Many mixed emotions go through my mind when I think about Lagos...
Our group of four hopped off the train with optimistic spirits of this beautiful beach town and hopes of finding a hostel quickly. We walked for about 30 minutes through town with our backpacks on (now regretting that I brought over 50 lbs worth of stuff) and eventually found the infamous hostel we were looking for, The Rising Cock. This hostel is the most well known here in Lagos and has a reputation for being the biggest party hostel of all time (and after staying there I would bet money that it is). We asked the front desk about availability for the night and they said they were all booked. They directed us to another hostel 4 blocks away. No vacancy there either. They directed us to another 6 blocks away.. no vacancy. Four more hostels and over 15 additional blocks later we were out of hostels and exhausted. I could barely walk anymore and we only had one option left, stay at the Lagos campground.
The two Danish guys we were with had a tent for two and we figured maybe a third person could fit inside and the fourth would sleep next to it. The guys, Ulrick and Frederick, bought their campsite entrance bracelets for 4 Euro each and set up the tent and put all of our bags inside it. Chuck and I stayed outside the campground since we didn't have passes and decided we would continue to look around for somewhere to stay that night, and worse case scenario would be to stay at the campsite.
We all went to dinner at this gourmet Portuguese restaurant and had a feast! When we were so stuffed we couldn't move anymore, the owner brought us over dessert shots (well, mine was a dessert.. the guys' was more like cough medicine). We took the shots and I kept licking my lips saying how delicious that shot was (mine was an almond liquor) and the guys didn't really say too much.. just kept looking at me with weird looks saying.. "Really? You liked that?" "What kind of liquor do you drink back home?". Turns out they had one of the strongest shots in Portugal and burned all of their throats. We didn't find out until almost 20 minutes later when out of curiosity, Ulrick picked up my shot glass to smell what I had to drink.
After dinner we went to a bar called Inside Out, really cool bar known for their "fish bowls". I have one memory of having a fish bowl before, and that was with my friend Jeremy in Fort Lauderdale a few years ago. We made it less than halfway through and neither of us remember how we got home. I heard the fish bowls here are even bigger and more potent. In each bowl is a bottle of vodka, half a bottle of triple-sec and some fruit drink. They stick tons of long straws in them and happily present the gift to you. I bet the guys we wouldn't even finish one. Well, we did. And then the guys ordered a second! The rest of the night consisted of lots of dancing and partying and we all got lost on the way home. Chuck and I were walking back separate from Ulrick and Frederick and for about an hour we were walking in circles. In Portugal, no one speaks Spanish (obviously) or English.. so we were completely hopeless. Miraculously, after walking around aimlessly for over an hour, I spotted a sign to our campsite. We followed the signs and made it! Only one problem now.. we had no idea where the guys set up the tent. For some reason I remembered hearing the location 86 B earlier, so Chuck and I started walking up to every tent and checking the tags on them. This was one of the worse ideas in the world since there were over 300 tents there and we were just randomly walking around. By this time it was probably 4:00 am and we had nowhere to go and it was freezing outside.. so, we did what any logical person would do in this situation, we took as many towels and blankets off of the clotheslines as we could and threw them on the dirt ground between two tents. The next three hours were miserable as I tried to sleep through the cold wind, crowing roosters, and cawing seagulls (yes, the seagulls caw and they are very, very loud!).
A little after 7 AM we had had enough of the cold and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, so we put back the towels and blankets (thank you very much for your donations fellow campers) and set off to find 86 B (or whatever tent they were in). We walked over to the next camper section, walked to the back of the section to a tent to start checking tags and this tent said 86 B!! No way! The very fist one we checked one campsite down was the right tent. By the looks of the Danish feet sticking out, we had found them. It was one of the happiest moments I can remember. We basically jumped on top of them and cuddled into the tent. And Ulrick and Frederick thought nothing of it (we found out later that they thought we had walked home with them and stayed there the whole time... oh the dangerous fish bowls).
When we offically woke up, we all put on our bathing suits and headed to the beach on the far side of the city (near the marina). We stopped at the supermarket and made sandwiches and each got a 2 liter bottle of water. After a long rest, we were feeling well enough to walk to the beach. The beach was nice and very hot and the water felt as cold as a bucket of ice water. So, we would lay on the beach long enough to feel heat exhausted and then jump in the freezing water till we couldn't feel our fingers anymore. Then repeat. To make matters even worse, my towel I brought with me on my trip was left in Greece so Chuck grabbed one for me when we left the hostel in Seville. He unfolded it to reveal a 16 inch by 30 inch towel. Great, Thanks Chuck.. I'll use this to dry my left arm.
After the beach we checked back with the hostel to see if they had any room for us. They said they might and it would be 30 euros a night. Ulrick and Frederick said they'd rather stay at the campsite one more night and Chuck and I agreed that we could save some money by doing that too. We all ate some food and then headed to another local beach just down the hill.
This beach was much smaller and a bit more private. It also had some incredible views. Huge rocks/boulders were all around the beach and one massive boulder was sitting in the water, a small part of it was touching the sand. My first thought was.. is it possible to climb to the top of this? I tossed my camera to Ulrick and started the climb. It was a bit dangerous at parts, but well worth the hike once I made it to the top of the 60+ foot rock. Chuck climbed up too, but the two Danish guys stayed safe on the level ground.
After the second beach we stopped for some grilled chicken at a local shop, took a little nap and got ready to go out again. This time we decided to have a low-key night and went to a bar called The Jam, drank some Sagres beer and played darts. A few hours later we headed back to the tents and crammed inside. It was a bit warmer, but the guys snored all night so I got little sleep.
On Thursday morning we checked out of the campsite and Chuck and I each had to pay 1 Euro to stay there (pretty nice deal!). The four of us had our last breakfast together, Chuck and I checked into the Rising Cock Hostel, and Ulrick and Frederick said their goodbyes and left for Lagos. The Rising Cock is a hostel with 100 young backpackers, mostly from Australia, who party non-stop. There is a huge common room full of couches and mats to lay on, and there is a huge projection TV which constantly plays the best movies and TV shows (there is a selection of about 200 movies on one of the computers and anyone can choose one at any time of day. Also, if the the movie you wish to see isn't on the list, they have a program to download it). So, at any given time, there are about 8-12 backpackers sprawled out on the couches watching movies. Another nice thing about the hostel is that Mamma made us all Crepes in the morning. The mom of the hostel had a special recipe for crepes and we could buy our own fruit from the market next door and then spread on some nutella and feast. My favorites were bananas and nutella, and strawberries and nutella. But the lemon and sugar crepes weren't bad either.
All day Thursday the hostel was buzzing with talk of a booze cruise on Friday. For 45 Euros we would have lunch at the nah-nah-bar across the street, then spend the day on the boat cruising around the coast of Portugal with all you can drink sangrias and beer, and also tube rides during the day from a speed boat, and then sandwiches again when its all over. Sounded good to us. We booked and decided to still go out on Thursday night but not party too hard. The whole hostel drank together and we played a drinking game where we played the song "Roxanne" and the girls would stand up and drink whenever they said "roxanne" and the guys would stand up and drink when they sang "put on the red light". We had about 50 people in the common room standing up and sitting down and drinking. It was a great way to get everyone in a party mood in less than 3 minutes. Eventually everyone left the hostel and we made our way to a couple bars, Three Monkeys first and then Inside Out.
Friday morning we all felt a bit rough but Mama's crepes and lemon tea made us feel better. Our booze cruise group of 40 ate lunch at the Nah-Nah Bar and then walked down to the port to board our boat. The boat ride was so much fun. Music was blaring and all day we were jumping off the boat into the water, doing flips and jumps and dives, playing all sorts of drinking games and making up rules of a million things we weren't allowed to do and if you did, you had to drink or do push-ups or jump off the boat. Then the speed boat pulled up and everyone took turns screaming and holding on for dear life going between 30-40 MPH. It was pretty scary, luckily we didn't flip. For the rest of the day everyone kept drinking and eventually we made it back to shore.
Within a couple hours after we got back I started feeling pretty sick.. sore throat, tired.. that sort of thing. By the next day I had the worst flu I've ever experienced. Fever, chills, no voice, sore throat, difficult to breath, fatigue, body aches, headache, it was horrible. I stayed in bed for almost 2 days straight because when I would get up to walk to the TV room and back I would be so exhausted I would have to sleep again. My parents convinced me to go to the hospital and by then my fever had subsided. After a 5 minute check-up the doctor said I had a virus and laryngitis and prescribed some antibiotics for me. Chuck got sick too (as well as about 1/2 of the people at the hostel) and we had to stay in Lagos a couple days extra until we felt well enough to walk again.
Chuck and I have the same plan: be in Valencia on August 26th for the tomato throwing festival, La Tomatina. So, in the meantime we've decided to become traveling buddies exploring together. We each heard great things about Granada, so we decided that would be our next stop. Hopefully we'll be able to rest up enough to enjoy and see the city. I'll let you know what Granada is like.
To sum up on Lagos.. beautiful beach town, tons of partying, don't drink from the fish bowls and you'll be alright.
Photo link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2859965&id=2006596&l=d905c6f144
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