Lagos, Portugal: Travel Diary

Oh.My.God. That’s all I have to say. When most college students think of going on a girl’s trip they think of Paris, Greece, or even Prague. Don’t get me wrong, all those places sound amazing, but I wanted a different kind of trip. My friend Emmy and I scoured the worldwide web and found Lagos, a small town in the Algarve region of Portugal. Without even second guessing it, we booked our flights and started to plan (or lack there of) our adventure!!! 

We (Kyleigh, Emmy, and I) arrived late Thursday night and planned to spend the next two days at the beach. We woke up Friday and went to the Marina de Lagos for our scheduled boat tour, only to find out upon arrival that it was cancelled due to rough seas. So, instead, we headed over to the little town and just wandered until we got hungry. 

   After we ate lunch we headed over to Praia do Camilo: a tiny beach at the bottom of 78976 million stairs surrounded by cliffs. On our way down the stairs we were like "lol how in the world are we going to get back up?!?!!" 

  

  Trying not to think about the stairs of doom we would have to take on our way home, we searched for a spot on the teeny-tiny beach. There was a small path through a cave that led to an even smaller beach, and when I say small, I really mean it. Butttt lucky for us there was absolutely no one on what we now call "our beach." Being with some of my best friends on this "private beach" just singing and dancing to our favorite songs will forever be one of my most cherished memories. 

    Saturday we went back to the Marina for our rescheduled boat tour. The tour took us all along the cliffy coast, through bright blue grottos and into hidden caves. I honestly didn't even know places like that existed. After our tour we walked through the town again and headed to an ancient Roman ruin beach we saw from our boat tour. We were so stoked and thought we were the smartest people to find this little hidden beach! Our taxi took us down this longggg road and dropped us off at the beach only for us to look down the cliff and see NO BEACH. The tide had come in and completely took over the beach :/ We stood there for a good 10 minutes not wanting to accept defeat, but eventually dragged all our stuff to the next closest beach, Praia Dona Ana. This beach was much bigger and crowded, but we were able to find a spot to lay out towels. Now, let me tell you a secret. I'm deathly afraid of swimming in the ocean. I'll go into my hips and that's about it. Don't ask why cause I don't even know. When Kyleigh said she found another empty beach around a cliff that was only accesibly by swimming, I pushed my fear to the side, closed my eyes and SOMEHOW made it to the beach. Sure, I was screaming "I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK IM GONNA DIE" the entire duration of the swim, but I made it. Like the 12 year olds we are, we built sand castles and decorated them with shells. Emmy's Spongebob pineapple house was scarily accurate (@Emmy who are you.) The swim back to the main beach was a lot less scary than the way there. I like to think it's because I conquered my fear, but really the tide just went out. 

    Our AirBnB host left us paddles that we played with on the beach. Emmy named the game "Paddle Paddle" and we sucked. If Paddle Paddle ever became an Olympic sport we would come in dead last. From 300+ people on the beach when we got there, we were the last ones to leave when the sun set. 

    On our last day we planned to explore Lagos a bit more, but ended up taking an Uber to Faros (the airport town) and waste time until our flight. I had the beginning symptoms of the flu and couldn't even think of doing anything except sitting and sleeping, so Sunday was a bit rough. We got dropped off on the towns isthmus filled with beach resorts and restaurants; it reminded us a bit of the Jersey Shore...but the good parts. Our Uber recommended a good local beach restaurant and we plunked ourselves there for 5 hours until we finally went to the airport and flew home. 

All in all, even though short, this was one of my favourite trips I've every taken. The mix of relaxation and exploration as well as the spontaneity and mystery of the destination, made for an amazing trip. If you ever have the chance to visit Lagos you should take the opportunity and grab it. 

-C. 

"Hello from the other side"

Ugh. So its been over a month since I last updated, but I told myself I wasn’t going to be restricted to a set blogging schedule, so I guess all is good in the Casey hood. Just to catch up on me (lol who even am I), I just finished up my second year of Uni and am now a Senior/3rd Year! Can I call myself a Senior if it’s only my third year??? Does senior stand for fourth year or last year??? Whatever, I’m old. I finished all my (stressful) deadlines and packed up my unnecessary amount of stuff for storage and flew back across the pond (hence my clever caption.) BUT I AM HOME to the heavenly scent of Vanilla Cupcake Yankee Candles and overcooked bacon, but nonetheless: home. I have some exciting posts coming up in the next week (could be two years in my book) so I’m excited to share them all with you. 

I think I should make this a game to see how many “lol sorry I haven’t posted since the ice age” posts I can do per year. I’ll try and lose this game even though I’m the only opponent (it took me like 5 minutes to figure out to spell that) just for all you lovely readers :) 

-C. 

Notting Hill and Blue Skies

Let me clear up one thing: London is not always raining. I don't even own an umbrella, so clearly that says something. The ever present stereotype of dreary, grey weather in LDN couldn't be farther from the truth. 

Today my friend Siobhan and I decided to head over to West London and check out the café filled, posh area called Notting Hill. If that sounds familiar to you it's probably because of the Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant film...what a classic. Sadly I didn't see any blue doors, but I did find a pink house (so much cooler.) We found 202 Café, a little brunch spot that doubles as a store. Literally brunch and shopping all-in-one is my dream.

If I could spend everyday wandering the pastel colored streets and eating eggs florentine, I would be in heaven. Notting Hill never disappoints. As you can tell, I'm pretty bad about updating this blog, but hey, I'm trying here. So if you got this far down on the page, thanks for reading! 

-Casey 

The Brit Awards 2015

The UK rarely does huge award shows like America, but every year the biggest names in British and International Music head out to the O2 Arena in London to celebrate the previous year in the charts. I was lucky enough (or crazy enough) to be able to snag a red carpet pass to this years event.

This wristband didn't just magical appear on my wrist....after waiting in the freezing rain for 3 hours on Sunday to get my name on the list, I then had to arrive at the O2 this morning at 8am to ensure I got a spot. Well, of course that meant I had to arrive extra early (cough cough, 6am) so I could get the best red carpet view. Crazy, I know. After queuing for 10+ hours, the celebs started to arrive and it all felt worth it. 

(red carpet featuring my salt stained slip-ons)

Not gonna lie, I went to the awards specifically in hopes of finally meeting Taylor Swift. After almost eight long years of adoring her music and style, she was standing in front of me doing her best British accent and showing off her famous awkward award show dance moves.

LIKE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! 

If only there was photo evidence of how starstruck I was...oh, wait...

Ellie Goulding

Cara Delevingne

Ed Sheeran

Karlie Kloss

Calvin Harris

Orlando Bloom!!!

Although I would've loved to have met Taylor, just being able to witness her charisma from two-feet away was more than I could've asked for. London has been so good so I can only hope the next two years bring the same adventure. 

-Casey

Welcome to my blog!

So, I set this blog up in the beginning of September of last year, took pictures for blog posts and everything, but, here I am in February finally writing my first post. I'm making this blog mostly for my family and friends back home so they can see the basic everyday things I do that somehow intrigue them to no end (indirect to my Mom). If you stumbled upon my page and have no idea who I am, here's a short questionnaire that will hopefully fill you in on my life:

Name: Casey Austin

Hometown: Yarmouth, Maine, USA

Where do I live? If you couldn't guess by my blog title, I currently spend my school year in London.

Describe myself perfectly in a setting/scenario: Okay sooo I'd be driving (probably too slow so I could look at trees) down a New England back road on a perfect fall down in my SUV wearing J.Crew head-to-toe (like always), blasting old-school T-Swift with all my best friends singing along. Oh, and if Harry Styles happened to be in the passenger seat with a polaroid and sparkly boots that would be fine I guess :)

Top 5 Fave Songs: 

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

The Last Time - Taylor Swift

Clocks - Coldplay

Stockholm Syndrome - One Direction 

O - Coldplay

If I was a city, what one would I be? I like to think I would be Boston because it has the perfect mix of big city excitement and small-town America. It has quintessential New England charm without the extreme preppy-ness...if that makes any sense. 

Guilty Pleasures: I'm pretty much an open book so nothing is really a guilty pleasure. If I enjoy something, everyone I know knows that. #noshame

Okay well that's enough to get a little taste of me. I'll try to post on here once a week so my family can see what I'm up to over here across the pond. Hopefully this blog will turn into a nice portrait of my who I am. Thanks for reading (Mom)!