We flew from Paris to Faro, Portugal, where we hopped on a bus to Lagos. Lagos is on the southern tip of the Algarve coast. Aboslutely beautiful and breathtaking.
It's very touristy, but also very backpacky. For some reason, it's a right of passage for all Australians to visit Lagos. So the town is mainly run by expats -- Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, Irish, etc. Not too many Americans. We were actually a novelty being American.
Speaking of we, it was me, Nomad and Spanky (Heather and Rachael -- they are sisters). I worked with Heather last year in France, and worked with both of them this summer in France. After visiting Lagos with Heather last year, it was obvious we wanted to go back.
Lagos is one of those places you go to for a couple days, and end up staying for at least a couple weeks. Something about the town just sucks you in and won't let you leave. It's extremely common to "accidentally" miss your bus/train/flight home.
Last year we stayed at the Gold Coast hostel. It's one of the top 10 hostels in the world consistently. It's just an amazing place, run by an amazing guy named Brian.
As a traveler living out of a backpack, Gold Coast is the closest thing to home. In fact, after you are all checked in and orientated, Brian gives you a big hug and says, "Welcome home." While the gesture might seem simple in nature, it's a poignant and rare thing to find while traveling abroad. Someone who actually welcomes you with open arms, makes you feel comfortable, and will bend over backwards to make your stay the best he can. So kudos to Brian on running the best place I have ever stayed in, for keeping its solid reputation, and for not losing your integrity.
We stayed there for a few nights in order to get our feet on the ground. But as it is high season in Portugal, so are the hostel rates. First order of business? Find an apartment. Which is pretty easy to do in Lagos. We found a nice house in the center of uptown. Downstairs room was shared by two Aussie guys, Mike and Tom. We had the upstairs room, and another girl lived in the top floor room, Megan from the US. We all shared two bathrooms and a common room and kitchen. Like a small hostel really. Yes they were bunk beds. Oh well. For almost half the price of the hostel, it was worth it. We saved a lot of money!!!!
Second order of business? Finding a job. One of the best things about Lagos is you can always find a job working for one of the bars/restaurants under the table. You can search one night, not find a single job. Next night, you may find 3 openings! I took the first job I came across at Stone's Rock Bar.
Stone's is an unkept, grungy, hole-in-the-wall rock bar. But that's its charm. Every bar in Lagos plays the exact same music with the exception of 2. NahNahBah plays reggae, and Stone's plays rock/hard rock/metal. So we had our own little niche market. My job was as a flyer. I stood outside the bar and basically tried to get anyone into the bar. My gimmick? Free shot with your first drink. Buy a beer? Get a shot. Buy a shot? Get a shot. Etc. Second half of my gimmick -- the shot is a STRONG shot!!!! Most other bars give away fruity little juicy shots. Not Stone's. Our shot was almost straight vodka. Some people couldn't even handle them lol.
The bar owner was Kev, a Scot. The other bartenders were Will (a Brit), Nin (a Brit), Brandon (either Brit or Aus i cant remember) and Rico (Portuguese). I misheard Rico's name the first night, and thought it ws Winkle. So from there was born his new name Winkle. He was Winkle from then on.
(Me and my Winkle!!!!!)
(Me, Nin and Will at my bar!!!!)Best part about the job? Not only did I get paid every night in cash, but I also got as many free drinks as I wanted. The idea being, that in order to be enthusiastic and bring more people in, I needed to have a drink or two in hand.
Some random Spanish guys left a deflated Pepsi soccer ball in the bar one night. This ball became my flyer hat. It was my magic hat lol. I could put that hat on and do anything stupid and it would be okay because I had a soccer ball on my head. It also happened to be the colors of the French flag, so I got a lot of French people into my bar who thought I was supporting France lol.
So report to work at 9pm, work until 2am. From here, either go home and sleep, or go party until 4am when the rest of the bars shut down.
So my daily schedule in Lagos was as follows:
9pm - report to work.
2am - get off work.
2:30am - either go to sleep or party until 4am.
12-2pm - wake up and get lunch.
1-5pm - go to the beach.
(working hard.... on our tans.)
(Getting ready for work, checkin emails bouncing off the rather unreliable wifi of a neighboring hostel!)9pm - report to work.
and so on and so on.
Not too shabby eh?
So inbetween we did some stuff. One day we went kayaking around the coast and grottoes. One day we did the Joe's Garage Booze Cruise. The staff said they had never seen the waters soooo rocky and choppy -- needless to say, I think there were maybe 5 people who didn't throw up. I threw up within the first 10 minutes from sea sickness. No, not alcohol. Legit sea sickness. Which is strange because I usually don't get seasick. Anyways, after a few hours of sangria fights, jumping in the ocean, and seeing way too much nudity, we called it a day.
(Nomad, Spanky and I on the Booze Cruise!!!!!)About this time, I also got the flu. No fun. I had to take off work early one night and not even go into work the next night. The pharmacy wanted nothing to do with me, telling me to go straight to the hospital as they had just had an outbreak of Swine Flu. Got some flu meds, slept for almost 48 hours, and was fine.
All this time in Portugal, and I never once had Portuguese food. Nope, not once. It's actually difficult to find. Every restaurant is Indian, tapas, American, steaks, tex-mex, sandwiches, etc. Our favorite place is Casa Rosa. For 10 euros you get a nice, home-cooked, comfort food meal, and all you can drink for one hour (called the Power Hour). If you don't want to drink, your meal is only 3.95. Either way its dirt cheap and has comfort food like lasagna, spaghetti, hamburgers, burritos, chicken, pork chops, etc.
(Spanky, Tiny, Nomad and I at Casa Rosa! Power Hour! Mothership! Connect Four!!!)
anyways, after two weeks, our other friend from France, Tiny Dancer (Megan) joined us! it was a blast to have all four of us together!!!!! I worked at Stone's, Spanky worked at Shaker's, and Nomad and Tiny worked at Whyte's.
Portugal was just overall a great time. Way too much alcohol though. This month in Prague will be a good detox. And? NO MORE SAND!!!!!!!! Sand was just everywhere and in everything. You take a shower, you step out, and there's sand all over your feet. Crawl into bed and just sand everywhere. In Spain, I shook out enough sand from my purse to create my own personal beach.
Speaking of Spain, after our adventures in Lagos, we all trekked to Spain. We took a bus from Lagos to Seville, where we caught a flight to Valencia. We arrived the day before La Tomatina in order to prepare for battle!!!!! La Tomatina is huge tomato festival in Bunol, Spain, where truckloads of tomatoes are dumped and then a tomato fight begins. We were ready with old clothes, good shoes, goggles, plastic bags for money, everything. And then the train was late. And we missed the fight by about 5 minutes. I mean, we still got tomatoes on us, and we still walked around and took in the sight of it all, but we missed the whole big shibang! It was disappointing!
However, we had a 3-star hotel in Valencia, so we didn't care! It was honestly one of the coolest hotels I've ever been in! They gave us a free laptop with internet in our hotel room! Plus a hydro-massage shower, air conditioning, amazing beds, flat-screen TV, and a mini-bar (which we did not touch of course). And it was the best location we could have asked for in Valencia!
So even though we missed out on La Tomatina, we at least had an amazing place to go back to and relax!!!!!
Whew okay that was a loooooong entry. I am going to give my fingers and eyes a break.
I will update with Prague either later today or tomorrow!
Love to you all!!!!!!!
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