Portugal: Octopus, Kings and C*ck In My Face


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Europe » Portugal » Algarve
September 29th 2012
Published: July 22nd 2015
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This week I tried out Zumba for the 1st time, watched half of 24 season 2, ate lots of food and drank lots of herbal tea. I've also been progressing with my Portuguese. I like to learn by practising sentences in public so it drills into my head. Thing is, this week my sentence was "Fique com o troco" ... so whenever I go out and buy something .. Im saying "fique com o troco" ... "fique com o troco" ... what this means is "keep the change" so my wallet is pretty thin now ... but im pretty sure ive nailed the sentence.

We had some rain and cold times here, but we're back to sunny sunshine so yesterday I decided to take advantage and check out another beach and nearby places ... 5 in total. The adventure started peacefully, and ended up with trespassing, naked people and other shenanigans.

I start out by going to Santa Luzia (trying to find it without my sat nav, success) ... also called the Octopus Capital of Tavira because they have many ways of cooking and preparing Octopus. Not a lot else to do here, plenty of fisherman and locals just chilling and chatting. I sat down to do some Portuguese homework whilst watching locals play bowls with what looked like metal balls. Suddenly, at least 100 cars fly by honking horns and advertising somebody's wedding ... but this didn't break the concentration of the bowls players ... they were there to win.

After this I travelled to a very small village called 'Pedras de El-rei' which means stones of the king. This was such a beautiful village ... the houses/cottages were like I'm in a fairytale ... special. It's from here that you have another way to get to Tavira island via foot ... about midway into the island. You can catch a mini train as well if you dont want to walk ... but it was a nice day.

When I get to the beach I realize it wasnt a good idea to wear jeans ... but nevertheless im enjoying the sand here ... its amazing. You know we spend most of our day without giving full attention to the amazing senses that we have ... such as how things feel. There were different consistencies/textures of sand depending on how close to the water I got and I enjoyed experiencing each one .... step ... by ... step ... taking in how the water felt, the pebbles, the dry sand, the temperature ... fantastic.

As Im enjoying trying to put what Im feeling into words ... I look up and get startled ... Im staring right into a naked man's $&@!# ... and it suddenly hits me (no not his $~%£, this thought) ... I remember Ste telling me there was a nudist beach on the island ... and that's where I am. I put that image out of my mind and carried on walking, hoping this would turn out like the bottomless party in "Harold & Kumar - escape from guantanamo bay" ... but nooooooope, just naked men and pregnant women (sidenote, I may have a fetish i never realized) ... eventually I decide to make a u-turn because I was very hungry at this point.

I stop at this cafe bar, ask the chef she can combine ingredients to make me a spinach and tuna omellete, which she does ... with pineapple/papaya juice and chips (1st time ive had chips here ... useless food, just makes u tired). And I watch Man U lose to Spurs. I pay for my meal and say ... uve guessed it ... "fique com o troco"

It's time to get off the island and explore another nearby village called 'Luz de Tavira' ... which im expecting to be a mini Tavira. Not quite ... this place was a shithole ... which is what I loved about it. The streets (tiny alleys) were named after dates which is different. For example, I wandered down "1st December Street" and after trekking over fields, taking a slash on somebody's apple tree and being attacked by dogs ... I decide that I'm a little lost and the only way out is to climb the fence over somebody's back garden .... get spotted by an old lady ... and then ruuuuuunnnnnn .... back on the road, phew. The funny thing about this place was that by the dirty dead fields there was a mini luxury office with glass windows and sofas inside ... a showroom office selling new apartments being built there ... nice apartments but couldnt live there man.

Its getting dark now so I decide to make 1 last stop on the way back home ... Pinheiro ... just to see what it's about. I eventually find it as its not on the sat nav ... its in the middle of nowhere but there was a lot of action by the coast, there was 1 restaurant and nothing else ... seems like its the place to go ... it's on my list for when I have visitors next (if they eat seafood). The moon is out and the atmosphere is tranquil ... Im just strolling by the river and walk over a bridge to the water ... not realizing the wood is covered in slime and I end up ice skating downhill, desperately trying to stop myself before I fall into the river.

Overall, it was an interesting day, Im getting to know more areas around here.

Until next time !!!!

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