Friday I didn't do anything, was going to go out with my classmates but it was raining way too hard so I ended up skyping with a friend back in the U.S.. On Saturday I slept in and after lunch my host dad, host brother Pedro, and I drove north from Viana to a beach, I forget the name but it's near the village of Carreço, halfway between Viana and Caminha. My host dad said cause the storm last week and because it's winter the water is way up and that in the summer there's a lot more sand.
That pointy cone mountain is Spain, everything before that is Portugal
Host brother Pedro for scale of the beach and mountains
Then we drove north more towards Caminha and stopped in a village called Moledo which is really small and full of vacation homes from people that live in Porto. There was this giant fort just in the middle of the ocean I don't know how far off the coast maybe three football fields. Just sitting there surrounded by water. It was really weird! The beach in Moledo was almost totally gone from the storms last week.
The fort
Beach house in Moledo
Then we went to Caminha which is a small town on the Minho River. On the southern side of the river is Portugal and on the northern side is Spain.
Looking at Spain across the Minho River from Caminha
There were so many "houses" in Caminha that just had walls, no floors or roofs or anything, just a few remaining walls I guess they're abandoned, this one was being worked on but a lot of the others were just sitting there.
Looking at Spain across the Minho River from Caminha
You can only cross to Spain by ferry from Caminha though. So we drove to Cerveira about 15 minutes northeast along the river and crossed into Spain there. We drove into Spain but there's nothing too exciting, it's mostly rural. We drove through a village and back down to the riverfront on the Spanish side and then came back.
On the bridge over the Minho River between Spain(left side) and Portugal(right side)
On the bridge over the Minho River between Portugal(left side) and Spain(right side)
Spain
Spain
Looking at Cerveira from Spain
We took a different road back to Viana, it's this giant highway through the mountains it's kind of scary to drive on because of the dropoffs. Saturday night I went to a party, it was a dinner at a pizzeria but I decided to go last minute so I had already eaten. Then after we went to a bar and walked around the city. Today is my host mom's birthday, her brother and his family came as well as my my grandma(the one who is addicted to cityville and farmville hah) for a big lunch that my host mom cooked. Then my host dad's sister and mom came at around 3 or 4 pm and we had cake and my host mom opened presents. I got my host mom some flowers and a card, she seemed to like them. My host brother didn't get my host mom anything except for a wrinkly piece of paper that had a stick figure and said "Adoro-te Mãe" or "I love you Mom." I thought it was kind of weird that he didn't even put any effort into anything for my host mom. My host sister kind of did the same thing my host dad bought her a gift certificate to a spa and Inês just put her name on it and gave it to her, oh well.
Left to right: Host mom, Host dad's sister Iolanda, Host mom's sister in law, host mom's brother, host dad
I think that's it, goodnight! And I promise to post more this week.
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