Agog in the Algarve
For the final (wah!) stop of my 2022 pre-MBA Eurotrip, I flew to the Algarve with Hao Chen and Jenny! We decided to stay in Lagos (an hour away from the airport in Faro), which I'd highly recommend.
I swear no bags were harmed or pilfered from my curiosity.
When I travel in hot places, I invariably end up craving smoothie bowls. It's like ice cream, but "healthy"!! This time around though, I ended up getting food poisoning and felt KO'd for a while. Six weeks of travel took its toll on me, so I was definitely pushing through all sorts of ailments by this leg of the trip (my eventual flight home would include a gnarly fever... sorry to my seat mates).
Somehow, I still rallied and got gelato despite feeling sick. I got a unique flavour called "sambuco & melograno," which appears to be an elderberry custard with pomegranate swirl. The three of us walked around the marina and saw adorable but impractical straw bags (they had cherries and strawberries on them, my kryptonite!! I managed to resist though, thanks to the aforementioned impracticality and over-optimized aka overstuffed luggage situation).
You could say the sausage was pretty... fuego 🔥🔥🔥
To round out the evening, we stopped by at a poorly reviewed juice place. Their SINK didn't work (highly questionable), so we used bottled water to wash our hands... tbh quite brave of me given the food poisoning. For dinner, we went to a seafood restaurant with the coolest flaming salami and grilled fish. Unfortunately, I could only really stomach the tomato soup.
Benagil beauty
The next morning, we woke up super early for a kayak trip to Benagil cave!! After my traumatic kayak experience in Croatia, this experience was surprisingly delightful. I would highly recommend doing a sunrise kayak in the Algarve during the summer. It's not too hot on the water yet, and the cave is still empty, resulting in a serene atmosphere and gorgeous photographs. Later in the day, I've heard the cave gets super crowded and the light doesn't hit the cave the same way. The only con of a sunrise kayak is the strong waves, but we persevered!! Don't skip arm day!!
After our kayak, we enjoyed our first pasteis de natas of the trip and fries for breakfast. From there, we simply walked along the Seven Hanging Valleys trail to Praia do Marinha. This ALSO had excellent views — I would highly recommend following this exact itinerary!! At Praia do Marina, we stopped for drinks and enjoyed the first REAL sandy beach of our trip. I probably wouldn't consider it at "top 10 beach in Europe" or "top 100 beach in the world" since it's pretty small, but the sandiness alone probably boosts it relative to other sad European beaches.
We went to a slightly larger town called Caroveiro for lunch. Here, we ate AMAZING grilled Iberian meat and decent clams. I didn't try the sardines or mackarel since my stomach wasn't doing well... although really, my food choices here were pretty inconsistent (I certainly wasn't following a BRAT diet). In this area, we walked around the Algar Seco boardwalk (nice and paved, just the way I like it 😉) until arriving at Praia do Carvoeiro, a large beach that was developed with loungers and umbrellas everywhere (smh).
For dinner, Jenny and I grabbed Portuguese chicken. HCS didn't join since the food poisoning had hit him by this point too. The chicken was a bit dry since we asked to hold off on the spicy piri-piri sauce. If I went today, I probably would've eaten it as intended.
Let's go to the beach(es), let's go get a wave!
The next day was our designated beach day! We stopped at a spot called Croissanteria 29 for breakfast, which had weirdly doughy croissants with banana and Nutella. It was a cute family business though, including a kid serving us the food.
Our first stop was Praia do Camilo, which was walking distance from our spot in Lagos. We had to take a lot of steps down only to arrive at a fairly meh beach filled with tons of algae. We did see a fairly cool cave though, and there's a pretty restaurant around here.
Beach #2 was Praia de Dona Ana, which was the best beach by far!! Half of this beach didn't have any algae around the shore. It was super refreshing and fun, with nice fine sand (especially by European standards). It was funny people watching here, mainly because people got absolutely BODIED by gigantic waves.
Our last beach of the day was Praia do Pinhao. This one was NOT it. There was a lot of graffiti around the beach, and the algae covered the entire expanse of this tiny beach. What a shame.
For dinner, we went to Casinha Do Petisco. Trust me: make a reservation here. We stopped by and made a res in person on our first day of the trip (with their earliest slot two whole days later!!). It was SUCH a highlight meal, and I understand the hype. They're famous for their stew. We got both the pork and seafood options. I've never had anything else quite like this. We ate the stew with rice and Portuguese steak, which came super moist with the most amazing gravy. If you ever visit the Algarve, this place is a MUST. I always have great food when traveling with Jenny. :)
I will recommend this restaurant until the end of time.
That evening, we walked around Lagos Old Town, reserved bicycles for the next day, and walked to the other side of the Marina. If you don't make this trek, you're not missing much. The old town felt much nicer. To end the night, we got more gelato from Cremia de Gelato. This is not Japanese cremia. It was way too sweet, and the first gelato I've ever thrown out (SACRILEGE!!). In general, Lagos is not the place for gelato.
Last day in Lagos
We started our last full day in Lagos with breakfast at a super gentrified brunch spot called Black and White. It was super popular with the Western crowd, but tasted bad. My yellow juice and overnight oats were way too sweet, and HCS and Jenny thought the coffee wasn't good either. Sometimes nice branding is just smoke and mirrors.
On this day, we took a bicycle trip to Praia de Luz and Burgau. I would also highly recommend this activity (especially with ebikes)!! The path was super scenic with both countryside and seaside views. Luz was a cute town, so we stopped for lunch here. I enjoyed garlic bread, a smoothie bowl, and Fanta by the beach. It was a bit overcast with huge surfing waves, so I was glad our big beach day was the day prior, when it was much sunnier. Overall, the e-bike route took ~5 hours all-in. Would recommend renting bicycles from Coast Surf Shop — they were super chill on timing, even though we only booked a four-hour rental.
Redemption after Dugi Otok
For our last meal in the Algarve, we ate tapas at Taberna da Mo. It was delicious! Jenny's food searching skills prevail once again. The fish soup was fabulous (mainly since I got a sore throat by this point, lol), and they also had great oysters, octopus salad, seared tuna (with onion confit), and ham croquettes. The other two also enjoyed an anchovy toast! I wish I weren't so picky back then, because I tried anchovy toast a few years later at Place des Fetes in Brooklyn, and looooved it.
The real last day (in Lisbon)
To cap off the trip, Jenny and I took a Flixbus to Lisbon. We stayed at the Moxy Lisboa Oriente, which was super convenient (across the street from the Flixbus station). For our last meal, we ate brunch at Choupana Caffe. The panini was super crispy and warm, and I also enjoyed a final pasteis de natas, fresh orange juice, and gelato (pistachio and raspberry). The gelato was actually quite good, but I was way too stuffed at this point.
No matter the trend du jour, you can't take the flat-lay tendency out of a peak Millennial gal
My only public transit fail on Eurotrip 2022 happened at the very end: I was going to take public transit since it was right there, but an uber to the airport was only $3! I went with the convenient option and hung out at the ANA lounge before coughing all over my neighbour on the flight back. Apparently, Jenny caught my gnarly illness afterwards too. I suppose my body was truly telling me that it was time to go home. This trip really capped off the end of an era and the beginning of a new one: after this trip, I went back to live at home with my parents full-time for perhaps the last(?!) time. It also capped off my time working in Toronto. In a few short months, I would soon embark on my MBA at HBS, which truly felt like a new chapter.
Trip dates: July 9-13, 2022