I La la love Lagos
““You are very white.” ”
After 8 wonderful days in Spain, the next phase of our adventures led us to Portugal for a week.
We did a fair amount of research on the best ways to get from Spain to Portugal. You can take a train, but from Seville to Lagos, it would take about 8 hours and would include 3 different train switches. Since we wanted to maximize time, we ended up hiring a private car to drive us from Seville to Lagos. We used the company Team Day Trip. It cost 203 euros to hire a private driver and took us 3 hours to get from Seville to Lagos instead of 8. Totally worth it.
Our driver’s name was Carlos Jose (pronounced Joe-se Carlos because in Portugal they pronounce “J’s”) and he was unbelievably kind and helpful. Once we got to Portugal (again, no customs/check-ins….) he had us stop in this little bakery for a bathroom break and snacks. That’s when he introduced us to Pastels de Belen (sometimes called Pastels de Nata). These little babies are like a croissant on the bottom, all flakey and buttery, with warm custard in the middle. The ones we got to try were straight out of the oven and also straight delicious! We tried a couple of other baked treats too – most of them were almond based because they grow so many almonds in the southern region.
A delicious cappuccino, Pastels de Nata and other baked goods at a little bakery on our way to Lagos.
We drove by thousands of cork trees on our way to Lagos as well. I guess I never thought about where cork comes from, but apparently some of it comes from Portugal.
When we arrived in Lagos, Allie and I were delighted to find out that we were staying within the castle walls of the historic part of town. There used to be a castle in Lagos, and now all that remains is the fortress wall, which divides the old, cute, historic part of town from the new. Our Air Bnb was right next to the fortress walls!
The houses in Lagos come in all different colors.
Wear comfortable shoes because all the streets are cobbled.
For this Air bnb rental, we opted to only rent out a room as opposed to the entire place. Lagos is a popular European tourist destination, so it was hard to find reasonable places to stay. We shared a bathroom with a German couple who seemed to always be in their rooms and only go out at night, but the door to our room had a lock, so we felt relatively safe.
Lagos is cute with its cobbled streets and different colored houses, but Allie and I both agree that it is missing that attention to detail and quaint charm of the Spanish towns we visited. The beaches in Lagos, though, are spectacular!
I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a more beautiful beach than the Praia do Pinhao, which has aquamarine, crystal clear, calm waters. It also has honey-colored, fine sand and these jutting sedimentary rocks, which show all different colors from dark brown to yellows. The beaches here are a series of coves which you can get to by walking underneath these connecting caves that lead from one beach to another. The only bad thing about the beach is that the water is really cold! Like, Oregon-level cold! So cold that we looked up the temperature and it was 58 degrees! Brr! Cannot be in it for too long, but thankfully it was hot outside, it made you want to take a dip every half hour or so.
Channeling my inner Little Mermaid
We also played a fun game at the beach called Shade vs. Waves. Allie and I wanted to find a spot that was partially shaded, but the shadows move so quickly here, that every semi-shaded spot we choose became fully shaded within 5 minutes! As we dragged our beach towels closer and closer to the shore, we noticed that while the shadows were growing, the tide was also coming in. We finally gave up altogether, because the tide was coming in, so we quickly left the beach to explore the rest of the town.
For dinner we went to a charming restaurant in Lagos called Prego do Casa. It featured modern Portuguese food; we tried spicy shrimp piri piri, sirloin steaks in mustard sauce, and a seared tuna steak with fresh oregano and tomatoes. For dessert we split a toffee, banana pudding! Delicious!
Casada Prego is one of the highest rated restaurants on Yelp for Lagos and it did not disappoint!
Tired from all the sun and swim, we retired early for the evening and ended up hanging out on our rooftop. I don’t know how we did it, you guys, but we choose all places with AMAZING rooftops! This one had large, multi-colored bougainvilleas and lots of other plants with a view of the ocean, the historic part of Lagos, and a church bell tower. Those were some of my favorite moments of the trip, when Allie and I just sat and took in the sites and swapped stories.
The next morning started off with one of those I’ve-been-traveling-for-a-while-now-and-I-miss-home moments. I really wanted to get a cup of coffee before our kayaking tour.
The tour was set to leave from the marina (a 15 minute walk) at 8:45. Knowing that nothing in this entire country opens until 8 am, I had done some research and tried the coffee shop, hoping to grab a quick cup right as it opened and then walk to the Marina. Seriously though, you would have thought it was 4 am for the lack of people or things open.
When I found the coffee shop at 8:03 am, the owners were yawning and turning things on – again like it was 5 in the morning. I ordered my coffee and a croissant, only to find that they did not take card (normally I keep Euros on me, but everywhere we’d been accepted card so it’s easier to bring than cash). I was ready to give up on the whole thing, but I walked outside and saw an ATM. I was almost out of Euros anyway, so I took out some cash and went back into the cafe. Now there were two people ahead of me in line. When it got to my turn, the barista turned to me and said, “Where’s your ticket?” Turned out, you had to grab a ticket when you walked in the bakery or they wouldn’t serve you. So I grabbed a ticket because there was only one person behind me in line. Finally, I got my coffee but now I was irritated and running late for the kayak tour. I briefly got lost on the hilly, winding streets back to our Air Bnb, but Allie and I managed to get to the marina and get on our kayaking tour just in time.
The kayaking tour was the best kayak I’ve ever been on. We took a boat out to where the grottos of Lagos start (thus saving ourselves a very long kayak trip just to get to the grottos). The water was crystal clear and alternated between deep green, light green and turquoise depending on the lighting. We kayaked into these cave openings that let light shine down, illuminating the water below. Absolutely breathtaking!
The rock formations in Lagos make the beach so unique
After our kayak, we were allowed to swim and jump off the boat, which I did, of course. Man! There was no getting around the fact that the water in Lagos is so dang cold you cannot be in it for more than a minute or two. Really beautiful though.
After kayaking, we wandered around the town of Lagos and into a little pizza shop called Kisa for lunch. We had delicious wood fired pepperoni pizza that was the closest thing I’d had to Italian pizza since I traveled in Italy 14 years ago. We also ordered fresh juices.
Actual footage of me at the beach
After lunch, we got in touch with our inner ‘beached whales’ and went back to the gorgeous beaches by our house to lay out, nap and get tan (presumably so my Air Bnb host would stop telling me how “white” I am). Every time I would look up and out to the sparkling sea, I would literally have to pinch myself because of how beautiful it was.
When we felt like we had enough sun, we wandered back into the little town. We window-shopped around the souvenir booths, grabbed some frozen yogurt and just enjoyed taking an easier pace. We actually ended up going back to our rooms and just chilling for a few hours before dinner. We’d been traveling for two weeks at that point, and most days I barely had enough time or energy to write posts and sort through photos, let alone read or watch anything for pleasure. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining! It was an amazing experience but having some unstructured, lazy downtime felt really nice.
For dinner we went to a highly ranked Fish and Chips spot affectionately called Ol’ Bastard (I am including the link so you can see that it really is the name of the place!). I ordered fish tacos which came with three different types of salsa (spicy, corn and pineapple). Soooooooo yummy. Best fish tacos I’ve had in a while.
The wall paper at the bar across the street from Ol Bastard is straight outta the 1970s.
As we walked back home to go to bed, it seemed like the whole city was out and about, even though it was 10 pm on a Tuesday night. Club promoters were trying to get us to go in for a drink and everyone in Lagos seemed to be out for a night on the town. It seemed out of character for a quiet day-time town within castle walls. We held firm and went to bed.
Seagulls are the bullies of the sky
A note about the seagulls of Lagos: They run the city. First of all, it was honestly hard to tell if a child was crying or a seagull was squawking. No matter what time of day it is, you can hear them calling, hawking and talking. They are fearless and ruthless and pooped on both Allie and me.
