We're back in SP post-European tour '18, it's cold and wet but the ups, downs, tans and tapas will last long in the memory.
Lisbon was great fun, and a step up from last year in that no one got robbed or hospitalised. Instead we went to the Time Out Market for a prego (a "spike", or steak sarnie) and over the river to Cacilhas, which had a nice view of the city and some Roman ruins but not much else, then got the old-timey streetcar up to the Bairro Alto and across to the Sé cathedral for copious tapas and sangria before heading back to our Airbnb on the main drag for snifters of port and background accordion music.
On Wednesday we packed up and picked up our latest hire car for an excursion to the Torre de Belem, where Gaby hung out with some rabbits who are apparently huge Instagram stars, then down to a tiny village in the Algarve where we were met by our lovely host and wrote off our first night entirely by filling up with the wrong kind of petrol and totalling the car - we had to be rescued by a tow-truck and then taken to Faro airport by a manic taxi driver to get a new one, and went back to bed in disgrace.
The next day was much more successful - we went to the Praia de Camilo which was absolutely crawling with sunbathers but was otherwise lovely, had another prego on the Praia da Rocha, and had a last dinner of monkfish skewers on a rooftop bar in Albufeira before heading into the frankly mental town centre, whose nightlife can only be described as the Portuguese Las Vegas.
On Friday we took in a few more beaches, seafront bars and ossuaries (pictured), hit the road back to Lisbon, across a massive bridge over the Tagus and on to the airport, where after a customs-enforced delay we headed back across the Atlantic. We went straight to Aldeia da Serra for one of Bruna's family's now-legendary BBQs on very little sleep, stopped off at Gaby's grandma's to wish her happy birthday, and slept all night and most of Sunday before resuming business as usual at 4am yesterday.
I have a new compilation for your ears only, and my phrase of the week ("this isn't Joana's house") was painted right on our Lisbon Airbnb's corridor walls, explanation and all: "the expression is used when a place is untidy or disorderly or when people act with decency or decorum". 'Tis good to be back...
Speak soon,
Fred & Circuses
PS: Ridaut on the top Brazilian talk show last Friday - pretty cool! https://www.youtube.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment