Lagos, Portugal; April 4-5

I did it! I found an internet cafe, not really a nice one, well it isn´t that its not nice as much as it isn´t really a cafe. I think I always dream about finding an internet cafe like one that I went to in high school in Italy. It was like a bar/cafe that also had nice stalls of computers along the walls, I ordered a beer, some snacks and leisurely updated things on the computer. I´ve come to the realization that this is rare, as well as the realization that internet cafes are not as common as they were when I was here in 2005. I think more people are carrying laptops around and wifi is way more accessible than it used to be.

Regardless, I found computer that I can sit at for a solid hour.

I don´t really know where to begin because I feel like this could get long winded and drawn out, so I´ll try to post some highlights and keep things relatively brief, and considering that I only have 35 minutes left, it is possible that I won´t get through it all.

Last time I did an actual update I think we (my Mom and I) were in Amsterdam? I don´t really know and I don´t really want to go back and check.

So Monday morning (the 4th, aka my Mom´s Birthday) we got up fairly early, took the train from AMS Centraal to Schipol and boarded a plane to Madrid, we had about 2 hours in Madrid before we had to board our second flight to Faro, the main airport in the south of Portugal. Because we didn´t have a lot of time we just hung out at the airport, ate some lunch, and did a few laps of the terminal (to avoid any nasty blood clots, ha).

We arrived in Faro around 6:30 - I think - and our bus transfer we ordered was no where to be found. Our final destination was Lagos (pronounced Lagosh), which is just under an hour away from Faro, by car. We were told the next best thing to do was to take a cab to the train and take the train the rest of the way. We flagged a cab and upon pulling out of the airport we made a deal with the cabby to take us the rest of the way, this was, of course, not the budget traveler way of doing things, but concessions must be made when traveling with one´s mother, that or she was willing to pick up most of the bill.

We arrived at our very lovely hotel a little before 8:00 I believe. It was quite an expansive, resort style hotel, that was only a few minutes from the ocean. We dropped our bags off and before we could even head out the door again the hotel had rolled to our door a complementary bottle of champagne and desserts in honour of my Mom´s birthday, what a treat! We left it for later and walked down the the beach as the sun was setting. It was quite gorgeous.

We decided to go to the hotel restaurant for dinner, it was easier because our hotel was outside the city area and because they had given us a voucher for a free bottle of wine if we ordered two meals. Dinner was this crazy huge buffet with all sorts of wonderful food, I think my favorite was the pumpkin soup. I also got to try duck for the first time. This mean was followed by a quick trip to bed. I was exhausted. Traveling really takes it out of you.

The next morning (Tuesday April 5) we slept in and then eventually made our way in the direction of town, around noon. To get into the little town of Lagos we had to go through the marina, cross a little bridge and walk down a boardwalk. Before we got too far we stopped for some lunch by the pier. The sun was shining and we got our first taste of the warmth.

After lunch we walked towards an area of people selling tours, the coast is quite beautiful and as such they do a number of water related tours, kayaking through caves, snorkeling, cruises to see whales, the like, they also organize in land tours, jeep convoys, day trips, etc. Unfortunately, the nice weather they had been projecting for our time there had been replaced by a - very strong - south wind, leaving the ocean in turmoil and all tours postponed until at least Friday.

Because we´d be doing no water touring but the wind was still quite warm we decided to spend the day wandering around. We walked along the long boardwalk until we came to the end where the waves were really starting to pound. Strong wind was right. We spent the next few hours on the beach enjoying the crashing waves and the general beauty of the coastline. It is quite rugged with tall cliffs and wonderful sand.

From there we headed into the streets of Lagos. By this time the tide was up and the waves were wild, we were sure it was going to rain. Lagos is quite a touristy area and almost everyone we saw was a tourist, especially of the older, British variety. I kept musing about how I was clearly too young to be there. There were a few families but mostly it looked like British retirees. As such the shops were the variety you find in the touristy areas, mostly full of the same things. But that doesn´t take away from the beauty of the windy little cobble stone streets and street cafes. Eventually we stopped for Sangria and a coffee, we needed to keep our energy up after all.

This was followed by us walking around the cute little streets and shops even more. Eventually we decided to make our way back to the hotel. But this time we decided to walk back on the beach. Unfortunately to get to the beach you have to walk in a long roundabout way. That didn´t matter though. The walk was good, the waves were still crashing and the wind was still strong.

From us not being hungry when we left town we were surely hungry when we made it back to the hotel. What cruel fate as most of the restaurants are back in the town. We sat for a short while, regaining our strength and the gusto to walk back to town.

Instead of heading all the way back in we went as far as the marina and had dinner at a nearly empty restaurant. It truly is the low season there right now. Dinner was quite delectable, I had steak.

After dinner we came back to the room and popped Mom´s bottle of champagne. It was a nice end to a nice day.

Looks like I´m about to run out of minutes here so you´ll have to be patient for the rest of this. I have one more day of Lagos to tell you about before we headed to Lisbon and Barcelona.

Tonight I´m taking the overnight train to Bern, Switzerland where I meet a girl I live with! I´ve been looking forward to Switzerland since before I left in January!

Hope you are having a great weekend and I hope the sun is shining where you are, because it sure is here, both literally and figuratively. haha. If we´re lucky you might get some pics to check out soon :)