...But It's Bright and Sunny in Portugal

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So we boarded our bus for the looooong (it ended up being almost five hours-and that was the express bus) ride to Lagos, on the Algarve Coast of Portugal. We were worried about the weather, since it poured for the first half of the ride, but the closer we got to the Portuguese border, the sunnier it became. We crossed over a spectacular suspension bridge and into Portugal. When we finally arrived at the Lagos bus station, an old man approached us asking if we needed a room. I am pleased to report that I havve discovered that I can understand Portuguese perfectly well, though I have a hard time making myself understood! At any rate, we were a little wary of this man, but we saw the room, which was good enough and in a great location, and the price was very reasonable (12.50 Euros per person!), so we took it! It worked out just fine, and we ended up staying another night in Lagos because it was so cheap. We spent the majority of both days lazing on the beach, or wandering around the little, sun-drenched town. Lagos was nice, but unfortunately, aside from the geography it could have been a beach town anywhere. There were tons of souvenier shops selling exactly what they sell in Galveston, with not a single Portuguese item in sight. Most people in town were, in fact, not Portuguese-even the waitresses. We had one girl from Chicago at a fantastic Thai restaurant, and another from Nova Scotia. Brian had Chinese food for lunch one day, while I had Indian. It was a nice break, but by Monday morning we were ready to head for Lisbon. So, after missing the first bus because none of the ATMs in town were working (we had this happen to us once in Marrakech too), we finally arrived in Lisbon at 1 p.m. yesterday...which brings me to my next blog!

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Photos

More Beach
There were all these cool tunnels carved into the rock so you could reach the sand from the town above.