Tag-Archive for » Portugal «

Sagres!
Tuesday, September 07th, 2010 /

Edge of Europe

Lonely Planet got it right when they described Sagres as having that, edge of the world feeling.  As most of the European coast that lay face to the Atlantic, Sagres has dramatic cliffs that drop nearly 100 meters straight down to the  secluded yellow sand beaches.

Body Surf

We took the short and inexpensive bus ride from Lagos and as we searched eagerly for a spot to bed down for the night, we found ourselves climbing down to the nearest beach.  Something we noticed right away about Sagres was the tide.  The fluctuation were a lot larger than the beaches we had come from on the Mediterranean.  Since it was high tide we had to take a nice trek through the incoming water and waves to get to a  good spot. Once we found our nook, and home for the next two nights, we headed straight for the waves.  The gett’n was good, and we body surfed till late that evening.

 

Miss Everyone!

We enjoyed a nice and light dinner as the sun went down, then watched the canvas of stars above us and the night fishermen till the shooting stars woo’d us to sleep. We saw the most amazing… brightest… longest shooting star we’ve ever seen! It was INCREDIBLE! :) Halfway through the night though…i woke up all paranoid about the tide coming in! It was the biggest change in tide i’d ever seen….it came all the way up to our tent around 2 in the morning and i was scared it was coming further, so i built a rock wall with a mote in front of it for the next 30 minutes or so haha! It stopped just before out tent luckily…but ya never know!

 

Beach camp

We spent the whole next day on the beach…played lots of games in the sand…hangman, tic tac toe, and had a photo shoot haha! It was good times and just an amazing beach with amazing water!

Running through air!

Handstands!!

The best part by far though was waking up in the morning to a completely empty beach that we got to make the very first footprints in! :) We would go back in a heartbeat!

Footprints!!

Category: Beaches, Camping, Portugal, Sagres, Western Europe  Tags: , , ,  2 Comments
Lagos
Tuesday, September 07th, 2010 /

 

Sunrise!

After a failed attempt to squat for one night in Lisboa, yet again we had the genius idea of the overnight bus to Lagos.  The city is in the southern region on Portugal known as Algarve. Arriving to your destination at 4 in the morning is the best nights accommodation, BUT, we had the pleasure of lovely beach only a few hundred meters from our dropoff point.  We hoofed it there, just in time to catch the beautiful sunrise.  As picturesque as it was, the hot, blinding sun was not so conducive for sleep.  Fortunately the beaches of Lagos are surrounded by high cliff walls that provided us with a shady place to catch some z’s.  Funny enough we settled in next to the other backpackers that were there and got a couple decent hours worth.

Me bring Pummeled!!

We loved the beach, especially our new spot.  So much so, that we made it home for the next 36 hours!  Our day was spent body surfing the violent waves (when the lifeguard wasn’t looking) and one super undercover trip to the camp grounds showers to freshen up; which we later found out was a military personal/family only camp grounds.

Sleeping on the beach has become one of our favorite traveling pastimes.  The sand is soft, its free and the crashing of the waves is a wonderful sountrack for sleeping.

Hanging out!

…As long as you don’t have to worry about protecting your valuables.  Unfortunately, in Lagos this is not possible. The reputation for Lagos is a party town.  So, passing out on the beach is usually done by the people too drunk to make it home, thus creating nice targets for local thieves to take advantage of.  Mindful of this we set up our tent in a secluded little area protected by tall cliff, thinking that we would have a nice night of undisturbed sleep.  Wishful thinking and reality hardly parallel each other and in this case they had set a different course.  I had passed out quickly, only to wake up with Chelsea no next to my side where she always is, but outside of the tent chasing our towels down the beach, as the wind swept them away.  I really didn’t think much of it, but when she returned to the tent she told me that the wind had not woken her.  Instead it was the footsteps of man, who apparently had army crawled  through the small tunnel connecting our nice secluded spot, to the main back around the corner.    At first I was in denial about him wanting to steal our stuff, but when we spotted him

 

Where we enjoyed our wine!

sneaking a look from his hiding spot around the corner, waiting for us to fall back asleep I began to worry.  Once he realized we saw him he acted like he was leaving.  Fortunately for us we could see through a hole in the rocks the path that left the area, allowing us to see that he hadn’t walked by yet.  So when we saw him peer through that hole on his hands and knees like the sneaking thief that he was, checking on us again, I shined our flashlight and yelled at him.  We took this as a sign and decided it was better to move to a more open location, where people could see us. When we walked back around the rocks, it was like a different world…party on the beach!! But we slept much better knowing we were safe! We woke up to lots of people on the beach…and nobody minding that we had a tent pitched!

This is what we lived on!

Cool Green Building!

She looked so serious!

Category: Beaches, Camping, Lagos, Portugal, Western Europe  Tags: , , ,  One Comment
Lisboa!
Friday, September 03rd, 2010 /

From Capitol to Capitol

We caught the night bus from Madrid to Lisboa, which is something we’re making a habit out of.  It’s an easy way to save money on a night accommodation, but not exactly accommodating.  In theory this is a great idea; reality sets in when, after hours of trying to fall asleep, you are woken up by the jerking of the bus breaks, and you nearly slam into the seat in front of you. Regardless of a crap nights sleep, it still saves money, which is the important thing (For us at least!)

 

Loved this Bridge!

We arrived in Lisboa at around 4:30, well before our estimated time of arrival on our ticket, 8 am.  Not sure how that happened but luckily we were at the main bus terminal and night busses were still running.  To the center of town we went to try and kill time before we met our CS hosts; 12 hours to exact.
We did the tourist thing for about an hour, walking around snapping some photos of the architecture and such, but we were quite tired and in need of a comfy sofa and some air conditioning.  We took turns napping in starbucks, taking advantage of the free internet when conscious.

 

Violation...

We DID notice there was a festival going on called Two Oceans! In the middle of a square there was a massive blow up aquarium with chairs and fishies everywhere! When we went inside, we felt like we were violating someones private parts lol! And so we went on to meet our couchsurfers, Sofie and Nuno! She has been on couchsurfing since 2005 and was definitely the most experienced we’ve stayed with! We had our own room in their cute apartment just outside of the city…we changed..and went straight to the beach! It was nice and sandy and the water appeared nice, but as soon as my toe touched the water, i noticed how FREEZING it was! I didn’t think anything could be as cold as the river in Bern, but this was too cold for me to swim!  The town was really cute with lots of markets and windy streets! We grabbed some Italian gelato hehe and called it a night!

Trying to act like its not cold :)

 

Pretty View!

The next day was really exciting for us, because Sofie and Nuno lent us their car!! It had been 4 months since we’d driven! Of course…i couldn’t drive since it was stick shift, but Brad drove us out to a mystical little town called Sintra! It was full of palaces and gardens and more palaces! We chose the Quinta da Regaleira based on Kelly’s recommendation! And so glad we did, because we LOVEDDD it! There was a beautiful old palace, and lakes and a massive garden but then BEST part was the underground tunnels that ran throughout the gardens. Some of them were pitch black, some led you straight into water, and some were even blocked off (apparently they went across to the other side of town!) We spent hours wandering around…highly recommend it!

Stepping Stones!

Tunnels!

Afterwards we drove up to Pena castle which Kelly reckons was what the Disney castle was modeled after (I don’t see it haha sorry Kel!) and the Moorish Castle which overlook Sintra! Unfortunately we couldn’t see much without paying to go…so had to skip it! I think they offer good deals if you want to do combo passes though!

So on we drove to the western most point of mainland Europe…Cabo da Roca! It was cool to look out to nothingness…but it was WINDY!!! Snapped some pics and got outta there! We came home to a delicious meal that Sofie cooked for us. It was a dish made with Codfish which is apparently very typical for Portugal, and it was sooooo good!

 

Winddyyy!

We visited a few botanical gardens and other parks in the city! It was Brad’s first time at a Botanical garden and it was kind of whack…no cool flowers or colors! Just trees! We left Lisbon with a great opinion of Portuguese people and food…and Sintra was definitely the highlight of Lisbon for us!


Category: Beaches, Cities, CouchSurfing, Lisbon, Portugal, Western Europe  Tags: , , , ,  2 Comments