Portugal

Alright on to Portugal.  I must admit that I was not expecting anything going into Portugal, I just thought it would be cool to go there and that we would finally have enough sun to go chill on the beach.  I did not expect to fall in love with Lisbon, particularly the Alfalma district.  It was beautiful, full of little winding alleys and buildings built into the sides of slopes leading to the ocean in a manner that reminded me of pictures I have seen of Greece.  It was absolutely amazing and we all decided that it was one of our favorite ports so far (Galway is still ranked number one because its Ireland but this was an extremely close second).   The first day Danielle, Amy and I had a scavenger hunt that we signed up for through SAS.  I was super excited because I think that a scavenger hunt is such a unique way to get acquainted with a city.  We split into three teams and my team was Danielle, Amy, Isaiah (my super awesome RD), Laura and Conner.  We started at the main square with a huge arch that was put up in rememberance of the disasterous earthquake and tsunami that had occurred.  We were given guidebooks that held our clues and tasks for what we had to find and do.  Most of the tasks required us to learn something about the city’s history or its landscape.  We had to run up and down hills, through a castle, past churches, purchase sardines, drink some cherry brandy, and ask locals questions about landmarks or famous Portuguese people in history.  It was SOOO much fun, we had a blast!  Naturally our team won and we got the coolest prizes ever!   They had gone out and gotten hand-painted tiles with the Semester At Sea logo painted on them.  For those of you who don’t know tiles are HUGE in Portugal and so that was very special!

 

The second day all we did was chill at the beach.  We got a big group together and just went to lay out and read and swim a bit.  We went to a beach that people had recommended and it was beautiful, there was a little cove on one side that we stayed near and we even went cliff diving off of the rocks bordering the cove—it was such a rush!   We got a couple of scrapes climbing up there but nothing major and it was totally worth it :)

 

The third day we went to the Oceanarium which was awesome—we got to see penguins up close along with a large variety of fish and other sea creatures that are not found in North America (or at least not in our zoos).  That was really fun and we ran into some of the little kids on the ship and hung out with them for part of it which made it even better—you know how I love kids.  Well, sorry if that was short or nondescript but I’m tired so I am headed to bed.  Love you all!

~Colleen