10 days - Serbia and Greece
30 days - the Central Asia trip
35 days - Paris, Portugal, and Spain
Well, to be fair, my Portugal trip was actually a "work study" and I got 10 paid days for that. They didn't give a penny for the course, so hey, I took the days off and appreciated the extra 10 days of Study Leave.
What is this "work study?" you ask? Well, to make a long story short, last year I took this course that was by an AWESOME instructor and he facilitates a Certificate of Orthopedic Manual Therapy (COMT) from Curtin University to this company called Formaterapia in Portugal - basically to have a better location for this course. This Certificate is looked highly upon in the States and it is a big time and money investment and takes more than a year. So back then I thought of doing it, pack it all in a month and see a bit of Europe. Fast forward to Sept 2014, and here we are! Thanks to Manual Concepts, passed the exam and am a COMT! Yay!
Overall, I had both the main instructors before, and they are sooo amazing and awesome. Although much of it was similar to that previous course I took, I don't think I digested too much before because it was really too much information. Now it was very well paced and very well progressed, so I digested a lot more and understand it a lot more. The month went by super quick and although much of the focus was on the spine, the other stuff was good too. Their were about 25 of us, more than 1/2 came from Italy, these young new grads that had lots of energy and a thirst for knowledge. Then there were a few Irish, a UK, myself and 2 colleagues from Dubai, 1 German, 2 Canadians, and 1 Portuguese. A good mix! So although we were serious about our studies, we still had fun! Especially after we all passed the exam:
The first day above....
Then the weeks following below, a lot more friendly!
So although that was the purpose of my trip, took advantage of the location and did as much internal traveling as I could. The BEST part was.... a visit from my sister! After gallivanting around Europe for a couple of months, she came to me happy.... but broke, ha ha!
Out of our activities around Villamoura (where the course was held), one day we did a Catamaran boat tour along the Algarve coast, and then the next day we went to Faro, which had the beautiful "deserted island."
Pria de Infanta, a "secret" sculpture that a local that happened to be sitting next to us told us about. Even the guides from the Catamaran didn't know about it!
The next weekend went around the more historical areas of the Algarve region, Silves (the old Moorish capital),
To Monchique, the highest point in Algarve;
To Cape Saint Vincent, the most southwesterly point of Europe, "the end of the world,"
I'm pointing to America!!!
Finally, to Lagos,
Can't forget about Villamoura! Here are some pics from there:
Do you see how I was calling this a "working" holiday? hehe. Very touristy and not "real" Portugal, meaning it is a newer and nice city, it was by the beach and that itself was awesome!!
So the last full weekend, I couldn't resist the opportunity to drive a measly 2 hours to go to ... Sevilla, Spain! My sister and pretty much everyone I know is always talking about how great it is, and after going there, I would definitely agree! We spent 1 full day there, and I looooooved every minute of it!
Below are pics from the Sevilla Cathedral, the LARGEST Gothic Cathedral in the world AND the 3rd largest Church IN THE WORLD!!!! I have been to an ample amount of cathedrals in my life, and this I really have to say was the most impressive. It was really amazing!! And funny enough, we arrived on World Tourism day, so our 8 euro fee got waved. Ha!
The burial of Christopher Colombus
Then it was off to the Plaza de Espana... just in time for the rain, but just the amount of time to do a slooooow walk through it, the rain came and went:
Below: Case de la Guitarra - can I say BEST FLAMENCO EVER!!! I'm totally serious! Flamenco originated in Sevilla, and of course we had to see one. We literally stumbled across this and decided to go. I am soo happy we did because it was a BIG highlight. I've seen some flamenco in my life, but really, this was breathtaking and amazing. Not only did the guitarist remind me of my brother, BUT he was amazing and the flamenco dancer - WOW! I've NEVER seen that much passion. WOW! Between gawking between her hands and feet and body movements to his guitar playing to a clapper/singer tha amazingly all coordinated together, I think my mouth was open the whole time in awe. Simple AMAZING!!!
Then after tapas for lunch, we finished off with paella for dinner, yum!
A nice sign we saw as we were leaving, "life is made of small moments." So true!!
Then finally, the last weekend, as we were leaving from Lisbon, we spent a little over a day there:
1st impressions, lots of look-alikes to other world structures! Such as this and Brazil's statue of Christ and....
The 25th of April suspension bridge, very similar to San Francisco's bridge!
The most delicious codfish cake EVER!!!! Portugal is known for its codfish, and although I tried it in various occasions, I have to say it wasn't my favorite. But this was!!
Another view of the 25th of April bridge, aka San Francisco bridge in Lisbon, Portugal
The below pics of the Castillo Sao Jorge was simple amazing, we got there just in time for sunset, and it truly was breathtaking. I think I took 23048320942309 pictures, and these are just a few - that don't even do it justice!
Lisbon had some really nice graffiti!
Ah ha, finally tried the famous Porto wine. It was umm.... an acquired taste, haha :-)
A nice farewell to my time in Portugal (Iberia - Spain and Portugal) - the Lisbon marathon! It was an end here and alluding to my new beginning - my next trip will be in April... for the Boston marathon!
No comments:
Post a Comment