Road Trip!!!

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Roughin' it up with Hotel Ronda, a tent & beaches

In late May Amber, Brittany and I decided to rent a car (AKA Hotel Ronda) in Granada and drive and around Portugal - a country we had all longed to explore. We agreed to spend our money on the car rental (and other associated costs) and therefore not spend any money on accom, since we were all travelling on tight budgets. That's where the tent and beaches come in ... and a bit of couchsurfing (first time for the three of us!).

We also decided to open up our trip to others who may have wanted to share the car costs. The night before leaving Granada we had a special offer from a young (21yr old) Polish guy (hippy). This wonderful young soul, who had hitch-hiked all the way from Poland to Spain and had managed to scam free accom from a few kind people, was hoping to catch a ride with us all the way to Portugal, dictate the route and time of travel, all for a whopping 4,50€!!!!! hahahahaha ...

So I kindly told him to "get real" ... and off we went with no freeloaders ... just the 3 gals and that road =)

We left Granada around 11am on Wed 1 June. Our first stop was in Sevilla where Brittany left a bag with a friend and we met up with my friend PJ for a quick helado. Following this short delay, we finally crossed the boarder into Portugal around 8pm that night. We spent the first night camping out in our tent near a beach somewhere in the small town of Tavira, where we enjoyed a very fresh and cheap beer and chatted to the local shop owners in our broken Portugese / Spanish. According to Brittany if we got drunk and spoke bad Spanish it would be close enough to Portugese =) erhm... needless to say, we managed to get by!

We spent the next 2 weeks "living" in our car travelling across the southern and western coasts of Portugal (having agreed that we were all seeking a beach holiday). There were several nights of smoking in the car and laughing our heads off, camping on the beach when we could find a suitable spot to pitch a tent and, if not, cliff top car camping with beach views for the early morn 😉




unforgettable moment ...

Amber cracking it one night about too many sleepless nights in Hotel Ronda and us all agreeing that no matter what we would pitch our tent that night! So, we arrived at the beach town of Peniche (I think!) at 2am. There were winds of about 70Km, almost strong enough to blow us off the ground! But we had made a pact and no matter what, we were going to pitch that tent! We left Ronda in a car park near a sand-dune-lined beach. Given the winds and difficult nature of the beach surface, we decided to half-pitch the tent in the car park and carry it across the sand dunes to finalise its establishment ...

sound stupid enough yet?

it was!

There we were ... fighting storm-like winds, determined to fulfill our mission. We managed to pitch the tent and carry it all the way to the sands - thru the dunes!!! We put our bags inside it to create weight (making it a lot heavier to carry, but less likely to act as an air balloon and carry us off into the wild wild nothing) :p

cut a long story short ... t'wasnt til we were on the sand, unable to let go of the tent to actually set it down... almost flying off with it ... before we admitted defeat and carried our giant, wind magnet all the way back to the car ... packed it all up again (by this time it was easily past 3am!) and resorted to another night of sleeping in hotel ronda 😉

Couchsurfing for the first time –

Setubal with Pablo and Porto w Alexander

- Our first ever experience of Couchsurfing was shared with Pablo in Setubal (major city just before Lisboa). This definitely set a high precedent that we thought could never be beaten ... Pablo was a single male in his 40s who had previously been married and had a daughter who spent most of her time with her mother. But since she did come and visit him regularly, he had a spare room and bathroom for her (and CS guests) =)

Pablo's house (apartment) was HUGE!!! and super nice/trendy. In the spare room were 3 beds! perfect number for our troop 😉 the spare bathroom was almost as big as the spare bedroom and fit for a 7-star hotel in Dubai! He was a great host, not minding our late (due to being super lost) arrival at 11pm ... at which time we went to the supermarket, bought some food and went back to his place to cook dinner, learn all about Portugese history and inventions, shower, set up our things and eventually sleep!

Pablo took us around the next day showing us some gorgeous beaches and mountain views, olive town - Aceitao - and winery. We spent one more night with him and bid him farewell in the morning to continue our journey north.

- Unfortunately our host in Lisboa cancelled on us last minute and due to limited net access we were unable to find another one and spend the night on the side of a city street sleeping, yet again, in Hotel Ronda! Probably the funniest and most memorable night in Ronda =)

- Our host in Porto, Alexander, did very well to meet our high CS expectations. He welcomed us into his 2-storey house directly across the road from the beach! There had been some mix up with dates and he was simultaneously hosting 3 other girls from French-Canada! But his house was big enough for all of us and we had a great 2 days pretending that he was running a "harem" in his place - the look on his older male neighbours' faces was priceless! We would constantly go out of the house one after the other and call out his name ... I'm certain men in that town have built a statue of honour in his name by now 😉 hahaha

Alexander was sooo generous offering us unlimited beer (cerveja) and food, keeping us company, sharing stories, taking us to a beach lunch the next day. I think we all contemplated moving in with him permanently, haha, but alas! the road was calling again ... and after 2 wonderful days touring Porto, drinking porto and hangin' out, we were off again =)

Where we went

My travel buddies were far better than me at keeping track of the towns and beaches we stayed at ... I was too busy driving! haha ... so, off the top of my head and with help from Google maps, I think these are the places we visited in 2 weeks:

Tavira - including a day of swimming on the little island off the mainland

Faro

Lagos - picnic dinner on the pier / marina and first night of camping on an actual beach on the sand (probably the best night of camping we had)

Sagres - home of the best beer in Portugal!

Carrapateira - where we crossed an awesome lagoon

Sines

Setubal - came past here on the way back also and spent a day and night on beach

Lisbao - not long enough, didnt really get to know the real Lisboa

Cascais

Sintra - I think this is where there is an old castle on top of a mountain that we didnt go see in the end but the town itself is gorgeous and reminded me a lot of Quebec City

Peniche - cliff top parking? gorgeous fishing town and good surfing beaches

Aveiro - stunning little town with heaps of canals - the Venice of Portugal!

Porto

*Note: These are the main towns we went to or spent a night in. We stopped at heaps of beaches along the way, averaging around 4-5 beaches a day =) We all agreed the beaches on the south-western coast are the most beautiful and unique

Outro...

The day we left Porto, we also left Brittany, who went up north into Galicia (Spain) to embark on the Camino de Santiago. Amber and I made an executive decision to revisit some beaches in the south-west of Portugal and take a coastal ride all the way back to Granada, arriving there on Sunday 13th June.

That night, despite our exhaustion, we decided to drive to the place where Dragon Fiesta is held (name escapes me). It's half an hour out of Granada and has natural outdoor hot springs! We still had the car and tent till the next morning and couldn't think of a better way to spend our night.

So I told my new housemate, Vicente, (where I would stay for my last 3 nights in Granada) that we were off - invited him to come with but he couldnt ---

We drove to the place and found it no probs. Both of us had been there for Dragon Fiesta and Amber once before with other friends. And yet, we just COULDNT find the hot springs 😞

We drove around between 1-2am in pitch-black darkness on very bumpy and unsafe dirt roads surrounded by trees and darkness and night animals. We drove for an hour and still no agua termale =(

Eventually, I gave up, unable to drive anymore (given I had driven for most of the 2 weeks in Portugal) ... and back to Granada we went. Lucky for us Vicente is also a nocturnal animal and was still awake when we got back and more than happy to welcome us in and set up a bed for Amber (who had nowhere to stay).

I spent the next couple of days running around maddly saying goodbye to people, finishing up classes and handing over students to their new teacher and farewelling my beloved Granada. In saying that, I dont want to take away from the impression that Portugal left in my heart. It is a wonderful little country with some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to! The people are warm and friendly and extremely generous! Travel there is very affordable and fun and highly recommended! One day I would love to go back and see more of the inland beauty I have also heard a lot about =)

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