The first time ever I got to see the Atlantic ocean (or any ocean) was in 2011 in Portugal. It was also just my second flight ever and the first and so far only time I was flying alone. My boyfriend stayed in Portugal for 4 weeks and I joined for the last 2 weeks because sadly I couldn’t take more time off from work.

We stayed in a small tepee at a campground in Ericeira because I don’t really like tents too much and it was really cheap.

We went to the ocean almost every day because my boyfriend was surfing and this was a thing which turned my life around, I think. So what happened? I was really fascinated by surfing and I said to myself that I want to take courses on our next vacation. I knew though that I could never do this with the current physical state I was in. I didn’t do any sports at that time and I was really unfit. I was also drinking too much alcohol and too often, I have to admit. I was going through a phase in life where I was partying a lot at the weekends. I still did it after coming home and too long time after..

So what did I do? I really set the goal for me to take classes the year after in summer. So I told myself, when I come home, I’ll start running. And I did. In the beginning I was dead after 5 minutes but I stayed on track and I never stopped running up to the present day. 🙂 Even before this vacation I always wanted to get fitter again, lose some weight etc. but I never found the motivation. It’s really good when you have a fix goal which you can work towards.

So far I didn’t really speak about Portugal at all. 😀 But really, for me this was the most important thing that I took home with me and which improved my life quality so much.

In Ericeira we went to the ocean a lot, as I said before, and it was quite windy and cold. I didn’t really expect it to be this cold in August so I just packed summer clothes and maybe one warm pullover. I also couldn’t stay long in the water because back then I didn’t have a wetsuit which made me a little sad.

I enjoyed my stay there anyway. Due to the fact we stayed on a campground we met lots of people, did barbecues, went out for dinner,.. it really was a great time and I really needed this trip because it had been a while since I left Germany and I was working quite a lot during that time.

Two days before we left Portugal I went to Lisbon on my own. I was really impressed. It was the biggest city I’d ever been to. I was a little scared not to find my way back to the metro so I just jumped on a tourist bus which drove through the whole city (I also wouldn’t have had enough time to see everything otherwise). It was a great day and I’m happy I took the chance to go there even though we only had 2 days left and I also wanted to enjoy the beach.

I think Portugal is a beautiful country and I would totally go there again if there weren’t too many other countries waiting. 😉