portugal!

the wifi was broken at the hotel, so i couldn't post while i was in portugal. 

friday afternoon we took a charter bus to portugal. it was about a 6 and 1/2 hour bus ride. most of us slept throughout the trip. it was about dinner time when we arrived and everyone got ready really quickly and we went out. near our hotel was an arena that had a small mall and restaurants below it. we split into smaller groups and found somewhere to eat. my group went to a very nice pizzaria. our waiter was superb! probably the nicest person i've encountered on my trip. my meal was delicious. our waiter spent a lot of time talking to us about different things they do in portugal, and differences between portugal and the US. he let us try one of portugal's famous beers for free. it was really good. he also gave one of the girls a salad for free because she was still hungry after her meal. he stayed about 30 minutes after his shift ended to talk with us. he was really nice. i was so excited that our first experience in portugal was wonderful! after dinner a couple of the smaller groups met up and went to see the movie magic mike! it was a lot of fun.

 

saturday we had a day tour with a guide. she took us around the city and showed us some of the best views from portugal. the ocean was absolutely beautiful. after our tour we had free time. we stopped and grabbed lunch and it was a horrible experience. our waiter was rude.. and after we left he chased us down the street and accused us of shorting him 3 euros. we proceeded to count the money again showed him it was correct and he counted it again to be sure.. i couldn't believe it. we told several people about it and they all agreed that wasn't normal and assumed he may have been trying to get more money out of us because he were foreigners. we did a little bit of shopping but for the most part portugal had the same stores that salamanca has.. only more expensive.. portugal was more expensive than salamanca, but i assume that it's because most of the cities are very touristy. we went back and took a nap and then got ready for the evening. we went to a restaurant close to our hotel because one of our program directors went out with us. afterwards, we took a bus downtown to find dinner. we ended up eating at this cute little restaurant. the food was absolutely delicious and i treated myself to cheesecake for dessert! so good! after dinner we were going to go out but it was way too cold. it gets much colder in the evenings than it does in salamanca and the wind was terrible. everyone was freezing.

 

sunday we went to go see an area called hell's mouth. it was so pretty. afterwards we went to the beach. the weather was warm but the water was so cold. if you stood in the water for a minute or two your entire body would go numb. i only went in the water up to my knees but a couple people jumped right in.. they were freezing. we grabbed lunch after the beach and made our way back to salamanca.

 

when i got home tonight they were just finishing dinner. we had spanish tortilla and a couple slices of ham. it was really good. i'm really tired as i didn't get to sleep much on the bus home. i really had a great weekend and loved all my time in portugal. my only complaint is that i wish i would have gotten another stamp on my passport, but it's rare when traveling within europe. i'm going to do my homework and head to bed.

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