Sangria Tastes Like Juice and Makes you Mental
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2007
1
15
17
Trip End
Jul 31, 2007
The Algarve,
Portugal
Monday, July 16, 2007
So Portugal, what to say about that lovely little slice of the world? It was great. We spent a lot of time on the beach which was fine by me. For the first few days after Kathy arrived we did a little sight seeing. We went into Lisbon, saw the big church of Fatima, the Convento de Christo (which was incredible, apparently it was in the running for the seven wonders of the world), did a little shopping. In the evenings we went out locally a few times. Stacy and Bruno live in Entroncomento (which means junction), a cute little town. Beer and wine is ridiculous cheap. In a restaurant a beer is like one euro. and wine is like 90 cents. They have something here called green wine (because its made from green grapes, don't know what the hell they use to make white wine) which is slightly sparkling and very light and delicious.
Stacy and her bump
We also tried the caracoices which are snails. (Or I should say I tried them) They still are in the shells and have their little antennas and everything. It's not good to look at them too much before you eat them and the big ones kind of scare me, but other than that they are delicious!So after a few days the girls piled into Bruno's 1979 Mercedes, called the Mushi Bomb (somehting to do with the army I think), and headed to the Algarve. It was a gorgeous drive and the scenery was somewhat similar to what you might see in the Okanagan. We stayed in a place called Portimao which has the biggest beach in the Algarve, Praia de Rocha. Bruno's boss has a condo there and let us stay in it for a significantly discounted rate. Sweet! It was only five minutes from the beach, though we only went there once. It was just so huge and there was an issue with sand fleas. So instead we checked out other places, including our favourite beach, Lagos. Very, very incredible. In the evenings we usually went to Albuferda, which was so adorably cute, narrow cobblestone streets, seaside restaurants and rows and rows of bars.
So mostly we were pretty subdued, Stacy being pregnant and all. Me and kath really only got drunk a handful of times. One of those times was my birthday. We went to Lagos in the day and then into Albuferda. I drank some beer at dinner, then we went to an outdoor bar where they sell these gigantic cocktails that come with about a hundred garnishes, including like a mini firework, and cost like ten bucks.
yeah....
So ya, I had to have one of those. Tequila sunrise. Next we moved onto the sangria. They have both red and white here but red is better. Its very cheap and they use brandy, cointreau, gin, red wine and beer to make it. I'm telling you this stuff tastes like fruit punch, and it sure freaking packs a punch. No mix and every familly of alcohol is represented. Enough of that stuff and you just cannot be held responsible for your actions. So at some point in the night we decide we want to leave but we weren't finished our final jug. Solution? Steal it of course. Stacy told us not to but what can you do, it seemed like such a good idea at the time. So somehow, Im still not sure how because it was almost empty, the jug spills everywhere in kathy's purse. So we sit at a table and take everything out. Everything seemed to come out okay. the phone still worked, ditto for the camera. And everything made it back into the bag and back home, vitamins, cigarettes, nail polish. Except one thing. And what do you think went missing? Kathy's passport haha. "I TOLD you not to still that damn jug" said stacy. "But did you listen?" Anyways to make a long story short, the passport was retrieved, a good samaritan found it and turned it over to the police. So, all's well that ends well! You can't have a birthday without getting a little ridiculous!Though that wasn't the only time sangria made us do crazy things.... On one of our last nights Kath and I drank two bottles of wine, followed by two jugs of sangria, after which I drank three pints of beer. We went on a thieving rampage. We met these guys who were on a stag and ended up partying with them. I blame them for egging us on. Everytime one of them got a beer they were like "This is a nice mug, do you want to pinch it?" So we did.
The Girls
Stacy was like "They were calling you guys gypsies" and i was like why? and she said "because you kept stealing everything!" haha. So the long and short of that story is, Kathy now has five beer mugs in varying sizes and one Hieneken ashtray to go along with her sangria jug. I'm telling you, it's the sangria. That stuff just makes a person totally insane and should only be drank with extreme caution, though it never is.So we returned to entroncomento for a few days, met some of Bruno´s friends and had dinner with his parents a few times. Did some BBQ´s and sampled Bruno´s homemade sangria. They really love it here! We were pretty good that night though. So I left yesterday and took the train up to Porto to catch my flight into Barcelona. Bruno made one of his friends pick me up which made me feel very embarassed but it worked out great. I only had a few hours but I got to see a bit of Porto. It is much different than central or south Portugual, it sounds stupid but it seemed more european. I love to come back one day and spend more time in the North. Anyways, at a later date I will tell you the story of the Portuguese blind date. It deserves it's own entry.
No disc drive here so no pics for now. Fear not though, I have a disc combining mine, stacy's and kathy's photos so there is like five hundred! Ciao for now!
