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Traveling To Portugal
November 28th, 2023
A memorable travel experience that will be with me forever was my trip to Portugal. I was invited to play at a camp in Portugal, and the bonds and memories I made will always stay with me. Unfortunately, I only spent three weeks there, but I wish it were longer.
On the way to Portugal, I flew with my two friends, Abdul and Gabe. We had a connecting flight that brought us to Spain before flying to Portugal. When we landed in Madrid, we took too long going through security and missed our second flight. We got on the next flight to Portugal and landed in Lisbon. The rest of the day was to just settle in at the hotel. The next day, we started training. We stayed at the training facility all day and trained twice a day. After each training session, we would eat at the same cafeteria that the professional players ate at. Sometimes, I would see some of the players there and shake their hands.
Monday through Friday, regular training sessions were held that aimed to improve the tactical side of the team. However, every day after the first training session of the day, we were given a presentation about the life of a professional soccer player at that club. The presentations explained how the players would train and how each day of practices would be structured. On Saturdays, we had one practice that day, and after, we would drive over to the Benfica stadium to walk around and later eat dinner to celebrate the week that went by. Each week at that stadium never failed to amaze me.
This camp had players from countries all over the world, including Portugal, Brazil, Poland, England, Italy, and more. Every lunch and dinner included moments of entertainment and push-ups. Yes, push-ups. People who would misbehave and not abide by the rules were punished by doing a certain number of push-ups. Despite the push-ups already being a punishment on their own, the coaches made everyone punished do the push-ups in front of the players, as we would laugh at them. As stated before about sometimes seeing professional players in the cafeteria, sometimes some professionals would be laughing too.
I will always cherish the friends I made during these three weeks. We helped push each other to play at our best in every training session, despite feeling fatigued. Although we laughed together during the practices, we were extra competitive. We gave each other tips on how to improve areas where we were weak and complimented each and every one of our strengths. By the end of the three weeks, we were brothers, bound not by blood but by the journey we took together.
The three weeks flew by, and before I knew it, I was saying goodbye to my new family. The goodbyes meant more, knowing there was a high chance we would never see one another again. Each hug broke my heart a little more, yet I was still happy. I was happy that I was able to create memories that would last a lifetime. This trip will forever remain in my heart, along with the friends that I made.