To the End of the World and Back...Portugal!

My friends Lauren, Kristen, Katie and I went to Portugal this past weekend (April 13-15) for a beach weekend through a company, We Love Spain. The weather was not as nice as we were hoping but we were still able to lay out on the beach...it was just a little chilly.

On Friday, we went to a beach in Albufeira for a couple of hours and laid out and we climbed on some gorgeous rocks. Then we went out to dinner. Lauren and I found this really cute Italian restaurant and got sparkling white wine and celebrated Holly’s birthday (picture of us below). They didn’t have any Barbie drinks on the menu but I plan to celebrate again with Barbie drinks when I get home :) My entire theme of this weekend was to love life and it was a blessing being able to be completely immersed in God’s gorgeous creation while doing so. That night we went out with We Love Spain because they organized a bar tour for us. At the first bar, right when we walked in Journey was playing and we were all singing along. We then found out that it was a live band! Lauren and I loved the band and the songs they were playing so this made for a really great night! After the band, there were a couple of bartenders doing tricks and that was really cool to see. We went home shortly after this because we didn’t want to stay out too late.

On Saturday, we went to three cool places on our way to Lagos for the day. The first place is called the “end of the world” because before Columbus discovered America, they thought this was the end of the world. It looked like it could be the end of the world because we were on top of these giant cliffs, overlooking the ocean (pictured above). It was so incredible to see and it was one of the coolest places I have ever been! The next place we went to was called Punte de Piedad and it was full of red cliffs and aqua blue water (two pictures on the right)! And then we went to Dona Ana beach, which is the most popular beach in Lagos. We only stayed there for about 30 minutes to get some pictures because it started raining. Then we went into the city center of Lagos and ate lunch and did some shopping and looking around. We stayed in this night and had a girls night!

On Sunday, we went to another beach in Albufeira. It was the warmest but also the windiest day. We were able to lay out on the beach but when I got home that night I had sand engrained in my hair and all over my body. I did get some sun though! We also got some fruity drinks and Mexican food at a restaurant near the water while we were there. This was probably my favorite day because it felt the most beachy!

It was a great weekend, relaxing with my friends. School is starting to pick up, as I have a lot of presentations, final projects, and casos prácticos (case studies) due, as well as exams coming up in the next couple of weeks! I go to Barcelona on Thursday and then my parents come on Sunday and my sister and brother in law come on the following Thursday so I am really excited for them all to visit before I take my finals and head back to the U.S.