It’s 11:30pm and still 40 degrees C. For you “daft” Americans (nice word choice, Sileas), that converts into about 104 degrees Farenheit. Solid. I’ve always looked good with a little bit of a sweaty sheen. Thursday was a bank holiday so I went out Wednesday night and after a solid 3 hours of sleep, woke up and took to the streets of Sevilla with Sileas. While we were walking, I was sweating 80 proof and was more than happy to sit in front of my sweet fan upon our return home.
Friday morning, Anna, Emily, Sileas and I went on the bus and headed to Lagos by 11am. This time around there were about 150 people going — 3 buses total. We watched “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” again on the bus, which I’ve now seen about 15 times — it wouldn’t feel right watching any other movie, it’s become a tradition. Shortly after touchdown in Lagos, we went to the beach nearest our hotel until it was time to head back to start getting ready. Dinner consisted of quesadillas, burritos and sangria and although our group was quite the melting pot (Scotland, Germany, USA citizens), I think we could all agree that cheese and tortilla chips should be a universal staple. We finished up dinner earlier than planned and still had a few hours to kill before meeting the group at Grand Café. We walked the 15 minutes back to our hotel and had our own mini pre-game party to really kick off the night’s festivities. Most of the group (all 150 of them) was at the bar by the time we got there and we managed to make the most of our entrance due to the International Party Sevilla sunglasses supplied by Mr. Toba Turbo. Friday night was one of the most fun nights I had while in Spain; we never stopped dancing, everyone kept getting “iced” — refer to the Urban Dictionary post for the definition and mingled with friends, old and new, until the wee hours of the night.
Saturday morning we woke up early to make it to the pan buffet where we enjoyed 240982308 different kinds of croissants and of course, more ham and cheese. Europe takes the ham and cheese incredibly seriously. I’ve decided that at any given time, the nearest ham slice will always be a mere 2 feet away. Any homies interested in working in Europe should just start strollin’ in the streets handing out deli meat — it would be a lucrative business. After breakfast, we lathered up, secured our raft (aka The S.S. Explorer), Anna’s ninja beach mat and headed out to meet the bus for a day at the beach. We ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant right on the beach (this time I had a fried goat cheese salad — nom nom nom) and then set up shop on the playa. The weather was perfect, the waves were awesome and the water was clear and cool. If you looked up “beach day” in a dictionary I’m pretty sure a picture of the Meia Praia beach in Lagos, Portugal would be next to it.
Meia Praia
Saturday night, Emily and I opted to stay in and take a siesta while the rest of the group headed to see the sunset. When Anna and Sileas returned we were fully ready for another night on the town. We got a late start out and instead of going to another sit-down restaurant, we stopped at a mini kebob place for a slice of pizza before starting our evening at Joe’s Garage. The place was packed and sweaty, but the drinks were cold and the music was good. This was a bar that really reminded me of home and I loved it. In order to stay as cool as possible, we definitely had to stake out a location and stick to it for long intervals. Sileas and Anna joined us soon after and my glass was always full. Sileas and I met two guys in town visiting from London and they were telling us about their trip Vegas – by the end of the conversation, they were both convinced that both them, Sileas and I would make a trip back to Vegas again sometime in the near future. Obviously this was never going to happen, but considering they bought us drinks, we let them assume it would.
After Joe’s Garage closed, a few of us headed back to the Grand Café. It was even more busy than it was the night before. You had to make fast friends with anyone standing by you because there was no room for a personal bubble. The party was still going strong around 3am when Emily and Anna decided to head back to the hotel while Sileas and I (more like I forced Sileas to come with me) headed out on an adventure in search of a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. We found a sign claiming a McDonalds was 3 minutes away, but after walking 45 minutes down the road, it finally occurred to us that the sign was probably talking about time in terms of driving and McDonalds was definitely closed at 4am. We did manage to find a random convenience store and THANK GOD there was yet again, another ham and cheese sandwich. After our meal purchase, Sileas hailed a cab. We had a mini picnic outside of the hotel and fell asleep around 7am that morning.
Sunday I enjoyed laying out next to the pool, listening to music and rehashing the weekend’s events. The weekend was a HUGE success and once again, Lagos did not disappoint. I will definitely make an effort to go back one more time before I leave for good in August — after all, third time’s a charm!!
On that note, this Sunday marks my official one month anniversary/half-way point of my trip. I cannot believe how fast the time is FLYING BY. This summer is definitely one for the books and if the second half is anything like the first, it’s going to be epic. With that, it’s time for bed. After all, I am a working mujer [woman] and I need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for work tomorrow.
Besitos. IN YOUR FACE.
Lindsey
