Pippa

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What do you do when you have a weekend off on Costa del Sol and want to get away from it all...? Easy - you go to Portugal. A most spontaneous trip it is. Initiator Miguel - in close co-operation with me and my car - do actually not have to excert a lot of influence to convince the two Swedish guapas Ida and Ullis to come along. Off we go. Via Seville, where a friendly police officer escorts us out of town and points us in the right direction, the road to Algarve is wide open. Of course with the obligatory pit stops to fill up water in the overheated radiator...

After not too much hassle we enter Portugal, a first-timer for most of us. The first city we reach is Olhao. It doesn't take too long before we all agree that this could very well be the ugliest place on earth. Everything is worn down, and everything goes in shades of grey or brown. The streets are ugly. The buildings are ugly. Damnit if the people aren't ugly too. Fortunately, there are roads leading out of the city...

Fearing that this is symbolic for the legendary Algarve Coast, we push forward into the unknown, westward, towards the Atlantic coast. To our great pleasure, the city of Albufeira proves to be nothing like Olhao. An idyllic but yet modern fishing village off tourist season is what we need. When we run into the little gift shop named "Pippa" (Swedish slang for "screw", in the non-carpenting sense...) we instantly know that this is a cool place. Well, as everything is relative, the term "modern" may need to be defined.

Yes, the city has everything a demanding tourist may ask for of a beach resort in terms of standards, activities, and comfort. But, when the old fisher man on the beach is asked to take our picture, he turns the camera the wrong way, the lens facing his face...No harm, no foul, but one wonders if maybe time stood still when photography came to town...In any event, a weekend worth remembering, the one that turned out to be the only sober one in two semesters...

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Comments

[Jenny Maria]

pippa
I´ve been to the shop pippa. and it´s rather unusual :P i have never seen that kind of shop ever before. nothing for children under 15 years old,I can promise you that :)