save the €35 that would have cost me, even though I think it would be awesome to take a surfing lesson one day. I was perfectly happy though, rolling out of bed and walking down the stairs out of the hotel and onto the beach. We did more of the same: reading, sleeping, swimming. At this beach there were more cool rock formations that have been discovered to be good diving boards. I was pretty excited to jump off these rocks. But since my day didn’t get started until around 12:30, by the time I was ready to go in the water, low tide had made an appearance. For an hour or so I watched people climb up the rock with ease, however when I tried it proved to be a difficult task. There were waves moving me all over the place. In the end, Alex got himself up so he was able to help pull us up. I think I might be sore from the workout I got climbing up the rock. But it was worth it. Jumping off was really fun. I made sure it was because I knew I would not be climbing up that rock again.

At the end of the day we rinsed off at the rooftop pool. Then we loaded the bus to go back to Sevilla. Everyone was pretty wiped from the weekend so it was quiet and I was able to sleep, I can never get enough of that. I pretty much passed out as soon as we got home at 10 or 11pm. As tired as I was today at work, it was all worth it. Lagos is a great little city that I am really happy I was able to see.