Man Gave Names to All the Animals

Monday, April 18th
All day on Sunday, I studied - yuck. Then on Monday at 12:30pm I took my European Law midterm. There were definitely questions I didn't know and concepts I wasn't sure about but I made it through. I only needed a 3.6/6 to pass and later I found out that I achieved this relatively simple task. [Side Note: I am taking too many law classes this semester. I am taking European Law as well as Law for Business & Economics and there really is no point. Not only do I not want to be a lawyer, I don't want to be a lawyer in Europe! Knowing about the ECJ and the Functioning Treaty of Lisbon really won't be useful in 33 days when I complete both finals and return to America where the legal system is completely different.]

When I got back from my test, Jared and I struggled in deciding what to do for the day before settling on the beach, despite the sky's warning of rain. We took the train to Carcavelos beach which is usually really nice. But the sky did not waver on its promise as it was gray and overcast and rather chilly. Not more than 30 minutes after arriving it began to rain which was an immediate indicator to me that it was time to go.

That night we went to dinner at Valentino's, one of my favorite restaurants in Lisbon, and we split a Hawaiian pizza and a plate of tortellini bolonhesa - mmm, mmm good.

Tuesday, April 19th
The next morning came much earlier than anticipated. A poor assessment of the distance between my apartment and the bus station led to a pretty straining 25 minute walk. We arrived at the station with about 15 minutes to departure. It was just enough time to grab two surprisingly tasty ham and cheese sandwiches and some road snacks. This bus was equipped with wi-fi which provided slight entertainment in the first hour of the journey. 3.5-hours after leaving Lisbon we arrived in Lagos.

The bus station was small and barely recognizable as a bus station but the weather was wonderful. It was supposed to rain the entire time we were there so any bit of sunshine was greatly appreciated. Following a group of about six girls in front of us on the bus, we headed to the line for a cab - I have never waited so long for a cab in my life. I was shocked at the lack of cab traffic at the bus station but I guess that's part of it being so small. At least 30 minutes and three cabs later the women ahead of us were all gone and the next one was ours.

Upon arrival at the hotel, we realized that I could have a definite future as a travel guide. For only 70€/night, I found us a hotel literally right on the beach. Walking out of the glass front doors of the hotel it was about a 1.8 minute walk to the sand. Incredible. Go me! We unloaded the cab and checked-in at the front desk and discovered the one downside to our hotel (which could be interpreted as an upside) - no wi-fi in the rooms. Jared and I have made it a ritual to Sporcle and watch Modern Family all night so this lack of technology definitely put a crick in our original routine. However, just as immediately as we found out we would not be enjoying our usual diversions in Lagos, we were informed that the hotel had a pool table and a ping pong table. #Winning! That quickly dried my tears.

After unpacking in the room we went on an exploration in search of lunch. This seems like an easy enough task but unfortunately this part of Portugal has been seriously influenced by the lackadaisical practices of the nation to the East and adopted siestas. So many of the restaurants in the area close around 3pm and do not reopen until 7 or 8 at night. Insanity. But we did locate the one place that happened to be open during this so-called siesta and we had a very good lunch. [Side Note: Everyone has specific simple kitchen concoctions that they enjoy. Mine include cereal, honey toast, and grilled cheese sandwiches. During our time in Lagos, I discovered Jared's: tuna salad. I ordered it for our first lunch in Lagos and the rest of the time I don't believe there was one meal where Jared did not have tuna salad. This was his first exposure to it and he literally fell in love before my eyes.]

Lunch was succeeded by a necessary trip to the grocery store to stock our room with snacks. The snacks included: two kinds of disgusting muffins, two large bottles of water, lotion, a small good can of Pringles, a large bad can of Pringles, menthol mentos, and something chocolate which was clearly not for me. It was a good run aside from the fact that Jared would not allow me to get any sexual fruit otherwise known as bananas. Party pooper.

It was still early in the day and the sun was shining bright so can you guess our next stop? Dona Ana beach! We made our way across the sand dodging the rising tide to a clear spot and just laid out. It was exactly what I wanted to do on my spring break. The beach was beautiful and I was there with the love of my life. The only thing taking away from my picture perfect scene was the assortment of topless women scattered across the beach. At first it was just one that I saw and slowly but surely I noticed more and more - including a pregnant woman! Welcome to Europe.

As the day went on the beach grew more and more crowded. I have noticed that the prime beach time in Portugal is around 4pm which is about three hours later than the ideal beach time in San Diego. Eventually 3 girls would make their spot in the sand uncomfortably close to me. Because we were so close I overheard their conversation and immediately realized they were American because they were speaking English - "the master language" as Jared calls it. They were from all over the U.S. and had met this semester while studying abroad in Milan, Italy. Surprisingly they were friends with the one USC girl I know studying abroad in Milan, Becca DeCoud. Small world, eh? After we'd taken a few pictures for each other, we talked a little on our towels. I found out that one of the girls is actually from Long Beach, CA - shout out to SoCal. She asked questions about Jared and I and how much we get to see each other while abroad and whatnot which of course led me to tell her that we both attend USC. This combination of three letters bring me more pride than I could ever explain and saying "I go to USC" is more often than not followed by an awed expression and praise for my university. However this time it was followed by, "Oh, I almost went to USC... but I didn't." Of course this set me off to the fact that she must go to an awesome school (or at least one ranked higher than USC). Out of curiosity and a need to confirm that she was justified in her seemingly pompous remark, I asked what school she attended. With a simple smile she answered, "I go to Yale." Cheese and rice. When someone tells you they go to Yale, there's not a whole lot to say in response. Her combination of four letters just stomped my three by U.S. News and World Report standards - stomped mine by about 20 ranks. It was weird being the one with the awed expression and praise for another university. To say the least, I'm not a fan of being on the lower end of the university name drop game. On the other hand, I will proudly defend that USC is the best school in the country against any other university, including but not limited to Yale. And besides, I look better in cardinal and gold anyway :)

Once the tide soaked a few towels in front of us, we decided it was time to go. Our afternoon continued downstairs in our hotel with a few games of ping pong in which Jared broke one of the balls and created the "homo hand." Jared quickly proved to be the superior ping pong player but I'm a tenacious gal and I was determined to beat him. So of course we made a wager that required him taking me out for a nice dinner in Rome if I beat him just once while we were in Lagos. He must have been super cocky about his skills or very confident in my lack of them. Either way, if my father taught me nothing he taught me to never give up. So let the games begin.

Dinner that night was the first of three meals we would eat at Triangulos. We had discovered the restaurant while looking for the grocery store and it was a winner to say the very least. The first night I ordered the Brazilian beef steak with potatoes and rice and it was amazing! Loved it. The waiter was also really cool because when I went to order the Portuguese sausage he told me that it wasn't very good that night. Turns out he was probably just trying to get me to order something more expensive but at the time he seemed like a pretty stand up guy.

The walk back introduced the "dilapidated monstrosity" into our lives, which most people would just call the large abandoned hotel on the corner. I will admit that I could easily envision the next M. Night Shyamalan trailer including that hotel but just watching Jared get nervous every time we walked by it was really cute. When we returned from dinner we had Sex on the Beach (the drink! the drink! relax Mom) and played a few games of pool, further solidifying our amateur status as billiard players. We each won a few favors out of the deal so it wasn't a total disaster.

Wednesday, April 20th
We woke up late this day but that's a safe assumption about any day unless otherwise stated. There was a tour of the beach caves that Jared really wanted to do and I was pretty excited about as well but the weather was not looking great. We went downstairs to see if it could happen despite the gray skies but our inkling was correct - the rain was on its way and we'd have to try again tomorrow.

The rest of the day included a whole lot of lounging around of which I am always a fan. We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner around 4pm at one of the rare open restaurants and then played some more ping pong. Over night something had happened to me though - I stopped sucking at ping pong! I must have channeled my inner Forrest Gump or something because all of a sudden I was a thousand times better than the previous day and we actually had some really impressive rallies. The most impressive part was that I did beat Jared and he does owe me dinner. Maybe next time he'll have a little confidence in me ;)

We went to Triangulo's again for dinner where we discovered the most amazing carrots and bread appetizers of life - so good! Also, there was a Porto soccer game on in the restaurant and the table next to us would go crazy every time Porto scored. It kind of got me in the mood for American football because I am just as excited every time my Trojans touch that end zone (which is pretty often).

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful until we ran out of toilet paper. This was by far the most I laughed the entire trip. I asked Jared to go downstairs to get us a couple of rolls and he was not having it. But earlier that day when I'd asked him to get some, he'd simply stolen one from the maid cart. Seeing as he could have handled this issue during the day I thought it was fair that he have to handle it now. It was like pulling teeth to get him to go but he finally surrendered. A few minutes later he returned sans my toilet paper. Apparently a large group of people were checking in downstairs and "hoarding" the front desk and Jared did not want to ask for toilet paper in front of all of them. Though I was amused by the circumstance and slightly understood his concern, we had to get some. I didn't want to be without it in the middle of the night so I had to take care of this now. Jared decide to call downstairs for some but he couldn't figure out which number to push to reach the front desk because it wasn't labeled on the phone. But in two attempts I was able to figure it out and successfully reach the concierge (it was number 9, by the way). This whole debacle had taken at least 45 minutes by this point and eventually they did bring us a roll - just one, but it would more than suffice for the night - and we finally got to go to sleep after I laughed hysterically at the last hour's turn of events.

Thursday, April 21st

The next morning we got up early and got breakfast at the hotel. We tried to go on the tour after we ate but by this day the weather forecast had reared it's ugly head and it was full on raining. Well what can you do when you're rained in your hotel? Let's just say there was a lot of ping pong and pool to be played. Throw in some lounging and some snacking and you've got yourself a full day. We did stop by the first restaurant to have lunch again and Jared of course ordered a tuna salad.

For our last dinner we went to Traingulos for the third night in a row and ended up with the same waiter we had the first night. We were both in the mood for pizza so that's what we presumed to order. But for some reason, our waiter decided that pizza was not okay to order at Traingulos. Despite the fact that there is a whole page of the the pizzas they offer, when we tried to order them our waiter insisted that we try the lamb, which was in fact more expensive than the pizza. He kept going on and on about how good it is and how they only have it during Easter time and how you can go to any place to get pizza so we should really get the lamb, etc. It became annoyingly incessant and we just wanted our pizzas. He eventually succumbed to our taste buds but he did not go away easily. The women at the table behind us had ordered the lamb and when another waiter brought it to their table, our waiter proceeded to stand next to me and instruct us to turn around to stare at their meal. Is this a joke?! Like really, dude, just go away. It was so awkward and we avoided eye contact with him for the duration of our stay in the restaurant.

Friday, April 22nd

On our last morning in Lagos we tried and failed one last time to go on the tour of the caves after breakfast but the weather just wouldn't allow it according to the company our hotel advertised. It was actually pretty nice out and we did notice other boat companies on the water. Fishy. The sun was shining enough that I wore a tank top and people were at the beach but I guess the service we wanted with the company available to us was not operating. Bummer.

To pass the hours we had until our bus left, we decided to play a few games of pool. When we arrived at the bar, we realized that it did not open until 11am. What kind of bar is not open at 10am? It's 5:00 somewhere, isn't it? I'm not a lush but we did wait until the bar opened and we did get a drink while playing one last game of pool. We were merely following the example of our friend Steve Moltzen who has taken up day drinking since being in Europe. I believe Jared had the Carvi which was named after our hotel and I had a Cinderella which was not very good. It tasted like watered down orange juice in my opinion so I might at well have just gotten regular orange juice. Oh well. Lesson learned.

We also played one game of Speed and one game of War at the card table, both of which I lost. While we were playing War, a large group of people was checking into the hotel and this rather obnoxious guy walked by the table and asked us if the elevator went up to the hotel rooms. Where else would it go, Nimrod? This same guy came by a few minutes later just when Jared and I had to "declare war" because we both laid down kings and exclaimed, "Oh War! Oooo it's a battle!" Wow... just wow.

About an hour before it was time to call a cab we went to grab our last meal in Lagos. We tried a new restaurant and we both had the club sandwich which was really good. While waiting for our sandwiches Jared pointed out that the volume of the music in this restaurant was a few decibels higher than most. Not to mention the song playing was definitely not Jason Mraz's finest lyrical expression. Man may have given "names to all the animals, in the beginning, a long time ago" but that does not mean it deserves an entire song. However, we did get pretty into the lyrics and started guessing which animal he was describing in the verse before he revealed the answer in the last line. An awful yet catchy song but it will always make me smile.

We made it to the bus with plenty of time and found our seats with ease. After discovering that there was no wi-fi on this bus, therefore demolishing our plans of Sporcling on the way back to Lisbon, I passed out. There is literally nothing I can say about this bus ride because I slept the entire way. I woke up and we were about 10 minutes from the Lisbon bus station. Transportation puts me to sleep - I get it from my dad.

We spent the next two nights in Lisbon and then we were off to Rome on Easter Sunday. Week one of Spring Break 2011 complete. 

"He saw an animal up on a hill
Chewing up so much grass until she was filled
He saw milk coming out but he didn't know how
'Ah, think I'll call it a cow.'" -Jason Mraz