Capturing an Opportunity: So Close to Home I Can Taste It

Lagos, Portugal is a special place. Surfing, kayaking, scuba diving, numerous beaches along the water divided by geological structures shooting high into the sky. While there are other places around the world that such things are in one spot, Lagos does it on the perfect scale. Not too big of a beach town and not too small. Just enough fine dining for the people on proper holiday to get their fix and just enough dive bars for backpackers to get their cheap meals and beer. My experience in Lagos all started(and pretty much finished) with the hostel.

Old Town Lagos. A quaint spot in the center of old town (wouldn't have thunk that one huh?..). While the rooms in the hostel felt like a sauna sleeping at night it was all overshadowed by the tight knit quarters of the common area that pushed for social interaction to an extreme. Not to mention one of the loveliest couples I've had the opportunity of meeting in my entire life. The afternoon crew at the front desk went by the names of Jason and Amy who were the cogs to this well oiled social setting. No matter the day, what they did the night before, how much sleep they got, they stepped into that hostel with the same wonderful attitude. From my point of view it was almost as if they were on a mission to make sure no one stepped foot onto any bus, train or car out of Lagos without having a good time. Amy cooked delicious homemade meals nightly and Jason scrambled around setting up activities for all the guests the following day. They even joined guests out on their nightly adventures depending on the day of the week.

All those personal amenities casted a smoke-an-mirrors effect as if I were with my real family and friends back at home in Seattle. But it was simply the warm hearts that were brought out from the city, its atmosphere and of course Jason and Amy.

As always I share some photos from my time at each respective city, which I will still do, but I never got a chance to get one with Jason or Amy. Guess I'll have to go back, darn!