Parabéns!

So, we made it out of beautiful Arcos, but it wasn't with some trouble. We woke up and it was POURING rain. So, we got all packed up, had breakfast, and started walking...more like slipping. We were walking downhill on cobblestone that was flooding, trying to find a bus station that we knew was very far away. But we made it just in time for our bus! We took the bus to Jerez, and then a train to Seville, hung out in Seville for a few hours, then took the train to Huelva. There were no buses til the next day, so we ended up staying in this hostel (it was the only one in all of Huelva) that we're pretty sure used to be a jail or a mental institution. But, it was actually beautiful and we found another fun tapas restaurant! They didn't understand our attempt at Spanish though :D


The next day we hopped on a bus to Lagos, Portugal. We ended up being the only two on our bus after awhile and got a wonderful private bus tour of Portugal!

Lagos was beautiful! We checked into this gorgeous guesthouse for only 10 euros each a night. We pretty much have our own apartment as no other guests are here. We have our own full kitchen, bedroom, balcony, tv, and bathroom. Amazing!

The view from our balcony at night :)

Then we explored Lagos a bit, finding a neat castle/museum on the beach, really beautiful caves and arches on the shoreline, and even a museum about the slave trade. We went to a local market and bought the ingredients for a nice dinner that we cooked for ourselves back in the guesthouse.

Amy's birthday was fabulous! We went to this small fishing town called Salema on Rick Steve's recommendation...which we do a lot by his recommendation. It was so cute, but SUPER tiny. There was a beautiful beach, but not much hiking and it was really cold outside. So, we walked around a bit, took pictures, and then popped inside this tiny restaurant to get out of the cold. It looked like a dive from the outside, but, once we went upstairs to grab a table, it was beautiful! We even got a really good view of the beach.

It was family owned, so the waiter introduced us to her mother-in-law who was the one who cooked our fish. We got to tell her how much we loved it! The only thing was that the fish heads were still on, including the eyes and it was kinda freaky! They even had family lunch while we were there and gave us a portion of their lunch to try. Then they sang me happy birthday in Portuguese! (Parabens!) So so fun :)


We got back to lagos, went to the grocery store and came back to our guesthouse. Michelle cooked Amy a lovely chicken dinner! Then we spent the night relaxing, skyping with both our parents, and catching up on some tv. We miss you all! (photos of all this to come soon!)