Gr8escape's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Portuguese plans...
Entry 40 of 90 | show all | print this entry |
|
(S) Portugal. No preconceived ideas. No expectations. No plans. No guidebooks. Let's see how this one works out for us.
I write this entry from a campground outside of Salema, in the Algarve region of Portugal. Truth be told - I don't even know anyone who's ever been here. Until one of you email and tell me you've been here of course. We left Sevilla yesterday without knowing anything of the country, I repeat country, we were about to enter. We drove along the sparsely developed coast and wondered if we were even driving along the ocean. We found this campground by chance, or rather ancient Northern Cheyenne intuition. I hated the first one and we moved down the coast. In case you were wondering, we've been traveling by car (very small European car I might add - but very easy to park) thru Spain for exactly two weeks and have been spending nearly every night in a tent. We have come very close to driving each other nuts, but have weathered it.
Today we took a break. Just a stop from the traveling, the towns, the sightseeing, the cathedrals, and the squares. We did laundry in the campground sinks (yes, laundry sinks - outside even), strung string between an orange tree and a quince tree for our clothes to dry upon, and set off for the ocean. It was a short drive. The ocean is rough, as it doesn't stop between America and here. We climbed the strange rocks, got extremely wet and walked along the sand some more. I am now back in the safety of the campground, in the wonderful on ground restaurant/bar, enjoying my turkey leg stuffed with bacon and clams. We have joined the family here at this campground, which made us stay an extra night. We were supposed to be in Lisbon tonight. I wonder where we will be tomorrow...
(C) I LOVE IT HERE. We got here by accident. First stop was a crap campground I picked out, that thankfully Sara negged. We moved on to the next one down the coast and it is absolutely perfect. The showers, bathrooms and laundry areas are clean and surrounded by beautiful orange and quince trees. We had such a perfect morning of coffee, cheese sandwiches, and laundry in the sun. Bought our first clothesline and clothespins that we are so happy about. Our campsite looks like trailerpark but it is wonderful. Our time on the beach today was good - interspersed with Sara's complete frustration with ending up 10 miles down a dirt road only to find ourselves at the top of a cliff - not at the beach. I keep reminding her I have never been here before. We quickly drove down to the beach where we spent the most amazing afternoon.
Tonight has been downloading pictures on the patio, drinking Portuguese wine - after weathering the extremely aggressive bordelaise in the grocery store who spotted our French license plates and spent the next 20 minutes trying to sell us his family wine from Bordeaux. Sara had quite enough of it and gave me a mercy fit in the store - which finally enabled us to break free with our "crappy" but delicious "under-the-three-euro-limit" Portuguese wine and head for our fantastic campground. Now - turkey leg, potatoes and delicious bottle of 1995 Terra Das Fragas douro wine recommended by Paulo, we are preparing ourselves for the longer evening of chatting with our English buddies at the bar - who are all retirees here from the cloudy country for months at a time. Naturists some of them. Sara's favorite is a guy who looks just like Ted Night - who is from Wales and a former seacaptain. His wife says he catches a lot of baitfish during the day. Life here is wonderful.
More thumbnails ...
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by gr8escape, from Portugal or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
11 votes 
This is a top pick!
