Spring Break in Spain and Portugal!

Posted By: T-John Casiello
Posted On: April 25th, 2017
Attending: Letterkenny Institute of Technology

Picking up right where I left off… so that flight at 6 A.M. was heading to Barcelona… I'm not sure what Gene, Tanner, and I were thinking when we planned that thing. Since it was so early and Sunday night of Varsities, we had to pull an all-nighter and leave for the airport just before 4 A.M. 

Therefore, we went out with everyone and celebrated the end of the basketball season. Then, caught a cab a 3:45 A.M. to the airport. We arrived at the airport fine and went through security real quick so we had over an hour till they started boarding our plane. Of course, we were going to find the best couch or chair in the airport and try to shut our eyes for a little. Well, all three of us ended up falling asleep by our gate. Thankfully, we woke up just in time to board the flight! Imagine if we got that far and missed the flight haha! Anyway, we boarded and arrived in Barcelona, our first stop of our spring break trip. The first day was surprising very productive for the lack of sleep. The remaining four days in Barcelona was unbelievable. It is definitely one of my favorite cities. We rented bikes and saw all the popular tourist attractions, we hit the beach, ate tapas and drank sangria. It really doesn't get much better than that! 

Our next destination was Seville in southern Spain. I must say thank God Tanner knew some Spanish or else we would have been in serious trouble. It turned out our Airbnb was 15 minutes outside the city centre, no one spoke English like zero! Even in the heart of Seville not that many people spoke English so we relied heavily on Tanner's spotty Spanish skills. One of the coolest things about our time in Seville was that it was on Easter Sunday. It turns out Easter weekend in Seville is a massive holiday for them. The city was packed, parades were going on everywhere, and the bullfighting season kicked off. I wish we got to actually watch a bullfight but the tickets were too expensive, maybe next time. Overall, it was an awesome time to see all the weekend festivities that took place. They definitely have some interesting ways of celebrating the holiday so it was really cool to be there to experience it! 

Next, after the weekend in Seville, we went to Faro, Portugal. We chose Faro as our last stop because we all wanted a warm spot where we could just relax and catch some sun before we went back to much cooler/cloudier Ireland. And that it was! We pretty much soaked up the sun on the beach for a couple days, jumped in the ocean, rented bikes, and just had a blast. The warm weather was much needed after being in Ireland for quite some time. I am a person that prefers warm sunny weather any day of the week so it was a great escape. Overall, it was one of the best trips ever….I think Tanner and Gene would agree. We made it back safely with no problems after that rough start, thankfully!

Visiting these different places definitely gives me the travel bug. I wish I had time to travel a little more, but anything is better than nothing! I look forward to seeing a couple more countries before I head home! 

Until next time!

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