Según Samantha: Crossing borders

Elvas, Portugal

So it has already been a month that I've been in Spain, pretty crazy. Time is going so fast and I keep trying to plan my future trips because there are endless opportunities here. We are so close to so many countries, it can get overwhelming when trying to think of when and where you want to go. Today however, the choice was pretty easy..Portugal!! My friend Kate came to stay with me for the weekend and we went to Portugal for a couple of hours. Elvas is a town that I can literally see from my apartment. It was a 25-30 minute bus ride that cost 2 euro. We were the only ones on the bus and the ONLY tourists in the city of Elvas.

Signs in Portuguese

Crossing the border is simple, no police, no passport checks, nothing! I was hoping that that would actually be the case so I could get another stamp on my passport but oh well. It was such a nice day because we had no itinerary, no where to be and everything to explore. We noticed right away how strange the Portuguese accent seems in comparison to Spanish. The words can be similar to Spanish but the accent is definitely different. Luckily, most people are able to speak Spanish so that was our easiest mean of communication.

Elvas was a super cute little town even though there was nothing going on. We walked around most of the city in a couple hours and sat down to have a nice lunch. We ordered the "Menu of the Day" which is a great deal that includes beer, bread, soup, a dish of your choice, dessert and coffee (all for 9 euro). I ordered some chicken that came with fries but everyone else ordered a typical Portuguese dish called Bacalhau. It's a dish with salted and dried cod, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and olives (it tastes better than it sounds). Below are two versions of it.