Whirlwinding through Spain

July 26, 2011

So sad to be leaving Portugal! Here is a quick synopsis on Portugal like what I did for Greece.

I'm fine with having gone to Porto and Coimbra but I could've lived without seeing them and if I were to redo the trip I would've spent more time in Lisbon and the south of Portugal instead of going to these two towns. Then again hindsight is 20/20. Hostel-wise, the Porto Downtown was the worst hostel I've stayed in on the trip but by hostel standards it was fine. I give it the absolute average of 5/10. The Sofia Chill House in Coimbra was very cute and probably more of a 7/10. The people that worked there were super nice.

As for Lisbon and Lagos I loved both of them. Definitely both major highlights of my Europe trip thus far. Lisbon Calling hostel in Lisbon is the most amazing hostel I've stayed in. The style, the people, the rooms, the lockers - everything was awesome. I could live there. The Rising Cock Hostel in Lagos wasn't necessarily the nicest hostel but it suited its purpose - party. The people who worked there were the best staff ever and Mama made me feel at home. I give a 10/10 to Lisbon Calling and an 8/10 to Rising Cock. Travellers House on the return trip to Lisbon was fine probably about a 7/10 also. The staff there was nice too.

Both Lisbon and Lagos as places were amazing. I wish I'd had more time in both. I would for sure return to Lisbon, it ranks as a top city in all my travels with so much to do and see, a great nightlife, and good food. I had an amazing time in Lagos and am glad I went while I was young to experience the craziness. Do I need to go back? Probably not :-)

So that's Portugal in a nutshell. This morning we left our hostel via the Aerobus (3 Euro per person) to the airport for our flight to Seville, Spain. Quick note for travelers that Terminal One is for international flights. We ate breakfast at Harrods where I had a pretty good ham sandwich for relatively cheap. I woke up feeling pretty awful. My sinuses have been bothering me since Lagos.

Once in Seville, we took the airport bus to the second to last stop which is just down the street from our hostel, Samay Hostel. This was one of the hostels I was most excited about but overall it was pretty average. Clean, nice, great deck on the top of the hostel but the staff is pretty lame and so are the people staying there. The rooms and common areas don't have any personality for a hostel that is relatively expensive compared to the others we've stayed at. They did give me a free towel though so that earned some points!


I was feeling seriously sick at this point so we walked down the street for tapas which were only okay and then went to bed.


July 27, 2011

We woke up late this morning (it felt really good to get a full night sleep) and wandered through Barrio Santa Cruz (the old Jewish quarter) to the Alcazar.


Along the way we stopped at Corral del Aqua restauranat at Callejon del Agua, 8, for breakfast. We had scrambled eggs with asparagus and ham. It was a little too salty and hammy for me (where are all the eggs?) but the restaurant is adorable. You walk into a little patio area that is painted pink with a ceiling of grape leaves. Very romantic! Too bad we both felt like shit and it was 100 degrees outside.


From there we wandered to the Alcazar where we found out that you had to be under 25 with a student card to get the student discount (2 Euro) otherwise it was 8.50 Euro per person. I tried to be sneaky and use my card without my I.D. but she didn't go for it. The castle didn't really seem worth the money so we went to the Cathedral instead (next door). The Cathedral was 8 Euro (couldn't get away with student discount) but was absolutely gigantic so it felt worth the money. Plus like all good cathedrals it came with a tower for me to climb. The view from the top was pretty good but not that great. I think I'm just over churches at this point.


Next we wandered down to the river and crossed San Telmo bridge to the other side to walk along the water. The views of the city from the river are beautiful and very relaxing. We stopped at a restaurant, Kiosco de las Flores, with a view for beers and fried fish. I pointed on the menu to the dish we wanted but they must have thought I pointed at the dish above because they accidentally gave us the same dish but with baby prawns fried into the cake instead of cod. I was about to swallow when I looked down and saw a little face peeking up at me from the patty. Close fucking call!


We returned to the hostel (it was getting late) and decided we had to go out (because we make terrible decisions). Up on the roof we met two girls from SF and two guys from Christchurch who now live in England named Jack and Jeremy. They said that they were from the Isle of Men but I still don't know where that is or if it indeed exists. Regardless they were hilarious with the one liners which they dutifully provided throughout the night to come.

It had been decided that we would pay 10 Euro per person to go on the hostel pub crawl (we usually avoid these) but it was a good deal and not too much that if it sucked we could just leave and do our own thing. What do you know? It SUCKED. The first two bars were terrible, the free drinks we got tasted so bad I almost poured one in the toilet and other than the two Kiwis everyone was really lame.

So I spent the evening being entertained by Jack and Jeremy. Once they found out that I did work for Disney and Pixar back in L.A. they decided to pitch me a movie idea. They mentioned that they weren't sure if it should be animated or live action but they would leave that up to my expertise. The movie would be called "Chumans" and would be about a male chimpanzee who falls in love with a human girl. They felt that it was an extremely original premise. I brought up Planet of the Apes to which they replied that chimpanzees are not apes and its a MALE monkey. They were interested in the idea of having Mark Walberg be the voice of the chimp though (If you haven't noticed yet this is all said with a thick sauce of sarcasm).

While waiting to get to the bars in the first place (we had to pick up people from some other hostels) Jeremy had commented that "man's not a camel" aka "I need a drink." This was hilarious. Once we got to the club (the night's finale) they also explained their rating system to us for girls. It is made up of three numbers - face, shag, body. Face and body go from 1-9 and shag is yes/no so 0/1. So a girl with a nice face that shaggable but has an average body would be a 8/1/6. We spent the next few hours smoking shisha, rating girls that walked by and dancing. I also spent this time avoiding "The Silver Fox" who was a guy from Australia I'd been talking to on the walk to the club. I tried numerous times to tell him I had a boyfriend and wasn't interested but he never really understood until I was down right rude to him.

One other hilarity from the night was when I ordered a beer at the first bar and the guy next to me offered me his card. In confusion I took the card (it's not like I'd been talking to the guy) and read it. It provided his name and his occupation - personal trainer. He then pointed at my stomach and made a motion with his hand to say "Call me when you get fat from all the beer you are drinking." WOW. Not the best way to attract the ladies. Best part was that from the look of him he could use some training himself.

Back at the club we actually ended up having a pretty amazing time dancing. We each gave ourselves names based on the actors/actresses we looked like. Ben didn't look like anyone so he was nameless but Jack was Leo, Jeremy was Ewan McGregor, and I was Jenny from Forrest Gump. It was a great club. It's all outdoors with an island bar, tables you can stand at to shisha, and a giant dance floor with good music. The burgers outside the club are awful but I was too drunk to care. Pretty sure the name of the club was Alfonso but I couldn't remember.


July 28, 2011

We slept in again and took a taxi to the Santa Justa rail station to pick up our rental car for the drive to Marbella on the southern coast of Spain near Malaga. Coming out of the hostel we ran into Jack and Jeremy again who convinced us to come get gelato from Heladeria Villar just down the street on Losilla Parrilla S.L. The owner and his wife, Cecilia, are adorable and take pictures of customers they like. Jack and Jeremy had returned to take their picture. We got in on the action. Yet another funny story from Jeremy - the first time they'd gone to the shop he had asked for a "cone-yo" (coño) instead of a "co-no" (cono). Uh, I'll let you look up what coño means :-)


The rental car was with Europcar and it went sooo smoothly. We upgraded to an Audi A3 for only 18 Euro for three days and I drove 150km to Cadiz for the afternoon. The beach there was covered in young people (not all of whom were wearing tops!) and we spent a good few hours there. There was also a fun park with dinosaur statutes and a seesaw that we wandered through.


For lunch we ate at Rosa del los Vientos at Corralon de los Carros, 55. I had "carrillada iberico" which was so good (meat stew) and my friend had a ham omlette which was also quite good. The chef spoke surprisingly good English and was adorable. It was actually one of the best meals of the trip thus far and so unexpected!


Late afternoon we continued the drive to Marbella. The drive through southern Spain is the most beautiful drive I've been on I think. You pass through these shockingly green valleys surrounded by massive rocky mountains. Occasionally you come around a corner to see a sparkling lake off the freeway or a glimpse of sandy white beach. If you are going to go to Marbella PLEASE drive. It is sooo worth it. The only annoyance are the THREE tolls you hit (6.10 Euro, 2.95 Euro, 4.75 Euro). You also have to pay them both ways.

We arrived late and spent an hour looking for parking. That's the only downside of Marbella. There is NOWHERE to park. We finally had to make a parking spot by parking on the sidewalk on a random side street. No way were we paying 20 Euro a night for the underground legit parking. Finally we made it to our hostel, Hostal Berlin, which was sparse but clean. The lady at the front desk was very sweet and the beds here were extremely comfortable. This place felt a little more private like a hotel.


We didn't make any friends and I was very sick at this point so we just wandered down to the water for a late dinner at La Venencia. We had cheap good wine, meatballs with salsa, and rabbit. You can find the restaurant on Avenue Miguel Cano, 15. Time to pass out!


July 29, 2011

Another day to sleep in. Not sure either of us would've even woke up if my friend hadn't set his alarm. We wandered down to the beach where I managed to explain to a lady at the beach bar who to make the frappe coffee drink I've been looking for since Greece. She made it perfectly and it was SO good. I asked her to write the recipe down in Spanish so that I could show it to other restaurants. Here is what she wrote - "helada combinacion de chocolate y cafe con nato montada y hielo pile." I think that pretty much says ice cream with chocolate sauce and cafe mixed with shaved ice.


We finally made it to the beach we were looking for (recommended by the hostel). The beach itself is actually Playa de Casablanca and the hotel is Marbella Club. We had thought we were looking for a beach called Marbella Club. Either way we found it and it truly was the prettiest beach on the trip thus far. Yes I know I keep saying that but they keep getting better! I made friends with the Marbella Club security guard, Lucas, who allowed me to walk out on their private pier to take pictures. He even offered to take a few of me!


Back at the hostel, we took a much needed nap. At this point I have some type of gooey eye infection, a sore throat, a cough, a massive bruise on the inside of my leg from the booze cruise and a blister on the bottom of my right foot. Let's just say this has been the worst day so far sickness wise.

For dinner we wandered down to Avenue Ricardo Soriano which is a fun street with restaurants and bars and had dinner at Medium Rare Steakhouse. Seemed a little touristy but I was totally in the mood for a steak. Turns out the steak was like 22 Euro which was a little pricey for me so I went with the 10 Euro lasagne. It was literally the best I've ever had, or at least remember ever having. It was softer than American lasagne and came in an earthenware pot that kept it hot the whole time. As a side note in Spain they charge you for the bread they bring to the table automatically. You have to ask to have it removed from the bill if you don't eat the bread. Kind of annoying. The guy gave us attitude about it which made me angry but he took it off nonetheless.


From there we walked down the street to a little Irish bar called Maggy's(?) It's owned by a German guy who has lived in Marbella for about six years. He came outside and had a beer with us. At one point he turned around to cheers us and our beers were already empty so I made a joke of saying "I can't cheers! No beer left!" He then said he'd get us free beers if I could guess how many fingers he was holding up. I said "two" and was right!

While sitting at the bar we saw a ton of young people stream by going towards the water so we eventually join the melee. I was pretty reticent to party tonight because I didn't feel well but it was technically my friend's last night in Europe AND we just happened to walk by the bus stop when the bus to Puerto Banus rolled up. My friend somehow managed to get me on the bus (2 Euro per person) and next thing I know I'm on my way to P.B. with about thirty drunk 17-year-olds.

Once we arrived in P.B. I realized why all the kids on the bus were wasted. It is like 6.50 Euro for a beer here! That's nuts! So of course we buy two of them and sit outside watching the ridiculousness. There was an awesome Mercedes parked out front that was blue matte and definitely drawing a bunch of looks. My friend was obsessed.


From there we walked to Mumbai bar on Muelle Ribera (the strip of bars and clubs on the harbor) which had great people watching. We sat on the upper floor and watched people for awhile before continuing on down the street to News Cafe. Along the way we came across a random girl dancing in front of a car in the street so I joined her just for fun. Yeah I'm a weirdo.


News Cafe is more of a club and it had GREAT music. The DJ literally transitioned from an Oasis song to JayZ so smoothly it sounded perfectly natural to mix those two songs. We had an awesome time dancing although there was a circle of B-Men on the prowl.

To end the night we took a taxi to Funky Buddha which is a massive club on the way back to Marbella. A taxi from P.B. to Marbella center is supposed to be about 13 Euro but the taxi just to that club was 10 Euro so we knew we were getting screwed by the taxi driver but there's not a lot we could do about it. The club was gigantic, packed, and really really fun. It was also extremely expensive with a Heineken being about 9 Euro. Luckily, we swooped in the front door when the bouncer wasn't looking so we got in without a cover.


We danced until we collapsed and then taxied home.


July 30, 2011

By all rights I should feel way worse today then I do. We woke up and were out of the hostel by 11:30am and started our drive back to Seville. Along the way we randomly pulled over at the first town we saw. We took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up in this tiny little mountain town called Alcala de los Gazules so we went with it and ate at a restaurant called La Parada for lunch. It was absolutely hectic. There were a couple large Spanish families having lunch with their children racing around on plastic toy cars but it felt very authentic which was cool. The customary old men smoking were there too.


For lunch everything was definitely only in Spanish so I just pointed and guessed. I ended up ordering carne de salsa, pollo de roquefort, and picimentos relleno bacaldo. They were all delicious. We needed to get the car back by 5pm in Seville so we left shortly after we finished eating. Note - start looking for a gas station to fill up your car when you are about 30 km from Seville. You might catch the very last one before the city.

We dropped the car off back at Santa Justa rail station without a problem and I also booked my train ticket to Granada since we were already there. That went surprisingly smoothly!

We checked back into Samay and went to go grab our last dinner together in Barrio Santa Cruz which is the Jewish quarter. We wandered until we found a little restaurant called Bodeguita La Parihuela, with open seating outside (the whole area was pretty crowded). We had this queso tapa that was goat cheese with some type of marmalade on little toast crackers. It was spectacular. The rest of the tapas were fine but nothing to write home about. My overall assessment is that Spanish food is fine but not anything I'd go searching for.


From there we headed back to the hostel for an early night as my friend flies home tomorrow. Sad!!

July 31, 2011

My friend left early this morning and I took advantage of the noon check out to catch up on sleep. I need to kick this sickness before I get to Granada tomorrow and meet up with my other friend. Grr. I changed rooms to a four person dorm which is also nice although there are no lockers which really bothers me and the bottom bunk has ZERO head room so I know I'm going to end up smashing my head in the middle of the night. I'd rather sleep on the couch downstairs. Again not my favorite hostel. I'd rather have a shitty bed and be able to fit in it.


I spent today wandering around shopping for all the stuff I've run out of - shampoo, band-aids, etc. Unfortunately, everything is closed in Seville on Sundays. Literally EVERYTHING. So there went buying any new clothes (I can't stand the ones I have because I wear one of three outfits everyday)! I did manage to find a grocery where I got credit for my phone (Vodafone was closed) and a 24 hour pharmacy (go over the San Telmo bridge to Plaza de Cuba and ask someone).

On my walk back I decided to stop by the Plaza de Espana because the two German girls in my new room recommended it to me. It's a beautiful building in the midst of the park with a little waterway where you can rent boats and skim around the little manmade river. Very peaceful place.


From there I decided to go visit Casa de Pilatos since the only things open on Sunday are tourist attractions. How convenient! You can either choose to pay 6 Euro to see the bottom floor (audio guide included) or pay 8 Euro to include the top floor which is a guided private tour (you have no choice). I went with the 8 Euro because hey why not?

Basically the house is an Andalusian which served as the permanent residence of the Dukes of Medinaceli. The bottom floor was used as the summer palace and the top floor as the winter palace. They are replicate floor layouts but with the humidity the top floor was too hot in the summer so they lived downstairs and then vice a versa in the winter.

There were three phases of building the first being a primitive castle started in the early 1500s by Pedro Enriquez de Quinones (the mayor). Then Pedro's son Fadrique (first Marquis of Tarifa) went on a pilgrimage to the holy land, saw a bunch of sweet Italian architecture and returned in the late 1500s to add to the palace. He also gave the place its current name, "Pilate's House," because he determined that the distance between the original home of Pontius Pilate and the Golgotha is the same distance as his house and a temple just outside Seville city gates. This coincidence resulted in him naming the palace after Pilate. Random.

The rooms of the palace have 16th-19th century paintings from many greats like Pacheco, Goya, and Giordano and many 2nd century Roman busts. The coolest part was that one of the owners of the house was obsessed with the Apotheosis of Hercules because Hercules was the only mortal to join the Gods. Obviously a good example to follow right?

Outside of all of this, the Case de Pilatos was extremely beautiful and well worth the money. The downstairs is surrounded by two gardens and all the walls are done in the tiny mosaic tiling. The ceilings are wooden wonders of intricate carving as are the ivory facades above and around each of the doors. There was hardly anyone there when I visited so it was super quiet and peaceful to walk around. I liked it a lot!


From there I returned to the hostel to drop off my supplies and walked down to Levies, a tapas restaurant recommended by the hostel staff. I ordered fried spinach, fried chicken, chicken curry and fried Camembert cheese. They were all pretty good though nothing too special. The crazy thing was the plates were HUGE. I was not expecting that much food so I looked like a fat ass sitting there eating four giant plates of food. There were three guys sitting at the table next to me and they were splitting three plates! Oh well!

After dinner I headed back to the hostel to pack up since I'm headed via train to Granada tomorrow to meet up with my next travel buddy.

Stay tuned!

It's a Party from Lisbon to Lagos!

July 20, 2011

Up bright and early because we wanted to make our way to Obidos, a tiny medieval town on the coast of Portugal. Apparently they are having a festival there until the 24th where the entire city is turned in a medieval city with knights, jousts, beer and wenches. Sounds like our kind of party! Unfortunately, we have our bags so we couldn't go directly there. Instead we decided to take the high speed train to Lisbon to drop off our stuff and then make Obidos into a day trip. It was a pretty easy trip to Lisbon although kind of expensive for a train (22 Euro per person).

We checked in the Lisbon Calling hostel which was the coolest looking hostel I've ever stayed at. Everything was made from wood with eclectic knick-knacks decorating the walls. The coffee table was a bathtub! The staff was amazing, especially Sofia and Num, who we spent the most time with during our stay. The only negatives were that the lights in the room which almost too low to accomplish much when you needed them and the way the common room is placed prevents you from being too loud at night. I did wake up with one bug bite too but I as yet have no proof that it was a bed bug and I didn't receive anymore.


Sofia was at the desk when we checked in and she called the festival company in Obidos to confirm it was still going on. Unfortunately, the festival wasn't until tomorrow. This did allow us to relax at little for once so we took the train (from Cais de Sodre station) to Estoril, a small beach town.


The first few hours we spent sitting at a bar on the water drinking caipirinhas (for 5 Euro each) which were REALLY strong but tasty. Being a beach, there were street vendors wondering around selling sunglasses and bracelets. I bartered a guy down from 30 Euro to 4 Euro for two bracelets. I rock.

After passing out on the sand for hours, we headed back to the hostel where we met Eva and Frederik, a couple from Amsterdam. They were the friendliest people, immediately offering up some of the pancakes they'd made to us for dinner. Also joining us at the dinner table was a guy from England named Warren. Dinner was delicious and we followed it up with a little Dave Chappelle but we were being too loud so my friend, Warren and I decided to hit the town.

From Lisbon Calling you take a left out the front door and then another left. You then walk up the street straight through a plaza into a maze of smaller streets filled with bars called Bairro Alto. I mean FILLED with bars. It was the easiest pub crawl situation I've ever seen.
About three deep V-neck T-shirts later we realized it was also the gay district. There were a bunch of fun street vendors selling stuff here too and we took a bunch of pictures with them. My friend and Warren bought me a hat for two Euro.


We wandered the streets and accidentally found ourselves at a bar with live music. After awhile we were super hungry (my friend and I had only eaten the pancakes we had for dinner today) so I walked up to some guys and asked them where the closest, open restaurant was. They told us about a bakery just up the street so we set out to find it.

Thirty minutes later, still looking for the bakery, we ran into the same guys. This time we stopped to chat with them. Their names were Bernardo, Sal, and Pedro and they were a riot to talk to. At one point, Warren, who is the funniest drunk person I've ever seen asked Sal, "I need to take a piss. Where can I take a piss?" Sal responded by pointing at the street and saying, "Piss on the street." To which Warren replied with, "I don't want to muck up your street." This had all of us laughing and Warren stumbled off to piss on the street.


They also asked us where we were headed next and we started Lagos. They told us that that is where all the "steaks" went. When questioned, they explained that they called "steaks" foreigners because we cook in the sun. This immediately became the word of the night. We finally made it home around 6am and slept for two hours because we have our tour to Sintra tomorrow.


July 21, 2011

Yesterday I'd tried to call the tour company to arrange for pick-up at our hostel and no one had answered the phone. I booked the tour through viator.com and believe me I was not happy that no one had answered. We woke up extra early this morning to try calling them again and still no answer. I had to go onto viator.com and read the reviews where I finally found a posting from a guy who had the same problem. His review said they just walked to the main area where the bus leaves from. We tried to do this but missed the bus by about ten minutes. I was really pissed because for two people the tour was over $200 and it was to Sintra which is one of the top three things I want to see in Europe. So instead we had to find our own way to Sintra.

It took us three tries on the metro to get to the Restauradores metro stop to walk to the adjoining train station. Everyone kept telling us the wrong station which was frustrating. From there we walked to the Rossio train station (the only one that takes you to Sintra - wikitravel is wrong FYI). We got the tickets and then my friend got stuck behind the gate because his ticket wasn't working and we missed the train. We had to wait 30 minutes to get on the next one. So irritating. Finally we made it on the train for the 30-40 minute ride to Sintra which is the last stop on that line.

We were planning on staying at Sintra until about 4pm and then taking a train to Obidos for that damn medieval festival so we started with the most important monuments first. Sintra is a massive place with a lot to see. You really should be spending a FULL day there. Since we didn't have a full day we paid 14 Euro per person to see the famous 19th century Pena Palace and the 8th century Castelo dos Mouros. The Castelo afforded amazing views of the surrounding area and ruins that were extremely well preserved. It reminded me of the European version of the Great Wall of China.


Even more impressive was Pena Palace. It literally sits on the top of the world and you can see 360 degree views of Portugal from the mountains to the beach. It is a surrounded by a forest that feels like it is straight out of a fairytale. The fact that I am reading Game of Thrones even added a specialness since I'd already been immersing myself in romantic literature. I half expected to see characters from the books canter by on their destriers.

The site of Pena Palace was once the home to a chapel during the Middle Ages that was later expanded into a monastery. The monastery was destroyed by an earthquake in the 18th century. Finally, in the 1800s, King Ferdinand II purchased the whole surrounding area and had the palace built as a summer home for the royal family. It was later purchased by State of Portugal and turned UNESCO World Heritage site.


I have traveled to almost 20 countries and this is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been. The combination of Arab and European influences to the architecture, the natural forest surrounding the palace, and the spectacular views of the country put it at the top of my list. It barely edges out Cesky Krumlov outside of Prague because you can also go inside the palace to see all the rooms. The rooms were filled with wood ceilings carved into leaves, animals and ribbons, ornately decorated porcelain serving dishes and gorgeous oil paintings. I think I was in a waking dream the whole time.

I also almost ended up with a new boyfriend who I met at the palace. He was traveling with his parents, his two sisters and his two brothers and was probably the cutest eight year old I've ever seen. I had asked his dad to take my photo and he stood next to his dad telling him what to do to ensure I got a really good picture. His dad then asked if his son could get my number and take me on a date and the kid turned bright red and punched his dad in the arm. It was pretty adorable. They were a super nice Belgian family traveling on holiday together. It made me miss my parents.

It was getting close to 4pm so we went to the bottom of the hill to catch the bus back to the train station. My friend had ankle surgery not too long ago and was definitely struggling with all the walking. The bus was taking too long so I stood near the side of the road and tried to flag a car for a ride down. I must be overly judgmental because there was only one car that I would've gotten in and three girls snagged a ride before we could.

Eventually the bus came and we took the train back towards a station where we could change to a train to Obidos. We kept trying to get the right train until finally we threw the towel in and decided Obidos just wasn't going to happen. Bummer.

Back at the hostel, we made breakfast for dinner (omelets and bacon). It was really good! We hung out a bit with Eva and Frederik and a new addition, Heather from Los Angeles. We then went out to the same area and bar from last night. The bar is called Rialto and there was a guitarist there who was playing great music and we all started dancing.


Three French girls had tagged along with us and I attempted to speak my broken French to them. I kept on counting in Spanish accidentally. I'm going to get home and have forgotten how to speak English!

Next we took a taxi to Lux, the best club in Lisbon we'd been told. It was awful. They made the girls pay and were dicks about it, the drinks were super expensive, the club wasn't all that crowded and the music was terrible to dance to so we eventually left.

Back at the hostel we were all been super silly brushing our teeth together. It turned in a dance that ended with my friend accidentally spitting toothpaste all over the floor. What a night.


July 22, 2011

Finally a day to sleep in a little! We woke up way late and went to get the rental car for our drive south to Lagos. The man behind the counter had the biggest, bushiest unibrow I have ever seen. It was really distracting. The service at the rental place was awful. They were so slow and took terrible care of the cars. The guy helping us left the car in neutral while he showed us the car and it started rolling down into the street. My friend had to run and jump in the car to stop it before it careened into traffic. Then the guy opened the trunk really fast and it slammed against the concrete ceiling. Wow. We definitely did a full once over on the car to note all the damage.

We returned to the hostel, picked up Eva and Frederik who were hitching a ride and headed out. You don't really need a map - you just hop on the A2 and take it for like three hours until you see signs for Lagos. If you go to Spain you've gone to far :-) We made a pit stop at a restaurant on the side of the road which was awesome because it was us and like four old men who were just chilling smoking cigarettes. We sat at the table with them and ate our ham paninis which were super cheap, really greasy, and hit the spot!

After about an hour we pulled into Sines, one of the main beach towns on the way. This was Eva and Frederik's stop. They were going to stay for a music festival that takes place in the castle in Sines. It was pretty cool. We hung out for a bit at the beach and in the castle and then my friend and I said goodbye and continued on our way. Eva kept pronouncing "castle" as "castel" which I thought was pretty funny.


If you ever lose the A2 on the way you can pretty much navigate but sticking near the coast or just follow these signs - Algarve Sul, Olimeria, Aljezur, Lagos. We finally pulled into Lagos at 10pm and my friend, who had been driving, was absolutely beat. He totally wanted to stay in tonight but I told him hell no we are in LAGOS!! Party capital of Portugal! We parked the car and asked randoms how to get to the Rising Cock Hostel (yes, an excellent name). Everyone knew where it was because it is a pretty famous hostel so we found it right away.


The girl at the desk had clearly had a long day of it because she was all over the place but we finally managed to get to our room. We were in the 69 room. Yes, they all have ridiculous names. While we were checking in a guy walked up and said, "Hey Laura, you guys made it." I swear I have never seen this guy in my life. I was so confused. Turns out Brendan from Porto had been here and told this guy (Mike) about my blog. Mike is the head of marketing for the hostel. He told us we HAD to go upstairs to trivia night or we'd miss it.


Upstairs we ran into Brendan who was on a team with a ton of Australians. Lagos might as well be a principality of Australia because we were two of four non-Australians in the entire hostel. What does this mean? We were going to have a fucking great time. Everyone had a nickname so I met PK, X-Man, Dolphin Trainer, and more. At first I thought they were calling me "Blonde Chick" which I thought was a lame name but turns out they were saying "Blog Chick."

We managed to make it there for the last three questions and my many hours of watching Discovery Channel helped me get the question, "What is the only male animal to give birth?" A seahorse - duh. Finally they tallied all the answers and our group and another one were tied. The guy leading the trivia, Pedro, announced that he was going to pick the winner based on who had the best name. I yelled out, "No way! It has to be a drinking contest!" Everyone loved that idea so Pedro said that the person who shotgunned a beer the fastest won their team the bottle of vodka.

Yet again I spoke up saying that I'd seen my friend down a margarita pitcher full of beer in about 30 seconds once. The Australians clearly weren't sure if they wanted to put their faith in two people they'd known for 15 minutes but Brendan spoke on our behalf.

Next thing I know my friend is standing next to this massive drunk Aussie girl I nicknamed The Linebacker. She was shit talking to my friend almost immediately saying she was going to kill him. Keep in mind my friend and I are pretty much sober so the look on his face was one of bewilderment. Pedro sounded the alarm and my friend trounced the girl finishing his beer before she'd even made it halfway. She started freaking out and saying he cheated but couldn't manage to make a coherent argument so our team snagged the bottle of vodka. Next thing you know our team is MVPing my friend around on their shoulders and making him take sandal shots. It was pretty ridiculous. We later found out that the Linebacker had gone straight to the bathroom to have a good cry about her loss.


From there we went out to the bars which are right around the corner. Lagos is tiny so you can walk everywhere and it is pretty safe you just have to watch out for gypsies who will steal your purse if you give them half a chance.

We ended up spending most of the night with our two roommates - Keith and Ginger. Ginger's name is really Tom but his hair was bright red so Ginger he was. The two bars of the night were Three Monkeys and Inside Out. The bartenders at Three Monkeys are insane and wear crazy costumes and Inside Out had amazing music for dancing. Lagos is also fun because there are a handful of bars so you keep running into people throughout the night. The night ended around 4am after I'd ordered a vegetarian pizza with ham on it. The guy behind the counter said it was the most random order he'd gotten in a long time.




July 23, 2011

We woke up the night morning feeling relatively good and set to drinking almost immediately. Before that though we headed upstairs to breakfast where "Mama" was making crepes. Mama is this adorable, older Portuguese lady who essentially takes care of all us drunken fools.


For breakfast she made us Nutella crepes and tea. The tea was crazy - you pour a cup of it (it's yellow) and then squeeze lemon in it. You stir the mixture while saying "Tiki tiki" and the liquid turns white. It tasted like lemons (obviously). I have no idea why this ritual exists but it was fun to do. A girl at the table was telling a story about how a gypsy had tried to yank her purse away. The strap broke and she screamed at the gypsy to leave her alone. She told us she was super drunk but just kept thinking about the fact that her passport was in the purse and she couldn't lose it.

Ever since we arrived we'd been hearing about the booze cruise. For 40 Euro each they take you out on a party boat for like four hours. Drinks and food on board are included. It is apparently THE thing to do in Lagos and it was completely full. Turns out having this blog just became worth all the work because Mike got us on the boat so that I could write about it. So write about it I will!

Once everyone paid and received their wristbands we walked to the boat with our two new roommates, Mike and Matt, after slathering ourselves in T-Shirt-in-a-bottle. T-shirt-in-a-bottle is almost as good as my Steaks-n-Strippers idea. Who wouldn't love to eat a really good steak ringside?

We arrived at the boat and Pedro explained the two rules - 1) If you get caught drinking with your right hand you have to down your beer. 2) There were a couple pegs on the boat (the clothesline kind) and if someone pegs you and counts to five you have to down your beer.


It was Matt's birthday so he was immediately attacked by two Aussies wielding beer bongs of sangria that he took back to back. He then headed straight to the bathroom to puke. I started the cruise checking out the landscape which was the prettiest I've seen thus far. We were moving along a coastline of massive rocks jutting out of the water to reveal tiny hidden beaches and caves.



It was pretty funny to see this scenery in front of me versus when I turned around and was met by forty Aussies dangling from the boat rafters, skulling beers and throwing them at each other, prancing around in their tiny Speedos, and motorboating girls. There was one girl in particular with giant boobs who had a line of guys waiting for their turn. And then there was the creepy old Portuguese guy who mans the smaller boat that takes you over to the caves who slapped my ass and tried to motorboat me and I was super creeped out and ran away from him. It was like Mexico spring break for those of you that have been.


I barely remember getting off the boat but we somehow made it back near the hostel where my friend, Mike, Matt and I decided to grab burgers. Apple Pan in Los Angeles, Fergburger in Queenstown, New Zealand, the burger I had in New York - all the top burgers in my life. But my burger today ranks among them. It was called The Cock Meat Burger...of course and it was giant, juicy and delicious.


After burgers it was pretty much us four walking around like assholes drinking beers as it got dark. At one point two Welsh girls were hanging out with us and Mike was telling us a story about how a girl he'd hooked up with on the trip "had her hand in my pants for like an hour" to which I responded, "Maybe she couldn't find it?" The two Welsh girls thought this was hilarious. A lay-up in my opinion.


Our wandering took us to Three Monkeys where some random guy offered to buy me a Jaeger bomb but I gave the bartender a look and then pointed at the massive beer bong on the wall of the bar. The bartender, who was dressed in a red Bruno-esk bathing suit with white lacy tights, smiled, rang the cowbell, plopped a construction hat on my head and gave me the beer pong filled with beer. By the time it was over my eyes were watering! The bartender then yelled "$2.50" at me and I gave him what must have been the most confused look like "I have to pay?" Whoops!


After that we partied a little more and eventually went back to bed.


July 24, 2011

Woke up this morning and feel like death. Pretty sure I'm coming down with a sinus infection. Can't imagine why! We woke up and started driving back to Lisbon.

An hour so in we stopped in a small beach town called Milfontes that had the most beautiful beach. Different from Lagos because this was more like a Southern California beach with soft white sand that stretched for miles. We ate a quick lunch that wasn't very good and then wandered down to the beach for a nap. A scruffy little dog named Daisy kept barking at us. My friend said that maybe she doesn't like steaks. She was pretty cute though even when barking. She eventually left us alone to bark at someone else.


After the beach I felt a little better but could barely get us home to Lisbon because I needed sleep so badly. Of course as soon as we get close to Lisbon we get stuck on the bridge waiting for people to pay the toll. It took forever. Two quick things of note for those driving cars - there are very few gas stations in the city so fill up your rental before you enter and the second is that when you get to the gas station some pumps are fill and some are pre-pay.

Finally we made it to our new hostel, Travellers House. It was on a really cool shopping street but I was too tired to really pay attention.


We walked straight to our room and passed out. Another day of Oreos for dinner. My mom would kill me.


July 25, 2011

Slept in soo late today which was amazing. First day I've felt rested. We donned our swimsuits and grabbed our towels to head to the beach when we realized we still had the rental car to return. Uugh! And of course we had only filled the tank halfway so when we arrived we had to pay at 25 Euro tax for not filling the car up. It could've been worse though. We finally made it to the beach around 3:30pm. The beach is called Cascais and is a lot more touristy then Estoril although they are on the same train line and only a few stops away (you take the metro to Cais de Sodre and then the train to Cascais).


Another note here - two people can't share cards. We learned this the hard way. There was a huge line for tickets so we just bought four on the same railway card. My friend used it to go through and then I tried and it wouldn't work. We realized it's because it knows you haven't come back yet. We tried to swipe twice and then send me through but the security guard came up and got all angry. It resulted in us wasting about two trips worth which was super annoying.

Cascais, as I mentioned is a bit touristy, but the beach was more sheltered than Estoril so less wind and sand attacked us. We promptly fell asleep after enjoying a glass of rose wine.


After our nap we wandered around town playing our travel game again. We ended up at a little cafe that had empada de frango which was like a chicken pot pie only twice as good. It was a total surprise since food from the cafeterias has been pretty shoddy at best. We continued along towards the coast and came out on the coastal road right by this really cool outcropping of rocks which we explored for awhile before heading back into town to catch a train back.


Upon arrival at the hostel my friend realized that his wallet was gone. Worst luck ever! Neither of us could imagine where he would've lost it and it remains a mystery. Luckily he left his passport at the hostel but that seriously sucks about the rest. Looks like I'm gonna be a sugar mama for the next five days!

We finally resigned ourselves to the fact that the wallet was gone and we weren't getting it back so we wandered into the main living area of the hostel for the traditional Portuguese dinner that the hostel was putting on. We dined on wine, cheese, sausage and bread all of which was delicious. It was nice to have some homemade food again!

We met some kids from Santa Rosa, CA, (I call them kids because they were 20) and two Canadian girls all of whom came out with us. We ended up in Barrio Alto again because it's the only happening place on a Monday and then made our way to the club district near there and spent the rest of the night dancing.


It was a good night although one of the guys in the group got really drunk and was pretty annoying so I spent most of the night ridiculing him in front of his friends because he was pissing me off so bad. At one point I bought his two friends beers and then handed him a water which really made him mad. His face turned bright red and his friends started laughing. What a little shit.


Finally the rest of us were ready to part ways with him but overall a good last night in Portugal as we head back to Spain tomorrow!