IRELAND!- Wicklow County pt. 2

IRELAND!- Wicklow County pt. 1

Ireland! The people, the food, the landscape, the accent... I fell in love with the country. First stop on our trip was the town of Wicklow in Wicklow County, self-proclaimed as "The Garden of Ireland." The town was adorable and the grounds are beautiful. And I am joined by Hollywood in this opinion. Movies such as Becoming Jane, Braveheart, P.S. I Love You, Michael Collins, and The Count of Monte Cristo have been filmed there!
All the signs in Dublin's airport used both Gaelic and English which I thought was pretty cool! The last photo of the group was where we stayed for the night and is actually the only hostel in the town.

Portugal- The Candids

Lagos, Portugal- Doña Ana Beach

The second day of our trip in Portugal was a little bit of a bust, it rained ALL DAY. But the last day of the trip was beautiful and we spent most of the day laying out on the beach and exploring the town. We got great burgers from this hole-in-the-wall bar where if you lifted your arms out to either side, you could touch the bar and the opposite wall at the same time. The owners of the bar were an Austrian couple who actually used to live in D.C.!

Sagres, Portugal- Cabo San Vicente, The End of the World

The 1st photo is what was considered the end of the world by Spaniards and Portuguese alike before Christopher Columbus, or as the Spanish say Cristóbal Colón, made his famous discovery. The other two are of a beach in the area where we had a rest stop.

Lagos, Portugal- Nightlife 2

Explanation of the pink man: it was his bachelor's party and his friends dressed him like that for the night... I do not know why! We also got to go up and dance onstage as well which was a really cool experience.

Lagos, Portugal- Nightlife

For the two nights we were in Portugal, our program took us to a few popular nightclubs in the area. Our favorite was Matt's, which had a mechanical bull (that s you can see I thoroughly enjoyed) and a dance floor.

Lagos, Portugal- Playa de Albufeira

The last picture is of the flowers we picked at the beach for our table!

The Baehre Siblings Reunited

Andrew was allowed to go out with his big sister for one night on the town!

Semana Santa

Due to the unusual amount of rain this year, most of the pasos (the religious floats) were not able to come out. Each paso is hundreds of years old and are fragile and originate from different churches in the city. We were able to catch one! The procession for Los Estudiantes begins at the University of Sevilla and makes its way through the streets, ending at the cathedral. The processions are a HUGE deal here, shutting down streets and its shops for hours as people line up to watch. People even cried when the paso of their church wasn't able to be taken out because of the rain!

Aracena pt. 2

Just to clarify: the one where it looks like we're squatting is a failed jumping photo attempt!

Aracena pt. 1

About an hour out from Sevilla, there's a small hiking town in the mountains called Aracena. We ended up hiking around 15 km (around 10 miles) during a trip there. We also visited the underground caves and the castle ruins that are the main attractions there. Sadly, I couldn't take pictures of the caves (against the rules :( ) but here are some of my time in the town!

La Noche de Mi Cumpleaños en España pt. 2

La Noche de Mi Cumpleaños en España pt. 1

I celebrated my 21st birthday here about a month ago and, I will say, it is definitely an experience I will never forget. For dinner, my host mom made me my favorite Spanish dish, pisto (vegetables in a tomato-based sauce and served with an egg) and bought a cake for the occasion. On top of that, my host parents gave me a scarf and bracelet as gifts! Both of the bars we went to that night put on "Happy Birthday" when they found out it was my birthday and we didn't pay for anything the whole night!