Portugal

It was definitely the getaway that we needed!! We left super early Saturday morning for our 4 ½ hour bus ride. The ride itself was pretty uneventful except for the foul smell that we had to experience the whole way… none of the adjectives that I have to describe the experience are appropriate, but it was horrible. At one point, I was wishing that I could sleep on the bus like Angi so then I wouldn’t be bothered by the smell. The next time I looked over at her, she had her scarf covering her face to block the stench; I guess sleeping wouldn’t have made it any better. We were subjected to the same putrid odor on the way back as well…

 pewww eeeee!!

Angi & I in 30 years (actually two women that were on our tour that reminded us so much of ourselves!!) It was pretty funny to stalk them and find similarities! We never got up the nerve to ask if we could take a picture with them...

…but, we arrived in Figueira da Foz by noon and after grabbing a quick lunch, we were out the door to hit the beach for a few hours.  The wind was is pretty intense and after a few hours of freezing my tooshy off, I called it good so I could return to the room and take a siesta. Little did we know that that was as good as it was going to get...

Sunday morning we ate breakfast and decided that we’d be really good and spend the morning studying before heading to the beach. After a number of hours of study-torture, we found a chinese restaurant (I know, I know eating Chinese food in Portugal sounds really weird but we were looking for something we could eat and every restaurant here specializes in seafood, which just doesn’t cut it for us!). After a decent lunch (except for the hidden meat we kept finding in things), we hit the beach. Apparently it had been an amazing morning on the beach; the afternoon not so much!! The wind was blowing so hard that the sand was pelting against us. It HURT, like A LOT!! I lasted almost an hour out there before I called it quits; by that time sand was in every nook and cranny of me and my backpack!! It was pretty intense. Ah, the price I'm willing to pay to get a little sun on my fair Irish skin!!

Monday we went to Aveiro, a small, adorable beach town just north of Figueira. The bus stopped so we could explore the inland part of the town a bit, which, like Venice, has canals all around it. We took a canal tour on a boat that took us by their salt flats (of course I bought a little salt here to take back home—hopefully TSA doesn’t get suspicious about my little pouch of salt!!) Then the bus took us over to the beach, and after a yummy lunch we attempted try #3 to get some beach time in, and once again, it was an epic failure. The wind was still blowing like crazy… Well, we can honestly say we gave it our best effort. Despite the lack of freckle-acquiring sunshine time, it was a really good weekend overall.

on the canal boat tour

such a quaint beach town!

 

That's what we thought of beach-attempt failure #3

Since getting back from Portugal, we’ve taken three of our seven finals. In general, I’m feeling okay about them. I definitely feel like I am at my capacity for shoving more information into my brain. Fortunately the Evolution of Spanish final was this morning and now it’s just done and I can stop worrying about it and can focus on the topics that are less of a struggle for me!!