Adiós Sevilla, olá Portugal!
I’m pleased to officially say that the Princeton Glee Club has finished the first part of our tour, ending off the night with festivities in Sevilla bringing new friends, loud laughter, amazingly huge (and slightly intimidating) churches, successful concerts, and private flamenco shows. It sure sounds like 5 days in one, doesn’t it? But luckily for us, the journey doesn’t stop there -- we begin the next day with a late morning and sleeping in, as well as a new adventure waiting on the Iberian horizon.
I started my Wednesday with a lengthy and delicious breakfast at our favorite hotel buffet, a crowd-pleaser to be sure. Grabbing two-plates-full of my usual selection -- consisting of local hams, eggs, potatoes, rice pudding, and an assortment of fruits -- my fellow Glee member Skye and I sat down at an empty table and were soon enough joined by another friend, where a myriad of topics came up, such as Rachminoff’s music and the events of last night, before we each split off to fulfill our respective missions -- Ilya: to talk to as many people as possible during this breakfast, and Skye and I: to get some last-minute studying (and packing!) done before getting on the bus to Vilamoura, Portugal.
After meeting everyone in the lobby with our suitcases and unsuccessfully searching for bananas as snacks for the road (which surprisingly, Sevilla had very little of amongst their wide assortment of fruits such as watermelon, oranges, pineapples, grapes, and more), it was now time to begin our 3.5 hour bus ride. Or rather, our 2.5 hour ride if you factor in the time difference, like Nigel, our tour guide did!
All around me, people discussed a wide array of topics, ranging from international relations, mathematical proofs, to Tolstoy’s war and peace. Typical Princeton conversations, am I right?
Well, goodbye Sevilla!
I watched the horizons and warmly colored buildings fade away as we began our journey, free mountains and rolling hills contrasting the flat sloping rooftops. Surprisingly enough, everything is much greener than expected. Everything is lush. Everything is vibrant and alive. Thanks to the recent rainy season (which we did, unfortunately, encounter as well) the whole land grew in an almost tropical sense and was far from the typical Jersey landscape.
As quickly as we had left Spain, though, we had arrived in Portugal.
Leaving our bags on the bus, the sophomores (the lovely class of 27) all went to the nearest restaurant next to our hotel, which turned out to be a chinese buffet, for a group lunch. The staff were absolutely amazing, and even though our party was a whopping 17 people, we moved circular and square tables and chairs to sit together. Ordering everything from sushi to chicken to gyoza and rice, the hour passed smoothly. And at the end, our gracious hostess even gave us free ice cream and lollipops!
Around 3 o’clock, it was time to check into the hotel. The rooms are very nice, with a spacious closet and desk and chairs, but the real star of the show is the balcony overlooking the pool and marina. You can see the tiled orange roofs and a whole fleet of yachts in the distance, surrounded by the ocean and neighboring cities covered in a continuous cloud of fog.
Some students went immediately to the hottub, but my friends and I decided to go down to the nearest beach and explore the shore.
We took off our jackets, as the temperature was surprisingly warmer than Seville, and in only 10 minutes we reached our destination. Although there were certainly many parts of the beach with a lot of algae floating ashore, it was also covered in beautiful shells -- orange and purple and pretty pink ones -- and roaring waves that crashed against the sand in thunder-like groups. While I did not brave the water myself, opting to merely roll up my jeans and walk along the coast, some people did! And to be frank? It was FREEZING. But it was quite fun, I’ll admit, to see people running into the ocean and exclaiming ecstatically when the waves toppled someone over and when the algae would get stuck to someone’s face. Yes, they were shivering by the end of it. But how many of us can say that they swam on the Portuguese-shore mid-March?
After my feet were adequately cold and wet, I sat on a neighboring rock and called my loved ones back at home to quickly catch up before Stanley and I (a sophomore tenor!) decided to climb alongside one of the rocky shorelines to check out a lighthouse. Now, that shore was slippery: rocks jaggedy. Potential rain clouds were certainly looming in the distance. But spirits were high. Singing songs as we climbed, taking pictures along the way, we sure got our exercise in for the entire week and gave our jeans a good sea-water washing (we were absolutely soaked by the end of it all).
Following our beach-day excursion, I got back to the hotel room and took the most relaxing, and amazing, hot shower of my life to prepare for our Glee Club dinner in the hotel.
Dinner was a full club event, filled with tasty desserts (like local tiramisu and chocolate mousse), in-house breads and cheeses, and some of the best grilled pork chops -- grilled right in front of me! -- that I have ever had in my life. I don’t know what it was about Vilamoura, maybe it’s the sun or the ocean waves or the generally relaxing atmosphere, but a large majority of us were just a little sleepy, so once dinner concluded, most people simply went back to their hotel room to get some rest.
While a few brave souls went out to the town for some karaoke, I think the rest of the night can be best described by a Glee club graduate student -- “I’m gonna hit the club -- and by the club, I mean bed.”
Following our beach excursion and our bus rides, following the crazy night beforehand, Vilamoura has been (so far) a lovely place to chat with friends and explore the town, and especially, to recharge before the crazy nights of Lisbon.
Yours, Katya Grygreonko ‘27
