A few weekends ago I headed out on one of my final trips of the semester, a beach weekend to the famous beaches of Albufeira and Lagos, Portugal. This was another trip with WeLoveSpain, the tour group I travelled to Morocco with, once again they didn't disappoint. They put us up in an aparthotel, I stayed in an apartment with three other girls. It was a one bedroom with twin beds, two pull out sleeper couches in the living room, a kitchen, bathroom and balcony, overall I was really pleased with the hotel, the only downside was no free food, but since we had a full kitchen that was just fine.
After a few hour bus ride we arrived in Portugal, checked into our hotel and headed straight to the beach. It was a little chilly but Allison, Nadine and I braved the cold and we were honestly probably 3 of 5 brave souls who went for a dip. Once you went all the way under it wasn't bad at all though, and we spent probably half an hour splashing around in the Atlantic Ocean, which is one of the oceans I'd never swam in before. I have a strong love for oceans and all things ocean related, I have been quoted as saying fish are the most majestic creatures, so to say I was excited to spend my weekend by the sea is an understatement.
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| La playa. |
Splish-splashin' in the chilly water.
Las chicas en la playa.
Drying off in the sand.
After our brief dip in the ocean we decided to explore the rest of the beach which was full of cliffs and mini-caves. I made the choice to go barefoot, turns out this wasn't wise, the rocks were pretty sharp, but I just kept thinking of it as a free pedicure.
Such a pretty view.
Some of the "cliffs" we climbed.
Fish fossils, I was the only one who thought these were neat. #Biologymajorproblems
OUCH, barefoot climbing!
How many girls can you fit on one rock?
What used to be thought of as the end of the world, before the discovery of the Americas.
Looks kinda dismal.
Who knew the end of the world would be so windy?
After visiting the end of the world, I'm no longer worried about 2012, it will be a cake walk compared to the weather there. All jokes aside, the wind was so strong that if you got too near the edge of the cliffs it would push you off. We stopped at another scenic overlook which reminded me completely and totally of Pirates of the Caribbean, so much so I'm convinced part of it was filmed there.
Nature is so cool.
Pretty Pirates-esque right?
Swimsuits one day, fleecy and jeans the next, did I accidentally end up in MN?
Love all the news friends I've made here.
Our next stop was one of the most beautiful beaches in Portugal, and the sun decided to grace us with it's presence and gave us a couple good hours there. One really funny thing happened at this beach though. There were a couple guys in our group who, shall we say, had a lot of liquid courage and decided that they wanted to jump into the ocean and climb up this big rock that was a hundred yards or so out from the shore. The group coordinators didn't want anyone climbing the rock, for obvious saftey reasons and started yelling at the boys with a megaphone until they realized that one of them was naked. In his infinite wisdom he decided that he not only wanted his pants to stay dry, but his boxers as well. At this point he had attracted a crowd and about three greyhound buses of people full were watching him and hooting and hollering. He was sin vergüenza or without shame, he stood on the rock faced the crowd and waved, then made a grand leap off. It wasn't until he had jumped off the rock and was walking up out of the water that some of his liquid courage wore off and he became embarrassed.
That rock in the middle is the one he climbed up on.
Such a gorgeous beach.
Loving the color of the water.
We then ventured into the city center of Lagos for some lunch, coffee and warmth. It was a cute little center area but not too much there. We spent most of our time ducking into assorted gift shops and stealing some of their heat. Our cue to leave each shop and move onto the next one was when someone, okay fine, usually me, almost broke a knick-knack. Some interesting things that the city center held was the the most exotic merry-go-round I've ever seen and a pink mutant bull/cow, it had udders and horns, is that normal?
Lions, giraffes, and horses, OH MY.
Seriously, I don't think that's normal.
That night WeLoveSpain took us on a "bar crawl" that consisted of one bar, but it was tons of fun, for the first few hours there was a live band, who upon seeing the large influx of Americans proceeded to play every American song they knew. Which are usually kind of oldies but it was still fun. Then a DJ came on and played a lot of good Spanish songs and everyone's favorite Portugese song "Ai Se Eu Tu Pego", even though it's in Portugese it's become one of my new favorite songs, although I did make the mistake of listening to the English version, MISTAKE. The original is always better.
The next morning we loaded up into the bus one last time and went to a huge public beach in Lagos. It was great for seashell collecting and the sun even stayed out all day so I think I got a pretty good tan. The only downside was the wind, which seemed intent on imbedding sand in my scalp. As soon as I got back from Portugal I took a shower, but I was still finding sand in my hair for days.
I'm so lucky, I think I've seen the most gorgeous views in the world on my study abroad trip.
Don't you just want to jump off that pier.
Obsessed with white beach towns.
Breath-taking.
Our day at this beach came to a close all to quickly and it was back to Sevilla. I must say the beaches of Portugal are some of the most beautiful I've ever been too and I would love to return in the summer when it is even warmer so that I could swim more. My beach weekend was lazy, amazing, relaxing and just what I needed to unwind from a tough week at school.
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