Lagos

i read more of my book, and i'm really enjoying it, so it made the 4 hours bus ride to lagos quite a good one. i got out at the bus station and started heading to my hostel. which sounds easy but i could hardly find a street sign. lucky for me the people here are quite helpful and pointed me in the right direction. even when i finally did get a map it was no good to me, there are quite a number of winding roads here, and i was forever getting lost. but Lagos isn't that big so i didn't worry to much, i always found my way back some how.

i've found hostels in Portugal by far some of the best i've stayed in, and for roughly the same about of money as the rest of europe. but the hostel i stayed in here probably wasn't as nice as the other places i've stayed at, but what can i expect, it was dirt cheap, but it had charm. for instance it didn't have a kitchen or a stove but it had a BBQ, which i was happy with because it suited the climate. a good thing was it was pretty close to everything.

Lagos is quite a small little seaside town. something i like about it is, i don't think any of the buildings are over 2 story's high, and its flat. i don't think the buildings are quite as nice or as interesting as the ones i saw in other parts of Portugal but you can't win them all. i dunno if its just that i don't pay that much attention to the sky at home but the skies here seem so big are stunning to watch the whispy clouds roll passed. i used to love watching clouds when i was a kid, i would lay on the trampoline for ages using my imagination to create shapes. the beaches here are probably its biggest attraction. i think when it warms up a bit they would be heaving with people, but at this time of year the water is Fr-reee-zziing! but its still nice to walk on the sand, there are a number of beaches hidden away, there was one beach i found that had some really beautiful rock formations where the rock has eroded over time, the holes were big enough so that you could walk through them, which was fun. you always see people flogging boat tours, i ended up doing one. they took you right into the areas you can't get to by foot. at one point they drove the boat right into a cave, it almost felt like you we in a giants mouth, because with the tide going in and out it made the boat go up and down, making you feel like the giant was taking a breath... well, kind of, i thought it was cool. before i went i wasn't sure if i was going to like like and thought it was going to be a waste of money, be i ended up really enjoying it. i get the feeling Lagos would be a bit of a party town during the summer, its early days at the moment but still there seems to be a number of bars and clubs with music pumping out of them.

allow me to put my cranky pants on for a moment... well, maybe the cranky pants aren't fully on and zipped up, but i definately have a trouser leg on. the only thing that kind of annoyed me about Lagos was it was full of Australian's. not the Australian's that you would probably know back home, Australian's that i like to called 'Exteme Australian's'. i don't know where they come from but the majority that i have met almost sound and act like they are either Paul Hogans secret love children or have gone to the 'Steve Irwin school of how to behave good n' stuff'. i have never met people like them, and i live in Australia. its almost like they go out of there way to be as 'Aussie' as they could possibly be. i swear, some of them were born with those hats that have corks hanging off them, and i'm pretty sure after the birth the doctor presented a icy cold Fosters tinnie from a polystyrene esky to there mother! in case you haven't noticed, i don't have much in common with them.

before i left Portugal i wanted to try Portuguese chicken. its meant to really good. hell, Nandos have made a killing out of it for years so trying the real thing must be better. i'm not sure if i wrote this in my london blogs but, Nandos in England is so different to the Nandos in Australia. they don't look at all like fast food places, they are set up like sit down restaurants. anyway, i went to a little place that sold Portuguese chicken and it was amazing, not surprisingly, much better than Nandos. i always thought that Peri Peri sauce was just a marketing ploy, turns out its real. but its spelled differently, instead of Peri Peri its Piri Piri and it just means chilli.

while i was here it was Good Friday, when you think about it, nothing good came out of it, esspecially from Jesus' perspective. anyway, i obviously ate fish, not because im a good little catholic, but it was a good excuse for me to have some seafood. i ordered fish and chips from this little place that was up the road from where i was staying. i was watching the little old lady out the back making them, she looked like she could've done it blindfolded, i'm sure she has made them a million times before. when they were done i ended up walking down to the beach to eat them. they were so good, probably the best fish and chips ive ever had, i think the scenery might have helped a bit too.

apart from being quite a number of Aussies i noticed quite a few brits too. which reminded me. you might remember a little while back that there was a little english girl called Maddie McCann, who was on holiday with her parents. it is believed she was abducted in a Portuguese town called Praia Da Luz, which isn't far from Lagos. she's been missing for quite a while now, i think it was in the news around 2007. it reminded me quite lot of the Lindy Chamberlain case back in Australia, becuase the press at one stage were pointing the finger at Maddie's parents. anyway, i was quite surprised to see how 3 years on, the amount of billboards there are with her face on them as well as full page ads in the newspapers. if she is alive, i find it a bit surprising with so many pictures of this girl around the place that they havent found her, largos, as well as the surrounding towns, aren't very big, i dont think you could hide her for long. it made me think of how horrible it would be for her parents to lose a child, and after all this time still not know anything.

something i won't miss about Portugal, though it could still be the case in Spain (i can't remember) is you aren't meant to flush toilet paper down the toilet, your meant to put it in the bins provided. they say its because the sewage system can't handle it, but i can't quite get my head around that one. how it can push other, seemingly bigger, objects down a toilet, but not toilet paper? it could be just me but sometimes i've noticed an uninvited woft which isn't very pleasant. its lucky im my not a smoker, because with the amount of methane in the air, it i think if you lit an open flame you would probably lose more than just an eyebrow. i know, i know, i haven't been this low brow for a while, but i thought i should bring it up.

i was planning to stick around here for a little while until the easter rush had disappeared but, even though it was beautiful, a few days here was probably enough to be honest. i decided to spend the extra money i would have to pay for a hostel in Seville (they jack up the prices over Easter) and make a move. i haven't had a shave in ages and my beard is growing out of control, i'm sure people are calling me Grizzly Adams behind my back, so perhaps i might have to visit a Barber of Seville (see what i did there).