Sun-filled, fun-filled day and night on the Algarve coast

Ah … and onto the South of Portugal! We took a 4-hour bus from Lisbon down to Lagos on the southern Algarve coast, whose landscape rivals that which I saw in Greece, magnifique! Lagos is known as a black hole where young backpackers come for a few days and end up staying for months, finding random jobs in tourism during the day and going out at night. Its reputation doesn’t lie, and I can definitely see why.

It’s basically just a beach bummer’s town … small, easily walkable, good variety of beaches, fun nightlife, affordable lodging. A main street basically follows the marina through the town, then on one side there’s a large, flat beach dotted with volleyball courts, beachside restaurants, etc. But if you continue in the other direction the beaches become a lot smaller, broken up by huge rock formations, forming little lagoons and grottos – full of backpackers, couples, musicians giving impromptu/casual concerts – very cool. We spent the afternoon on the large, open beach and then explored the smaller beaches by following a walking trail on the cliffs above. My shoe isn’t exactly the most beach/sand-friendly … but even with its inconvenience, I could have easily spent several days here.

We had a fresh seafood lunch outside on the marina … and I think I ate squid … I’ve had plenty of fried or grilled calamari rings in my life, but don’t think I’ve eaten the actual, whole squid bodies themselves. Anyway … I think that’s what it was – see below. They were lightly grilled with olive oil, garlic, and sea salt – mmm.

We went back to our apartment (rented to us for 30 euros for the night by a woman waiting for tourists as they stepped out of the bus station – actually very convenient & not a bad deal) to change before going out for the night, and found that we had a new roommate staying in the room next to us – a college-age American guy who’s traveling for 3 months in Europe. So the three of us went out together and had an awesome night. Like I said, the town is like a black hole of young travelers; meaning, I don’t think I talked to a single Portuguese person the whole night – everyone was either British, Canadian, American, a random Belgian or two. We started at a bar with pint-sized long islands for 3euro. Sure, I may be beyond my prime long island years (a la Crazy Horse in Bloomington) but it was cheap and seriously fun! At the first bar there was a chalkboard of scores for an ongoing, international beer-bong competition in the bar. The 2007 Champions were Australia, and this year’s competition is very tight between the US and Australia. I enjoyed making fun of a Canadian and his country’s weak score, haha. Anyway we bar-hopped a bit through Lagos, and the last picture on my camera is of Andrea hopping onto the back of a working/moving garbage truck; she claims not to remember anything!

Needless to say, Lagos was awesome and one day did not suffice!

All roads lead to the beach ... :)

Thumbs Up for the low Canadian beer-pong score, woohoo!

First she ends up behind the bar with the bartenders ... then an hour later on the back of a garbage truck ... j'adore!

With our new friend/roommate Mick from Oklahama: