Porto Palacio Hotel - A Summit Hotel

De ooievaars verzamelden zich, een paar honderd meter van onze boot, voor vertrek naar Afrika. Het waren er honderden. Nog wat ver weg voor de video, maar een prachtig gezicht door de verrekijker.
Weer een stukje film met dolfijnen rond de boot, op weg van Sines naar Lagos ...

I made it to Lagos yesterday. Its basically a beach/party town. The second place that I walked into turned out to be a really great room for 25 euros a night complete with my first english language tv of the trip. Today I spent part of the day in Sagres, the southwestern most point in europe. Good for pictures and walking really really far. Tomorrow I´m going to attempt to get to Seville.

This weekend I went on a trip to Lagos, Portugal with an organization called DiscoverSevilla. I had an absolutely amazing time!!!!!!!!!!! This is my first trip outside of Spain and it couldn't have gone better.

We arrived at the hotel dropped off our belongings and had a few hours to explore before dinner. The hotel was right on the beach and had an absolutely amazing view, I have never seen ...

... and had a good time. The only thing i sthat i was sad to leave lagos. I really felt home there in a sense that i was there for a coulpe days...well portugal in general. But, i bought my ticket...Sigh, to Sevilla. and it was my time to meet up with Sean, Kevin and Chris...three dudes from back home. A time to actually travel not solo. A change of pace. But, i recommend anyone to go to Portugal. Thta has definately been the best week of my trip, so far.

... and I are pretty athletic and good looking, so we made it back 2nd out of the whole group (not that we brag about it or anything).

We spent our last day with a yum brunch at Cafe Odeon, relaxing on one of our favourite beaches and had another delicious BBQ before heading out for a few drinks on the town

We could have stayed here forever, but all good things must come to an end.. and we wanted to have seen at least one more place in Portugal before heading to Italy!

... and long days. we got back to the hostel, and after going up to the rooms in groups, since we were sneaking in Flor, we decided to sleep at like 10.30pm. it took me a little while to sleep because Hugo was snoring very loudly. additionally we were 3 people in 2 beds, so it was a little uncomfortable. the hostel was interesting. it was really cheap for 2 days only 17.50€ including breakfast. i think it was originally a hotel or motel, but our room smelled like urine ...

... you have it. It's huge, and it takes at least 4 monks to start and stop the thing, which I have to say is quite theatrical. Originally it was used to fumigate the cathedral (and the pilgrims) they would have been pretty smelly by the time they got to Santiago. These days, it's swung on Sundays, holy days and if a whole load of tourists get together and pay a lot of money. I do believe if you log on to the cathedral website you can see it in action. laters chaps

... is a national pastime in Portugal but takes on Olympic proportions here. I keep looking for signs announcing competitions for public spitting. Longest spit, for example, or perhaps thickest gobby. My personal favourite would be the award for the longest preparation. I saw one woman take about 30 seconds getting her gobful ready, making plenty of cappuccino-like noises as she prepared. Yes, that's right: women spit too. One night we were walking along towards ...

... decided that we really liked Porto, and would definitively recommend the place for a weekend break. Our biggest surprise however was the amount of abandoned houses and nearly collapsing buildings in the historical center. Many of the houses with the best location and river views in the whole city was practically ruins or "small sheds". It was all very much part of the charm, but I think parts of the city could do with a tiny makeover.

La Pasteleria Nicola fa onore al suo nome: ottimi caffè e pasticcini, viva Nicola. Riusciamo a partire con il treno delle 8.12 e scendiamo ad Aveiro alle 9.15. La stazione di Aveiro è bellissima, tutta decorata di azulejos ed in ottimo stato. La città ci delude un po': azzardiamo un giro in centro, ma scappiamo quasi subito. La guida ci consiglia una gita a Costa Nova, eseguiamo. Percorriamo una strada parallela alla nazionale, poco trafficata e ci arriviamo in una ...