LAGOS!

Well, it's official...I have become a bad blogger. Now that I am nearing the end of my semester abroad, I am finding myself with very little time to blog about my experiences because I am really trying to soak everything in before it's all over! I'll try to give a brief synopsis of each of my past 3 trips though, as well as the holiday we just had in Sevilla.

I'll start with my trip to Lagos, Portugal April 10-12th. I had just gone to Italy, had a few days in Sevilla for Semana Santa, and then headed off once again to Lagos, which is a beach town in the Algarve region of Portugal. Chrisy, Franny, Jillian and I, along with a bunch of other friends of ours, went through a travel company called DiscoverSevilla, so it was very nice not having to deal with anything...we did sort of feel like we were on a high school field trip at some points though. Overall, we had an AMAZING weekend in Lagos. Despite some questionable weather, it was an absolutely beautiful place.

We took a bus there early Friday morning, and arrived at our gorgeous hotel in the afternoon. I shared a room with Chrisy and Franny and we were basically in awe the whole weekend of how nice the hotel was, especially compared to our homestays! After settling in, we headed down to a beach called Praia Dona Ana. Although it drizzled for a few minutes, was chilly and windy, and the clouds kept going in and out, the beach was absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We got some lunch and spent a few hours at the beach...basically freezing the whole time haha. At night, we went into the small town area of Lagos and had dinner at a great restaurant called Nah Nah Bah and afterwards headed to a bar where DiscoverSevilla was having a party (high school? we even got fake money to buy drinks with). It ended up being very fun though, mainly because Franny and I danced as though we were at a Bat Mitzvah the whole time.

On Saturday we got up and met in the hotel lobby to go on a "Sangria Cruise"...aka we went out on a big sailboat and they came around with Sangria, which pretty much no one wanted to drink much of since it was 11 am. Although it was pretty cold for most of the sailboat ride, it was still very fun, and so pretty! We sailed for about 40 minutes and then anchored near these beautiful grottos, where 9 people at a time got to go on a little motor boat to explore them. This was my favorite part of the boat ride. The waves were huge and it was so windy, so we were laughing throughout the entire ride. On top of that, the grottos were SO cool. I got some great pictures, check them out in the facebook link I will post at the bottom!

After the boat, we headed back to the same beach, where it was finally nice out by the afternoon!!! Despite putting on sunscreen, I still got fried. Obviously. And we're talking genuine Jessica Seiler burns here, as in bright red with fingerprints and all (don't worry, I peeled like crazy about a week later. My belly button even peeled...oversharing?). Anyways, it was a really fun day at the beach regardless. At night, they took us to this place called Cabo San Vicence, which was believed to be the end of the world back in the day, and I can see why! Although it was the windiest experience of my entire life (my hair literally was standing up straight the whole time), it was an amazing view. We watched the sunset there, and even though it was a pretty cloudy one, it was still beautiful. After that, we went back to the hotel. Chrisy, Franny and I had bought food from a store and so we cooked ourselves a nice little family dinner!! It was a lot of fun. We went out again into the town and met up with some other friends of ours on the trip, where more embarassing dancing took place. It was lots of fun even though I was pretty exhausted!

On Sunday we headed to the beach one last time. It was a pretty nice day, some clouds here and there but overall nice! We had a lot of fun just hanging out, and especially people watching. Highlights included an OBESE woman playing paddle ball while wearing a pink bikini skimpier than mine, and a 10-ish year old child who we could not figure out for the LIFE of us if "it" was a boy or girl (we had decided officially on boy, until we later saw it in line for the girls bathroom!!!). Clearly, it was another great day at the beach. We headed back to Sevilla around 6 and got home around 10. It was an amazing weekend!!! Check out the pictures here (and let me know if these links don't work!):

Lagos Pictures!