Goin' down south

After our chilly night in the gorgeous town of Sintra we decided to head down south to the most popular part of Portugal called the Algarve. From the train station in Sintra we headed to __?__ (sorry, the name escapes me) to take the train to Lagos. Once we arrived in __?__ we were told that the train to Lagos was in 3 hours. We had some time to kill, so we walked around and walked around some more. It was a brisk, sunny day so it was nice to chill outside. My mom took this time to write some postcards and I basked in the sun.

Bye bye Sintra

Chilling outside of the train station in ___?___ I noticed throughout Portugal that my man Che Guevara was everywhere!

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LAGOS

We spent about 4 hours traveling to Lagos and when we arrived it was dark. We waited at the station for a taxi, but they were no where to be found. We decided to walk towards the "lights" in hopes of finding a cab. We came across a marina and saw the city across a bridge. We wheeled our bags over the bridge and saw a gorgeous hotel in front of us. We knew we were tired, but we had a budget and we needed to find a cab to take us to our hostel.

We eventually found a taxi and wow what a ride it was. You know the movie "Bourne Identity" and the scene where Matt Damon is driving erratically through the NARROW streets? Well, that is what it was like. I have no idea how we didn't hit another car or pedestrian or how the side of the car didn't get taken out by scraping the side of a building. The streets are wide enough for one car and maybe 2 people walking on either side of it. The taxi driver was in total control, we weren't fearing for our life or anything, it was neat to see.

Eventually we arrived at the hostel I had found on Lonely Planet only to discover it was closed. Thankfully our cabbie waited for us and took us to another hostel I had as a backup. Once we booked in, we dropped our bags off in our room and went looking for a restaurant. We had been traveling for about6-7 hours and we were starving!!! We came across a steakhouse and had a nice dinner accompanied by some DELICIOUS wine!!!!!!! Not going to lie...we both got quite tipsy :-)

The next morning we woke up, had some breaky, and decided to hit up a local travel agent to see what there was to do in around the area. Before that we went to check out that nice looking hotel overlooking the marina that we saw the night before. My mom wanted to stay in a hotel since the bed wasn't the most comfortable and her pillow was in one piece when she went to bed, but the next morning it felt like a sac of foam balls. Ha ha ha! I agreed...one night of comfort would be nice :-)

The hotel ended up being only 20 more euro than the hostel was and DAMN was it NICE! One of the perks of traveling during the "down" time is the fact that hotel prices drop. This hotel cost us 50 euro, but during the peak season it jumps to at least 150 euro! So, we booked our new room for three nights!!

This is our view from our hostel room. This place would be a lot of fun during the peak season! It totally calls "Party Central"

This is the view from our hotel room. It had a great sized balcony too!

Lagos is the second largest city in the Algarve next to Faro and it is totally dependant on tourism. I know now why, it is absolutely gorgeous!! The beaches are to DIE for! As I mentioned before, I am glad we came when we did because I cannot imagine how busy it would have been with thousands of other people visiting. The city was extremely quiet and to be honest with you I don't even know if we ran into any other tourists! The nice part about staying in Lagos was that it was pretty central to all of the other places we wanted to visit.
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SAGRES

Sagres is a tiny fishing town with nothing really to offer other than its picturesque harbour and bluffs. It took us a couple of hours to get here from our hotel, but I think it took that long because of the numerous stops the bus made. Once we arrived I was feeling a bit car sick since I was sitting at the very back of the bus and I don't know how roundabouts we encountered, but it was a lot! Thankfully it didn't take long for that feeling to pass, especially with this kind of scenery!

 
Hi Mom :-)

As you can see by the last shot it started to get dark. We had also wanted to make it to Cabo de Sao Vincente, but didn't think we would get there on time since it was a one-two hour walk. I didn't think I was going to make it since climbing up to the top of the bluff had pissed off my back (even though it was so worth it), so I decided I would come back the next day. My mom thought we should try and get a cab to drive us there, so that is what we did. I felt like we were on the Amazing Race or something because I wanted to get there before the sun went all the way down so we kept saying "Rapido" to the driver. I don't even know if that is Portugese, but all he did was laugh at us! Ha ha ha! It was funny!

He must have understood what we were trying to say because we got there just in time. Cabo de Sao Vincente also offers some spectacular views and is characterized best by the lighthouse that stands on the corner of a bluff. Since the 15th century this area has been an important reference point for shipping as the lighthouse has a 95 km range, the most powerful in Europe.

The bus came by around 8ish, so we went to a local coffee shop to warm up. As blue as the sky gets during the day is a sure sign for a COLD night. The bus was a tad late and there wasn't any heat on the way back to Lagos, so I froze once again. Nothing a little wine at dinner couldn't cure. Another delicious dinner and more wine. What a life!!!

Well, I am off to a massage appointment for my back. I will try and write some more today.