Portugal and Portugal

After experiencing some of the fabulosity that is Sevilla, my parents and I headed off to Portugal for a little beach time. We rented a car (good thing Dad can drive manual!) in Sevilla and were on our way! The southern coast of Portugal is really pretty tiny, so there were no really long drives.

We arrived in Tavira after a couple hours and pretty randomly selected a parking spot and lunch restaurant. In Portugal they like to serve toasties- little grilled sandwiches with anything from ham to tuna to tomatoes on it. Then we strolled around Tavira, stumbling upon the fort and climbing it to see the city from up high. Tavira was pretty, but there wasn’t too much to do, so we wandered along the river back to the car to head further along Portugal’s coast. We had no lodging plans, but my mom’s instincts led us to Praia da Rocha (Rock Beach) in Portimao, a stunning coastal town less touristy than Albufeira (according to locals, this is because many Portuguese are too lazy to drive east or west from the main highway from Lisbon to Albufeira). Mom talked to some tourism people and police, who directed us to a great hotel right on the beach. The evening was approaching, so although it wasn’t primetime for sunbathing, the ‘rents and I took a gorgeous stroll along our beach. Seriously, Google Image Praia da Rocha- it’s stunning: a huge, wide white sand beach with Caribbean-hued waters with reddish-brown and yellow rocks guarding the coastline and edging out into the water to form stunning vistas from end to end. We took our walk in late afternoon in beautiful lighting and it was so relaxing- got some good pics.

We had an early dinner of fishy stuff (pretty much a Connolly rule: eat fish when fresh, caught-that-day-right-off-the-beach fish is available) and chicken piri piri- a slightly spicy Portuguese chicken dish. (Yes, thought you all should know what we ordered – nah I just want to pretend I’m a travel guide book for a second and presume to know the local flavors). We returned to our hotel, rode on up to the sixth floor (which the three us fondly came to call “Seis piso” as the elevator lady would tell us in an inexplicably awesome voice multiple times a day), and conked out.

The next day was kind of cool and cloudy so we hopped in the car for a drive west. First stop: Lagos. We ate lunch at the outdoor restaurant on the coast that hooks around so you can see the rest of Lagos and it was amazing! We toured the town and saw the old slave trading post and some churches. Then we drove to Ponte de Piedade, a cliffy, rocky point that sticks out of Lagos with a long stair path leading down to the stunning caves below. There was some fresh cement only hours old and I took the liberty of marking Tom, Dee and Acon’s names forever in Portugal.

Back in the car to drive to Sagres to see the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean. Sagres is the most southwestern point in Europe and is what Europeans once thought was the end of the world. There’s a huge cliff with a fort and then pretty much nothing else except a memorial sign for someone who fell off and died as a warning for viewers not to get too close to the fenceless edge. Heavy.

After enduring the quite chilly and strong winds from the west, we hopped back in the car with a gorgeous sunstreaked sky in the rearview mirror. And what do you know? We saw another rainbow! So it was a pretty good looking drive back to Portimao with sunset on one side and rainbow on the other.

Another great road trip we took was up through the mountains in Monchique. Not a far drive and not the tallest mountains, but the drive was beautiful and the distant views of the ocean were radical. Then we drove back to the western coast to a beach the hotel guide reported was his personal fave. The downside: it was wayyyy way too wavy. The upside: it was gorgeous and we were able to stand on a cliff and watch all the surfer dudes and dudettes ride the waves that would likely have swallowed us up.

We did want to find a beach for ourselves, though, so we drove back along the coast and returned to Lagos! The waves there were perfectly satisfactory for Dad and me to do some serious body surfing. The man is a pro- he had every kid and grown-up on the beach wanting to give it a shot, but they didn’t quite have the Connolly technique.

The rest of the trip mainly consisted of beaching and strolling, with some mouthwatering meals here and there. One night we ate at a super-nice cave restaurant built into the rocky side of the coast. It’s low season so there were hardly any people there and the food was out of this world. Yum.

And that, my friends, pretty much concludes the trip to Portugal! We drove back to Sevilla and I bid farewell to the parents Connolly after a fantastic 10 days. Miss you, parents!
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And then….Ready for round two, Portugal?
For the last weekend in April nearly everyone in my program booked a trip to Lagos with a student travel agency. I hadn’t planned on going because, well, I had just been, but since no one was in Sevilla and since Lagos was utterly gorgeous, I decided to go back. So I was back in Sevilla for 26 hours of unpacking, classes, packing, and then hopping on a bus back to Lagos!

I decided not to go with the travel agency group, so I stayed with a group of friends in a hostel, which meant we got an extra night in Lagos! This trip was a bit different than that with my parents. We beached all day, had a couple cocktails, and made rounds at the bars at night. We cooked and hung out with new friends in our hostel and made great use of the hostel’s rooftop terrace. One day we even took a boat tour of the caves I had seen with my parents from land. It was stunning! And our driver kept telling us what rock formations were supposed to look like elephants, faces, wedding cakes, etc. Verrr cool.

I’d elaborate on the lying on the beach we did, but there’s not too much to say. Some people jumped off huge rocks and shredded their legs or backs. I hoped for some waves to show off my newly practiced body surfing, but it was flat flat flat. Overall, a fantastic round two of Portugal for me. If anyone wants a gorgeous vacation spot in Europe, Lagos is definitely a winner.