Lagos

Finally! A post for Lagos! Sorry I have been so slow on posting blogs, I have been very busy writing papers, traveling to Paris and now studying for my 5 exams this week! Paris post to follow, maybe at the end of the week or beginning of the next. Maybe.

If I could sum up my weekend in Lagos in one word, it would be: perfect. It was the perfect getaway, a relaxing paradise.

We arrived on Thursday night (we being myself, Cherise, Alex, Carly, Alice and Alyssa. Our entire program ended up going to Lagos that weekend, but the group of us went together.) It was a 5-hour bus ride, so by the time we got there it was night and we were exhausted. We stopped at a little pizzeria in town before heading to our hostel for the night.

Alex, Carly, Cherise at the pizzeria

Me, Alice

After filling up on pizza we found our way to the hostel. We were greeted by a little old lady, Dina, who runs the place on her own. She gave us the keys to our rooms and we ascended a staircase off the street.

The hostel was incredible. It was more like a beach house than a hostel. We had two of the three rooms on the upper floor, each with its own private bathroom. Outside the rooms was a kitchen and a computer in the hallway. The rooms were decorated with actual furniture and the beds were not just the metal bunk beds you usually find in a hostel-- they were real beds, with wooden backboards and sheets, blankets and comforters. One of the rooms had its own balcony. Since we didn't see any of the girls staying in the third room on our floor, it was like the entire place was our own private getaway.

All this, for only 14 euros a night!!

Our room

The next morning we got ready for the beach. On our way we stopped for breakfast at a darling little hole-in-the-wall called "Odeon," where we got a 3-euro breakfast of toast with eggs, bacon and a giant pancake. I was in love with Lagos already...

Odeon Cafe

Then we headed to the beach. We hiked up a hill to one of the most famous of Lagos beaches, Praia Dona Ana. There are several beaches in Lagos, each one a sandy paradise tucked between beautiful steep rock cliffs. They look like they're straight off a desktop background, with white sandy beaches and the clearest blue water I've ever seen in my life.

We stayed on this beach for awhile, soaking up the sun, climbing on the rocks, taking hundreds of pictures, reading on the beach and wading in the ice-cold waters.

The hike down to the beach

Alyssa and me

Desktop background?

We hiked up the hill to a little convenience store to buy some lunch meat, bread and cheese and water even though we weren't all that hungry after our huge breakfast!

A few hours after we arrived, the beach was besieged by Discover Sevilla. Discover Sevilla is a tour group like the one I went with to Morocco. We had the option to go with them to Lagos, but decided to just go ourselves because it was cheaper and we had more freedom. A lot of people from my program decided to go with Discover Sevilla, so we met up with them for a little bit. But the group was huge-- hundreds of students and with the tide coming in, the beach was becoming smaller and smaller. We decided to pack up and head to the next one.

The Discover Sevilla group that took over our beach

We hiked along the road for a bit and then down a dirt path to Praia do Camilo, a tiny beach packed full with only 10 or so people. There was also a cave you could climb through to another tiny little beach.

It was a long hike down

The beach

When we had stayed awhile on this beach we decided to make our way back to the beautiful hostel, where we showered and rested. Then we went out to find food, and ended up at a friendly little Chinese restaurant.


We went out that night and found a rooftop bar, where we could people-watch.

The next morning we slept in, headed to Odeon for breakfast again where we were quickly befriending the staff, then went to the bus station to buy our return tickets to Sevilla. On our way we found a rather large farmer's market, where Alyssa and I bought delicious strawberries.

Heart-shaped strawberry on the beach, too perfect

We went to a closer but equally-beautiful beach; I think its name was Batata. We laid out in the sun, ate our strawberries and went swimming in the crystal clear ocean.

Look at that clear water!

Our group, minus Alyssa

An girl came over to us as we were taking pictures and asked if we wanted a picture of all of us. I noticed that she was lounging on the beach alone, so we decided to befriend her. Turns out she was from Pennsylvania, and was also studying abroad in Sevilla. She had come with a friend from her program, but her friend was sick and had to stay in the hostel all day. We ended up inviting her to breakfast at Odeon the next morning, and they were on our bus ride back to Sevilla.



Then Alex and I decided to go for a romantic walk on the beach, but with the rock cliffs there wasn't far to go! So we hiked up a rock and went through a cave to explore the neighboring beaches, which were even less crowded and even more beautiful!

climbing up rocks to get to walk through the cave and get to the other beaches

The cave

Pedestrian bridge leading to a lookout on our own private beach

That evening, Alyssa and I went on a little boat tour of the coastline and the grottos, the little caves along the coast. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Little bridge from the other side

Our tourguide showed us various rock formations. This one was Titanic.


Ape

Eagle

Through an archway

Coming out of a cave

Inside of a cave

That night we went to Odeon for dinner, too. By this time we had befriended the entire staff, including a waitress from Canada who had moved to Europe after high school graduation for what was supposed to be a gap year from college, but never went back. She had been living in Lagos, working at the diner to make her living and spending every day at the beach for the past year, and was moving to Austria in the fall (after tourist season ended).

After dinner we raced to catch the sunset, and ended up winding our way through the suburb part of Lagos. We barely caught the last of the sunset over a strange little deserted field. We hadn't realized that even though we were facing west, the beaches on the peninsula faced east!

Sunset... or what was left of it

Me, Alyssa, Alice at the field

The next morning we wandered through the downtown part of Lagos and bought some souvenirs before saying goodbye and hopping on the bus back to Sevilla.

Overall an incredible trip, and just what I needed before a stressful three weeks of three essays, Paris and five exams!