Bonus: Portugal Blog
I don’t speak Portuguese, but I did learn to say “a praia do Portugal” (the Portugese beach). I spent my days in Portugal alone or with the Spanish girls who shared my room at the hostel - so I didn't actually learn more than a few words of Portuguese.
But I didn't go there to learn Portuguese. I went there to relax on the beach and that's pretty much all I did. Like Martil, I don't have much to write about in this blog. I spent my days reading, climbing around on the rocks, playing in the sand, swimming, looking for pretty seashells and watching the waves. Once again: this is my idea of a vacation.
The beaches were deserted and there were so many within walking distance of Lagos that I went to a different one every day. The first day I went to the closest beach to the southwest of town, perhaps a ten minute walk from the hostel. The water was crystal clear and the waves were smaller than in most public swimming pools and the sand was mostly small bits of seashell. It was beautiful and soft and easy to brush off my skin. There were very few people, even this close to town and I only saw one or two pieces of trash.
The second day I walked a little further along the beach, climbing through natural passages in the cliffs to get from one beach to the next. The coast to the south of Lagos is lined with cliffs that hide little beaches; so it's easy to find one's own private little beach. Some of the beaches are connected by caves carved by the tides, some made by people, some by stairs and trails up and over the cliff tops. Some beaches aren't connected at all but I could get to them by wading at low tide and swimming at high tide. The cliffs are soft ocean conglomerate with seashells embedded throughout. It was beautiful.
The third day was pretty much the same. I spent more time walking around on the rocks, searching in tide pools, but otherwise it was another peaceful day of watching birds circle the rocks and swimming a bit in the cold water then laying in the sun to warm back up. Sometimes the sun felt too strong, and I would relocate my blanket and book to the shade of an overhang. Nothing too strenuous.
A Praia da Bordeira
This beach was so different from the ones near Lagos that it was hard to believe it was so close. We body surfed the waves for hours until we were all partly deaf from the force of the waves.
The fourth day I accepted an invitation to go with Bea and Cris, two sisters from Galicia, who were taking a little road trip to a beach on the western facing coast, near Bordieras. The beach was as deserted as the others and the water was still cold, but the waves were huge. I spent most of the day body surfing and some of the waves carried me a long way back in to shore. There were a couple people with kiteboards but I don't think the waves were really big enough for real surfing.
I left the next morning on a bus for Lisbon without any idea if I was going to stay in the city or continue on to Madrid.
Vinho verde
Something unexpected, which made me love it even more, was my discovery of vinho verde. It’s a crisp, refreshing kind of white wine and absolutely the perfect thing after a long day in the sun at the beach.
