You can fly to Faro which is the Algarve, which would be the most convenient.

From Lisbon it should be a 3 or 4 hour train ride (better) or a 4 – 6 hour (can’t remember) bus ride from Seville.

Hey what’s up…I did that very thing about a year and a half ago. You have several options.

I don’t know if sickboy has taken trains in Portugal, but it’s much better to take a bus from Lisbon to Lagos rather than the train…well, in my opinion.

Best bet:
1) Fly to Faro, bus to Lagos

Other options:
2) Fly to Sevilla, bus to Lagos (4 hours)
3) Fly to Lisbon, bus to Lagos

Don’t fly to Jerez…it’s inconvenient and won’t really save you any significant money. Now that Ryanair flies into Seville, there’s no reason to use Jerez as a landing spot.

Okay, as flying into Faro is a bit too expensive and I couldn’t find anything into Lisbon, I think I am sticking to Spain. I think I will fly into Granada, stay there a few days, and then take the bus (train?) to Seville and fly back to London from there. Does this sound like a good plan?? How far is Granada from Seville?? Thanks so much!

Take a train between Granada and Sevilla; train travel in Spain is superior to Portugal.
http://www.andalucia…

I think Granada-Sevilla is about 160 miles, so a little over 2 hours by train.

Thanks!! Looks like we’ll stick to this plan then.

I’d always rather take a train than the bus. Why do you think the bus was better hope? I took the train and enjoyed it, even though it had two classes – filtered and unfiltered. As a (then) smoker we had a few beers, played cards and met some people. Much more fun than the bus in the fun category.

Sounds like you had a good experience Sickboy, but mine was very different. First, in order to take the train from Lisbon to the Algarve, you have to take a ferry to Barreiro first. Basically it was very hot in Lisbon (June) and I just wanted to get to Lagos ASAP so I could find a place to stay and start drinking. All I was thinking about was beach and booze – thus, the delayed train, screaming children, dirty carriages, plus several delays along the way added up to a 5 hour train ride in a non air-conditioned irritating car. People I met in Lagos who took the bus enjoyed a cheaper, faster, air conditioned, nonstop trip (bus took just under 4 hours). When I took the bus OUT of Lagos it was much nicer than the trains too.

Needless to say, as soon as we finally arrived in Lagos (nearly midnight), I dropped my bags and raced towards that cesspool Joe’s Garage. hahaha

I completely forgot about the ferry part. Probably because it is approaching 5 years ago, but shit… thanks for reminding me!

That is where my friend from N’orleans and I met this cool German chick who shared our company. Something just so cool about a girl who reads Hemmingway…

I can barely remember the name of a single bar we went to in Lagos, but I know I went to Joe’s Garage and the posse we had never cared for it. Ah, I can remember Bon Vivant, that was the last stop before the beach.

Lagos rules.

And we started drinking on the train to make sure things went all right.

I need another vacation!

I can barely remember what I did there, either.

That’s why I have[url=‘http://www.kahunna.net/pilgrims_progress/hope/journal04.shtml’]this[/url] and [url=‘http://www.kahunna.net/pilgrims_progress/hope/journal05.shtml’]this[/url] to remind me. The best was when I was eating dinner one night and some random middle-aged English man came up behind me and said hello, using my name.

"Ummm…do I know you?" I asked.
"We had a fairly extended chat about baseball last night after you fell off the bar," he smirked.

It pretty much solved the mystery of bruised knee and created the new mystery of why I was talking about a sport I hate and know nothing about in one go.

Hahahahahaha….I’ve had a night like that too always nice to figure out where those bruises and cuts come from! Starting to get excited about my trip now..lil’ over a month to go!

Old Tavern and Eddies Bar are names I remember and can vaguely picture what they look like now. Thanks a lot, so cool to start remembering a memory that was somewhat forgotten. I forgot most of what I did in Lagos, but not the people I met. STill in touch with most of the crew, and ripped it up with my buddy I met there (then ran into in Seville before heading to Morocco with him and some others) back in November here in Tokes.

I also remember the poster from the bar in picture number two, link numero uno.

I must have been in that bar.

Find the Irish bar in Seville next to that fancy church like bulding by any chance?

Hahaha, uh yeah. Went there two nights in a row, had an adventure with some greasy womanizer named Javier and the bartender. Then last night in Seville we walked passed Flaherty’s and the bartender waved at us through the window, obviously recognizing us. That was my signal that it was time to leave Seville.

It’s all documented in the "Javier and the Language Barrier" journal entry.

I keep in touch with many of those travel buddies too; makes you so nostalgic!!!!!

Yahoo Messenger isn’t working today. Obviously.

I think I left a 20 or a 10 Canwegian money in the Old Tavern with my name (John Something) on it as "the best fucking Canadian ever" or something very similar.

True story that.

Back in the early days of travelling was my quest to down a Guinness in every port of call* and as Seville was the first in Spain, so I searched it out the first day despite the hangover after leaving almighty Lagos.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened the first day or so, then slowly but surely a tide of people I knew from Lagios started showing up, reached around 15 at one point, then the 4 girls showed up who my friends and I partied with our whole stay in Lagos.

I just bumped into them on the streets, we caught up (those were a scary couple of days apart) had a few drinks then they mentioned a suprise and two of my buddies showed up and we did it fine style.

The left the next day then we made a plan to go to the to the ALcazar as it was free and shit but I saw the line and I had already been there, so I said well, I’ll wait at the air conditioned pub, then, knowing the whole staff already, downed a few Guinni, then was enjoying my last pint and an expensive Jameson when the girls pulled up on the horse and carriage. I said I had just ordered but I downed them both, got into the bright sun, a sheer shock to the system and hopped in net to the driver, lets call him Carlos, and he pulled off on the horse. The girls had all the comfort, I tried to make friends with the driver by offering a cigarette, which he readily accepted before pulling out a heel sized block of hash and asking me if it was "beuno" and all the Spanish I ever learned (my Portuguese is/was much better) paid off when I uttered "Si Senor."

Then, whilst driving the horse and carriage down a busy thorough fare (3 lanes each side) he burned and crumbled up the hash, mixed it with tobacco and placed it back into the cigarette and lit that bad boy up and gave it to me.

Bliss. Sheer bliss.

After that, the girls were slightly annoyed at me and the driver as we ruined almost every picture by laughing at each other all the time. But it was worth it. And the hash was free. Can’t beat that.

Then back to teh bar, got loaded, went to leave for Gibraltar the next day, ended up delayed and at the wrong place where I ran into my other mates, we met the girls again, and…

got loaded at Flahertys and put Wiley on the train to Madrid as we headed down to Africa.

Jeah….

*Helped drink Azerbaijan dry – an entirely true story

God, great story!!! I need to get the hell out of here and go on another vacation.

It should be a laugh when we meet up in Tokyo and exchange stories and drinks (I’ve basically given up smoking now as well tho).

Have a good weekend

Can’t wait!

I’ll have the time, so make sure you are in for the weekend, which means two days of nightlife!

Pubs, clubs sight seeing whatever. I know a very good cheapo hotel, kind of like a hostel but with private rooms, and it will be very close to where I am moving in North Tokyo. Yeah, gonna be classic!