I took a real vacation this weekend, because everything I've done this semester has been such hard work and the whole "study abroad" thing isn't just a giant vacation in and of itself.
Basically I went on a trip that didn't involved going to a museum.
I went through a company called Discover Excursions, and it wasn't quite my cup of tea. The trip had a distinct "giant boozy party" atmosphere, which is not really how I roll. But other than that I had a lovely time.
Day 1 we got on a bus in Sevilla bound for Lagos on the south coast of Portugal. Each day had an optional activity that cost a little extra, and the Day 1 activity was a booze cruise. I opted to go to the beach. I had a lovely time lying out on the warm sand for the afternoon under the scenic cliffs of Potato Beach (yes, that's the real name) and swmming in the crystal clear, freezing ocean. We were on our own for dinner in town, and we discovered a classic Portuguese dish called chicken piri-piri. It's basically chicken wings in pepper sauce, and it's delicious.
Day 2 was also a beach day. Normally, we would have gone to the gorgeous Doña Ana Beach, but it was closed so they could add artificial sand (I never really got an explanation for that) so instead we went to Sock Beach (don't ask me where these name come from), which was nice, but had distinctly no shade whatsoever. For budget purposes I did not sign up for kayaking that day, and I ended up sitting on Sock Beach for 6 hours. It was ridiculous. I wish I had known that anyone who didn't go kayaking would be left at the beach all day, over an hour's walk from the hotel. Needless to say I got a bit sunburned and a lot grumpy. We ended up camping out in the beach's sandwich shop and then paying for the privilege of sitting under some umbrellas, which was the best five euros I've ever spent. Later, they bused us out to the west coast to see the sunset, which was beautiful. We stood next to a little lighthouse on top of some massive cliffs and watched the sun sink into the Atlantic before returning to Lagos for the night.
Day 3 was by far my favorite. I got up early and hopped on a bus headed for Praia do Amado (Beloved Beach) on the west coast for my first ever surfing lesson. After somehow fanagling myself into a wetsuit, my friends and I braved the icy Atlantic waters for an hour and a half for the sake of catching some gnarly waves.
By "braved the icy Atlantic waters for an hour and a half for the sake of catching some gnarly waves" I mean we spent an hour and a half getting smacked in the face with our own surfboards and five-foot waves and swearing profusely. It was geniunely my favorite. It's a heck of a workout to drag the board out into the surf, more of a workout than trying to stand up. I succeeded in actually standing on the surfboard and riding a wave for all of 1.5 seconds, but I was really good at surfing from a kneeling position. It's between kneeling and standing up that I tend to lose my balance and get a mouthful of salt water. I managed to get all sorts of sand in my hair and bruise the heck out of my knees from landing directly on top of my board whenever I fell. Nonetheless, I regret nothing. There were a lot of much better surfers out at the beach that day, swimming much farther out into the ocean to catch waves that were easily 20 feet high. I had almost as much fun watching them as they did laughing at our big group of clueless American teenagers floundering in the shallows.
Afterwards we got back on the bus (we didn't get to bathe until we were back in Spain, which was nasty) which returned us to Sevilla. I showered extensively and slept even more extensively. I may not travel with Discover Excursions again, but one thing is for sure -- my life will not be complete until I go surfing again.