La Vida Sevillana

The trip to Lagos and Lisbon, Portugal turned out to be even better than I had expected. The Portuguese are some of the nicest people I have met in Europe; their graciousness pales in comparison to Spaniards. Although this might have been partially due to the fact that we stayed first in Lagos, a town that operates almost completely on tourism, we continued to find the same sort of hospitality and patience in Lisbon as we had found at first.

Lagos is undeniably one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever visted. The blue water, tall cliffs and pebble-y sand that doesnt stick to you were my favorite parts. Although there was a cold wind and a couple scattered rain showers that blew through during our stay, we were able to lay out on the beach at least a little bit. The cool thing about this area is that there is not only one long stretch of beach, as in most beaches, but also little beaches scattered throughout that are surrounded by these towering cliffs and which you might not have e even known were there. We took a boat tour around the cliffs that went in and around the caves of the coast which revealed even more small beaches we didn't know about. Our boat tour guide only spoke Portuguese but he'd been giving tours long enough to remember the english words for things he wanted to point out like "shells" stuck to the sides of the caves, faces that appeared in the rock formations that looked like a "chinese" person and other formations that looked like various animals such as a "camel.

My senora had just finished teaching Tara and I the night before I left for Portugal how to prepare Spanish tortilla. Now that the three girls and Will and I were at the grocery store in Lagos to buy food for our stay we decided to attempt cooking it ourselves. It took a long time but, after peeling, slicing and cooking the potatoes and then adding eggs and sausage and letting it sit in the oven for over an hour, we had a pretty decent-looking tortilla if I say so myself. We tried it again a couple nights later, this time adding Will's homemade tomato soup and together they made an amazing meal that we all enjoyed.

When I come back to Europe I plan to come back to this place for sure. It was nice to get away from the busy city life of Sevilla for a while and just lay around on the beautiful beach or walk though the town. Not only was it super-cheap, but the staff at the apartment were incredibly accomodating and did everything to ensure we had a pleasant stay.

On Monday, April 2 the girls and I caught a train to Lisbon while Will took a bus home. I hadn't originally planned to include Lisbon on the trip but decided at the last minute that I might as well visit the capital of Portugal while I was at it. Kate and Kit were coming in on a bus and had booked a hostel with me in one place while the other three girls were to stay in a different hotel. Completely by coincidence, both the hostal we stayed in was the building directly next to the hotel of the other girls...how that happened I don't even know but it definitely made things easier for meeting up.

Kate had gone through the trouble of getting my passport for me from my roomate in Seville, which I had forgotten the morning we left. I took a huge risk in deciding to get on the bus to Lagos without it but the bus driver said that although they usually stop the bus and check everyone's passport, there were other ways to get into Portugal without one, like a ferry (which I never did see). Fortunately, during the 6 hour bus ride I realized I had a copy in my wallet that I printed off and put there before I left for Spain in January (thank you study abroad guidelines!!). I hoped this would be sufficient. Will and I sat in the first seats of the bus and I was the first one to had over my two crumpled pieces of paper that I hoped would get me into another country. He looked them over for a little while and had pity on me saying he could be picky if he wanted to before giving them back to me. Then he gave Will a hard time, although he actually HAD his passport, saying he couldn't find his Seville stamp, when it was actually there, just lost among all the others. The guard took his passport for a while, fingering it as though it might be fake. It made a funny story later at least, me with my zerox copy good to go and he will an actual passport getting the suspicious eye.

As it turned out, I didn't actually need my passport in Lisbon or on the way back, but at least I had it in case. Lisbon was a big change from the calm serenity of Lagos. I wasn't too excited when we arrived to be in another big city surrounded by cars and people and loud noises, but after Kate and Kit arrived we settled in for the next two days. The next day we visited the castle of Saint George high on a hill in Lisbon from which you could view the whole city. Kate bought a small painting from an artist on the sidewalk there who painted with coffee! Even after it dried you could breathe on it to release the coffee smell. Afterwards we followed Jessica's guidebook and went to a small retuaraunt it mentioned on the way down the hill from the castle. We ate a full, authentic Potruguese meal for only 4 or 5 euros and then gave in to the temptation of the pastries in the window there. We saw other monuments for the rest of the day like the monastery and the Tower of Belem, once used as a prison. For dinner that night and the next, we bought groceries and had a pic-nic in the hotel room complete with sandwiches, chips, wine, yogurt and cookies. It was like having a girls sleepover again.

The next day we decided to go on a small trip outside the city to a place called Sintra, an old Moorish city. We took a 30 minute train outside the city to this wonderful little town full of colorful houses and buildings and castles. We visited one of the castles, the pena palace, which is the most important example of POrtuguese architecture during the romantic period. The castle was begun in 1840 as a royal summer residence on behalf of the German Prince Consort of Queen Maria II. We took pictures from its towers and windows and looking in on some of the rooms full of original furtinure.

We made it home that evening to the hustle and bustle in Seville for Semana Santa but I must say that I enjoyed Portugal more than any other trip thus far and would recommend it to anyone visiting Europe.

Going to Barcelona was my first experience in navigating the Spanish airports alone, to go somewhere I’ve never been and without so much as a telephone number to call once I got there. Of course, I went to Barcelona to meet my friend Leslie who is studying abroad in southern France, but, as we lived in separate countries we were unable to call each other’s cell phones very easily. I realized this only as I stood at the empty baggage claim area at 1 am with my suitcase and a worried look on my face. Thankfully though, Leslie had been waiting for me near the door of the airport, and after thinking she was going to have to spend the weekend alone, screamed as loud as I did when I saw her.

We made it into the city by cab, this was to be our first hostel experience ever and unfortunately since we booked separately, had to stay in separate rooms. We were too tired to care, but had to laugh when we woke up the next morning in a room full of strangers. There was no time to waste the next day. With only two days to explore as much of Barcelona as possible, we scooted out the door and made our way first to Parque Guell not knowing that we were embarking on a trek across the entire city to find it. After we had walked off the map that was in my guidebook, we had to ask strangers where the place was. When I say we, I mean I had to ask strangers as Leslie speaks no Spanish.

When we finally got there we realized why it is called one of Gaudi’s greatest works. It reminded me of something out of Willie Wonka or Candyland. In actuality however, the park was supposed to resemble nature in a lot of ways. There was a covered plaza full of columns with not a single one standing vertically but instead slanting in all directions. There was another part that just looked like a tunnel, but upon learning more about Gaudi’s work found out that it was supposed to mimic the inside of a wave in the ocean, which can be seen in one of my photos. Another part of the park was a huge open area surrounded by one incredibly long, curvy, twisty bench, said to be the longest in the world. From the bench and from even higher areas in the park, you can see all of Barcelona stretched out before you all the way to the ocean.

Afterwards, we made our way to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece. In the making since the late 1800s, the church is still uncompleted. Inside are more of Gaudi’s interesting art forms. The ceiling in my opinion is the most beautiful part. The columns that stretch to the top spread out like branches whose large ‘leafs’ form one big canopy over the whole church. Upon first glancing at it however you wouldn’t think trees or branches or leaves, you would just think it was a strange array of columns and an artsy ceiling until you read about it and look a little harder. We took the elevator to the arc that connects two of the towers of the church and got to experience more expansive views of the city.

For the rest of that day and part of the next, we explored Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous street. Along the whole street there are street vendors and performers and even animals for sale like birds and rabbits and guinea pigs. We went to this huge open air market where the fruit was just picked or the fish just caught. I bought a half kilo of strawberries for only a euro. The next day we started of with Picasso. First off, we went to a place mentioned in my guidebook called Els Quatre Gats, or Four Cats, where Picasso held his first art exhibit. The building was beautiful but hard to find tucked back in a tiny little street and exists today as a small restaurant. We then made our way to the Picasso museum where we must have spent a couple of hours taking in the different periods of his work, most of which came from his earlier, teen years. The most famous work in the museum was Picassos “Las Meninas,” his version of the original by Velazquez. I managed to sneak a picture, although not without a reprimanding from the museum worker, of a poster that illustrated the faces of each person in the version by Velazquez compared to those of Picasso.

That night we went to another part of the city where there is music and a colorful fountain show for two hours on most nights. We took photos from almost every level and angle of this fountain as it changed color and size and shape, as you can see in my photos on webshots.

We managed to pack in a lot over the course of two days and walked a large portion of the city, not only hitting its finer points but allowing ourselves to stroll around in between them.