I know I was being a bit overdramatic because I'm lucky enough to know there's a sequence to this semester but I really wanted to make this last day special because even thou I will be back in the fall time, most of the people who joined me on the journey won't. My plan was a bit different than how it escalated but nonetheless I'm not complaining. In the last few weeks I started to have a small stable group of friends with whom we would go everywhere together: my roommate, her friend who visited us for a week from Budapest and another friend from Budapest. Hungarians stick together sometimes. This didn't mean we didn't make new friends from other nationalities or we were closed as a group, it would just mean that we would be always there for each other when we wanted to catch some sun rays on the beach or grab a drink and play some dumb drinking game to pass the time. Sadly, only three of us were present on the described day (we missed you, Smodics).
On the last day me and Auguszta woke up a bit late because that's basically how it worked in the last few weeks: go to sleep late (or early in the morning, depends on the perspective) and then wake up late. I planned to go to Cabo da Roca because - well - it's the Westernmost point of the mainland after all (and a scenic one, may I add). My plan was to watch the sunset, I can only imagine how beautiful that would be, but the transport system wasn't on my side this time. I would say that it's pretty easy to get around Lisbon and its urban area but for some reason the timetable of this bus didn't really allow us to stay and there weren't enough cars around to risk hitchhiking at night and you know - we wouldn't have been too happy to walk 6 hours.
Auguszta was still laying in bed and it was around 2-3 o'clock when I started to annoy her and Zoli to get themselves together and let's go on an adventure. I have to say they weren't very happy about it being a "last minute decision" but to my defense, I was saying this for days in a row. I still get shade for this from time to time but fairly enough they warned me that I will hear this 'till the end of time.
Anyways, we agreed that we'll meet at 4 o'clock at the train station(to which I was almost late because I wanted to grab a coffee) but somebody (*Zoli*) was actually late so we were late for our connection bus as well. We walked around Cascais for our extra hour, grabbed some coffee and food. I think I failed to mention in my previous post how peacefully beautiful Cascais really is. It's kind of like the typical touristy beach city but somehow has a charm to it, it's very welcoming.
We got on the bus - we were almost late for that as well because *somebody* had to go inside a restaurant last minute and bargain on the price of the food.
The bus went through green landscapes, it kinda reminded me of the roads of Transylvania, but in the slightest bit - the way a homesick person sees behind every little detail.
Cabo da Roca turned out to be extremely
windy and cold so I was glad that I brought a sweater. My initial plan was to go to Praia da Ursa because it's in a walking distance and than watch the sunset at the scenic point but sometimes things just don't turn out as they were planned and that's alright. We hiked a bit to go down to the rocks lying on some hidden beach and jump from one rock to another, hoping to not get our clothes too wet, like some kids soaking up some nature. The ground was steep and slippery so even the best of us fell or at least slipped. Yours truly even tried to prevent this by taking off her shoes and going barefoot but that didn't really work out (well, neither did the ultra flat sandals she wore).
I would say that it was a moderately difficult trail but one worth taking nonetheless. We caught the last bus back to the city and there was some unreasonable calmness on that bus, at least in my own mind. As if I deeply knew that this isn't the end, there will be a sequence to this or as if I would have last a piece of myself in that very moment. We were talking about the colours of our eyes, how they held so many of the spectrum and as if it was sensed, this cute old gal addresses: -Your eyes are beautiful! And they're all different coloured, you kids are beautiful. He didn't know but as he was admiring our youth, we were admiring his elderly and their relationship with his wife. It was pure goals: their playfulness, their sunlike warmth and their bag full of bottles of wine. We all sighed with admiration and set the goals up high: we don't want oldness if it's nothing like that.
We got back to the city but it was too late to get some drink from the supermarkets so we decided to drink some beers at some terrace. Of course, at this point we weren't able to drink without playing games, so we played piccolo there, in the middle of the cobblestone street. After two beers we were ready to go, grabbed a few more beers to go at the Italian restaurant beneath our flat and then we were truly ready to party. It wasn't only my last day, but the last day of Marion as well so the party was guarantied. We got to Saldanha where we had a fantastic time - as usual. We played beerpong, talked and danced and got a chance to say goodbye to all the amazing people of this small society of internationals who made our short stay unbelievably better. As I said before, plans don't always work out. I planned to see the sunrise at some special place but regarding my unpacked things I went home before. All will be missed! I will write a follow up reflection about the whole stay, stay tuned!