Blogs from Portugal, Europe - page 238

Last I left off I was in Albuferia, Portugal counting down the days until I flew to London town. So a quick re-cap as its been sooo long… Arrived in Portugal after going via the states staying with Rizzo, Brent and Gordo, eating burgers, drinking beer and seeing sights, arrived in Lisbon with no idea of what direction to go, ended up enticing an argument between a group of oldies who then pulled me onto a train and kicked me off again at my stop. Snuggled into life at the Termas while avoiding hard labour and becoming a mosaic addict, at the end of month partied like it was 1999 with Hella in Coimbra university and then trained first class to the South only for the carriage to stop in the middle of no-where and people ... read more

We entered Portugal to be greeted by a different landscape to that of Spain, whilst most of Spain was very dry, rocky, and sparse, Portugal was quite different with more rolling hills, green pastures and many farm animals. The southern coast of Portugal is an area known as the Algarve and is filled with little fishing villages and coastal resorts. We passed through several small towns before settling in to stay in Lagos, which I would imagine would be very pleasant in summer. It was by no means cold, even in December, but in summer due to the sea breezes it would not be as hot as some parts of Spain. There are some nice beaches in Lagos and loads of restaurants, it wouldn’t be a bad place to spend a week’s holiday in the warmer ... read more

Well here goes..... the first proper blog!! It's still 5 months until we go properly but hopefully this will give you a taste of things to come. Not really sure exactly what to put on here so I will just keep typing until something makes sense. We had to get up at 4am to make the thrilling drive from Cheltenham to Luton Airport. A few hours later and we were winging our way to the hotel with a taxi driver who was moaning about global warming....... oh and we passsed two traffic accidents in the 10minute journey!! The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and wandering around the centre of Lisbon. It was a public holiday so there was a lot of locals doing the same as us. That evening we learnt a very ... read more

Last Sunday was the grand opening of the pedestrian bridge at the park near our apartment. We walk by this bridge all time, but it has always been closed, even though the sign says it was supposed to open in March. So, needless to say, this was big excitement for us. They had a really big flashy show with actors in costume, fireworks, lasers, and music (some trendy dance music and some traditional fado). For the grand finale, a marching band of knights, dragons, and bagpipe players (don’t ask me) crossed the bridge, and then they let all of us Coimbrians walk/run across the bridge to the other side of the river. - Jason ... read more

Just getting to Coimbra was a bit of an ordeal. Arriving at the Lisbon airport, I had to wait for 40 minutes for all the bags to come out before realizing mine wasn't going to come out. They had a take a number system for lost bags at the Lisbon airport, this must be a common occurrence! Grabbed a cab through the pouring rain to the Oriente train station, the cabbie was quite chatty and singing most of the way. Got to the train station to find the lower level flooded, and no trains running, no explanation. I went to the other side of the station where the bus vendors were and managed to get a bus ticket to Coimbra, leaving in an hour. Called my friend marco to find out, turns out he was on ... read more