About two and a half weeks ago, I went to Portugal with both my roommates and another friend. After only a 4 hour bus ride, we were in another country surrounded by a language that reads like drunk Spanish and sounds like Spanish in a French accent (aka, Portuguese), colorful and cute houses everywhere, and a cloudy sky that was to dissipate within our stay.
After checking in to our airbnb, the first thing we did was head to the beach. When in Lagos, right? It was cloudy, windy, and cold, but still absolutely gorgeous. And I may or may not have jumped in, despite having a cold and four exams the coming week.
The next day we set out to explore the city before heading to the again. Here are some snapshots of Lagos during a prettier day:
The last day, we had to check out of our airbnb at 10am, but didn’t have our bus leave until 5pm. After checking out, we head (surprise!) to the beach one last time (a different one though, there are like 8 major beaches in Lagos):
After saying a final goodbye to Portuguese beaches, we went to the center in search of food. After almost entering several restaurants, we eventually decided on one that looked good and relatively cheap, and I am so glad we did. Not only was the food fantastic and inexpensive and a street magician came by and performed while we ate, we had a very nice waiter with whom we had a great conversation. The coolest part? He didn’t speak English or Spanish, only Portuguese. I ended up talking to him in Spanish, and he would respond in Portuguese, but we understood each other perfectly. Not only was it an encouraging moment of language proficiency, but a beautiful moment of being able to communicate with someone I otherwise, without Spanish and French, wouldn’t have been able to. It made me very thankful for the ability to learn languages and the rewards of doing so. Now our group has a Portuguese friend, and I still keep in touch with him over social media (and learning Portuguese little by little 🙂 ).
All in all, a wonderful weekend that I would love to repeat.
Emma in Seville 