April 24th, 2013 - Lagos Trip
Camilo Beach
We arrived in Lagos from Seville on Tuesday morning after a 6 hour bus ride, but it was so worth it considering we were about to spend a "beach week" in Lagos, Portugal. My friend Caitlin's parents gave her money to splurge on a nice hotel for us for her 21st birthday present. SO, we stayed in a 5-star resort on Praia Porto de Mos beach in a 2-bedroom apartment, complete with terrace, living/dining room, 2 bathrooms, and full size kitchen. It was a BIG step up from our normal stays at €15/night hostels. First, we settled into our apartment and headed down to the restaurant in the resort for lunch. It was kind of weird because we were there in the off-season so we were maybe one of like 5 groups of people staying at the resort at that time. So, the staff got to know us pretty well. As soon as we finished lunch we headed straight to the beach! It was about a 2 minute walk from the resort so it was perfect! We walked into town and picked up a few groceries for the week, so I ended up making dinner for the 4 of us comprised of spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread! Since we basically had about 4 hours of sleep from the past 2 days, we decided to stay in and rest up. We ended up falling asleep 9:30 and didn't wake up til 11:30! It was a much needed 14 hours of sleep.
From Wednesday through Friday we spent everyday checking out the different beaches that Lagos had to offer. The nights we went out in Lagos were so much fun too! Although it was still the off-season, there were still a good amount of kids our age that we met up with. On Friday we took a 2-hour boat tour around Lagos including the grottos, so that was really fun too!
Because we had to fly out of Porto, Portugal (which is in the northern region near Lisbon) we had to leave Lagos on Saturday because the train ride was about 8 hours. We woke up to a beautiful beach day in Lagos on Saturday so we ended up taking at train at 5pm rather than 2pm, and it was SO worth it. It was the warmest and sunniest day we had! It was hard to leave but we were ready to get back to Lugano. Surprisingly, the hostel we stayed in Porto was the best hostel we had ever stayed in! The common room had an aquarium and our room had 2 showers! I definitely want to go back to Portugal and spend more time there because it looked like a really cool area in the northern region.
I couldn't believe it was the last part of our last 10-day trip :( but this has definitely been my favorite experience being able to explore Europe. Now I feel like I can travel anywhere! We find ourselves thinking back on moments from back in January when we were so clueless and naive about traveling. And now we're pros!
That's it for my semester abroad! Look for a surprise tomorrow on my blog. Can't wait to spend 10 more days in Italy with my parents, Chris and Catherine!
Ciao!
From Wednesday through Friday we spent everyday checking out the different beaches that Lagos had to offer. The nights we went out in Lagos were so much fun too! Although it was still the off-season, there were still a good amount of kids our age that we met up with. On Friday we took a 2-hour boat tour around Lagos including the grottos, so that was really fun too!
Because we had to fly out of Porto, Portugal (which is in the northern region near Lisbon) we had to leave Lagos on Saturday because the train ride was about 8 hours. We woke up to a beautiful beach day in Lagos on Saturday so we ended up taking at train at 5pm rather than 2pm, and it was SO worth it. It was the warmest and sunniest day we had! It was hard to leave but we were ready to get back to Lugano. Surprisingly, the hostel we stayed in Porto was the best hostel we had ever stayed in! The common room had an aquarium and our room had 2 showers! I definitely want to go back to Portugal and spend more time there because it looked like a really cool area in the northern region.
I couldn't believe it was the last part of our last 10-day trip :( but this has definitely been my favorite experience being able to explore Europe. Now I feel like I can travel anywhere! We find ourselves thinking back on moments from back in January when we were so clueless and naive about traveling. And now we're pros!
That's it for my semester abroad! Look for a surprise tomorrow on my blog. Can't wait to spend 10 more days in Italy with my parents, Chris and Catherine!
Ciao!