Portugal and since then... part one

Portugal-

Alright, sorry for the long delay in posts! I have been trying to get on track with school and I can’t ever seem to find time to do anything before its time to go to sleep again!

Anyway… Portugal-----AWESOME!! I recommend Lagos, Portugal to all of you for your next vacation! It is a tropical paradise! Clear, bright blue water, and gorgeous orange/red rocks that encircle the beaches. Plus, it’s not as unbearably hot as Spain but it’s still very warm.

We went through a program called Discover Sevilla that took us on a bus to Lagos and we stayed in an awesome hotel called AquaLuz with two huge pools! The website said “very close to the beach” so we figured…okay, maybe twenty minutes.. No! five minute walk!

The Nittany Lion came too! J

When we arrived in Lagos, we went straight to the beach for a few hours and then we met up with our Discover Sevilla tour guides who took us downtown to get dinner at a place called NahNahBah, which is supposed to be one of the most delicious restaurants in town.

Although they did have delicious cheeseburgers, we didn’t really experience any “authentic” Portuguese food while we were there. Through our program, we got discounts or specials on both food and drinks wherever we went! After NahNahBah, we went to Joe’s Garage for a party with people in the program and then out around the rest of the town. We met so many interesting and friendly people in Portugal. Unlike in Spain, the people in Portugal actually want to talk to you and meet you! They don’t stare or act rudely to foreigners, at least not in Lagos, since it is a tourist destination. Our tour guides told us NOT to speak Spanish in Portugal, because apparently they will get angry at you, since they do not speak Spanish. They do, however-and thankfully, speak English so it was easy to get around and ask for directions or whatever we needed. It was so nice to actually go through a program and have everything we needed available to us or at least someone to ask where to go or get advice from. For once, I actually didn’t feel lost.

Us and classmate Nicole JAnother fun bar we went to..

The second day in Portugal, we were taken to a different beach that was a little further away called Maia Praia- aka Maia Beach. It was more of the typical beaches we have on the East Coast- as in, long coast line, lots of people- but the water was still very clear and clean and the sand was very fine. It was a beautiful beach, but unfortunately it is where most of my sunburn came from.

When we returned from Maia Praia, we set off for our “sunset excursion” to Cabo San Vicente- aka, The End of The World. This is one of the most gorgeous and most WINDY places ever! It is called the end of the world because before Columbus discovered America, the people of Europe all believed that the world was flat and they thought that these cliffs were the end of the earth.

This was actually a really scary place due to the wind and the cliffs being so incredibly high. While just standing on the top of the cliffs we were getting blown off our feet! It was also freezing and we happened to be wearing skirts—lovely. However, there were some brave (aka crazy) people who were out to the very edges of the rocks and were fishing out over the cliffs! It would take a while to reel in a fish from there, and what if it was a shark that pulled you in!? Anyway, despite the intense wind and treacherous cliffs, it was a gorgeous sunsetJ.