6am early start to catch the train we'd checked out yesterday due to leave around 7am. We'd pre-packed breakie & left the house in plenty of time, the sun still hadn't risen! But unfortunately the train wasn't running because of strikes, so we were left in a mess but luckily a lady at the bus station helped plan our trip which would take longer than expected on the bus & wouldn't be direct, but it was the only option we had & because we were so keen to get to those beautiful landscape formations we took our chances & jumped on the bus to Portimao!

8am albeit it was a much longer trip than the train, it was sure nice to pass through all the towns on the way to Portimao, like Albufeira & Lagoa. The sun rose over from behind us & the villages along the coast looked beautiful against the valleys to the north, we were both pretty tired but it was well worth while. Portimao itself is a huge city, it makes me unsure as to how Faro can be the capital of the Algarve. There was much more hustle & bustle going on & the marina was big & fancy.

10am our bus stopped and within 5-10 minutes we were on the next one to Lagos for another 5 euros each, taking about 1-2 hours to get there.

12pm it turned out the main bus stop in Lagos was pretty well located, so to get to the beach all we had to do was take a 10 minute walk along the marina & promenade (which was beautiful in itself) until we reached the coast. BEACH TIME! It was boiling hot by this point, just what we wanted & not a cloud in the sky. The first beach we came across was pretty impressive with its rock formations to the right & Lagos town to the left & behind it. But as we cove hopped along to the west, each became more & more spectacular, we stopped on one that was completely secluded to take pictures & then on to the next to have our picnic.

2pm the majority of our time was spent taking pictures, but they weren't to be missed. Laura's self-obsession showed through as she asked for hundreds upon hundreds of photos - like one of her shoots I can only imagine, but it was fine for me, I enjoyed taking it all in & climbing up over the cliff edges & through the tunnels - what an adventure! The bridge linking the two cliffs made for the best shot, I even waded out just underneath it to creep round the corner that was out of our reach, revealing even more formations towering out of the ocean. This would be where the boat trips would take tourists in the summer, but our own exploring felt ten times better than anything commercial like that. We had it all!

3pm it was sad to have to leave such a spectacular place (it was only when I got home my roommate Sara told me Lagos was the town Madeline McCann was taken from, I was so shocked that such a beautiful place was home to such a horrible truth) the only memories we took away were positive ones. The bus back felt longer this time, although it was good we had a direct route so no stopovers.

7pm we were tired by the time we got back & hungry, Antonio told us his friends could cook us dinner at 8pm, soin the mean time we had an evening window shop around the town, which was livelier than normal & Christmas lights appeared with music blasted onto the street. Oh and appear sundae to snack on of course!

8pm Antonio walked us a couple of blocks down to his friends place, which I imagine is a legitimate restaurant in peak seasons, but we were the only two dining on that day. It was totally informal. No menu, he just asked us what we would like, to which we replied "something traditional"! We were served crumbled cod fish cakes on a bed of salad which was delicious & only cost us 5 euros! He introduced us to some family & we were made to feel at home sat in the back of his small boutique café. After that, we had to call it a night, way too tired after such an eventful day!