El pasado fin de semana fue increíble

Around Wednesday night I realized that I had nothing planned for the weekend, so I called up a couple friends and we decided that we would rent a car and drive west the following evening. We were a bit intimidated going to a country where they speak a language that none of us speak, but we quickly found out how friendly the Portuguese are. We had to buy a map on the way and we met some nice people in the gas station who preferred speaking English over Spanish. This was actually a common theme for the weekend. We were lost then made friends with some locals and they show us the way. We ended up in Lagos, Portugal Thursday night and the next day was far greater than incredible.
Friday morning we woke up and ate Crepes prepared by the hostel owner's mother. She made us feel like family, and ever taught us some Portuguese. After Breakfast we were ready for the beach or really cliffs I should say. We enjoyed a full day of hiking around, down, on and through the cliffs down to the beautiful wall surrounded beaches. We spent 5 hours just soaking in the beauty. That night we decided to go to the owner of the hostels restaurant, which was across the street, and I had my first burger since arriving in europe. Maybe it was just my Spain goggles but this burger was one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted. This is something that I am going to try and recreated when I get home. Our plan was to only spend one night in Lagos, but the slow pace and friendliness of the town was enticing and required more of our time, so we easily caved and spent another night before heading to Lisbon.
The next morning we pilled in to car after a wonderful breakfast of crepes and a concert consisting of banjo music. One of the guys working in the hostel played the banjo, so we convinced him we had to hear, so he played for us and even gave us his album. The drive to Lisbon was a whirl of beautiful rolling hills, good conversations, with soundtrack consisting of Banjo. Upon first arrival to Lisbon I thought I was in San Francisco due to the very large red bridge (looks freakishly similar to the Golden Gate) as well as the bay that the town is surrounding. The town is also somewhat hilly, definitely not as hilly as San Fran, but still interesting to one who is a new in using a manual transmission! I freaked out a little bit but my buddies encouraged me and kept me from losing my head, although I about lost my cool a couple times. Lisbon was incredible in a different way than Lagos. The beauty of the structures that we came across stand out in my mind. We watched the sun set from the Castillo do San Jorge, named after my father, and this was quite the view. This castle was built by the Moors around 1000 as a fortress, so strategically it was built on the highest hill around. The reason the sunset was so great was because we could see the whole bay/city in front of it.
Saturday night we met up with some friends who we study with in Sevilla at there hostel and decide to combine our group with a group of Brazilians that were staying there. Best decision we could have made. They took us to a place where live MPB (Brazilian acoustic pop) music was being played and we learned how to samba (or at least watched it) ha. At the end of the night we all invited one another to visit in our respective countries, and after exchanging information I think it may happen some day.
I hope everyone back home is enjoying their spring break! I miss you all and can’t wait to see. My time here really seems to be flying by. Already I’ve been here 2 months and I have seen so much, but I still have so much more to see and experience.


Have a wonderful week

-rob

Hermano Oso

Spain has yet to fail me when I’m looking for something exciting to get into. There seems to be endless things to see and experience here, which I think is true for everywhere. Here it just happens to be a little more apparent.
















I had my birthday a few days ago. Thanks everyone for the notes/gifts it’s been great hearing from you. For the birthday a group of us decided to scurry on down to Cadiz to experience Carnival. Come to find out Cadiz has the third largest carnival celebration in the world. Only Rio De Janeiro and Trinidad trump this crazy festival. There were upwards of a million people in costumes partying, dancing, drinking, and shouting in the streets. All of it was pretty overwhelming, and even though I’m glad I went, my first visit will also be my last to Cadiz for carnival.













The best part of turning 21 was the next night Ryan and JD took me out to eat at place that a friend suggested. We sat and ate for almost 2 hours just enjoying the food and one another’s company. After dinner we grabbed some ice cream and walked through the narrow streets. Much more my scene than Carnival.













Some Clemson friends, Korie and Annie, made their way here to Sevilla recently to see the sights and check out this baller city. Their program planned on taking them to most of the staple sights around the city, but there was one area they did not go that I had to show them before they hit the road. The Plaza de Espana and the Parque Maria Luisa are probably my favorite two places in town. The plaza de Espana, which is the building in the picture at the top of the page, is amazing for its sheer size but also some very detailed tile work. The park, which is right in front of the plaza, has turned out to be a great place to study as well as read, take naps, and people watch. I’m going to try and set up the hammock that I brought in the park here soon.

The city of Sevilla sent me a birthday gift in the form of a tarjeta de Sevici. This probably means nothing to you right? Well this city of Sevilla has a public bike system. By that I mean there are bike stations all over the city for the publics use. With this new trajeta de sevici or "bike card" that I received in the mail I can bike around town with ease, but still enjoy the awesome sights that you sometimes lose in a vehical. My buddy JD and I are excited because ridding around on a Sevici makes us look more like locals, because tourists don’t generally use them.










Recently a few of us took a day trip to Ronda. The old city of Ronda is a beautiful White town that is situated up on a cliff. It is connected back to the rest of the city with a bridge that looks like it’s out of lord of the rings. I can’t even imagine how they built these buildings and this bridge so close to the edge of the cliffs. I’m sure Ernest Hemingway wondered the same thing while he spent some time writing there. Ronda is were he wrote most of the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. The oldest bull ring still in use today resides in Ronda, which we had to go see. I learned a lot more about the Spanish art of bullfighting through the museum attached to the ring.

These are just some of the main things that I've been doing. I'd love to talk to you all face to face about whatever via Skype. my skype name is robjclayton. hope to here from you!

Grace and Peace

-rob

PS. I’d love to have my little sister with me at Clemson University next year! Just sayin