I Am By The Sea

Laneway, Lagos, 1.58pm

I'm in Lagos now, it's a resort place down at the bottom of Portugal, near Albufeira, which is super popular with the Poms. Honestly, there are so many Poms here that I can't imagine how many are just another hour east of here. The place isn't particularly Portuguese and there are lots of Poms living here and doing nice things like running English second hand bookstores - SCORE! (Much as I enjoy the writing of Janet Evanovich, there's only so many times you can read 'Metro Girl'.)

However I haven't told you about Comibra or Evora yet, so let me share that joy with you.

I hit Coimbra after Porto, it's only an hour south, and had a super fun time schlepping my suitcase up a LOT of stairs with a vague offer to help from a pixie-sized local. No thanks, I've got it. Hostel was in a nice house, but it was absolutely freezing. Scored quite well on the roommate front though, I went to bed around 9ish and he crawled into bed at 6.15 the following morning. Jeez, kids these days.

I spent Saturday wandering around Coimbra, had an excellent coffee and some toast at one of Coimbra's oldest and finest cafes, Cafe Santa Cruz, next to the church of the same name. Best bit was observing the locals, mostly older gents with their newspapers and a man polishing their shoes. I kid you not. Espressos, news and a spot of boot polish on Saturday morning, am now wondering if it would work at Gusto?? Then wandered in a vague way towards the university sitting right on top of the hill, on top of the city. Finally found my way UP, if nothing else I will hopefully return home with a nice tight bum from all the stairs and hills, although the custard tarts say otherwise. Uni was cool, old, plus it had an academic prison. They put it in so that students who committed academic crimes (as opposed to murder, theft and rape) could be punished but kept away from the nasty regular crims. Very soft of them.

Off to Evora on Sunday, spent most of the day on trains or waiting for trains while it HAILED. Evora has, in the centre of its town, a walled section with the bit inside full of little squares, churches and white buildings with yellow trim, very pretty. The wall around the outside was built by the Romans and/or Moors. The highlight is the Capela dos Ossos at the Igreja de Sao Francisco. The Capela dos Ossos is the Bone Chapel and it's literally a small chapel with the walls entirely covered in human bones and skulls. Pretty gruesome, but certainly memorable. I REALLY wanted to take a pic of me with the bones in the background for a new Facebook profile shot..but didn't think it was entirely appropriate!

Lunch in Evora was a traditional Alentejo dish - pork with clams. Nothing special, and I did think it was a weird combination, but as Mum pointed out, in Australia we're terribly fond of the old beef 'n' reef option, so can't really judge.

And now I'm in Lagos. Did the official wander this morning, checked out the church, museum and the fort, wandered the lanes and sat in the central square with all the old blokes, watching the world go by. I'm here for a few days and don't want to ruin all my fun in one day, will do a longer walk over to the big main beach tomorrow. On the menu here, at some point, will be the grilled sardines - aw hell yeah!

BEST PART! My hostel here is close to an ACTUAL supermarket! Not a mini one! Not some old bloke selling bananas, bottled water and sausages from his front room! I'm talking big, with STUFF, a VARIETY of stuff, and checkouts and trolleys. Will probably be back just for the entertainment alone. I bought bits and pieces I needed (FRUIT) and also thought I'd buy a nice big ceramic mug because all the hostels have small ones, very insubstantial for someone who likes a serious sized cup of tea of a morning, like myself. So I got myself a Disney princesses one, Snow White, Cinderella & co. Figured it'd be like Australia, couple of bucks. Got home and checked the receipt. 5.90Euros. TWELVE DOLLARS AUSTRALIAN for a SUPERMARKET PRINCESS MUG. Woops. It gets better - I had it on a shelf in my room and accidentally knocked it off onto the tile floor, breaking off the handle. So I now own a twelve dollar princess mug with no handle. Travel rocks.