Forward Motion: Bem-vindo a Portugal

I realize it has been a few weeks since my last update and that I have failed miserably in keeping up with my blog the way I wanted to. Oh well.

This weekend I went to Logos, Portugal on the southern coast of Portugal. I went with about 25 kids from my school through a program called Discover Granada. It was a fantastic weekend that included lots and lots of beach time. I also laughed a lot this weekend. Probably too much. I laughed so much that tears came. And that, my friends, is the mark of a good laugh. The bus ride there was about 7 hours in all and we departed Granada at 6:15am. While we were walking in the streets to leave for the day, most people were returning from the night. Yeah, people stay out very late here.

Arrived in Lagos and checked into our 4 star hotel which was pretty sweet. They had two pools and a breakfast buffet. Each morning we stuffed our faces because usually all any of us gets for breakfast is a muffin and some yogurt which usually means eating a muffin from the muffin man or a pastry from the pan (bread) lady in-between classes. The muffin man is my favorite by far. Not the cheapest, but he has the best pastries. Anyways...Friday we spent the whole afternoon on the beach followed by a swim in the pool and then dinner in downtown Lagos. The rest of the evening was spent at a place called Gran Cafe, where all 100 Americans who came on the trip ended up. It was special. Let me add a side note to this trip, it was in no way a cultural experience. Lagos is a pretty touristy place so a lot of people speak english. But it was still fun. Lots of fun. And a lot of my Portuguese came back to me. I took an intensive semester last year and so it was fun to be able to read signs and explain the differences between Portuguese and Spanish. I felt nerdy.

Saturday there was supposed to be an optional Sangria cruise where they take you out into the ocean, give you sangria and take you to visit some really cool caves. But unfortunately the waters were very very rough and the company who does the tours called them off completely. So we took the bus to some caves and took lots of pictures before heading to yet another beach. The beach we were supposed to spend the day at Saturday was very large and very pretty. But unfortunately it was very windy and so the sand was whipping through the air so fast it felt like small needles on your skin and got into everything. I am still cleaning sand out of my bag. So everyone went back the hotel and returned to our smaller and less windy beach for the afternoon. Saturday evening we drove to the 'end of the world' to watch the sunset. It was super cool to be on the southern most tip of Portugal staring out into open water from atop of some very high cliffs. Saturday night we went out for dinner again. During dinner a bagpipist and his followers came by the restaurant, played a song, welcomed us to Lagos, and then left. The funny part about that was later that evening some of my friends saw him in a bar and he ended up playing them another song. I unfortunately was not there to whiteness this special moment.

Sunday we went to a beach on the west coast in a national park. It is famous for its surfing and they offered everyone a surf lesson for 35 euro. I did not surf but it was hilarious watching everyone else learn how. The wind was still pretty brutal but it was fun to walk around. We spent the whole day there before coming back to the hotel to take a 'shower' in the pool, change and hop on the bus for a 7 hour bus ride home.

And that was when i had the worst bus ride i've ever had. The company was fantastic and we laughed so much on the way home but the back of the bus had no AC and we were all literally dripping with sweat. Everyone who got off the bus had soaked through their clothes. It was unbelievable. The front apparently was freezing cold and we think they convinced the bus driver to turn on the heat at about 1am. I thought I was literally going to suffocate on the bus. But finally, at 2am we arrived back in Granada. And I woke up just in time for my 9am class this morning.

It was a great weekend to treat as a vacation. We actually had little if no drama in our group and I know I said this already but I laughed so hard I think I have abs again. It was all around solid weekend.