Let me start by saying that I am so incredibly grateful to be here. I don't think I could have ever imagined being in places as beautiful as Spain and Portugal. If someone would have told me I would be on a beach in Portugal a year ago, I would not have believed them.
Lagos is a beautiful city. The white buildings and houses piled on hills, the enormous cliffs that overlook the ocean, and the spectacular beaches are perfect descriptions of this small beach town.
The picture above was taken on my first day in Portugal when the tour guides took us to a cliff to watch the sunset. I was in awe. The beauty of the ocean, the breathtaking height of the cliffs (which scared me quite a bit if I am being honest), all of it came together to create a beautiful moment for me.
Later that night, we went to a Portuguese restaurant where I had swordfish with french fries and salad. Let me say this about the restaurants in Portugal: while a meal may cost a little more than in Spain, the amount is just ridiculous. Every place I ate at was accompanied by salad and the portion was huge. The swordfish was pretty good, but it could have been a little more moist. The highlight of the evening though was me spilling wine on my purse, again, within 10 minutes of sitting down at the table. My clumsiness on this trip has gotten to the point where I don't even care anymore! As soon as the wine spilled at the restaurant, of course I was embarrassed but I started laughing so hard that I was actually crying. It was probably one of the funniest moments on this trip; I have learned to let things go more quickly and just move on from stupid things that I can't do anything about.
The most amazing moment for me on this trip to Portugal was at the beach on Saturday. After arriving at the beach, I was in awe. However, when I really took it all in was about half an hour later when Caressa and I walked up to the little beach restaurant. I ordered a six euro pitcher of sangria, expensive in my book and fish sticks off the kids menu. When my sangria arrived, I no longer cared about the price, I was in paradise. This sangria was possibly the best sangria I have ever tasted but it was just part of what made my moment. As I sat there, drinking my sangria, I took in what I was looking at. From my chair on the patio outside the restaurant just above the sand, I could see the ocean's tides coming in, the cliffs in the distance and the houses stacked up on hills. It was the most serene moment I have had in a very long time. At that moment, I just felt overwhelmed with gratefulness for life and this experience.
On Sunday, I did something that I have always wanted to do: surf! Since I was young (and after I saw Blue Crush), I have wanted to try surfing. Something about it just always seemed so cool and different and appealed to me from the beginning. Definitely not as easy as it looks though! We started by having to put our wetsuits on which if you have ever had to put a full body one on, you know how much of a pain this is. After this, we carried our boards down a small hill and over to where we would be receiving our lessons. We began by running a little bit to warm up and afterwards doing some stretching. Then the fun began. First, the instructor told us to get in the water and body surf, without the board. So much fun! The waves would take us all the way up to the sand. After we were done with this, we took our boards out into the crystal blue water (sans sharks) and tried to just ride the wave on our stomachs. This part was probably the funnest. Being able to finally be on a board and just enjoy the water and the crashing of the waves was amazing. After this exercise, he taught us how to get up on the board while on the sand and then told to go try it out in the water. Every time I would try to get up on that board, I would fall off. I tried and tried, unsuccessfully except for one precious moment when I was able to get on the board with my feet for about a nanosecond. Regardless of the fact that I didn't do well, it was such a blast! I thoroughly enjoyed just being in the water and sitting on the board with the waves crashing against me.
I am now back in Sevilla preparing for our project that is due on Wednesday. We are working hard because we are presenting to the Seville Board of Tourism. On Thursday morning we leave for Madrid and then Saturday I will be back in Miami. As much fun as I am having here, I definitely miss you all back home and can't wait to see everyone of you. But in the meantime, I definitely plan on making the most of my last days in Spain! I see many more tapas, montaditos, and vino tinto are in my future for the next four days and I can't wait...
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment