Afternoon Bloggers,
So its been a strange week here in Cadiz. The Puente (Bridge) has been almost a week long stretching from Saturday to Wednesday so no Uni until Thursdsay! Also with the Puente comes the inevitable shutting down of Cadiz! Shops do not open, people dissapear and the place goes from wintery dullness to unbelievabley wintery boredom!
How can one battle such boredom? Well the return of one Matty Stevens helped! Football Manager season was back up and running after our brief but ever-painful Autumn break! The discovery of Pokemon online literally was too sweet for words!!! But the real ace in the deck was the brainwave to hire a car and hit the roadtrip baby!!!
What a great, cheap and cheerful way to discover the Iberian Peninsula and beat the boredom! Portugal was our desired destination.... The journey would be a treacherous and hilarious one...:
After picking up the beauty that was our white Ford Focus on the Tuesday we headed out to Puerto Santa Maria for a few ours exploring the local beauty. We saw the Plaza de Toros (Bull-Ring), had lovely Tapas and a nice experience of Katie's first time driving the european way, not hitting the curb would have been preferred, but hey, why not start as you mean to go on!!
An early night was planned, but didn't quite come to fruition! Up till 2am watching Bad Santa with Matty in order to help me doze off before the 7am setting off time!
Half 6 rolled around and out of bed i stagggered, Ash already up and almost ready. The shower managed to awaken me slightly more but being up at half past 6 in the bloody morning for the first time in what must be over a year was difficult to comprehend, and my head was definitely not in the game!
However the walk to the car park did indeed wake me up, the cool breeze down Sagasta and the moist air on the sea front as the early morning waves crashed against the rocks below once again awoke me not only to the early morning, but to how much i have to appreciate where i am and the opportunity i have been given!
So the journey began, the plan was to hit a McDonalds on the way for breakfast, drive through Huelva after Sevilla, before crossing the border into Portugal and the Algarve, stopping off at Tavira before reaching Faro where we would explore until we set off home. Plans never remain the same do they?!
The McDonald's breakfast ended up being a half past 9 chicken nugget meal with chocolate sauce and Crunch balls McFluffy to help it on down. McDonald's breakfast, it would appear, does not exist over here. Dissapointment Number 1! Huelva however pleased me, if not only for the McDonald's, but for the maze that we chose to drive round! A confusing city to drive around, although the architecture there was pleasing to the eyes. Spanish gaff number one.... Early mornings are not my thing, i am a morning person, but they usually happen to be mornings that look alot like midday!! So asking where the exito was instead of the salida (success instead of exit) was just a speed bump in me awakening to the road trip experience!
After Huelva it was a long road to Portugal, what was in tow? One of the best Storms i have ever seen!! With my manly naturally awesome navigation skills we easily made it across the border, and as we did, not only we were greeted by a sudden decline in road quality (no wonder these guys are about to be bailed out!) but also by a roar of thunder. The rain began to hammer down on the body of the car, the roads became increasingly covered in a sheet of Portugese rain and Katie's (actually good driving skills) became all the more under the microscope as we hoped to make it to Tavira in one piece!
Making it to Tavira in one piece ended up not being the problem at all, but in fact only the start of the adventure to come, as we drove through the picturesque Portugese countryside, mountains either side of us, lush greenery to match, we were greeted with a huge flash of lightning and the subsequent glorious roar of thunder, sparks were definitley flying, and we? Well we were loving it!! We reached Tavira at around half 10 portugese time, half 11 Cadiz time. We parked up on a hill outside a church as we allowed the storm to die down around us.... well that was what we hoped. After 20 minutes of sitting there playing the Categories game we decided to just head to Faro, who knew we'd be going half the way on a boat?!? To get out of Tavira was a difficult task! The key problem? The fact the whole of the lower village was flooded, up to 3-4 feet of water at seemingly every turning. The first mini-lake formed on a road we decided to avoid, deeming it a little too deep, the pirtugese man urging us through seemed to have a different viewpoint!! The next newly formed river along the way we had no choice but to brave! Rental car or not this bad boy was crossing the sea in true Moses style! We did part the sea, but only by creating waves that flooded shops either side of us, to see the dismay on the faces of the Taviran people could only be topped at that point by hearing Tash freaking out in the back of the car as she urged us not to go through the ocean in front of us, the fact that we didn't have a choice just wouldn't quite click with her!! So we picked up a steady pace and braved the waters, 3 and a half foot of it just seemed like an obstacle and challenge we'd get by on the way to having a great day!
After the few rivers to cross in Tavira we were back on the road to Faro, happily away from all bodies of water, and greeted by some more beautiful scenery as the lucious green landscape of the Algarve wowed us!
We managed to reac Faro in good time and parked up next to a little shop called Sandwich Greggs, i think they still need time to really discover the catchy name that will make them some money! I am not saying that walking around Faro was like being dragged back 50 years, no actually i am! We hit a wonderful little museum before heading to the harbour for a drink a relaxation as we planned the rest of the day. Faro was dead, one upside was everyone spoke English, but as we walked through the streets we could count the amount of people we saw on our fingers! The only interesting thing in the streets was a dog that decided we would be its owners from that moment on!... A little nibble of my bum and scaring Ash were its greatest accomplishments before ditching us to explore the harbour as we sat down and made our action plan.
After assessing what there was to do in Faro, we discovered, in all honesty, it wasn't very much! Off season obviously wasn't a great time for this little part of the Algarve! So we decided to wing it! Head down to the coast to take a look at the beach and then perhaps follow the coastal road around to the airport, Montenegro and find somewhere to spend the day.
The beach was strangely beautiful as the choppy waves soaked the fishermen and made a beautiful sight for us to look upon before Ash belted up and took over the driving.... girls in the back, men up front, and we finally had the control, not like we didnt before i mean come on i was co-pilot all the way! But we knew with us up top, the day was definitley going to be a success!
Back on the motorway we took account of the signs and decided that Albufeira was to be the destination was the rest of our adventure. On the way the rain picked back up and so did the scenery, out of the sea side villages and built up tourist traps we were back on the open road and as we passed the Algarve Football Stadium, (a sight to see for any football enthusiasts indeed!) we found ourselves ever closer to the beautiful town of Albufeira.
As the signs said welcome to Albufeira we said hello to the rest of our adventure! The marina was the first destination, erm nothing was there :-/ but glad we went down to it because the road back up led us through a sea of colourful houses like a scene out of Robin Williams' 'Toys'. The houses were incredible, every colour of the rainbow splashed upon the walls of the lake-side apartments.
We parked up by the roadside and headed to to the beach. Greeted by roaring waves and gentle winds and stary cats we looked for somewhere to eat. As we wondered the lovely but once again ghost town, (just one more phantom village along the Algarve!) we were greeted by yet again another dog looking at us as potential masters! We eventually chose a little restaurant with ables out front on a back street as our place to eat, however we were unsuccessful.. After ordering drinks and only being given one menu, and then after moving inside, lighting the candles and attempting to catch the eye of the waiter, some 50 minutes after sitting down the waiter decided Ash's attempt to order as the sign for our bill. Fate had blessed us! As we left, angry and dissapointed, we headed across the street, through the mini monsoon to a quaint little restaurant where we sat next to a log fire and got comfortable as the dream was realised..... no not the dream of Yorkshire Puddings, but the dream of both Nandos-esque Portugese Piri Piri chicken, with... wait for it.... Magners to wash it down!!!!
The meal went down a treat, easily the spiciest thing i had ever ate, my lips tingling beyond comparison and mouthing burning like a house on fire, it was without a doubt spicy, but without a doubt lovely! As we sat there, in the warmth, avoiding the downpour outside, we looked back on a very nice day, and a road-trip to remember!
It was definitley a day to remember, only marred by the lack of people, as only Tash, Katie, Ash and I went, leaving Kate, Kike, Matty, Bee, Max and Maisie behind with Sarah still in England :(. However it did not dampen our day, we had a sensational time and one that we will never forget. With only 8 days before setting off back to England for Christmas, there are few of the days left! 2 Cadiz Christmases approaching, and our final week of Uni before returning to blighty, where has this semester gone?
There will be lots to remember over Christmas, lotsa to do, but it is a totally different experience. I will go home looking thoroughly forward to seeing friends and family, returning to work and having a brilliant Christmas and New Year with the people i have missed so much! But on the other hand i will miss the amazing days spent in Cadiz, take for example the 9th December 2010, yesterday for those reading this on release day, a normal day? No, a mere 16 days before christmas we were greeted by 24 degree weather and a beautiful day on the beach before Uni in the evening! Sensational just doesn't cover it. Memories are dear to all, but memories of this year are ones i am glad i have stored in here, a place i will never lose :)
Special Mention : Mare of the week.
You may or may not have heard the story, a tale of a brave but clueless warrior, small on the outside but big on the headside :P One Sam Maloney, congratualtions buddy, not only is this the Mare of the Week but perhaps Mare of the Year!!!
So last Friday we were sat in hollywood, dining away ribbing Sam about his immenent flight home to England where he would spend El Punte. There was hilrious talk of Funeral arrangements, brace positions and air masks as he counted down the hours to his 7am bus to Malaga to board his Ryanair flight home. To add to his troubles was the ongoing adverse weather conditions back ion England, the most snow they had seen in a long time, surely the flight cpuld beat the weather? Correct, however, on arriving at Malaga airport he was greeted by another foe, Spanish Air Traffic Controllers. Ever the spontaeous kind, they had decided, (like seemingly alot of Spanish), that they in fact did not want to work that day, and poor old Sam just couldn't win. After being sick on the bus-ride to Malaga after overcoming his bowel trouble of the night before, his flight was cancelled due to the Strike! That surely was to be the worst thing? Naaahhhh! After finding out there wouldn't be a flight the next day he re-arranged for this weekend and headed to the bus station to return to Cadiz.... missing his bus by a mere half hour... ouch!! A lovely 4 hour wait for the next bus ensued and Sam finally returned to Cadiz sullen mood and droopy bottom lip in tow.
Sam, you truly are somehting special!
Also a special mention to the boss.... Uncle Rich turned the glorious age of 60 on Wednesday guys ;)
Happy Blogging :)
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