Arrived in Lagos a few hours later and followed the directions to my hostel..which took ages and then my phone died (standard) and I had to ask around for directions but I found it! It was on the outskirts of the old town, just inside the city wall (which was still quite in tact which was awesome)..the hostel was cool, very hippie and alternative with incense burning, Buddhas everywhere and a colorful garden to chill in..the hostel had overbooked and a girl that had booked before me didn't have a bed :S they organised an apartment for her and she asked me to join but I'd met some cool people so wasn't keen..I was obviously going to go anyway but another girl volunteered which was good..so I had some drinks with the guys that worked at the hostel as well as some Aussies, some Canadians, a kiwi, a German and some Dutch guys..played a few drinking games and got pretty merry so headed out to a nearby bar for one euro shots :S had a couple, met a guy on a pub crawl who got me a horribly strong free drink, met a guy from Goulburn that knew Georgia manning and some other people (so random!) and had a few drinks with him and his girlfriend, lost them and found some cool English guys and chatted for a while..and then I felt too drunk, had some downtime and somehow found my way back to the hostel lol..stupid to get so messy but I guess when in Europe! Met some great people though..
Needless to say I felt horrible the next day..didn't muster the energy to check out until 12pm and even then I was still seedy..left my bags at the hostel, got a takeaway burger and headed to the stunning beach..found some shade that a dog was commandeering but I was allowed to share in exchange for some of my burger, water and towel..he didn't look like a stray and was super friendly, I'm assuming he just lived nearby..he loved me and would lie next to me, everyone was assuming he was mine lol..then he got a little too friendly and tried to hump me so I moved beaches :P ran in to the Canadian girls from the night before and chatted for a bit then lazed around..even did some European sun baking :P didn't swim as there was too many rocks but paddled a bit..went in to the town and had a drink and pork roll at a traditional Portuguese cafe..decided I needed to swim so found a swimable beach nearby and jumped in for about 2 seconds (was freeeeezing!)..headed back to my hostel, got a little lost but appreciated the peaceful little streets I wandered along..got my bags, bid farewell to a couple of newfound friends (felt a tad bad as I didn't see a few others id lost the night before...) and began the trek to the train station..had a little break by the water in the shade (I was still far from recovered from my hangover)..found the station and didn't have to wait too long to get a train to Faro..which was a couple of hours away..
Arrived at about 10pm and got stupidly lost (phone died again) even tho the hostel was right across from the station..met some nice people and discovered an English girl also had a flight in the morning so we planned to share a cab or get the bus together..the hostel's printer was broken so I had to walk around the streets of faro trying to find somewhere to print my boarding pass..nowhere was open as it was late on a Sunday night..finally found a fancy hotel where the lady was nice enough to print it for me :) got a gelato and watched a folk festival for a bit (jovial music and tap dancing) then headed back..met a nice German girl who was going to Spain and offered to post my Spanish stamped postcards I'd forgotten to post..then crashed on my ridiculously lumpy pillow and mattress..had to maneuver my body so as the springs didn't dig in to me :P
Up nice and early, the girl and I waited for the bus but it took too long so found a cab instead..shared it with a nice family who was also going to the airport and ended up paying for the majority of the fare..checked in and was in desperate need of a coffee but didn't have change..so I asked a guy if he could change a 5 and we got chatting.. He was a Romanian man and asked me, why are you traveling alone? I said, why not? It's an adventure! To which he said I am the first person he's met that within 10 minutes he was proud of..and then proceeded to give me his number in case I ever needed any help..just one of the many amazing strangers I've met during my first awesome month in Europe :) now off to the UK for a couple of weeks! Although I'll be returning to Europe soon enough...
