Spring Break Spain Style

When we were preparing for the program, we were told that around mid-March we were going to be able to have a "travel week" where we would be able to go anywhere (within reason) for 4 days. The rule was you had to go in groups of 3 or more. When the list of places we could choose from were read you could tell most of the girls were going to pick Rome, Italy. And why wouldn't they?? It's an absolutely amazing place and I loved it...but I had already been. Luckily there were a couple other girls who were in the same boat as I was. We didn't decide where we wanted to go till after the program started but we all agreed on going to....LISBON, PORTUGAL!! When am I ever going to have the opportunity to go to Portugal? We decided it would be the perfect place....funny thing is we didn't even know just how "perfect" perfect meant.We didn't really plan very much for our trip, the plane tickets and our hostel were way cheap so we booked those and just planned on laying out at the beach all day everyday. It was a very relaxing trip to plan compared to the Rome trip. I was so worried those girls were gonna be way to stressed to even have fun, but they did so that's good!

Anyways, my friends Alyssa Smith and Derek Allen have both been to Lisbon so I asked them about things to do and such. They gave me great lists and Alyssa recommended the hostel we stayed in, but even with this information, none of our little group really knew anything about Portugal, so we were just gonna wing it. AND IT WAS PERFECT! It turns out, there is actually A TON to do in Lisbon...we needed another whole week. But even with knowing that, I don't regret any decision made on that trip.

Our group of six (Chelsey, Anna Solomon, Alyson Astle, Elizabeth Dalton, Janeen Jensen and I) made it to Lisbon and checked into what would turn out to be the greatest hostel on this earth! I'm actually not kidding...they've gotten awards for best hostel. Seriously. Amazing. I don't know how else to describe it. It's called Yes! Hostel. YES FOR YES! HOSTEL! Thank you so much Alyssa! This hostel has the nicest workers and they all know you and recognize you and remember you and they are just so helpful, they feed you a 3 course meal with 3 drinks and dinner every night for 8 euros (and the food is handmade by the owner Isabel and DIVINE. DIVINE I tell you.) they give you tips on things to do, and for the party going visitors they take you on a guided pub crawl every night and free shots at 1130...oh and they can all speak like 5 languages...ugh just....perfect! I don't know anyone who is or will be visiting Lisbon, but if you or anyone you know is....STAY HERE!

....Anyways, once we were settled in the six of us took a stroll around our part of Lisbon. The city is right on the coast and very hilly. Nothing like Madrid. Now don't get me wrong, Madrid is great but Lisbon is just beautiful! We ended up just wandering all over for awhile then eating at a cute little restaurant overlooking the water. (the food wasn't very good but the place was cute).

The next morning we got up and headed to a town about 45 minutes outside of Lisbon called Cascais. This is another thing that Alyssa (and the hostel) recommended. Actually, when we got to the hostel we found that, on their blackboard thingy, they had posted what they recommend you do as "day trips". Cascais was one of them so I just took a picture of their recommended layout and we just planned to follow that. The trip consisted of visiting the furthest western point on the European Continent, Hell's Mouth and several different beaches. Sadly, we didn't make it everything, but again, I don't regret a single thing I did or didn't do on this trip.

We went to Boca de Inferno, which means Hell's mouth in Portugese....OH YEAH! did you know they speak Portugese in Portugal? yeah so did I....did you know that almost everyone speaks real good English as well? yeah neither did I. Freaking America. Why don't you make us a learn billion languages in school?

Anyways, Boca de Inferno is basically a large grotto right on the coast in middle of beautiful cliffs. Pictures don't do it justice. We got there right as the tide was coming in so the waves were extra large and loud, which made the experience all the more cool.

After that we walked up and down the coastline for awhile trying to figure out how to get the free bikes they have so we could ride around town. We ended up not being able to find six all together but as we made it back into the actual town of Cascais I discovered something I think is better than bikes.

SEGWAYS! I've always wanted to ride a segway...and after I saw the price I figured "why not in Portugal?" Luckily, Chelsey was down to join me. Best decision of the day! After we ate some Indian food, we rented segways for an hour and rode around town. The weather was just so perfect all day and we laughed the entire time. I think that will be a memory I cherish for a long while. We then chilled at the beach for a couple hours till it was time to meet up with the other girls and head back for dinner (our first night eating the famous Isabel Hostel meal....sooooooo good!)

The next morning we went to a town a little closer than Cascais called Belem. We walked around for a bit and saw some of the sights and got a Pasteis de Belem...Heaven in a pastry, no joke. In fact, after we finished eating them with the girls and split up, Chels and I went back and got more. Don't judge.

I'm pretty proud of this picture BTW.

We then went to Carcevelos, which according to Derek and the hostel was the most popular beach around. It was perfect for the relaxing afternoon in the sun that Chelsey and I were looking for. I mentioned earlier that the tide had been coming in when we visiting Hell's Mouth....turns out it was this freak event where the water was crazy high and the waves were insane! There were so many surfers out and we had to keep moving our spot because the water kept reaching us. We even saw a movie being filmed while we were there.

We ate lunch at a little restaurant on the beach and had burgers and shakes...now we aren't really sure if they were really as great as we thought or if the state of pure happiness we were in had clouded our judgement...but the food, to us, was delicious. After spending the rest of the perfect day on the beach, we returned back to the hostel and ate our final dinner in Portugal, prepared by Isabel.

The next morning, after we checked out of our hostel, we went to a little flea market not very far away. When I say little, I mean HUGE! We were there for hours and we didn't even make a dent in it. We all bought some cool trinkets and such and then headed to the airport.

All in all, this trip could not have come at a more perfect time. I was starting to really feel my SAD coming on, even though we had just been to Barcelona. I know my life is just so hard living in Spain, it's not. But it was nice having a break where we could do whatever we felt like doing and enjoy ourselves with no pressure. Definitely the spring break I needed.

Thank you Portugal, I hope to see you again one day.

~till next time

Chloe