Lagos, Portugal

Vale, I now realize that it has been an actual month since I've posted on here. Now that everything is winding down for a few days after lots of traveling, you're going to be ambushed with some awesome blog posts. Starting with........... LAGOS!

Fui a Portugal con muchas personas de API! A bunch of us went with an organization called DiscoverGranada. We left Granada at 6 am which meant that we all decided not to sleep (we’re young; we can do this stuff, right?) The bus ride was 7 hours long and my intention was to passsssss out on the bus ride after not sleeping… well, that didn’t quite pan out the way I had hoped so I was a bit tired once we got to Lagos—nothing a nap on the beach couldn’t fix though. 

We got to our hotel which was 4 stars and so awesome. Marcela, Colleen, and I had an apartment in the hotel (which was made of luxury apartments). We had a terrace, a living room, a small kitchenette, a breakfast table, a bathroom, and a bedroom. There was a paradise in the center of this hotel that had 2 pools, palm trees, grass, and lots of reclining pool chairs. 

After we got there, we went to the supermarket to buy water and some food for the beach. We walked to the beach, Don Meia Praia. Madre mía, que bonita! I felt as if I was living in a postcard. Funny story too: at one point, the background on my computer was a beautiful picture I found online of this beach in this city called Lagos, Portugal. Then I ended up visiting this city and seeing this computer background in real life. My life is falso, I know. We spent the day at this beach until around 5 when Molly, Allyson, and I decided to head back to the hotel to take showers and rest a little bit. 

 

The beach that was my computer background that I saw in real life!

Don Meia Praia

At Don Meia Praia

Around 8, our tour guides from DiscoverGranada walked us to the city center to a restaurant called NahNahBah that had one of the best burgers I’ve eaten in a LONG time. According to FoodNetwork, this place is in the top 10 best burgers in the world. But what was REALLY amazing, besides this delicious burger, were these potato things that we got with them. I can’t even call them fries because that would be insulting to them. They were sliced potatoes baked and fried in a way that was, mmmmm, and then had garlic on them. I know that just sounds like I’m describing garlic fries, but trust me… they were magical. Luego, fuimos a hotel para irnos de marcha a un bar con DiscoverGranada. (Later, we went back to the hotel and then out to a bar with DiscoverGranada!).

El día siguiente, we went to a place where we would have taken our Sangria boat cruise if the waves hadn’t been crashing against the rocks like it was their job. The original plan was to take the little sail boat all throughout the caves but since the waves were too rough, we just went to the same place via bus and then walked around where we would have sailed. It was still so cool (and to be honest, I’m glad we still went via bus since we got to see how rough the waters were and made me less bummed since I could see firsthand that we would have been a shipwreck in exactly 1.2 seconds) We got to climb down around the caves which was awesome. Después, fuimos a otra playa donde podíamos jugar futbol, voleibol, todo. Unfortunately, the wind was very very forceful and the sand was whipping around. A group of us ended up staying there for a little but then took one of the buses back to the hotel early. I rinsed all the sand off of me (enough to form a little beach) and then went to siesta by the pool. Later, a few of us went into the city center to grab some late lunch. 

 The caves area where we would have done our boat cruise

Out on the rocks of the caves! ( I SWEAR I didn't greenscreen this... this is actually real)

At 6:30pm, everyone met up in the hotel lobby to go watch the sunset at the End of the World (Cabo Sao Vicente). It was a little cloudy/foggy so we didn’t see the clearest of sunsets but the view was spectacular. It really did feel like the end of the world; it was a straight drop off into the ocean.

The sunset at the End of the World

*Tilt head* Me at the End of the World

We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then headed back onto the bus to get dropped off either in the city center or back at the hotel. Rachel, Carrie, and I decided to get off in town and find someplace to eat dinner there. We went to a restaurant where we all split a pizza, grilled salmon, and grilled swordfish. Can you guess how it tasted? Yup, delicious. We met up with some more API people once we got back to the hotel and went out to a bar called Joe’s Garage that was affiliated with DiscoverGranada. We spent the rest of the night dancing and singing out hearts out!

On Sunday, we went to the West Coast of Portugal to go surfing! I say ‘we’ but I did not go surfing, though I did go to the west coast. We could go surfing if we wanted to but if we just wanted to see the west coast, then we could do that too! So, we checked out of the hotel, left our luggage in one of their luggage storage rooms and took the bus over to the gorgeous west coast beach of Praia do Amado. The ones of us who weren’t taking surf lessons had a great time drawing in the sand and taking tons of pictures of everyone who was surfing. We had lunch at the only restaurant on the beach (it’s a good thing it was tasty!) and got some burgers and fries. Luego, we left for the hotel and then started our 7 hour journey back to Granada!

The West coast of Portugal

 GO PITT!

Even though the weather wasn’t always on our side with the wind, I still had an amazing first experience in Portugal. I was with great people and made some more great memories!

Next adventure: Italia!

Abrazos y besos a todos :)