Paradise

So next day we ran our hearts out just so we could make a tiny trip into Sintra (about 45 minutes away) to see the Mordern Art mueseum which houses more PIcassos, Dahli, and other famous cats. This was also really good, but we were under a major time crunch so it was brief. We went back to Anas cottage collected our huge bags, ok I will admit I might have to send a few things home... then walked to the bus stop and boarded for our 4 hour ride to Lagos where paradise hopefully awaited us. We arrived at 11pm and walked to our next residence which was a nice surprise as it was more like a hotel. We have only been in these warmer parts for a little while but it began like we were chasing a dream of a perfect beach and the perfect city to accompany it. Madrid was much to large and no where near the water, Lisbon again to large and the beaches were to small and rocky, Cascasis was still much to crowded and too small of beaches, Sintra was nice but not near any beaches. However I am very happy to report that it is no longer a dream and the Josh and I have found our own little piece of heaven. Lagos is a town of about 45,000 small enough to walk easily to everything and large enough to cater to anyone of your needs and they have great shopping!! Not that I am spending any of my time doing that sort of stuff. The waterfront is palmclad beautifulness and we have 10 near beaches to chose from one being 6m long with whiteish sand and turqiose blue waters.

The first day we spent exploring but that didnt last long as we plunked down at the first beach we saw. There we spent a couple hours building sand castles and playing in the waves. The water is quite cold and the waves are strong enough to kick you over in a hurry. So after we went out for super, which reminds me that this backpacking thing is really not that hard to live off of. Josh and I were given a 100dollar a day budget, this was if we were going to the UK where it is more expensive. So far we have been living really well, we go out to eat every meal if we want and do what ever we feel like doing so no we are not the straving backpacker types, even though I feel like this is too easy and we must be doing something wrong. So we explored more around this beaut~iful town, oh sooo many cool shops it´s killing me. We picked up some liquor and made our own martinis and Josh had disgusting scotch. So that brings us to today. Today we got up later again and went and rented some antique mountain bikes rode to the grocery store, picked up breakfst and rode to the beach. I have this thing for ordering food from genuine portugese and spainsh resturants, although they do have english menus you tend to not get ~what you want added with lots of grease. So we went to the really long beach and ate our sandy breakfast. Before at beaches it was a major jackpot to pick up some fully entact shells but here they litter the beach as much a sand. Do you all know what you are getting for presents now???? We watched the surfers in the wild waves and relaxed. This is where we caught our beach dream. After we rode to the famous grottos and hiked all over and took amazing pictures. On the way back we stopped at another beach and then rode back to go to our new favorite place the Indian Tandoori Resturant for supper. Oh yes and another thing we signed up for surfing lessons early tommorrow morning. Must get some sleep and tell you hõw it goes.