Albufeira, Portugal to Lagos, Portugal

Up at 9.30 this morning and packed up the tent, as today we are going off Eurobus and heading to Lagos.

We checked out at 11 am and waited an hour for the local bus for the ten-minute ride into town. It was 615 escudos to get to Lagos, and within 20 minutes we were on our way. The bus follows the Algarve coast, stopping at six towns along the way, before arriving in Lagos two hours later.

As we stepped of the bus there was a local lady offering accommodation in a shared apartment. We went and had a look, just behind the bus station, and because it was clean, had a kitchen and living room, we decided to take it. We are sharing the apartment with Jeff & Steve from England.

Once we got settled in, we went for a walk-through town, with our first stop being a record store. Twice in the last couple of days I have seen signs for a festival, but have had no idea where it was or how to get tickets. The nice staff, who spoke English, told us we could get tickets to Festival Sudoeste in store. The festival runs for 3 days in Zambujeira do Mar on Portugal’s west coast, and features The Cure, Sonic Youth, Portishead and PJ Harvey. Once we found out we could get to Zambujeira, and subsequently on to Lisbon buy bus, we bought the 2700 escudo ticket and went back to the record store for festival tickets. The three days of music and four nights of camping cost AU$65 for the whole thing. This is going to be great.

We head to an internet café for some emailing, then onto a supermarket, before heading back to the apartment.

After our steak, pasta and salad home-cooked meal (delicious) we walked to the other side of town to Joe’s Garage, a pub a few people had recommended. We got there at ten pm and the place was fairly quiet, but it seemed like a good place, a lot of backpackers, very casual bar staff, good music, though not a lot happening. Then, for no known reason, at 11.15 pm the place became packed. There were people everywhere, dancing on the tables and on the bar. The place was going bananas. Then at midnight, the music stops and the bar staff turn on hoses to get everyone out. Wet people just pour out onto the street, trying to decide what to do next.

We went to a Latino bar just down the road for a night cap, before getting back to the apartment at 2.30 am.