Don´t be too jealous now! ; )

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So, iºm in lagos, portugal...sitting at a bar....pints only 2.50 euros....with free internet...canºt beat it!!!!

The trek from dublin to lagos was a long one, but well worth it. We couldnºt find a hostel in dublin our last night (stupid us, we didn´t plan ahead for a friday night in ireland), so we slept in the airport instead...flew to porto, portugal at 925am, and arrived somewhere around noon. We took the metro from the airport to the train station for only 1.85 euros...not bad. We then made a reservation for the train, 4 euros each leg of the trip (portugal requires reserverations for every train trip, which sort of sucks....considering we paid 985 USD for a 2 month train pass). We headed from porto to lisboa....only to make another reservation to tunes....where we changed trains to lagos.....it was a long day....travel beginning at 9am and commmencing at 11pm...when we finally arrived in lagos saturday night. BUT:...it was a trip well worth it...they always say that the most amazing places to visit are the ones that take the longest to get to. In this case, ´they´ weren´t lying.

We´re spending our 5 night excursion here in Lagos in a ´pension´ (better than a hostel) called Pensão Mar Azul. For only $20.48 US dollars a night....we have a double room to OURSELVES with its own shower. This is a backpackers dream, no dorm with like 10 other ppl, for the same price....AWESOME!!!!

First off, the people here in Portugal are amazingly nice, and I´ve been working on my portuguese as much as i can, which is a major plus! Although, the pronunciation is much different than that of brazilian portuguese. So, on that note....the owner of the place we´re staying is so nice....we asked him directions to the supermarket yesterday to get groceries for dinnner, expecting that we could use the kitchen. However, we didn´t realize until after we returned with a bundle of groceries, that the kitchen was not for use by the guests. Awful....and he felt awful as well. Luckily, we bought only non-perishable items, other than our fruit (which we´d eat soon enough anyways) and our mystery meat (we thought it was chicken...turns out my portuguese is not that good...as it was turkey breasts we purchased...hhahah) But, since he felt so badly, he continuously offered to cook it for us...we felt bad and told him nah.....but we eventually gave in and had some awesome turkey breast with a cream sauce for dinner tonight.

Yesterday we ventured off to the many beaches of Lagos...yeah, the badonkadonk is definitely going to shrink...thank god. There are many trails along the cliffy coast. The pictures will be amazing, i promise, once i eventually get them up. Today we headed to the ponta de piedade, pretty much the bottom corner of portugal.....look at a map peeps. ahh, we took a boat tour of the grottos (since i don´t have pics up yet, google lagos....you´ll soon understand). AMAZING (the one word that i´ll repeat over and over when i reminisce about my time in Lagos). After our grotto tour, Lisa and I spent a few hours conversing with the man, Carlos, who organized the tours. He was a portuguese man, fluent in 7 languages, and happened to love New Yorkers. He offered us wine, bread, and cheese, which we were not willng to pass up. They were all homemade goods, including the wine, made from his family in northern portugal. We talked about many things, he was so nice. We got to talking about beer and ´monty python´...he mentioned a line about american beer....extremely funny...here goes, ´american beer is like making love in a canoe.....´fucking´ close to water´....hahhahahhha. Anyways the boat trip only cost 10Euro....which was a much better price than if we took the trip from the center of Lagos.

Lisa and I then trekked to the ´Nudie'beach today...not to bare it all....but to check the amazing scenery, because it is a phenomenal beach. However, we didn´t stay long due to the few men in ´their glory´...the only visitors of the beach today. Had there been women there, we might have stayed. We might check it out tomorrow.

AMAZING...as i´ve said before....to try to explain the greatness of Lagos, I´ll state my experience from last night around sunset. Outside of the hostel, which is situated in the center of town, along a quaint street known as the Rua de 25 de Abril, the streets are filled with outside cafes, many people, many shops....there was also an accordian player belting out portuguese-like tunes, and to top it off, a little curly haired black puppy running around. There is no other place like this. It´s almost like the Caribbean without the poverty (and the beggars)....It´s like a major tourist attraction without the touristy prices....Lagos is AMAZING.

Oh...the ´bites´i thought i had all over my hands turned out to be an allergic reaction. I saw a pharmacist in Lagos who told me that they would definitely have been itching if they were bites. She gave me an antihistaminic cream that seems to be working. The redness is gone! ooo, my disease is going away. hahaha, we figured it must be a reaction to a plant that i encountered in blarney, ireland when we walked through the foersty like park around the castle.

Expect more....leave some messages. Love and Miss you all!

Next up: Madrid for a night, then Marrakech, Morocco.

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