Always ask about the cuttlefish

Cheers from Faro, Portugal.

Jodi and I have officially parted ways. We took the same train from Lagos this afternoon, and now I fly out of Faro, back to London.

Last Thursday morning our flight was at 6am. I will never know or understand why we decided to not sleep before our flight. We'd been up at 9:30 on Wednesday morning, and just never went to sleep! Mind you, we did have to leave Marc's apartment around 2am to start our night bus and coach journey to Gatwick airport. We most definitely slept on our flight.

As soon as we stepped out of Marc's place, I was instantly in my state of heaven - wearing my life on my shoulders. How I love the feeling of being a nomad...

I was instantly captured by Faro. It's quite arid, but that makes the heat so much more tolerable. We got here about 10am Thursday morning, and our train to Lagos was not until 1, so we had some time to spare. We immediately headed for the church of Ordem Terceira do Carmo. I've seen a lot of churches, but this one was still oh-so-stunning. Especially chilling was the Chapel of Bones beyond the back. Skulls everywhere. I've noticed that all the churches in the Algarve region seem to have very similar architecture, such that they are practically identical. Very simple, very beautiful. After checking that out, we had a cheap lunch of toasties and beer. I wandered off to do a couple errands and returned to find Jodi chatting with Joe and Katelyn, a couple from England, so we sat with them on the train. Very handy having them along so they could wake us up at our stop!

Our arrival in Lagos mid-afternoon had m slightly concerned about finding accomodations. We had plans to check out some camping sites, and also to go to information on some hostels we had picked out. I was feeling so exhausted though and was really just hoping that someone would be at the train station to take us somewhere. Sure enough, it happened! A sweet old man lead us to an apartment where he rented rooms, literally right beside the city centre, and for at least half the price of any of the hostels we were considering. Yey! After settling in we explored Lagos. I already have plans to return next summer for work...

Lagos is the perfect little beach town. Gorgeous beaches surrounded by grottos, cobblestoned streets, endless shops and restaurants and bars, and brightly coloured buildings. It's an old fishing town, so there is a lovely marina too. We stopped into Eddie's bar before going to dinner. It was full of English and Aussie guys, watching cricket. We were warmly greeted by the (beach comber) bartender, asking if we wanted cocktails. Nope, beer for us. He said he could tell we were Canadian because of our nice accents and the fact that we tipped. He then brought us over to introduce us to "the boys". "Jodi, Leah, meet the boys". "Hi, boys". It was fun chatting. Then we headed to dinner, and an early night to bed. Ahhh, 13 glorious hours of sleep.

I did groceries in the morning then we spent Friday at Praia Batata, after checking out Pinhao and Praia Dona Ana. We had been told about Batata. Turquoise waters and those grottos. I swam around some to see that the beaches were separated by them. So so amazing. We took a boat tour of the grottos later in the afternoon. Because it was just me and Jodi with the guide, he totally took us into one where we had to duck as flat as the little 2 and a half foot high boat to enter. He was good at pointing out various shapes in the formations too - elephant, submarine, lady shoe....That evening we ended up at Casa Rosa for dinner...for an extra 5 euros we got "all you can drink in an hour". Bad idea. We spent the rest of the evening at Redeye bar, where some of "the boys" work. It was a fun night. Not so good next morning.

Saturday was another day at the beach. Followed by a more tame evening at Redeye once again. Sunday we went surfing!!! (I did not meet the love of my life.) We were taken to the west coast, to Cordoama beach. Jesus was our instructor, and there were a few others with us. We left Lagos at 9:45am and got back around 5pm. Very full day. It was trickier for me than when I went in Mexico, I think because we were barefoot. It was harder to grip my feet. I still managed to get up though. And as challenging and exhausting as it is, I still love it and want it to be my hobby. I will master it. We wore full suits, as we were on the Atlantic so the water was a little chilly. The waves beat us down, but that was no discouragement. How I love the thrill of surfing. I had to stop a few times and look around and take in the fact that I was surfing in Portugal!!! That was another early night (9pm!) to bed! (Jesus called me chocolate, and noted that our skin was almost the same shade!)

Monday was our last beach day. We stayed in the shade of one of the coves of grotto. It was nice. More swimming, lots of reading. Ah, the life. For our last meal out we realized we hadn't had fish yet!! So we decided on cuttlefish, because it was prepared Algarvarian style. Life lesson - if you're not a big seafood person, ask about the fish. Cuttlefish is definitely a mussels meets calamari meets octupus meets squishy texture. I did my best but was glad it came with some potatoes. We found a little cafe afterwords for a pastry to fill us more. Our last evening out we did a little bar hopping. It was a very late night indeed!

Today we had a leisurely lunch and last wander about Lagos before having to catch our train. Oh! The street that we stayed on was Rua do Cemeterio, so we went to see the cemetary this morning. Beautiful, though slightly eerie, as the plots were all above ground. We had lots of laughs on this little trip together. Now Jodi is off on her own, and me too, with my own plans in mind. Not to mention I start teaching in three weeks!!! Whoa. Exciting.

I am pumped to see Marc again so we can really catch up! Hope all is well with everyone. Miss you and I'll be in touch again soon. xoxox