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Published: April 16th 2011
We arrived to Lagos Portugal from Lisbon Portugal by bus on the 5th of April. We used the directions that hostel bookers gave us to find the hostel and somehow managed to get lost. In our defense, we were a bit tired and definitely in shock of how beautiful everything was. Thankfully the size of the town is very small so after we made a loop we figured out where we were and found our guest house. The guest house is located almost directly city center and is right off of a main street. Literally there is no sidewalk so if you step out of the front door without looking you could get squashed by locals driving fast along the one lane streets. We walked in to the guest house through a tiny door that was barely big enough to fit us let alone us with our back packs on so after a few good pushes through the door we were inside. The owners of the guest house (Daihbi (pronounced like Dobby) and Clare), a couple from Galway Ireland who moved to Portugal to escape the” ever-growing population of nit wits that have ruined the culture of Ireland”. They are the
nicest people in the world behind the gnarly browned teeth and chain smoking, by far the best hosts we had besides for Pedro in Porto Portugal. Daihbi and Clare gave us the run down on the tiny town of Lagos and told us all the hot spots that we had to hit up in our few days stay.
Later that night we were cooking dinner in the apartment alongside a Canadian couple around our age. They had been traveling for 5 months together and were winding down their trip in the next 3 weeks. We swapped stories and got to know each other a little bit over the course of our meal and made plans to get together for dinner and drinks the next night. Then Clare and Daihbi came in with a big bowl of cook prawns that they had just picked up from the fish market that morning, and handed them over! They were soooooo good!
Over the next couple of days we did a lot of lounging on the beach soaking up as much sun as possible. When we weren’t enjoying our tropical paradise on the sandy beaches we were hiking the cliffs along the
coast in flip flops, exploring the shops, and on several occasions visiting the fish market that was located about 10 minutes down the road. The fish market was open every day and had 3 levels to it. On the first level was the seafood that had everything and anything freshly caught that day or the previous that you could ever want to cook. Gigantic salmon, octopus, shrimp, stingray, and crab just to name a few. On the second floor was all of the fresh veggies and fruits. We picked up some of the best oranges we have ever eaten and some local veggies for dinner almost daily. The third floor of the market was the roof top which didn’t have much to it but had great views of the city and surrounding areas.
About half way through our trip we decided we liked Lagos so much that we would stay an extra few nights. Having the extra couple of days gave us the time we needed to do a day trip along the coast. We asked Maddie and Cory if they would like to join us in renting a car, they happily agreed and we had a great day! Maddie
and Rach took turns driving since the driving age was 23, so Shelly and Cory were just under, but we got to see EVERYTHING!! We saw around 5 beaches, all having something different to offer whether it be gigantic waves and surfers, great cliffs, beautiful fields of flowers, or awesome rock formations. At the beach with the cliff points we saw fisherman who were perched at the bottom of the cliffs, some getting slapped by waves or even swimming out to islands in wet suits with their fish bags and poles. Obviously they were in very good shape and even a little crazy. We had the opportunity to meet a real Portuguese fisherman who showed us the catch of the day and gave us the story behind how he got started, it was soooo cool. We also got to see a place that Clare and Daihbi recommended called, “The end of the world”. It is the most southwest point in Europe. Even thought it was a huge tourist attraction it was still pretty cool.
Before we left Lagos, Clare and Daihbi sat down with us to say their goodbyes and saw our cereal as an unfit meal so Clare
went back to their side of the house and brought back a gigantic pot of pasta. They were the most amazing people and really made us feel like we were one of the family. We were sad to leave Lagos but really excited to see what Sevilla, Spain has to offer.
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