Poolside cocktails, string bikinis, sky-high heels, packed beach parties and all-night dance clubs. Ah, Spring break in Ibiza. …Or so I would imagine.
While all of my chicer classmates enjoyed the glamour of the Spanish isle, my friend and I took ourselves just a bit further West to Ericeira, Portugal; a small coast side village twenty miles outside of Lisbon. We had booked a week at a surf house in one of Europe’s surfing meccas.
We touched down in Lisbon on a balmy, hot morning. Gabi, a drop-dead- gorgeous girl, ten feet tall with white-blonde hair greeted us outside of the airport. She helped us throw our bags into the old hatchback and we began our journey towards the coast. I chose the music as she stroked the dashboard affectionately, encouraging her car to survive another 80kmh push.
We arrived at the house 40 minutes later. It was a small two story shack mere feet from the sea. Just a few small shared bedrooms, two shared bathrooms, a kitchen, a lounge and a roof deck where we found two dazzlingly handsome premed students from Germany who thought it would be hilarious to challenge two American girls to a game of beer pong.
A couple of Spanish guys, an American and a Canadian later joined out little party and the eight of us became fast friends. A motley crew and our little spring break family.
Irene and I spent our afternoons surfing and snoozing on the beach, sometimes wandering down the cliffs to the small village for cheap lunches and tacky souvenir shopping. During the evenings the gang would gather around the kitchen table to play drinking games, tell stories, sing songs and laugh at my outrageous sunburn.
We had family dinners, bonfires on the beach, nights in local bars and an all-out lasertag war with a bunch of silly, travelers who stole pieces of our hearts during those gloriously hot evenings.
This little postcard will never do it justice. Scribble “Surfing and silly dance parties in Portugal” down on your bucket-list and go see for yourself!
XO B
