Lagos. Portugal

This was one of my top three most fun trips while abroad. The wonderful combination of beach, beauty, fun people and parties was just what I called for. My adventure started early Thursday morning when I caught the three hour bus ride to Sevilla. My good friend Krystle studies there. Her señora let me stay there for free again. I got to Sevilla at about noon and went out on my own and saw some more of the city. Since I was there two weeks prior I kind of knew my way around. I went to another park, the Santa Cruz Barrio and Sevilla's Cathedral. The Cathedral has a tall tower that you can climb to see a 360-degree view of the city. Thirty-four ramps later, I made it to the top and snapped some pretty cool pictures. You can even see the river from up there! When I got down, Krystle and I met up and did some shopping, though I didn't buy anything, Sevilla has a lot of options for that! The weather was so nice, around 85 degrees. Things were looking up for Lagos. After that we went to an old Turk castle taken over by Christians and looked at their beautiful gardens. It was free which was nice. We went for drinks by the river since it was such a beautiful day. At about 8 or 9 we went home to get ready for a night a a discoteca called Buddha. There are three floors there: the first has hookahs and couches for people who aren't inclined to dance, the second floor was Spanish music and third was American. We danced on both floors. Thursday nights are known to be the most popular there and it was packed. We got home at about 6am. The next morning we left for Lagos on our 10am bus. We went with a company called Discover Sevilla which an American who studied abroad started. The trip was decent priced and they really made it easy. Everything except food was included. Even a beach party! Our bus ride was about 4 hours long and when we finally got there, I was stunned at the hotel. I have never stayed at a hotel that nice! The place had four pools, two outdoors, a sun roof terrace, gym, etc etc. Our room was a suite and we had a full kitchen. As soon as we got there we ran down to the beach. It was packed because about 250 people came with Discover Sevilla. The water wasn't bad and we played paddle ball and soccer. The beach has cliffs and rock formations. The weather was perfect. We stayed on the beach until about 8 and went back to the hotel for the best shower of my life! (I miss showers back home because the one I have here in Granada is the worst, maybe 20 drips per second.) We headed out with our group from the hotel to a cool local bar with a live band. We had burgers and great music. After that we all went to a party at a bar that played more music and it was all pretty wild. We met this Spanish guy wearing a costume and none of us really knew what it was or why. The next morning we woke up and went to the pool of our hotel and saw the same costume guy from the night before. He was there with 12 of his friends for his bachelor party weekend. All the guys were from Spain and most from Madrid. They were a blast! We all went down to our beach party where Discover Sevilla hooked it up with free beer all day. We played more soccer and swam. It was so much fun to be around Spanish people in Portugal. I actually missed Spain and knowing the language! There are words in Portuguese that are easily translated but it's a reminder again how hard it is to be clueless about a language. We took buses back to our hotel and ate the groceries that we bought for dinner. We hung out in the room with all our new friends, played music and cards. After that we took off for a another bar in Lagos. This is where the trip went bad for me. I tripped down the stairs and sprained my ankle really bad! It swelled up immediately, so painful. Krystle and two of the Spanish guys came back to the hotel with me and helped me ice it. They were all so nice and helpful. We ended up staying up really late and went to the early morning breakfast. Then I hit the sack, woke up and went to the pool. A friend I made on the trip was helping me ice my ankle and massaged it to check for any more serious problems. He made me feel so much better because I was feeling really down. That same day we left and made it back to Sevilla only to more bad luck for me. Our bus was late back to the city because of traffic and waiting on some people and I missed my bus back to Granada by about 10 minutes. I was reeling because I was stuck in Sevilla with an injury, a heavy bag and no place to stay. I couldn't stay with Krys again so I had to find a hostel. The first one I attempted was 85 euros. Things were not looking up. I got in a cab and told him to take me to one nearby and luckily they were open and had a room for 20 euro. The receptionist was so nice. He checked me in, gave me a room on the first floor, helped me with my luggage and gave me a wrap. Then next morning I got back on another bus to Granada. That was my crazy Lagos adventure!