Casa De Alvor Hotel

... since we left the UK). We learn that there is a campsite in the town centre. Initially we viewed this with some trepidation and indeed it was less than rural surrounded by apartment blocks, however, cheap (euro 10 a night) clean and run by a very friendly Dutch lady; ideal for a couple of nights of cosmopolitan living (Lym gets to put his jeans on for the first time since leaving the uk). <br><br>so Saturday night on the town... for starters we had a ...

Over the last couple days I've watched my shaky plan fall around me. I don't really know where to go next, and surprise bills are depleting my meager funds. Thankfully I'm stranded in Southern Portugal, its cheap and beautiful, indeed there are less desirable places to be stranded.<br><br>I decide to join a group of young kiwis heading to Lagos; partly for the social aspect, partly because I would like to see more of the coast. Faro ...

... from this chef. Daniella laughs, she is the chef. She obviously finds it more amusing than I.<br><br>Dinner is also a simple affair here. Daniella leaves to take a shower before dinner. I'm given no directions as to how I should finish the meal, but it is obvious that I am expected to. I have no idea how long the meat has been in the oven, and to be honest I don't really care. A quick count on vegetables and dessert portions and it becomes obvious that not enough food has been ...

... back home might even sell for 30 bucks. Dinner is finished and the plates come back half eaten. Fish is dissected though not eaten, the beans barely touched. Apparently these people hate big meaty delicious fish. A dessert of instant pudding pie is consumed in its entirety. <br><br>I will never understand what it is about a meal that makes people love it or hate it.

<br>An excursion to Lagos&#8217;s Marina followed by a boat trip to Ponta de Sagres (The most western point of Europe, from where the Portuguese sailors started the discovery of new worlds) will allow to enjoy the<br>natural beauty of the rocks, especially the famous and most impressive caves of Ponta da Piedade, wild beaches and the sea waves on the cliffs along the coast and also some of the &#8216;highlights ...

... br><br>The freezer and its secrets were waiting for me in an unlit room by the tool shed. I brought with me a flashlight and a few crates into which I unloaded the contents. What I experienced in that room, was certainly the most horrifying freezer I have ever seen. It was littered with empty plastic bags, frost bitten buns and unwrapped meat. A tray of open pork chops was so severely frost bitten that I'm really only guessing at its identity. One ...

In Albufeira, we went to a Portugese bullfight, not the real deal as in they don't kill the bull, rather they stab them in the back with a bunch of arrows. I thought it was mean, especially the first bull because it was pretty much still a baby and looked scared instead of angry. Jon ...

... tons of mussels on the bottom, also not fun. The road to get to this lagoon was really sketchy, there's a video in the link below so you can see for yourself.<br><br>http://picasaweb.googl e.com/Jonny.D.Lawrence/20091012Alvor?au thkey=Gv1sRgCN_Jy47QxsiTwAE&amp;feat=di rectlink

The west and south coast of Portugal is pretty much a long stretch of beaches surrounded and separated by huge red cliffs and you can get from one beach to another by crawling through caves in the cliffs (I also think that's where the bums sleep at night...) We did some surfing at a small secluded beach that I had been to 4 years ago with my family. We&#8217;re ...

... throw the line in down the 60 metre cliff and wait for a bite, so they must have a very sensitive hand. I wondered for a while whether this was more or less dangerous than the rock fishing common back home and came to the conclusion one is probably as dangerous as the other, but a bigger splat is involved here. We left them to it. What ended ...