¡Largos!

The answer to my guessing game is that I spent a long weekend in Largos, Portugal! The trip I won was through Discover Excursions which does trips to Portugal, Morocco, and the Sahara. A couple days before I left, I was surfing Facebook and saw a post from a CIEE member who said that they had done a trip with this company before and really liked it. Just on a whim, I clicked the link and signed up for their weekly drawing. Less that 48 hours later I got an email saying that I had won. My reaction? This has to be bullshit. Even I am not that lucky.

But apparently I am, because just a few days later I was on a train headed to Sevilla to meet up with the rest of the group to get on a bus to Largos. Once I arrived I realized that the whole weekend seemed to be designed for college kids looking for a weekend full of sun, sangria, and shenanigans ... but I was hardly going to complain.

Julia at The End of the World

The oddest thing though was that I wasn't the only person from CIEE there. In fact the first person I introduced myself to was also from CIEE. And also won this trip. And also will be working at the exact same school as me for the next year. Weird coincidence right? The fates have had a hand in this one *insert dramatic music here.* So Julia--my future coworker--and I were able to get to know each other a bit before school starts, and in a much more relaxing atmosphere.



When the bus reached the boarder, I couldn't help being excited; a new country to scratch off my map! The guild did a count down...3.. 2... 1... Portugal! Then I waited for the inevitable stop at customs. And waited. And waited. And it never came. Apparently the Portuguese border control (if they exist) didn't want to see my passport, even though I was sooo excited to show it to them. I think that was my biggest disappointment the whole trip: no stamp for my passport to prove I was there.

I ended up rooming with people I didn't know (shocker, considering when I got off the bus I knew one person decently well) in an apartment style room just a five minute walk from the beach. And the beach... the beach made the whole trip worth it. I could have done nothing but play in the surf and lay in the sun and be completely content for the whole weekend. Of course I didn't, but I did do a fair bit of lounging.

On the day I arrived, once everyone got settled into their rooms, there was an option to go on a Sangria Cruise. If it isn't obvious from the name, the premise is you get on a boat and cruise around the coast drinking as much sangria as you please. In defense of my choice to join in the in with the college kids who were clearly planning on getting plastered, I figured I would end up drinking at some point over the weekend and I might as well spend my money on drinks that also included the option of jumping off a boat into the ocean. Overall, it was a good choice. The views were amazing and I took my camera so I could get some good photos before I indulged in the (all be it, slightly mediocre) sangria. But the water was wonderfully refreshing and I even managed to jump off the top of the boat with minimalist screaming. There was even a smaller boat that took us in groups for a quick tour of the grottoes along the cost.

Day two's activity was the one I was most looking forward too: kayaking. After a morning at a new beach a quick bus ride away, about half the group dawned life-jackets and headed for the waves. There were mostly two-man (or woman in our case) kayaks, so Julia and I teamed up. Not to brag too much, but between the two of us it was pretty clear we had the most kayaking experience in our group. My competitive side kicked in and we raced through the waves and quickly caught our guide despite being nearly that last ones in the water. His tour took us in and out of several caves, past our hotel and the surrounding beaches, and ended at a quiet cove where we stopped for a break. Using a snorkel and mask provided by our tour guild I spent the hour floating off shore seeing what I could find underwater. The water was a bit murky and the sights were nothing compared to the Cayman Islands or Cancun, but it was fun to explore for a bit.

That evening I jumped back on the bus for a tour of the end of the world. I'm not talking about the Apocalypse here, just the southern-most point in Portugal: the cliffs at Sagres. As our guild explained, this used to be the very tip of the known world before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And I can see it. I can see how, looking over the vastness of the ocean, our ancestors might have thought that it all ends here. The only thing beyond that is the sea, the sky, and winds that seem to come from nowhere.

My final day in Largos was a lazy one. I walked up to a new beach, wrote poetry in the sand, and lounged. It was a quiet conclusion to a very fun weekend.

September 9th-11th, 2016