Friday morning, we yet AGAIN woke up at 3 am to fly from Barcelona to Seville, Spain where we met up with Discover Seville Excursion group who was hosting us in Lagos, Portugal for the weekend. We signed up for the Lagos, Portugal trip because it was promoted for Spring Break students and was all inclusive at a hotel on the beach in Lagos for the weekend. This was a great way to end our trip because we were able to partake in total relaxation for our final 3 days of vacation. Also, we enjoyed meeting other American students from all different countries. There were 150 of us on the trip total!

A nice coach bus picked us up from Seville and we had a 3 hour bus ride to Portugal. I would like to say that I saw a lot of southern Spain and Portugal, but I slept the whole way there and so did Katie. The weather was hot and sunny yet again! We arrived at Carvi Hotel in Portugal around 1:00 in the afternoon. The hotel was right on the beach next to beautiful cliffs and scenery. After quickly changing, we ran right to the beach and met all the other college students. Lagos, Portugal reminds me a lot of Florida, the buildings and the atmosphere are almost identical. However, when you hear locals speaking Portuguese you are reminded quickly about where you are. Our tour guides even told us not to try speaking Spanish to the Portuguese. I take it from this that Spain and Portugal must not get along?

After a relaxing afternoon on the beach, we walked to the famous ‘NahNahBah’ Burger joint that is known for having one of the top 50 best burgers in the world! I would support that considering the burgers were absolutely delicious. After a burger, we explored the town and went to the party that was hosted by the Discover Seville Tour. They had a lot of free drinks and food for us, so we knew we signed up for a great weekend. Once again, we did as best as we could staying awake, but we were tired from waking up so early and went back to go to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up and put on our bathing suits for the ‘Sangria Sailboat Cruise’ which was a sailboat that took up all throughout the caves and islands of Lagos, with all you can drink Sangria! It was fantastic and the weather was hot. We were sure to buy sunscreen, but we still were burnt anyways. The sailboat was a lot of fun and we had the chance to jump off the boat and go swimming in the ocean. We also could take a row boat in and out of the cliffs which you can see us in our life jackets in the picture. In this case, Portugal appeared more beautiful than Florida!

After the boat cruise, we spent the day on a private beach and got our tans in full gear. At night, we took a bus to a famous spot known as the ‘End of the World’ in order to watch the sunset. We were on top of cliffs overlooking the ocean in all directions and it was unbelievable. I truly felt like I was at the end of the world! These cliffs were like the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, only shorter and a lot warmer, but I can assure you they were just as windy! It was worth it though to watch the sunset and only appropriate for the end of our final day of paradise.

Sunday we still had time to go to the beach and relax. We went to a famous beach about an hour from Lagos which was known for its surfing. We watched the surfers while eating burgers and lying in the sun. It was a perfect end before our bus ride back to Seville, which got us back around 10:30 at night. We spent the night in Seville before traveling to Malaga, Spain in the morning. Our flight to Dublin was from Malaga because the flights were much cheaper. We took a 3 hour bus ride to Malaga in the morning, flew home, then a 3 hour bus ride back to Galway all day on Monday. As you can probably agree, I was exhausted and I slept like a baby last night.

Today is Tuesday and I am busy doing laundry and getting ready for the final stretch… 3 exams between now and May 2. Pray for me that I can focus and study and do well!! This semester is indescribable and I cannot believe April is halfway over already. I must admit that I was a little homesick over my vacation; it’s very tiring traveling for so many days but certainly well worth it. I was thinking about my family and friends a lot of my birthday, but I know I will see them in 6 weeks. I cannot believe I am talking about the final 6 weeks, half a year has almost gone by since I have arrived here in Ireland. For the next two weeks, I will be studying a lot and will be anxious for exams to be over.

Once May hits, I am also excited for my dad, Uncle Tom, and Cousin Mike to come to Ireland on May 22 for a golf trip for my final week! The weather is nice in Ireland today so I am hoping it will be nice in the end of May for our golf trip. I am dying to go hit some golf balls right now, but I know I cannot until my exams are over because I have a lot of work to do now. I am very thankful for my spring break trip because as you can recall, I was very busy writing 3 final papers before I left. Without that week off, I would have gone crazy just staying inside and studying all day. Because of this, I know I will be more successful in the long wrong because I had a nice break.

With the end of this blog, my chores are done since I have arrived home and it is time to start studying. I hope everyone understands my week a little bit better! Please know I miss everyone more than ever at home.  

Location: Lagos, Portugal