The Gabtrotter

I am contently sitting in my Lagos bachelorette pad. At 15 euros a night, this place is a great deal. For its supreme location, compared to other cities, this price is really unheard of – it’s even good for Lagos. Wow, what a great deal. I was telling Allan that I did the math and living in some of the hostels I’ve been in would equate to around 400-500 euros a month-, which is great considering that it includes everything. I think if I went to school in Europe I might be tempted to live in a hostel, I’m half joking.

Lagos, thus far, has proved itself to be much more to my liking than Lisbon. It has beautiful weather during the day, and then cools down at night. Also, there are all sorts of great food deals- for example tonight for dinner I had fish, soup, salad, a beer, a water, and a scoop of ice cream, all for 7.50 euros. It was the best deal I found, and it actually tasted good too. The other night I had sardines, boiled potatoes and salad for 7 euros. The restaurant food is a great deal, but wait, it gets better. I went to the grocery store, where, I was able to buy 6 1.5 liters of water for 25 cents – and 5 apples for 75 cents. Can you believe that? I’ve never seen such brilliant prices, even in Mexico.

In addition to all of the great deals, I am very happy about the beautiful scenery. After this Euro-trip, I think, although I appreciate human made beauty, I most enjoy the wonders of nature. What it comes down to is that I just really love the beach. I can spend all day there, and be totally content. I’ve been spending my time at Praia de Dona Ana. It’s very beautiful, but the water is pretty chilly. It is not unbearable, but the water at Cascais near Lisbon was unbearable. It is just so cold, I swear after laying out and then hoping in the water, I saw steam rise from me. I am not the only one that found the water quite chilly, otherwise I would have thought that maybe I had been spoiled from the 4 months of warm Pacific waters I had grown accustom to this past “winter.”

Here are a some pictures from my day-time adventures:

Currently sitting in my hostel, with a sleeping French guy diagonally on top of me (I mean he’s on the top bunk next to me). Everyone else is downstairs hanging out in the lobby, I’ve done my share of that this week, and now I am here. Exploring the slue of websites I have accumulated over the years, I have come to realize that I really miss making videos; in any context. I wish I had brought stuff to edit, or my camera didn’t die, or my external hard drive wasn’t stolen. I guess my creative film odds were against me, like they were in Australia. Every camera I had broke while I was there, except for my most loyal techno-companion: the iphone. So it remains my most loyal techno-companion, I am knocking on every piece of wood I see, and I urge you to too (if anyone reads this??). I don’t really believe in the whole knocking on wood thing, but hell anything is better than nothing.

Tomorrow I am bussing south to Lagos. I am excited about it, for I plan on getting my tan on. I also want to bike around, and I have this vision of reading in the shade of gigantic ocean rocks on the beach; we’ll see if my vision comes true.

It is hard to believe that in exactly two weeks, I will be moved into Cambridge. Wow. Anxiously discussing these plans with my family and friends seems like it was just yesterday, but at the time the plans felt like they were years away. Time sneaks up on you and the predictions become the present almost faster than you had the ideas to begin with.

*Note, I am starting this post without an exact idea of where I will wind up.

Ha, I guess that ^^ is how I start a lot of things though. Like, this trip – I never really thought that I would end up in Portugal. I don’t even think I had heard of Lagos (my next destination) until Sarah told me about her trip there during our month together.

After living in Lisbon for the past four days I have gotten a pretty good feel for the city. For one, Lisbon, without a doubt, has the most bookstores per capita of any city I have ever been in. Honestly, I turn the corner and there is a bookstore, I turn again and there is another – and then another across the street from the one before. These all matter to me for I am scurrying to buy the last few books I need before classes start in July. Of course, none of these bookstores have what I am looking for – but I cannot complain – I would be stunned to see the complete works of Lord Byron selling at a Portuguese small-business bookstore; although stranger things have happened. For example, 4 out of my 5 hostel-mates tonight all live in Boston. That makes 5 of us… It could be six, but the 6^th roommate has not been around to ask.

The Portuguese by far have the best English I have encountered in a country. Even old people speak English without an accent. I mean this with no disrespect to the elderly; just most commonly the older generations in Europe were not taught English at an early age like the present generations. Of course I have met a few people who don’t speak English, but I am very impressed by those who do, for not only do they speak it – they speak it well. On the other hand, it has been a little disappointing because I would like to try and speak more Portuguese; however, eavesdropping has been a good method of practice so far.