My Weekend Trip To Portugal

Having the opportunity to do an internship in Spain has been a dream come true for me. Not only am I learning and experiencing so much, but I also have had the opportunity to explore Spain and do a lot traveling. 

Let me tell you about my favorite excursion which was a weekend trip to Lagos, Portugal. Initially, I was not planning on taking any trips other than staying here in Madrid. I personally thought that being in Madrid, Spain was enough, but I was wrong. After arriving in Madrid and meeting all the other interns, all they talked about was their plans on visiting all these different countries. My first thought was about it being really expensive to travel and I didn't think that I would be able to afford it. Little did I know it was the thing to do when you travel to Europe because traveling within Europe is inexpensive. 

You have many options when traveling. You can travel on a bus, a budget airline, or the European rail system. For those of you who have planed a trip before, I feel you, trying to make plans can get a bit overwhelming. Two of the other interns and I decided to do a package deal with a program. The program we decided on provided a travel guide and bus travel that departed from Seville, Spain and arrive in Lagos, Portugal. The package also came with a condo stay, breakfast, and a bus ride back to Seville, Spain. The main reason we decided to do the package deal was because it was safe, and we were going to get the opportunity to meet other kids who were studying abroad as well.
The plan was that we were going to leave Madrid on Thursday afternoon and travel to Seville and stay the night at Seville. On Friday morning we would meet with the program & leave to Portugal and spend the whole day Saturday in Portugal, and on Sunday we would leave Portugal at 6pm to Seville, and catch the bus to Madrid. Even with these plans made, we still had a list of all the things we had to figure out before we left such as: 

How are we getting from Madrid to Seville? We took the metro in Madrid to a one way European rail system to Seville (2 hours).
Where will we be staying in Seville for the night? We booked a hostel.
What will we be seeing in Seville? (get our trip's worth) We really didn't plan this, but we got lucky enough that the hostel receptionist told us all the spots we needed to see.
Where is the meeting spot to catch the bus to leave to Portugal? We booked the hostel close to the meeting spot so it was only an 11 min walk.
How we getting to Portugal? Roundtrip bus ride was provided with the package deal (4 hours).
How will we be getting home from Seville after the trip? We booked an overnight bus from Seville to Madrid (7 hour trip).
It also was really important that we got back on Monday morning since we all had work. In the end, we made it all work! We got to work just in time, although were all running on no sleep, but it was a small sacrifice and totally worth it. 

Throughout the trip I met so many people. Many of them shockingly were students that were studying in Madrid as well and some who were studying in Seville. I got to experience so many things like eating a hamburger that is considered to be one of the top 50 hamburgers in the world. Believe me, IT WAS DELICIOUS. We went on the beach, where I got really, really burnt..ha! We went on a 3 hour hike. This was my favorite hike of all time. It was awesome climbing the rocks, seeing beautiful views, and getting a great workout. We also got the chance to see downtown Lagos. There are plenty of things to do, restaurants, shopping, bars, entertainment, etc. Overall, the trip was amazing. If I were able to do it again I would in a heartbeat. 

Visiting Portugal was just one of the many perks I got while studying abroad. I hope that if you get an opportunity to travel abroad, you remember to also take time to enjoy yourself and experience new things like traveling to other countries.