Vamos a Portugal!

Puente, Puente, Puente!! Yet another Puente happened at the end of February and the beginning of March, to celebrate the Dia de Andalucia (celebrates the passing of the referendum that made Andalucia an autonomous community in Spain) and the Dia de la Comunidad Educativa (Teachers just wanted a day off). Other auxiliares got an ENTIRE week off (Semana Blanca) but us in Granada werent so lucky, but I still took advantage of it.

Two friends (from American but living in Granada and Linares), J and I took a last minute road trip to Lagos, Portugal, which I had visited about 5 years ago and got some awesomely-bad sunburns and ate tasty beef stroganoff. After 6 hours in a car, navigating through Malaga, Sevilla, past a prison, numerous olive trees and a new alternative energy source that looked like something out of LOTR, we arrived at our destination.

This was the beginning of our adventure to find our hostel. Since we reserved with the same company I used 5 years ago, I knew where the office was. But no one was there! Some old man started talking to us about hostel deals, the problems with this office, etc etc etc... And we were trying to call the phone numbers listed on the door. None of the numbers, except for the last one tried worked. So I got to speak Portuguese-Spanish (Portugnish?) to a guy and he said someone would be there in 5 minutes.

Enter Fatima and her grandson. We got to meet all the rest of the family too and neighbors as we were introduced to our new apartment with a faulty hot water heater. But thankfully, Fatima's son got it going so we didnt have to go upstairs for showers.

Our apartment was old school with some questionable interior decoration. It would make a good set for a horror movie. The figureheads on the walls and toys on the mantles were different (MN word that describes something that we don't understand, or don't want to try to understand) But the beds were comfy, there was TV and hot water!

This was a weekend of eating and watching. There was an amazing breakfast place that we went to both days and I realized how much I missed breakfast. Wonderful pizza bolognaise and then local dining: which partly consisted of Vinho Verde and a suprise Portuguese "tapa" of sausage, soaked in sherry on fire. Delicious! Especially the crispy bits, but the bits where the liquor didn't burn off were a bit hard to handle.

The watching portion of the weekend took part at the beach and near Sangres. While the smarter people stayed on the beach, Kelsea and I decided to just take a chance and go for a quick dip. Cold, but no hyperthermia. In Sangres, we attempted to (re)visit Henry the Navigator's school of navigation but it closed 10 minutes before. So we enjoyed exploring the near by lighthouse, the most western point on continental Europe and an amazing Sunset. One day I will return there when it is actually warm.

One of A Million Sunset Pictures