Portugal

Last Thursday my friends Jess and Alex and I hopped on a train to Sevilla and then took a bus to Loule Portugal. We spent the night there and hopped on another bus to Lagos and spent a few days there, then headed back to Spain where we spent a day and a half in Sevilla and saw our first glimpse of the Semana Santa (holy week) festivities.

Portugal is beautiful, especially if you escape the sprawling, beachy highrises of coastal towns. One of my favorite parts of the trip was getting to know my two friends a little bit better. And finding that the three of us traveled surprisingly well together. It can be difficult to make decisions as a group and to have everyone be happy.

It was also fun to go to a country where I only knew a few words, learned from a guidebook. It was like one big game of charades, tossing in spanish words, english occasionaly these few phrases I learned and motions and actions that ended up speaking louder than words. It was great, hilarious. It is funny how we couldn't understand what people were saying to us, and likewise but that at the same time we all could understand eachother.

In Lagos, we spent the day at the beach and then went out to dinner. To a "TRADITIONAL" restaurant. As we were near the ocean all of us had an inkling for fish. Salmon, tuna and a sample platter we enjoyed by all. I was impressed by alex as she picked apart three various fish, cooked in their entirety on her plate. Eyes and all. Afterwards we headed out to a bar for salsa dancing, learned a bit. And realized how we are going to learn how to salsa dance. And that a valuable asset for any guy is being able to know how to dance. We stayed up into the wee hours of the night dancing and the next day we were ready for the highlight of our hostel experience. Her name is "Mamma", she is the mother of the guy who owns the hostel. Every morning she makes crepes for the hungry, traveller. Perhaps the recipe is perfected, it might be lemon tea, steeped for 5 minutes exactly in boiling water. But the all you can eat crepes were amazing probably because everyone there misses their mamma and so it is like a taste of what it is like to have a mom again. Cookin crepes for you. MMM...

Afterwards, we went on an hour or so long boat tour through these grottoes that were nearby. Our old fisherman guide was hilarious. Pointing out to us what different rock formations looked like: "Look that one is king kong". It was fun to get to see these formations from a different angle and also to have experienced entering some of the little caves.

Afterwards we headed to the beach, caught some rays and then headed back to sevilla. We spent the night on the streets as we arrived a little after 5 in the morning. I think there were other travelers who had the same idea as us. We all learned how we really do not want to be homeless ever.

We wandered the streets, saw some sights: the cathedral, alcazar gardens and most importantly some processions. Lavish, extravagant holy week processions. The only thing I will say right now is that they were very cool to see. However, they caused me the biggest culture shock i have experienced here yet in the the 'penitentes' garb is strikingly similar to the fashions of the KKK. So it is a battle in my head to watch these processions with such a negative association in my head. Anyways, I will be attending more of these processions this week here in Granada and will explain a bit more about the history and what i know and have learned in the next post.

---

---