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Hi Guys!
Well I know it's been a while since my last update so i'll try and make this one reasonably informative. In terms of what i've been up to, my job is still going really well and Nina and I are enjoying the fine weather. It's so nice being able to spend our days with friends in the Parks or Zoo rather than being stuck inside indoor playgrounds whilst it's pouring with rain!
My flat is going really well and when we are together we generally have a few drinks but most of the time Annette and I are out and about in the area having drinks and BBQs with friends. I am playing Netball as well and we have another good team which always makes it lots of fun.
Recently Annette and I went to see 'Delerium' at the O2 Centre which was one of the Cirque du Soleil shows, it was absolutely amazing, if it comes to NZ make sure you get tickets!
Anyway, besides playing Netball and drinking my weekends away I did manage to get to Portugal this month and it was truly one of the best weekends i've ever had.
Cocktails
Annie and I drink our Strawberry Daquiri's at the first bar we sawWe left on Friday afternoon and landed in Faro around 7pm, it had been a long flight (although it only took 2 hours 50 mins) there was a bunch of about 12 rowdy English Guys (obviously on a Stag Weekend) who had no respect for anyone and by the end of the flight if we hadn't been able to get off I think I may have tested my hijacking skills and landed it myself! We got a taxi to our Resort (by a very fast and eratic taxi driver) with high hopes that we wouldn't be paying over 50 Euro even though we had no way of communicating that to the driver!
We arrived at our Resort to find a beautiful big pool and massive bedrooms, after checking it all out we headed down to the main strip of Albufeira (where we were staying) and intended to have a nice meal and a few drinks. We didn't bother changing cause it was a pretty touristy place and we didn't plan to go anywhere too flash. We started off with Strawberry Daquiri's at a little bar before looking for somewhere to eat.
We headed down the main street but
the place that stood out the most was the first one we passed that had a lovely Canadian guy out the front who'd told us we wouldn't regret going into his restaurant. He couldn't have been more spot on as the enormous T-Bone steak that Nicky got served up and all our meals were way beyond our expectations. We had a great time just chatting and drinking in anticipation for what the next few days would bring.
We carried on for a few drinks afterwards, stumbling round club to club then the next thing you know it was 5.30am so we decided we had better call it a night!
Feeling a wee bit hungover and tired on Saturday we headed off around 10.30am, the sun was shining so we headed out for a hangover cure of a big breakfast (seems to be all the rage in Albufeira as it's popular with the English) and that made us feel a whole lot worse. The boys went and picked up the rental car so we went for a little walk down the road but ended up just sitting on the side of the footpath waiting for them, we were on
holiday afterall!
So off we went to explore, decided not to get a map as we'd heard it was pretty easy to navigate your way around. We headed off and after getting lost for about 20 minutes trying to get onto the main road we stopped at a random beach with beautiful golden sand and just lay in the sun.
We then drove to Lagos which is one of the main towns. We looked at a little souvenir shop and on the front of one of the postcards was this amazing beach in a little cove of it's own, with great determination we decided to head there and sure enough without a map but with Kyle's good driving (on the opposite side of the road) and our clever navigational skills we managed to find it.
We went to go down the steep steps to the beach but there was a sign closing it off with a picture of falling rocks on it. We decided to go down anyway and managed to maneouvre our way down the non-existant steps and were met at the bottom by the most gorgeous little secluded beach i've ever laid eyes on.
The Little Beach we found
In Sagres (from front of Postcard) The massive cliffs created a little shell for us as we lay on the beach drinking wine and baking in the sun. We must have spent around 4 hours there, worked on our tans then headed up top for more drinks at the little Restaurant before heading back to Lagos Centre for Dinner. On the way back up some lovely american tourists stopped for a chat and told me that I looked 'painfully burnt'. Not so good for me!
Portugal is renowned for it's seafood so I ordered seafood for every meal. The restaurant we found was beautiful but unfortunately for me my fish came out cold so I ended up sharing Kyle and Annette's Seafood Feast which was like a Tomato Risotto with Mussels, Prawns, Clams and Fish, was delicious!
By this point it was around 11pm and we were fading pretty quickly so headed back for Albufeira (the town our Hotel was in). It was only half an hour drive but because it's basically a town to house the tourists there are these massive hotels everywhere. It took us a while to get our bearings but we got there in the end!
Sunday, we got
up early to head out to Sagres which is another town that had been recommended to us. We skipped the English Breakfast this time and just went for something small, it took us around an hour to get there and as we got closer we came to the point that they refer to as 'the end of the world' which is literally the bottom of the country and you can see where it veers off.
We couldn't get over the local fishermen here, they literally stood on the edge of these enormous cliffs overlooking the sea with their little fishing rods and long fishing line. It made me feel sick watching them swaying to and fro. We couldn't understand what the point was as the fish they were reeling in were about as big as my palm.
After losing our stomachs watching them fish we decided it was time for more fish of our own and headed to a Restaurant that Annette had previously seen a sign pointing to. We ordered the 'Golden Bream' as recommended by Kyle and Kieran (they have it in Australia) and we weren't disappointed. They cook outside on what is basically a BBQ
Beer
I liked this cause it's the name of the Town we were in but it's sort of an outdoor kitchen. This was the first time i've ever been served up a whole seasoned fish with the skin (not including the battered fish in my last update) and it was just spectacular.
Afterwards we headed for another beach. It was just like you see on the movies, we sat on the deck at this outdoor surfclub type setting, overlooking 2km of Golden Sand sipping cocktails and perving at all the gorgeous Portugese people.
From here we spent the afternoon driving around different areas, checking out the amazing coast and rock formations and were pretty much in heaven! We stopped in a little place called Carrapateira for more Cocktails and decided we wanted to find somewhere really remote and authentic for Dinner. I had a little book on Algarve (the area of Portugal we were in) and in it found a town called Ferrugado, it was referred to as 'a little fishermans village' so we headed there for Dinner.
This place was gorgeous, so quaint and again, only a few restaurants with BBQ's out the front and fresh fish in big cabinets still moving. We had 'Cataplana' for Dinner which is a
popular dish, with tomato base and seafood. We headed back to our hotel around midnight and were so content we wondered how we would ever settle back into London life again.
We were up around 7am to get our early flight and as if having to end our holiday wasn't bad enough, we were sure we'd have to face the guys from the Stag Do on our flight back. Sure enough we arrived at the airport and there they were. You should have seen the smiles on our faces when we realised that one had scratches and cuts all over his face and another had a broken arm, we laughed to ourselves and couldn't help noticing that they were quiet as Mice on the way home, looks like they'd learnt their lesson!
So now that my weekend in Paradise is over I can't put into words what a fabulous time we had. No doubt you can see from the pictures we had smiles from ear to ear the whole time. Every single Porugese person we met was so friendly and chatty and the ones that didn't speak english would always make such an effort. We had great weather
Ferrugado
Little Fishermans Village by night, where we had Dinner on out last night. (24-28 degrees), great company, and we had a drink in our hands most of the time too! We also decided that we'd need to starve ourselves for a week as we couldn't remember the last time we'd had as many meals in three days!
I will never forget my time in Portugal, the only thing I will say is that I hope someday I get to go back.
Hope you are all well and would love to get some updates!
Lots of love, Olivia.
P.S There are alot more photos that I took on Kyles Camera cause mine ran out of battery on the morning of day two! Will upload them at some stage this week. I've also added some photos from around the neighbourhood as a few of you have been asking to see photos of my friends!
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