For Portugal, forever ago

For those of you who aren't in my grandma's earshot or subject to my mom's bragging, I suppose I should still recount my beautiful trip to Portugal September 30th to October 2nd, if only so that I can read it again many years down the road.

I went with a group of kids from my study abroad group and we all signed up for an excursion to the beach town of Lagos through a local student travel agency. And so the story begins....

We hopped on a couple of coach buses on Friday morning and a few hours later found ourselves at a lovely beachfront hotel. Check out the view:

We spent the rest of Friday afternoon down at the beach. It was pretty windy so the lifeguards didn't let anyone in the water past their knees, but there was tanning and exploring to be done anyways.

Later, our guides walked us to downtown Lagos and showed us to a few places to eat before the party they had planned for us. We ate at a fun little restaurant called Casa Rosa, which was definitely not ready for us when we filled the place with a group of about 40. We didn't mind the wait, as long as they kept their all-you-can-drink beer and wine for an hour deal. My roommate for the weekend, Hayley, and I split the deal:

Waiting outside in the plaza waiting for the club to open

One of few pictures I have from inside...awkward corncob chair?

After dinner our guides lead us to a club that was throwing a party more or less just for the people on our excursion. There was a DJ and a random guy walking around with a saxophone playing along with the songs. Hours of dancing ensued. 

 The next morning we went by bus to a gorgeous look-out of picturesque cliffs. Take in that beautiful Atlantic:

Afterwards we went to a main beach in Lagos. It was extremely windy so the sand factor somewhat sucked but who can have anything but a good time at the beach? I demonstrated minimal skills in a heated game of sand volleyball but there was so many people playing no one realized how many I missed. 

These kids got some awesome beach towels from their host families:

Later that evening, we were promised a trip to the end of the world. Well, what people used to think was the end of the world until they figured out a little thing we now call Earth. Nowadays it's just known as the farthest southwest tip of Europe. We watched the sunset here out over the Atlantic.

Later we went back downtown Lagos for a back-to-school theme party at Joe's Garage that no one dressed up for, promoted by our excursion guides. Later that evening, a friend and I stepped outside to get a little air and we spotted one of our guides. Feeling a little "over" the party, we asked Guide Benni where the locals go (Quick Bio: he grew up in Lagos, now lives in Sevilla, and has a girlfriend at none other that UW-Madison, not to mention his job is taking college kids on awesome trips and partying...what a life.). He sent us down the road at a place he used to bartend. The club had a nearly empty dance floor (which we took full advantage of) and a tv with the Wisconsin-Nebraska game on. We talked to a couple fellow Wisconsinites who were gathered around proudly watching the Badgers before heading back to the hotel for the night.

On Sunday we had the morning and afternoon to hang around the beach by our hotel or perhaps enjoy the rooftop pool. Hayley and I decided to do some serious exploring of the beach and the cliff top above. I took a million pictures of her and she of me...perhaps some of the most fun and best scenery I had on this trip. 

And that's it for beautiful Lagos! Kind of makes you want to go, doesn't it?