Seargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club

Wow!!! How long has it been! We left the tight panted - knee high booted policemen and the masses chanting Portugaal Portugaal!! in the squares 5 or 6 days ago, and are now stuffing our faces with baby mussels cooked in wine, delectable french crepes, and unashamedly taking photos of all the chocolate tidbits in the window. (It took something like 18hrs of travel, (had to go back to the top of Portugal) including waiting time in the cold, and 41 hrs without sleep, gotta love it!! : ) My last ramble was in the rained out episode of Lisboa, and sadly I must report we are rained out again in Bordeaux. So much has happened since, that I can't even remember!! But I will try to throw some little morsels to give you a taste of the Portuguese - French crossover.

LAYING IN LAGOS
What can I say about Lagos but that you can't help but be sucked in. It is highly touristy with amazing cave-invested beaches, and a nightlife created by all the foreigners that frequent there, which means that we can count how many hours of sleep we had over the four days, but was so easily medicated by the fact that all you have to do the next day is go to the beach : )

GRANDMA KIKI
The little old lady that looked after us at our hostel (more like a hotel as they insisted on cleaning our room everyday, even folding my PJ's) was soo lovely, i wanted to pack her up into one of my many plastic bags and take her with me. On the first day she was giving us big hugs, and we left with goodbyes in all three languages that she spoke, waiving us off as if we were her daughters. She also had one of those little cute high voices.

FAT FREDDY'S V B.E.P.
It was an incredible mission to get to the Algarvae Stadium, to the point where we had actually thought that we had the wrong date and time, but all was well when we were standing in the mush in front of the stage after scoffing down a boulder or bread with 2 slabs of some sort of meat in it, preparing to not go to the loo for the next 5 hrs as to not lose our place. We missed the first act, the second was obviously a very popular Portuguese band, and then with much anticipation we screamed on Fat Freddy's. After the boisterous Boss AC, the chilled out beats of Fat Freddy took some getting used to for the crowd, at times I felt like we were the only ones appreciating the unique NZ sounds, but I think people warmed to them. But once the BLACK EYED PEAS chanting started in between the acts, there was no going back!!! It was crazy, we sung, danced, and partied, and I think that it was only made better by the fact that we were experiencing this in Portugal, a country that really knows how to party!!! The whole thing was fantastic, especially given the price. (we ended up forgoing the seats for a place in the front squashed between the most short people that we could find)

THE SHOCK OF PARIS
When we got off the bus at the 10km wide intersection of Paris and stood on the 5m wide footpath, it was a bit of a shock; perhaps it was the lack of sleep or the fact that I had popcorn and a baguette for breakfast (in the airport at Porto they had this cool popcorn vending machine that pops the corn and pours out into a cute little cardboard bag with useful info that translated was rather humorous) but coming from all the quaintness of Portugal to the hugely populated busy city of Paris, we had to catch our breath a little. As this was an unexpected trip, we arrive mapless, clueless, and entirely unsure of how or where we are going. But after squeezing onto the metro with our hunchbacks, swapping hostels due to unreceived emails, and spending half a day in the laundromat and the other half in a que at the bus station, the next couple days were a whirlwind of sights, sounds, food, and getting really confused as to what language I should be speaking. (Spanish, Portuguese, and French are all so similar I never know what is going to come out of my mouth!!) We joined the masses and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower (found the little label with the direction of NZ) saw the Notre Dame, spent 3 hours at the Louvre (and that was speeding) went to Versailles, and saw a show. It was just lucky the metro shut at 1230, and we had to be out of our hostel by 10am each day, (plus breakfast was only till 9.30, we have definitely had our share of French sticks) which meant we had ample sleep. As usual, we walked into a parade, well the end, where there were just people dancing on lamposts and fights breaking out, and then with that, we left at 7am, armed with our illegal french sticks (breakfast doesn't start till 7.30), and here we are in Bordeaux. We were greeted by a simple hotel room, that even left us little lollies on the bedside. Only downfall being that we have to walk up four flights of curvy staircase before we can get there.
For our 2 month anniversary, we ate at this fair where all these restaurants have outdoor tents. Spent a bit of moolah, but boy it was good!! Bread can only take your taste buds so far, even if it is the best bread you have ever tasted. As the weather is pitiful, we are at a bit of a wall. We have only just acquired a map, but will be leaving for Lourdes before we even get to use it.

Sucker for Salt

Capital cities, what can I say, a city is a city, but when it's Lisboa day, dancing, singing, and sardines are on the menu!!
We arrived in Lisboa yesterday afternoon in time for an unexpected party that we thought was happening today, but I will come back to that as our last stop, Nazare, deserves it's own special section.........
Nazare is a fascinating town, where the new coexists seamlesly and respectfully with the old. Originaly, only the old cliftop town of Sitio existed, but during the second half of the 17th century, the sea washed away a large section of the cliff revealing a large expanse of sandy shore, where the town of Nazare now lies. Thus, a touristy holiday makers town has appeared amongst the old women grilling sardines on the streets.
As we stepped out of the bus station, we were instantly jumped on (as much as an old woman can jump) by black shawl draped old women offering rooms. After several refusals, we were approached by a young woman, offering a place that sounded too good to be true, but as we were walking in that direction anyway, we popped in and had a look. This resulted in us acquiring our own apartment, right by the beach, for the same price we had been paying for a bed in a dorm, and waiting to use the kitchen!!
And so followed 4 days of laying on the heavy sandy (doesn't blow around and stick to you) beach; buying giant frisbee sized peanut brownies from the old women and their nut/seed/bean/fig/brittle stands; an amazing 4 course meal at a restaurant where the owner took the time to look after us despite the fact that he was sweating and running around the double roomed joint, explaining the entire menu, bringing us examples of the dishes, and giving us a complimentary after dinner liquer (marzipan flavoured, divine!!) to "bring Portugal and NZ closer"; the realisation that you really can't get away from over-friendly waiters in a snall town.
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE
On the way out of the bus station that we had stopped at to pick people up, our bus got stuck between the building and a car as it tried to turn the corner. For at least half an hour we waited for the owner of the car to come back, whilst the whole town stood and watched, tutting at the car, police directed traffic away, and the bus went in and out in the hope that somehow it would lose some weight in order that it might fit through? Eventually, they towed the car, and the bus went the wrong way down the one way street. I am sure that we will be on the front page of the town newspaper!!
PRE-FESITIVAL FESTIVITIES
When we arrived, our street was decorated with kitsch streamers and hanging paper figures that would only look good amongst the characterful buildings and old pebbly streets of Portugal. As the afternoon progressed, music could be heard, the smell of sardines appeared, and the beer drinking started. We had come to Lisboa in particular for the night of the 13th where much dancing and partying was to be occurring for Lisboa Day, so we were a little confused as to what was going on. As we didn't want to miss it in case it was tonight, we headed out to watch the throngs of people dancing merrily, and the beginnings of a parade where there was a 15min gap between each group of people walking down the street. (we lasted for two groups)
We tried Ginjinha, a brandy, cinnamon, sugar liquer, in which they let the ginja berry (native to Portugal) ferment, resulting in an amazing tipple that was worth the walk up the hill.
On our way home, we decided to try a sardine. This proved harder than expected. The young waiter couldn't speak English, so we talked to an older man that couldn't understand the concept of ordering just two sardines!! After much talking, "maybe it will be ok", "it will come soon", "bread", the rest we don't understand, our two salty sardines (I have recently increased my salt intake by tenfold, thank goodness!! ie no salt to ten spoons per bite) and bread arrived, providing much comedic value to those around us.
Thus, we are sitting inside, a storm has arrived, and we can't face the hills that require climbing to get anywhere, talking to the most Aussies we have been with over our whole trip, finding out that we have all been meeting the same people : )

Pebbly Porto

Hola!!

After a brief hyatis (unsure of the spelling) I have returned to cyberspace, although this time I am tapping from Portugal!! : ) I hope you are all relishing the opportunity to eat marmite (we have recently finished our NZ bottle gifted to us in London). I will attempt to deliver the brief conclusion of our salud! to Spain, and yes I CAN hear you schoffing, as my ability to be brief is greatly inhibited by my talent for babble...

I shall put it in sections so you don't feel that you need to read the whole thing...

SO last I wrote I think we were in Valencia...from there we stopped at Gandia, a beautiful white sandy stretch of beach; unfortunately the wind decided to also stop there. This and our lack of cheap accommodation hurried us on the next day (thus the weather decided to shine, laughing at our blackening shoulders as we waited for the bus) to...

Alicante
Here the Castillo Santa Barbara (which we managed to run in with the policeman warning us to be out in half an hour, take some snaps, and run back out with the speaks blaring a message in spanish which was probably saying "get off the mountain"!) sits on top of a cliff overlooking another beautiful beach, right next to the city. It is on this beach that we sat amongst the cigarette butts on a sleeping bag in the cold (apparently it had been 40º until we arrived) and celebrated our one-month-travelling anniversary with a gourmet picnic, of course from the supermercado, with tapas ranging from stuffed cuttlefish (actually stuffed only with its own tenticles), mussels, bread, fresh produce, a couple bottle of Rose´ and Cava, and a melon which we attempted to eat with plastic forks, much to the amusement of passersby.

Elche
Land of palm groves, figs, and pommegranates, amongst which we attended a free concert that turned out to be not so free. Being the budget travellers that we are, we sat outside and listened with the only thing standing between us and being inside was security, palm trees and a bit of metal, so this was quite ideal. It started promisingly with two soulful Spanish guys singing soulful Spanish music, but the next act was a bunch of old rockers that I am sure are much loved, but not particularly by these two kiwis. Unfortunately, we missed Shakira, who was to perform the next weekend. (I HOPE you know that was a joke!!)

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT
Whilst in the Hort de Sent Placid, a museum containing the different fruit trees and palm groves, we were party to "borrowing" a couple lemons and a sample of the yellow fruit that was growing there. Alas, there were signs around the garden in Spanish that looked alarmingly like "these trees are sprayed with infecticide" signs, so we took caution and didn´t eat them.

We spent a couple hours in Almeria before hopping on the next bus back outta there to........

Granada, where we were greeted by the Holy Week Parade which had apparently been rained out, I geuss the week before. The beautiful city of Granada contains the Alhambra. You leave wanting to run away from all the tourists, but it is well worth the "waiting in line for a ticket at 7am" to meander throught the gardens, and climb thousands of stairs to get amazing views from different parts of the palace.

Seville
Again we were greeted by a parade, this time of bulls/oxen pulling carts carrying people in traditional dress, women dressed in beautiful flamenco outfits dancing, we are not sure what this was for. We looked around the most beautiful bull ring in Spain, and were educated a little on the history....

Which was lucky as in Madrid we saw a bullfight!! After ignoring all the hawkers, and asking the Americans what ticket they bought when we couldn't decipher the Spanish pricing and seating plan, we managed to purchase a seat in the sun, 1900, for that day. This was all going so well until on the way home we couldn't remember what street our hostel was on. An hour later, with half an hour left to cook, eat, catch the Metro, and figure out where our seat was, we plonked ourselves down on the concrete block amongst the ciggarette smoke, knees, and fan waiving just in time. We realised why the seats in the sun were cheaper as even at 7pm the sun is blazing like a charcoal BBQ!! An interesting experience, with no injuries except for the 6 bulls that were killed At the end everyone was throwing their cushions onto the ring and booing, so perhaps it was not the best of fights??

FRIED GOODNESS
As we all know, Madrid has a nightlife to match any. Apart from waking up at 7am to pulsating music from the discotecha downstairs, there are so many other good things to apprectiate. Firstly, the number of people handing out cards for free drinks means that you virtually spend hardly any money and what you do spend buys you triple what you would get in NZ. Secondly, the churro shop that is open until 7am, where you can get a whole plate of churros (long fried doughnuts) which you dip into the cup of syrupy smooth chocolate; not too sweet, and ohhhh so good!! What better way to begin your navigational journey back home through the crazy maze of streets.


Bilbao
Upon arrival, we went straight to the Guggenheim museum. After having our packs put through the x-ray machine (I geuss in case we want to blow up the building?) and then in storage, and armed with an audio tour (you don't actually feel as stupid as you look, even when going around and feeling the walls and staring at the ceiling) we journeyed around this beautiful piece of architecture. It was well worth the trip as it was quite out of the way considering we were going to Portugal.

From here, we took a bus to Vigo and then crossed the border to...........

Porto
My first impressions of Porto were : pebbly, steep, windy; a terrible combination when carting a pack around. But alas, on day three, we have managed to figure it out, and are now walking virtually mapless. Yesterday, we crossed the Rio Douro, the river that separates the central city from the old city and the wine cellars. Of course, you have to taste Portugals produce, and so began many walks up mountains of pebbles in the 100º heat (slight exaggeration) to the various cellars in the most famous area. Quinto Do Noval, Taylors, and W.J. Grahams were our stops. What a sweet memory. At our last stop, we joined a group of "older" and so lovely, British tourists for an english tour of the cellar. I think the guys pushing the barrels around were having a laugh at us : )

HOMEGROWN AWAY FROM HOME
Whilst in Madrid I picked up a Spanish entertainment magazine, and amongst the pages of Spanish, I recognised......Fat Freddy's Drop, and Black Eyed Peas!! Playing in Algarvae on the 18th Junio!!! So with much hope, we went to the ticket office today, and were able to buy the best ticket for only 30euro!!!!! Completely donºt know what kind of seat it is as they didn´t have a seating chart, but we are pretty sure it is in the front : )

So there it is, my not-so-brief brief conclusion. Tomorrow we go to Nazarre, for, hopefully, some beach time, where we will definitely be sitting in the shade before we start to disappear into the night.

Take care, and till next time!!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxLove Lixxxxxxxxxxxx

PS The whole time in Spain, we kept hearing someone whistling that song that Daryl Hannah (the nurse) whistles in Kill Bill, it was really quite creepy!!! Literally everyday!!