The border between Lagos and Spain was pretty much non-existent - just a bridge across a river... We hit a massive traffic jam just out of Seville. Not really sure what the issue was, all we saw was a car pulled on up on the shoulder... The only other event of note was Tuffy voluntarily pulling himself into a speeding stop. The police officer thought he was an idiot, told him to drive on and "be safe". Lonely Planet told us that Tariva was worth a stop on the way to Lagos, so we pulled in for a look. It was lunch time, so that solved that issue as well. Tariva wasn't really worth a stop... so we high-tailed it outta there for Lagos.
Lagos is a relatively small, but intense place. We checked into JJ's Yard and were told that we were in a character room called the "Love Nest" - not 100% sure why it's called that, or why we were put up in it... the roof was barely 1.5m high, so we couldn't even stand up straight in it. But we dealt with it... kinda. I managed to smash my head on the door frame straight away - the first of multiple painful head smashes. The "hostel" was something between a hostel and a guesthouse, but it was cool - real chilled, but still had a friendly atmosphere. Jay and Lorena (the owners) were awesome - real friendly and chilled.
Lagos is crawling with young Australians (take that how you will). I'm sure they outnumbered the Portugese, or at least it seemed like they did. We arrived just in time to see the stream of drunken Aussies crawling back from the booze cruise. They were gone-burger. Euro 2012 had just started up, and Portugal were playing Germany that night - so we cruised to Nah Nah bar for some beers and a feed. Nah Nah Bar have "one of the top 10 burgers in the world" and no shit, these burgers were off the chain. If you ever hit Lagos, definitely grab one of these! Portugal lost the match, but afterward everyone was heading off on a semi-bar crawl. We tried to get amongst but were well behind the pack (most of the peeps were from the booze cruise). Catch up didn't happen, so called it quits.
The next morning, we perched HARD. Got up round lunchtime and headed to Sagres, the most south-western point in Portugal (and Europe). There was this huge fort there that kinda looked like the entrance to shutter island (if you've seen it). Massive cliffs surrounded by water - was pretty sweet. We didn't have much time there, cos we wanted to catch the final of the french open, so boosted round the fort and headed back to Lagos. We hit up one of the western beaches in Lagos (Praia do Porto de Mos) and grabbed a feed at Antonio's beach side restaurant and perched for the tennis. Djoko wasn't going so well, but the rain saved him (and us) so we hit the beach. The beach was nice, but the water was freezing! Asty's legs started to numb, so we decided to warm up on the beach before boosting back to the hostel.
The last day in Lagos was pretty epic. We locked in a kayaking trip that went round the coast. We kayaked through some sweet caves and the coastline was pretty awesome (there was a nude beach as well, but it was crawling with saggy oldies...) On the return trip, we stopped off at one of the little bays (not the nude one, unfortunately) and had a quick snorkel. Quick being the operative word - the water was fricken cold... We battled a pretty decent head wind on the way back, good work out tho... arms were feeling it the next morning tho... That night, Jay and Lorena organised a bit of a bar hop for their guests, so obviously me and tuffy jumped on board. The bar crawl ended up destroying everyone on it. The whole crew (2 aussies, 2 french canadians, and us) were back in the hostel after 3 hours. Was a very messy night. The french canadians were vomming all night! haha, they were good value tho. Tuffy had a run in with a rubbish truck, but apart from that not too much drama.
The drive to Lisbon the next day was death. I've never seen Asty so hungover before. That meant that me in the hungover state, would end up driving the majority of it. was tough, but made it there safely! We weren't prepared really for what was facing us in Lisbon. We once again managed to hit a public holiday... St Antonios. The streets were being closed off and traffic was a nightmare - the last thing you want when ur hung over driving... We managed to find a "park" (piece of path outside a building) and the guy said it would be sweet cos the police closed the roads off. We checked into our hostel (Alfama Patio Hostel) and they put on a sweet dinner party for the festival. We took part in most of the festivities, but couldn't muster up the energy to deal with the crowds. The beds at the hostel were epic tho. real comfy. It made it hard to get up the next morning, but we did it and created our own walking tour of the city. Saw most of the main sites. Found an epic street art alley and climbed up to an epic castle. The castle was real sweet, had some awesome views over the city. That night, we grabbed a sweet local feed of seafood, kinda like a seafood stew.
The next day, we mished it out to Sintra - a town near the coast in Portugal. On the way we checked out Belem, in Lisbon. There was this famous pastry shop there. Had some epic pastries and other foods. We hit up Sintra in the afternoon.This place was awesome! The old Moorish Castle was probably the highlight. Perched up on top of this mountain, had some epic views out to the Atlantic and then all over the main land. Reminded me a little of the great wall of china, only a million times smaller... haha. it was still pretty epic tho! There were some sweet gardens and also the National palace that was cool. We took a roundabout detour on the way back and headed to Cabo de Roca, the most western point in Europe, before heading back to the hostel. We had a sweet feed provided by the hostel, before heading to bed before the epic drive to Madrid! We learnt from our previous experience in Lagos, and called it in early for a quiet night, as the drive to Madrid was gonna take 7+ hours...
Anyway, this had dragged... and the beers are flowing cos Spain won their Euro match tonight, so time to head to La Latina to hav a few drinks!
Madrid post to come soon. Maybs tomorrow, if ya lucky!
(photos are baning, but maybs put in some effort tomorrow morn to sort some out...maybs)
Lagos is a relatively small, but intense place. We checked into JJ's Yard and were told that we were in a character room called the "Love Nest" - not 100% sure why it's called that, or why we were put up in it... the roof was barely 1.5m high, so we couldn't even stand up straight in it. But we dealt with it... kinda. I managed to smash my head on the door frame straight away - the first of multiple painful head smashes. The "hostel" was something between a hostel and a guesthouse, but it was cool - real chilled, but still had a friendly atmosphere. Jay and Lorena (the owners) were awesome - real friendly and chilled.
Lagos is crawling with young Australians (take that how you will). I'm sure they outnumbered the Portugese, or at least it seemed like they did. We arrived just in time to see the stream of drunken Aussies crawling back from the booze cruise. They were gone-burger. Euro 2012 had just started up, and Portugal were playing Germany that night - so we cruised to Nah Nah bar for some beers and a feed. Nah Nah Bar have "one of the top 10 burgers in the world" and no shit, these burgers were off the chain. If you ever hit Lagos, definitely grab one of these! Portugal lost the match, but afterward everyone was heading off on a semi-bar crawl. We tried to get amongst but were well behind the pack (most of the peeps were from the booze cruise). Catch up didn't happen, so called it quits.
The next morning, we perched HARD. Got up round lunchtime and headed to Sagres, the most south-western point in Portugal (and Europe). There was this huge fort there that kinda looked like the entrance to shutter island (if you've seen it). Massive cliffs surrounded by water - was pretty sweet. We didn't have much time there, cos we wanted to catch the final of the french open, so boosted round the fort and headed back to Lagos. We hit up one of the western beaches in Lagos (Praia do Porto de Mos) and grabbed a feed at Antonio's beach side restaurant and perched for the tennis. Djoko wasn't going so well, but the rain saved him (and us) so we hit the beach. The beach was nice, but the water was freezing! Asty's legs started to numb, so we decided to warm up on the beach before boosting back to the hostel.
The last day in Lagos was pretty epic. We locked in a kayaking trip that went round the coast. We kayaked through some sweet caves and the coastline was pretty awesome (there was a nude beach as well, but it was crawling with saggy oldies...) On the return trip, we stopped off at one of the little bays (not the nude one, unfortunately) and had a quick snorkel. Quick being the operative word - the water was fricken cold... We battled a pretty decent head wind on the way back, good work out tho... arms were feeling it the next morning tho... That night, Jay and Lorena organised a bit of a bar hop for their guests, so obviously me and tuffy jumped on board. The bar crawl ended up destroying everyone on it. The whole crew (2 aussies, 2 french canadians, and us) were back in the hostel after 3 hours. Was a very messy night. The french canadians were vomming all night! haha, they were good value tho. Tuffy had a run in with a rubbish truck, but apart from that not too much drama.
The drive to Lisbon the next day was death. I've never seen Asty so hungover before. That meant that me in the hungover state, would end up driving the majority of it. was tough, but made it there safely! We weren't prepared really for what was facing us in Lisbon. We once again managed to hit a public holiday... St Antonios. The streets were being closed off and traffic was a nightmare - the last thing you want when ur hung over driving... We managed to find a "park" (piece of path outside a building) and the guy said it would be sweet cos the police closed the roads off. We checked into our hostel (Alfama Patio Hostel) and they put on a sweet dinner party for the festival. We took part in most of the festivities, but couldn't muster up the energy to deal with the crowds. The beds at the hostel were epic tho. real comfy. It made it hard to get up the next morning, but we did it and created our own walking tour of the city. Saw most of the main sites. Found an epic street art alley and climbed up to an epic castle. The castle was real sweet, had some awesome views over the city. That night, we grabbed a sweet local feed of seafood, kinda like a seafood stew.
The next day, we mished it out to Sintra - a town near the coast in Portugal. On the way we checked out Belem, in Lisbon. There was this famous pastry shop there. Had some epic pastries and other foods. We hit up Sintra in the afternoon.This place was awesome! The old Moorish Castle was probably the highlight. Perched up on top of this mountain, had some epic views out to the Atlantic and then all over the main land. Reminded me a little of the great wall of china, only a million times smaller... haha. it was still pretty epic tho! There were some sweet gardens and also the National palace that was cool. We took a roundabout detour on the way back and headed to Cabo de Roca, the most western point in Europe, before heading back to the hostel. We had a sweet feed provided by the hostel, before heading to bed before the epic drive to Madrid! We learnt from our previous experience in Lagos, and called it in early for a quiet night, as the drive to Madrid was gonna take 7+ hours...
Anyway, this had dragged... and the beers are flowing cos Spain won their Euro match tonight, so time to head to La Latina to hav a few drinks!
Madrid post to come soon. Maybs tomorrow, if ya lucky!
(photos are baning, but maybs put in some effort tomorrow morn to sort some out...maybs)
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