Karissa's European Adventure: Lagos Day One-Finally getting to swim at the beach and meeting Katie and Georgia

Oi (Hello in Portuguese),

Chloe and I woke up at about 6.15am to get ready and check out of Oasis Backpackers in Seville. We caught a cab to the bus terminal so we would get there early to head to Lagos, Portugal. The bus ride wasn't that comfortable as the bus driver thought he was some kind of rally car driver and was going so fast around bends and roundabouts that it felt like you were going to slip out of your seat. He was also very heavy on the breaks too which was so frustrating so I hardly slept a wink on the bus trip!

As we crossed through boarder control we had Portuguese police officers come on board the coach and check our passports which was a first as on Contiki that never happened. I loved the feel I got as we drove through Portugal, I again knew I was in another country as the houses were white and scattered all through the hills which was something I had never seen before. We forgot to take a screen shot of the address we were staying at in Lagos so when we arrived at the bus terminal we headed straight for the nearest wifi access point. We found a small cafe which offered free wifi to customers so we ate some lunch and got onto the Internet to find the address of the hostel.

As we walked along the streets of Lagos I loved looking at the houses and buildings which were built up along the Portuguese coastline. The streets were very steep and were all made of colourful tiles which was so pretty. We walked on a steep incline all the way to the top of central Lagos until we found our hostel with Chloe's amazing map reading skills, thank god for her otherwise I would have been lost loads of times. We had arrived at our hostel before check in so we decided to leave our bags at reception and go and book our flights for La Tomatina in Valencia. La Tomatina wasn't until late August but we realised the longer you leave it to book flights the more expensive they become so we booked and paid for our flights while we waited to check into our room.

We were staying at a hostel in Lagos called Cloud 9 which had around 10 rooms and could accommodate around 40 people which was nice and cosy. Our room had lots of space with two bunk beds and a private balcony and bathroom so we were stoked. I claimed the bottom bunk and after we changed into our swimmers we decided to hit the beach. I was so excited because this was the first time I had been able to go and swim at the beach during my whole time in Europe and the UK. The water looked so blue/green and there were loads of people wearing the standard European g-string swimmers lol Everyone looked so brown and it made me feel super white but I knew I had to start my summer tan somewhere. We tanned and swam at the beach for around 3 hours which was so refreshing and relaxing. The water was so cold and took my breath away every time I got in but I love the beach and it didn't bother me one bit because I was just glad to be there.

After we came back from the beach we saw Katie and Georgia checking into the hostel, these were the two girls we would be travelling through Ibiza with. Katie and Chloe were friends back in Manly, Australia and Georgia and Katie were friends from school. They seemed lovely and I felt happy to be travelling with a group of four girls now. The girls had just got back from a festival and they were pretty wrecked so we chatted, relaxed and ate snacks on the balcony. We slowly got ready and showered for dinner and made our way to a well recommended Mexican restaurant. The girls all had burritos and I had tacos, the meals were huge but very delicious. We also tried Portuguese green wine for the first time which was kind of cool. After our very filling dinner we came back to the hostel and chilled out and I uploaded photos until the early morning thanks to Georgia who let me use her Apple Mac. Great first day/night in Lagos!