Weekend in Lagos

 Portugal was easily top three greatest times of my life. Its one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and the weather was fantastic all weekend. It was a longgg bus trip there (6.5 hours total) but it was well worth it, we left Madrid at 1am on Friday and got to Sevilla at around 7am. The bus to Lagos didn't leave until 1:30 so we had some time to kill and got to explore Sevilla which was awesome. Out of our group of Syracuse kids there were only 5 boys Brad, Josh, Joe, Brian and me; and we all split a tour of Sevilla in a horse and buggy which was a lot of fun and allowed us to see everything in a short time. Sevilla is a beautiful small city with amazing old architecture and a beautiful central park. After the buggy tour we were walking around looking for food and we stumbled upon heaven... they have Dunkin Donuts in Europe, but I gotta say its not nearly as good as the real thing. From there we headed off with the group to hop on the bus and head to Lagos which is about another 3 hour or so ride.
 We ended up geting to Lagos around 4:30 and our hotel was gorgeous, its called AquaLuz and its a 4 star resort only blocks from downtown and the beach!  Once we got there we dropped our stuff in our rooms and headed down to the beach in the cliffs called Praia Dona Ana.

 We spent the rest of the day there hanging out, swimming, playing games and sangria. After a few hours we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. For dinner 12 of us went to this really nice seafood restaurant and I got a bowl of cream of shrimp soup and a tuna steak with potatoes and veggies which was wicked good; and the best part was it was pretty cheap only 10 euros for the fish and 2 for the soup. Then we went off to this club down the street where Discover Seville (the company we went with) rented out a club for us. That was a lot of fun and it was a small place and we pretty much took it filled it up since there was about 120 or so of us total on the trip. Saturday we woke up for breakfast a little before 10 and ate by the pool then hopped on the bus and headed down to the wharf for the sangria cruise, but because of the fog we had to wait until it cleared and went to the beach close by called Meia Praia for the morning. This was a hugeee beach that had beautiful white sand and some good waves. We played football for a little bit, then had a 3 on 3 game of soccer on the beach and swam until 1. At 1 we walked back to the wharf and got on the sail boats for the sangria cruise. There was 60+ of us so we had to take two of these big 50ft sailboats. We made sure to get all 25 of us who had come from the Syracuse program on the same boat which made it 10x more fun. 

 We took the boats out to the cliffs where we dropped anchor and hung out there for the entire time, when we dropped anchor it was time for swimming and jumping off the boat (obviously my idea). While people were swimming 8 kids at a time got to hop on the skiff and take a tour of the cliffs which have all been named by fisherman back in the day, so for example there is the kitchen, the garage, the living room and so on. The cliffs were magnificent, the are so pretty and it was so cool to go inside of them and you can see the layers and layers of old shells and sand that have built up over time to form them. 

 Hanging out on the boat swimming and doing flips off the boat was a blast and in the spirit of Europe some of us may or may not of swam European style briefly... YOLO. Then it was back to the beach where we grabbed lunch and hung out briefly before heading back to the Bus to go back to the hotel. 
 Back at the hotel we went swimming in the pool and hung out at the pool for a little where we played dibble which is where some take a bottle cap and put is on the bottom and you have to wait on the pool deck until you think you see it before you jump in and try and grab it all in one fluid motion. After the pool it was off to the showers and we headed back to the bus to go to a place called Sangres also known as the end of the world, which is about 40 mins away to watch the sun set over the ocean from the cliffs. It was so beautiful out there and we saw dolphins jumping too as the sun was setting it was an amazing view.

 Once the sun set we hopped back on the bus and into town for dinner. This time I tried the sea bass, which came out as a whole fish head and all! It was good fish and again very cheap which is amazing compared to home. After dinner we walked back to the hotel where Brian and I played pool before showering and heading back into town to the bar where we were meeting everyone. The next morning it was up at 9:30 for breakfast and then we (the Syracuse kids) headed off to Praia Dona Ana again to spend our last half day at the beach while the rest of the group got surf lessons at Praia. 

The last day at the beach was a lot of fun it was just us which was a blast, I got buried in the sand and we went cliff jumping which was pretty sweet. Then it was the long journey back, left at 5:15 got back to Sevilla at around 10:30 then grabbed a quick bite before our 7 hour bus ride back to Madrid where we got in at 5:30 this morning and i've only slept 2 hours since! Good thing I don't have class till noon tomorrow. Well tomorrow's a big day we're going to the Man City vs. Real Madrid Champions League game... 12 rows off the pitch couldn't be more pumped so until next week thats a wrap!