So the last week of my stay here in Portugal..I had already written it longlong ago, when I was still there, but just got around to posting it now. After my returning from the Acores, we have just been spending time together with the erasmus-posse. On the day of my return there was a nice surprise waiting for me - finally a theme party I can participate in! And the theme - 90s. But finding an outfit at that hour was a bit of a tougher task. For my luck my incredible boyfriend had left his incredible jeans that fit me incredibly, here. šarka was the one responsible for decorating centro and what a magnificent job she did, Centro had never looked more 90sh! (I guess). They were shopping for the decor at the place that has everything and anything you might ever need - loja de chinesa aka the chinese shop. And the best thing she got for the party, well it might have been a little off topic, were 2 badminton rackets and a plastic shuttlecock!! Imagine our faces with Christina when we saw those at Centro. Immediately we ran outside to have a friendly match but uhm what can you expect from 2 euro chinese shop rackets.. not much. With the power we have in our arms every shot made the shuttle hide its head in between the strings and playing soft babybadminton is not the way we roll :D But šarka and Ricky you really made us happy there for a bunch of seconds!!

So the weekend began and we started our day by going to a different beach nearby, Afife. It is actually cheaper to go there by train then it is to go to our usual choice of beach, praia de cabadelo, to which, with the scorching hot weather, we always go by boat. And dannnggg, that praia is soo much more nicer!! Cabadelo is way too windy for us not-windsports-doers. There are usually 2 choices, either you fry in the sun in a windyshady place and its too hot, or you want to take a dip in the water and once you reach the shore, its so windy that you get nippy and want to go back to the laying spot. But Afife treated us really well- except for the hot sand and the even hotter planks on the way to the beach- those really did their best to burn my soles, but my secret weapon was my fast feet. Not this time, plankway.. Since it was international surf day - woohoo - we got to do some free surfing with the same club that we usually go surfing with, but with different coaches. I had neglected my surfdevelopment, the passion had kinda wandered away inch by inch every time I had to mount a longboard. But this time I asked for a shortboard and my request didnt get denied cuz I was one of the few who had some experience in the surfing field. For most it was the first try. It was really good that there were so many coaches in the water so everyone got a good lesson. But the current was soo strong, too strong to fully enjoy, it kept pulling us to the side where it was way too deep. Still it was aaawsum to get back on the saddle! They were also shooting for a promovideo, there was even a drone flying around. After the surfing the hard part began.. chillin. It was over 30 degrees and to me, a northerner, that is a heavy burden, especially to carry it for 5+ hours - we were waiting for the train to come pick us up (on its one way lane btw).

In the evening we visited the medieval fair taking place here on the streets of Viana. The vibe from that was really nice - foodstands with simple food from back in the day, people dressed in medieval costumes selling their goods, streets filled with people and all that topped with the warm summer air. There were some marching bands scamming the grounds and a theatrical piece performed with firespitters, sangria and beer being sold in especially made ceramic cups - it was an experience of its own! I bought a few rings, which were impossible to pick out from all the beautiful pieces there were on display, and I even got to practice asking for a discount in portuguese, thats something useful i´d say.

Since the start of the end of June has began, there is one (or many) tough things we have to face, and that is saying goodbye to the people that have grown soo dear to us. Yet another byebye-gettogether (+birthday) bash was taking place this weekend and this time one of the heroes of the night was my hero of this half-year, my guide-friend Luis, who was returning to his hometown Lisboa. The whole night I felt soo nostalgic and sentimental. Though one of the most important ones to me, Anna, already left, saying bye to Luis was another level of extremely hard. To be friends with someone like him is a privilege and not having him around is going to take some getting used to. I am just so grateful that he was assigned as my Erasmus buddy. But now it is his turn to do his Erasmus and I will most definitely be visiting him in Bordeaux, France- the wine-capital of the world! And thanks to Luis, I will be taking home a lot better wines then I would be, if I had chosen them on my own :D

The second day of my first weekend back and last full weekend was the day of the (swimming) pool party volume 2! Like the first time, we gathered in the resi parking lot, and just like the first time, we went by mcdonalds to grab a frappé. Traditions are meant to be kept :D Though we were at the same place with nearly the same people, the party was completely different. When the first time we were just mesmerized by how great a party can be, then this time we really felt more and more as a whole. We were all having fun in the pool, cuz it was the best place to be with a heat of 35 degrees. Ofcourse, racket sport enthusiasts, as we are with Christina, we needed to play tennis. Bruno even had to get more balls, because...drumroll please..the remaining balls from the last party weren´t merely enough to cover the probable losses from the upcoming party. Bright yellow balls were flying in every direction and though they are bright and yellow, it´s still not so easy to track them down.

 Ricky had even got a gopro for this special occasion and fun in the pool just got its capital letters! And masterchefs Stefano and Lina made the highlight of the day by preparing us the most amazing burgers ever, in gigantic quantities. Om nomnomnom grunt grunt nomnom and some mainstream playing on the background was all you could hear for a couple of minutes. I just feel that the kizomba part was awfully short :) Right now there is just so much content in my heart that I dont even get sad thinking about all the lasts I´m experiencing. OK, liar, ofc I get sad thinking about not having all my friends in the same place again. And to end this entry, a biiiig thankyou to Bruno who has organised so many amazing events for us!!!