Home from a whirlwind weekend in Lagos, Portugal full of Shane, Aussies and yummy food, I must say it was some of the most fun I have ever had. We took the 7:30 am bus from Sevilla to Lagos, a little over a 5 hour ride. Once we got there, the 9 of us searched for our Hostel "Cloud 9" and we immediately realized Lagos was full of nice and super helpful people. We also soon realized that most of them were not from Portugal. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I did not meet a single person from Portugal throughout the weekend. There are tons of Australians in Lagos, vacationing for the summer since it's their winter, and a large number Canadians and English. Lagos is the epitome of a beach town atmosphere. Almost everyone we met were students or 20 something year olds working there for the summer because they visited once and had to come back.
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| nahnahbah burger |
We got to the hostel and met the owners, some awesome guys that really helped us out with information and recommendations. Then Hillary, Colin and I met our fourth roommate - Shane. Shane was a 38 year old Australian who had been living in the hostel for a few weeks. We were assured that he was harmless, but warned that his snoring was a bit out of control (with proved to be an understatement). But nonetheless, he was possibly one of the funniest people I have ever met. He tended to slur a bit when he talked, consequence of having a but too much to drink - every day. But hey who am I to Judge. We dropped our stuff off and headed to Cafe Odeon, where we were told had the best breakfast in town for only 3 euro. We of course could not turn down the opportunity to get a real American Breakfast that was also so cheap. I enjoyed eggs, toast, bacon, and a pancake - the first breakfast different from toast and cereal for over two weeks. After Cafe Odeon we headed to our first beach. We immediately saw how beautiful the beaches were in Portugal. Blue water, light sand, and cliffs surrounding the shore. We enjoyed the sun then decided to try Nahnahbah - a recommended restaurant which supposedly has one of the top 50 burgers in the world. It was probably the best burger I have ever had. We were all so excited to have a classic American burger, one thing we do miss from home. The rest of the night we enjoyed out on the town and meeting new people. One of the greatest things about Lagos is we ran into some of the same people every day. It was nice to in a way make some new friends.
On Saturday we woke up and peruse, went to cafe odeon for some breakfast. We then tried a new beach, Praia Dona Ana, and it was spectacular. The cliffs and water were absolutely gorgeous. It is taking a bit of getting used to the occasional topless woman and the very present thong bathing suit bottoms which are definitely accepted in Europe, but to each their own. After some swimming and tanning, we tried The Green Room for dinner, a recommended Mexican restaurant (food we all desperately miss - Los Pos and Qdoba withdrawals). Again, the food was wonderful. We shared Sangria and enjoyed chatting with one another. That night we went back to our favorites from the night before while trying some new places.
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| Praia Pinhou |
On Sunday, after the Odeon breakfast we went to the third beach of the weekend, Praia Pinhou. It was even prettier than the two before, if that's possible. You had to climb down numerous make shift stairs but when we got to the bottom we basically had our own private beach. The weather was absolutely perfect, high of only 75 with a nice breeze. We had a great day of tanning, reading and napping before heading in. We decided to try an Italian restaurant for dinner which proved to be an amazing meal as well. We definitely were three for three in choosing restaurants. For our last night there we went to all of our usual spots and hung out with friends from our group, those we had met in Lagos, and met some interesting new people as well (one being a woman of short stature who I don't think spoke one word yet continued to take numerous self pics with us. I guess there's some pictures of us floating around on this random women's facebook somewhere, but it made of a great story)
One of the things I loved the most about Lagos is the absolute laid back atmosphere. Most everyone seems to have the attitude of have as much fun as possible, sleep when you're dead, and whatever happens, happens. The people were so friendly and it was a nice break to be able to speak English. While Portuguese is considered similar to Spanish, especially when written, the two languages sound nothing alike when spoken. Also, people in Portugal take offense when spoken to in Spanish, something were warned about before heading to Lagos. One would think that Portugal would be extremely similar to Spain, considering the two share borders and the Iberian Peninsula, but that proved to be a false assumption. The architecture, people, and atmosphere were all quite different. Our weekend in Lagos was full of countless funny stories, uncontrollable laughter, crazy adventures and awesome new people. I had an amazing time with some of my very best friends. This trip is continuously proving to be the best of my life. All in all, Lagos is definitely somewhere I would like to enjoy a second time, and I would love to explore other areas of Portugal as well.
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