Viva Espana - Day 4 - Seville to Lagos via Huelva

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We set our alarm to get up earlier today so that we can take advantage of the free breakfast. In the end we snooze the alarm and make it down with 10 minutes left to spare. What greets us is the best breakfast selection I've seen (well certainly that we've seen based on our usual budget and choice of hotel). They have a huge selection of different cheeses, cold meats and bread- and not the supermarket own brand either. The bread is deliciously light and fluffy, not dry and tasteless. They also have hot options (very unusual in Europe) of eggs, bacon and sausages, and then a huge fruit platter with melon, watermelon, oranges, apples, strawberries and pears. And on top of that they have yoghurts of all flavours and a selection of fresh pastries. The only thing which lets them down is their coffee which strips my taste buds it is so strong.

I cheekily make up a few spare pieces (that's sandwiches to the non-Scottish amongst you) and casually walk by the manager standing at the entrance who looks at me rather strangely with my bulging napkin full of contraband but he doesn't say anything.

Our first stop is a little town about an hour outside of Seville called Huelva. I've seen a few teaching jobs advertised there before so wanted to check it out to see if it's somewhere we could live in the future. As we approach we get a really nice feel about the place, it seems to be quite new buildings on the outskirts with a really pretty old town centre with little winding streets and nice plazas with cafes in between. It's still very traditional and they still adhere to a midday siesta which is nice but annoying when you’re used to having everything available to you day and night. Still we really like it, although it may be a bit too quiet, as we can’t see any signs of nightlife outside of the daytime cafes.The beach is a 15 minute drive away so we go for a nosey and it's been quite recently built up and is really pretty. Definitely somewhere to think about in the future.

Back on the road we make our way to Portugal but as soon as we cross the border we realise the motorway which is meant to be free is actually a toll road. Considering we have already spent so much on tolls we don't want to waste more, plus it's a complicated system to work out (you don’t take a ticket- they clock your registration and then bill you via that) so we have no choice but to head along the coastal b roads. Unfortunately that takes us another 3 hours than planned! We see the strangest thing when we are halfway through and slowly but surely start to see loads of mannequins dressed up at the side of the road at various intervals. One is dressed as a workie on the top of a cherry picker, another is dressed as a granny at the side of the road, another is a mother pushing a baby mannequin in a pram and so on. It's a bit freaky and reminds me of the film house of wax (look it up if u haven't seen it- it's got Paris Hilton in it) but all the locals are loving it. 3 hours after anticipated we finally rock up to our friends Matt and heather's hostel in Lagos. Luckily we find it by chance as google maps has been useless as usual.

It’s really cool to be here as quite a few of the guys we worked with in La Rosiere are here too along with their new staff who seen really lovely. We literally dump our bags and head out to get something to eat and drink. They take us to a really nice little beer garden where I get to try green wine for the first time. It sounds ominous but is actually really delicious- a cross between a Chardonnay and cava, it has a very subtle fizz to it and is very nice indeed. It's made locally in Portugal and I recommend trying it if you're ever nearby, not that I advocate drinking of course. Next we head to a little bar called nah nah bah's which has a really quirky menu where all the burgers have rude names or innuendos, so it's really laid back and a real backpackers kind of place. I go for Luis figo's wet dream which is a chicken burger with loads of yummy relishes and spice (of course) while Greg has the toucan burger- voted one of the top 50 burgers in the world. I have to laugh when the waiter appears asking who is waiting on the "big cock" and them repeats it a few times as no one answers her- "big cock anyone, who's having the big cock?". I must say this is the tastiest burger I have ever experienced. Everything about it is home made, right down to the BBQ and piri piri sauce, and it's succulent and HUGE! But for those who think that still isn't enough, they also have the kilo burger challenge too... We move onto the next bar and meet another one of their staff who also works behind the bar. He asks our plans for tomorrow and I tell him I'm keen to do a bit of surfing so he says he'll tag along with us and show us the best beaches to go which is cool. I tell Greg and he's a bit bemused as to why the bar man is coming surfing with us but I explain he works with matt and heather and isn't just some random I've picked up!

Most of the guys are working the next day so we head back to the hostel, but end up staying up for a few hours chatting with everyone in the garden which is nice. After so long just the two of us it's nice to have a group of people the same age as us to talk to, especially as up until recently we've been used to having other people living with us every day for the last 4 months.

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