FARO, SOUTH PORTUGAL

Day 39,40 (forty days in the wilderness!!)

Happy Birthday Sham!

And..the day that mumºs car was found by Rob at the train station! And mostly undamaged, other than a lock! Thank goodness! Glad you got it back Mum!! :-)











We caught the bus (autocarro) to Faro and halfway here the bus stopped, we looked out, and saw that the people were transferring their luggage to another bus! And Greg ran outside to inspect..and found, yes, we had to change busses!

The announcement had been made in Portuguese so we were left unaware until then. Language barriers are really a hindrance arenºt they. But...body language, for us, is becoming a vast reality. Always LOOK. LISTEN TO INTONATION and ASK!

Anway, we arrived in one peace, 4 1/2 hours later, passing the orange and olive farms and arrived in the street (again) to set out on our ºfinding accomodationº adventure!

Luckily, there was accomodation closeby! And...it has a shower in the room, fluffy towels, CNN (donºt know if thatºs a good thing or not..itºs all dismal news!) and a double bed that is NOT lumpy or hard!

BLISS!! Itºs a sleepy little, southern most port of Portugal, port which is in a estauray surrounded by beaches. What more could you ask for? Itºs like Mandurah in appearance and ambience really. Just laidback and lovely.

And itºs only €37.

And...the weather is absolutely beautiuful. 24 degrees. We had lunch just a while ago and had only singlets on! Oh bliss.....................we want to stay here...

And have decided to for 3 days.....

Greg got his haircut today - €8! Asked for short back and sides, layered on top, and got his money´s worth! Nothing left! (Looks good tho! Up with the trendies!!)

Took pics of the paving, so ornate, Portuguese know how to design that´s for sure. And..great clothes shops too..and i haven´t bought a THING!



Interesting here, there´s no smoking (nao fumadores) in restaurants unlike Spain and was reading in the paper how a new rule has just been passed in Portugal where 20 public places will be smoke free which is fantastic.

News: Anna Nicole´s baby father named! Uproar over Fay Turney´s story re 15 Miltary Navy being captured by Iranians.

LISBON + SINTRA

Lisbon, Portugal
Day 38
Easter Sunday
Coimbra E Madrid (name of Hostel)

We got up really early to get on our tour (that wasnºt booked so we figured if we missed out, bad luck!) and headed down to the plaza, with no breakfast. Greg did finish off the port that we brought from Porto, but thatºs another story!

We waited where we thought the tour was leaving from...and then realised we were at the wrong spot, again! And walked over to where we saw a crowd...and booked a city tour, and Sintra!

We hopped on the small, cosy bus and had our English speaking tour guide, Catarina, tell us all about Portugal. Honestly she was so gorgeous. We just felt so at home and she spoke 3 languages to accomodate everyone on the tour (French, German and English). I reflected how tourism is obviously important to Portuguese people.

And about the people, they are so happy, friendly and just gorgeous. So different to the Spanish which surprises us, given how close the countries are. I wonºt go into the history here but i read about the history of the celtics, Moors, Spanish and Portuguese last night and i recommend anyone reading about it. Itºs fascintating and gives a good perspectives as to why the people are so different in their temperaments.

The tour told us about more of the history and we stopped at Belem. Where the Portuguese national custard tart is made. Ohlala....itºs yummy. So funny though because Catarina told us we could go and see the Cathedral or go to the pastry shop and we chose the latter motivated by the fact that we hadnºt had breakfast and also because, it was Holy Day, Easter Sunday, and the church was full totally.

I lined up at first with all the others from a tourist bus then decided to peer into a side door..and walah, i was able to order our delicate pasty. THE thing to eat. And so i said..Dos. Spanish for two. Not portuguese for two. And i got two cylindral boxes of these special treats!!!!!



Which meant we had 12 to eat!

THEN....how to eat them. We heard Catarina say that they were best accompanied by cinnamon and icing sugar and we couldnºt see any. When we took them out they looked like pies! Later we found out weºd eaten two stuck together...and the sachets in the bag held the cinnomon and sugar! Duh. Silly.

We ate the next cylinder in style. At a cafe, with coffee after the tour was finished and while we waited to go to Sintra! THEY ARE SIMPLY DELIGHTFUL!

We took off to Sintra at 2.30pm and arrived home later that evening, 4.30pm and what a day it was. It was fantastic. Sintra is a fascinating place. Everything was closed, the monuments etc, being Easter and a National holiday but that didnºt matter. There was a museum open..the Toy museum, and we did go to that. And it had a bear (took photos) like the bear that i inherited from Dadºs estate in 2000. I took a photo of that, i was so excited! (1920´s bear...it must have been Dadºs childhood bear!).

We also went to the western most tip of Europe - Cabo da Roco - and to Cascais fishing village and saw their craypots there. Took pics to show Sam and Elise. We also went to Setuval - the third largest Port on the Atlantic side and also passed the casino where Casino Royale was based on. Casino Studio!

Was a very fitting Easter Sunday. We did think we were actually going to get away wiht not having any Easter eggs or chocolate for the day and probably the only Easter ever but we found a supermarket that had CHOCOLATE!! So we indulged! Bought some neslte chocolate and porto!! Why not..............

LISBOA!

Lisbon, Portugal
Day 37
Saturday

Trekked to bus station 2kms and left Porto to Lisbon at 11.15am-

The trip to Lisbon was quite amazing really. Unlike Western Australia where the land is vast and desolate..the scenery is amazing. So many Eucalyptus as well. Tasmananian Blue Gums everywhere. I wonder why?

Reminisced, being that the journey took 3 1/2 hours about why we were doing the trip and how weºve accomplished what iºd been dying to do for a lifetime. I remember when Annie was 19 and left home with Pamela to go to London. And ended up staying overseas, seeing so many places, with me, the little sister, 6 years younger, putting my big sis on a pedestal, always dreaming about someday, travelling. And now itºs real. Weºre really doing it. And itºs just a big accomplishment. I really get emotional when i think about the history leading up to this trip and the reality of what weºre doing.

Greg feel slightly different because he has travelled before, in his youth when he left home to seek job opportunities when he graduated, to also working overseas later on for his work. But he says heºs never travelled as weºre doing. Where we donºt know what accomodation weºre heading for, what town weºll seek out, where weºll go and when itºll end. Itºs an exciting way of travelling and itºs true travelling. No stopping to work, just to seek the next spot.

Luxury of working and life for the last 20 years have enabled us to do this. We could never have afforded it or yearned to do it this way in our youth. Itºs the right time, now, in the present, in the now and the current. Itºs now that matters and itºs wonderful doing it together as we just completely fit together.

The first thing we saw, entering Lisboa was the 3 huge sails on the bridge! Which depict Vasco De Garma, the ocean marine explorer and navigator. We also saw monuments with him on it..as well as their most famous poet. Louizde Canios.

Arrived at Rossio metro and looked for accomodation! Went to 2 places and we were told, ªAll Completo!ª so we went back to a place we saw near the metro and went up the 75 steps to see if they had a place for us in the INN!~

They did! What a deadbeat place! Beggars at the doors, beggars at the plaza below, shower that was really dodgy and a bed that was as hard and lumpy as stone!! But! We got somewhere, so we were happy!

We went to the Square to find do some tours seeing there are English speaking people here and found two tours we could go on. But one place said we could book there, anther place said we could book there, another place said just turn up to the bus in the morning but we thought, well itºs Easter Sunday, weºll just end up in the Square looking lost! Which we did in the end! Went to dinner at the restaurante after both saying how starving we really were and found a place...and they were closed for lunch! They all seem to have lunch between 12 and 3pm!!!!

Found another place finally and had dinner there. I had cod...Sam, believe me, when i sent that message to you saying the cod was crap and Abrolhos cod is THE best in the world, i meant it! It really is!!! I couldnºt eat it. Greg had chicken and shared with me....what a guy!!!

Climbed our hundred stairs, minus the pack, and slept like logs...(on the ground!)