SB2K17

Posted By: Tanner Brooks

Posted On: April 22nd, 2017

Attending:

I was lucky enough to spend my Easter Break traveling around Spain and Portugal with fellow scholars T-John, Gene, and Jack.  We visited Barcelona, Seville, Faro, and Sagres over a two week period.  It was an unbelievable trip and is exactly what I needed to relax and recharge the batteries for the final couple weeks of exams and projects.  We got to experience an entirely different culture and met some incredible people along the way.  We indulged ourselves in the local cuisine and got to see all the incredible sights that these cities had to offer.  It would take a novel to describe all the cool things we got to experience on this trip, so I thought it would be best to give a list of 20 things I learned along the way to help give some insight into our travel adventures, and hopefully provides some advice about traveling this area. 

1.  The Sagres Cliffs are a breathtaking sight that is a must-visit for all travel bucket lists.
2. Barcelona and Seville provide completely different holiday experiences, Barcelona is a tourist destination that is full of life and energy, while Seville provides more of a cultural experience that is just as exciting, but gives more of an insight into Spanish Culture. 
3. Just about nobody in Seville speaks English, but most people in Barcelona will speak some sort of English.
4. T-John speaks no Spanish.
5. Neither does Gene, even though he thinks he does and claims to be 8% Spanish.
6. People in Portugal don’t speak Spanish, only Portuguese.
7. Faro, Portugal is a very rundown town, but has some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen. 
8. Faro is a great destination for a relaxing beach getaway.  There is not much of a night life in Faro, and our visit there mainly consisted of enjoying the incredible beaches and trying all the great local cuisine.
9. Renting bikes in every city was the best decision we made, because it allowed us to see tons of sights in a day and scope out all the best places we wanted to visit during our journey.
10. AirBnB is the way to go when staying abroad, and we got very lucky with great hosts and great rooms.
11. Food is fantastically cheap in Spain and Portugal and you always get a good bang for your buck.
12. The quality of a restaurant’s Sangria directly reflects the quality of their food.
13. When in doubt, ask the locals about best places to eat, and if needed, rely on charades like Gene did.
14. Faro beaches are a major destination for kite-boarders because of the gusting winds, shallow shore break, and connecting inlets.
15. To best enjoy the beaches in Barcelona you have to go away from the main crowded beaches.  The main, central beaches are filled with people who are constantly bombarding you with products to buy, and it gets extremely annoying.
16. Seville is the host of the biggest Easter celebration in all of Europe.
17. Easter weekend is also the opening weekend for bull-fighting in Seville.
18. Best place to eat in Barcelona:  Either Itapas for all you can eat Tapas, or the restaurant Teruel.
19. Best place to eat in Seville: Everywhere has great food in Seville.
20. Best place to eat in Faro:  WAX Restaurant for the best bacon, cheddar burger you’ll ever enjoy. 

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