For my first travel excursion, what better way to start me off than with a beach weekend? I had never really considered going to Portugal, but now I want to go back. We took a bus to Algarve, Portugal and took a boat to the island of Travira. There, the beach was nothing spectacular, except for the fact that it was perfect. The water was a perfect temperature and we went swimming several times. The whole group got out there! Then we got "kicked out of the ocean." That's a whole nother story. Also, my first episode of culture shock occurred. All European beaches are topless beaches. That was a bit eye-opening. But we walked along the shore, and checked out the lighthouse. Then we played some beach volleyball and some good old European futbol. Unfortunately, we picked up a stray 12 year old, Bernard, who put us all to shame with his skills. Either way, I got super tired running around the sand and playing.
After the beach, we went to our hotel, which blew my mind. It was in Lagos, Portugal, and right on the water. I know for a fact it will be the nicest hotel I stay at in Europe, which a rooftop pool and picturesque view from our ocean side room. They also don't worry about sharks here, I don't know why, but I would assume it has to do with the jet streams or the currents. Either way, it's the only reason I went in the water as much as I did.
We then boarded back on the bus to head to Sagres, to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to watch a good sunset, but the cliffs were still pretty cool to see. It was so windy though! I was so cold in my dress and jacket! The temperature literally dropped thirty degrees! Crazy. After that, the bus dropped us back off in Lagos and we found a place to eat. Problem number one: There weren't a lot of places super close to choose from. Problem number 2: We were so hungry we ate at the first place we saw. We had to pay for the following: our WATER. our BREAD. and wait, an EXTRA .65 euros if we wanted butter. We did not know that at the time, however, we were so hungry we didn't care.
The next morning, I woke up early to walk on the beach. I didn't want to waste time sleeping with a view like that! It was so peaceful, I was the only one down there for about an hour.
After breakfast (which was AMAZING) we headed into town to check out the shops and the city. It was filled with tourism shops and we found some cool stuff, however, the whole time I was anxious to get back down to the beach. How couldn't I be with these views?
The other cool thing were the caves we got to explore! They cut up my feet pretty back and I have cuts on my knuckles too, but it was totally worth it. When is the next time I will be able to say that I was climbing cliffs and exploring caves in Portugal? I can't even capture how beautiful everything was, we saw tons of crabs too. Hindsight, I shouldn't have been swimming around that area like I was, because luckily I didn't fall on any anemonies (I fell a lot).
I can't wait to see what my next adventures bring. I am hoping to make it to Morocco and either Rome or Malta. I'll also be visiting most big cities in Spain (except I haven't decided on Madrid yet... I mean, I was in the airport, haha). But, I will be in Granada in the end of the month, and Cordoba in October. Barcelona is in November!
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