Guess what?! I turned 21 in a country where it doesn’t even matter! It was lots of fun though. A dozen or so of my friends showed up to celebrate by hitting up my favorite bar in Sevilla, La Cerveceria Internacional. It’s a local joint filled with Spaniards and the ocassional Irishman where they have a menu of over 300 beers. It was tasty and the perfect way to celebrate my birthday in a foreign country.
It was so great to have my parents in here. They got in Tuesday and we spent the first 3 days enjoying Sevilla, and especially enjoying their rooftop pool. The terrace of their hotel was an oasis within a very hot Sevilla. It felt absolutely amazing to jump in the crystal clear, chilly pool. While you swum around you could look up at the Giralda (the bell tower of the cathedral) and see the people looking down at you from the top!
We enjoyed walking through Parque Maria Luisa. My mom and I being the green thumbs we are could spend hours looking at all the different plants. We walked by the river, ate the best Italian food I have had and got Sevilla’s best icecream –which we couldn’t finish we were so full of Italian food. I am not sure I have ever thrown away icecream…
Friday we picked up the rental car at the airport and wound our way around the 465 of Sevilla (A30) towards Portugal. The scenery was beautiful. The entire way to Portugal there were azalea-like bushes with bright pink flowers in the middle section of the 4 lane highway. Old olive groves with the gnarled trees and bright yellow bushes dotted the landscape all the way to the land of no tall trees – aka. Portugal.
I’m not sure why but Portugal didn’t seem to boast many trees. There was the strangest looking pine tree (kind of looks like the Charlie brown Christmas tree) and a few palms but that was it. We stayed at the End of the World in Sagres, Portugal. It was a sleepy little town of 3000 where we rented a apartment in a hotel and stayed 3 nights.
Sagres was absolutely breath-taking. The Portugal coast line is all cliffs with 200 foot drops down into the most beautiful blue Atlantic Ocean. We explored at least 5 different beaches, all tucked in crescents of rock and sand in between the harboring cliffs. If you spread your hand out so that all your fingers are spread out that is what the southwestern-most tip of Portugal (Sagres) looks like -juts of land/cliffs that form immaculate little bays in between. We kept remarking how this area reminded us of both the Oregon coast and the Maine Coast.
We did a lot of exploring. We hiked around at the End of the World and we all thought that the ground cover and all the plants are what we imagined the moors of England look like. Being the Jane Austin buff that I am, I couldn’t help making that connection! We also visited Lagos Portugal so I could show my parents a set of rock formations I had seen earlier this year. A few time throughout the trip we got to see surfers and bodyboarders riding the waves. It looks like fun! I’ll have to give it a try next time I’m in Portugal!
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| Starting of the birthday celebrations - it's nice that the birthday girl never has to pay for anything! |
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| The girls! |
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| Giant asparagus - yummy! just kidding, this plant was about 7 ft tall. But it does look like an asparagus right? |
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| Love you guys! |
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| View from where we ate dinner - best squid ever! |
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| Contemplating the End of the World... |
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| Lagos |
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| Natural arches over an amazingly blue ocean |
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| Mommy! Miss you both already! |
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Sorry to have slacked on you all for a while. Emma informed me it had been over a week. I promise to be better :)
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