Lagos, Portugal

April 12, 2019

We spent the morning on our journey from Lisbon to Lagos. Our train was 20+ min late so were got a little worried we had let it pass us. There were so many trains with very little indication of where they were heading. We spotted some other girls who were also going to Lagos and sort of just trailed them. 

Once in Lagos we dropped out bags off and headed straight to the beach. It's a gorgeous day and we were itching to go swimming. The coast did not disappoint! I was surprised to find the number of seashells that covered the beach. I feel like they would be collected up quickly but the beach was littered with interesting scallop shells. The water is a bit cold but refreshing. 

We bought groceries and made dinner back at the hostel. My chin is breaking out from the amount of sugar and dairy I have been eating so I made a salad and spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner. YUM! 

April 13, 2019

Today we had a late start because we are all still recovering from sickness and because we finally got a room to ourselves where we can sleep in peace! 

This hostel (The White Butterfly) is a huge step up from the last (Chillout), it’s run by a nice older couple and they keep the place in good shape. We really liked the front desk man, he was so welcoming. 

We tried figuring out a way to get to the Benagil caves but there was a mess up with the stand-up paddleboarding tour we booked so we're saving our pennies and walked to a smaller but also well-known beach. 

It was a lovely day and look at these views! Amazing. 

Sabrina and I swam out to the rock arch and were told by multiple tour boats. “Watch out for the sharks” hahaha they were kidding of course but they fooled us the first time. One guide said to a group of kids, hey look real mermaids. Which I thought was really charming, who doesn’t want to be a mermaid? 

After the beach, we met up with Mara and some girls from her school! I was so happy to get to see her while we are halfway around the world. I went to check out their hostel and while I was there no other than Somer from White Rock walked out of a bedroom. I was completely stunned to see her! I knew she was travelling but what are the odds to run into each other like that! 

She joined us to go get Sangria and hang out. The restaurant we went to had Uno which reminded me of Annika because she used to play a lot when we were kids. We walked to a few of the local bars and was a really fun night. There was this one British family that cracked us up. My face hurt from laughing. 

April 14, 2019

I met Mara and the girls at Coffee waves to spend a little more time and say goodbye for another 3 months because she won’t be home until July. It was a cute little cafe, really well decorated and run completely by Australians. 

I spent most of the rest of the day on a bus to Seville. We are staying there for 2 nights before flying to Alicante a smaller town on the coast. It is cheaper to fly than the bus this time because we found one with Ryan air for 30 euros! It still blows my mind how cheap flights can be here. I am glad we got to the bus during the day time and see some of the Portuguese and Spanish countrysides. It looks a lot like California’s honesty. Lots of orange trees and little farm homes.