On The Road

We got on the only East-West divided highway in Portugal on Wednesday morning and headed West to the resort town of Albufeira. We were planning on spending the day there before heading further West to another city where we had a hostel reserved.

Albufeira is a little city in the hills above the ocean that must explode in the summer. It was a really nice little town with narrow windy streets. The beaches on the southern coast of Portugal are set in between stretches of high cliffs that drop straight down into the ocean. It makes for a pretty dramatic landscape.

After wandering through the city for a while we headed down to the beach where I bought a cheap pair of sandals cause I figured Doc Marten boots aren’t great for wandering around on the beach. We crossed the wide open sandy part of the beach and headed for the cliffs where we saw a trail leading along the base of them. We bypassed a fence that may have been telling us not to go this direction but it wasn’t really blocking the whole trail so we decided it wasn’t there to stop people.

We climbed around on the rocks for a while taking pictures and avoiding the sea spray. Carter told me to climb out onto a rock so he could take a picture which I quickly decided wasn’t that great of an idea. The rocks were kinda sharp and the one in question was getting hit occasionally by waves. He said he’d go next so I gave in fairly quickly and climbed out to it. It wasn’t bad till a wave caught me by surprise and I got a little bit wet. I was laughing as Carter was still taking pictures. What he was taking pictures of was the swell forming then cresting behind me and smashing all around me. It was pretty funny I’ll admit and definitely worth it.

We pretty much did that for a few hours then climbed up the cliff and ended up back in the city. We wandered along the coast till we found a pretty good place to eat and there were some museums right there too so we stayed in that area for the rest of the afternoon.

By the time the sun was setting we were back down on the beach ready to take some pretty cool pictures. I had climbed up onto some huge rock formation at the base of a cliff and was just messing around up there for a little while then finally we had taken enough pictures and went back to the car and headed off on our biggest adventure yet: Finding a placed to stay that night.

On Tuesday Carter and I headed downtown to check the military museum before we had to catch our flight. We hung out there for an hour or so then headed to the south train station to catch a bus to take us to the Charleroi airport.

We were flying Ryan Air so we had to go to the outlying airport instead of the main one. Once we got there we had some time to kill and you’re not even allowed to check in early. After eating some sketchy meatballs in the cafeteria we got checked in and waited.

Most low fare carriers in the U.S. will either give you an assigned seat or a zone or something to aide in the boarding process… not Ryan Air. It’s more of a ready, set, go type boarding through the front and back doors. Mass chaos. Dogs and cats sleeping together. Seriously, it’s absolutely retarded. Then we got on board and we are greeted by blue and yellow everything. The seat backs are yellow and blue plastic, which have no seat back pocket so the emergency card was on the seatback. Weird. Then I realized that you can’t recline the seats on their planes. Does that save money? Drinks were €2, sandwiches cost about the same as a new home in the U.S. and I didn’t catch how much the perfume was. Oh, and they also sell scratch cards to win €1 million. Stupid.

Eventually we got to Faro, where everyone clapped when we landed then literally jumped into the aisles as soon as they were allowed. Ugh. We forgot to print off a map of how to get to the first hostel but it was supposed to be on the same road as the airport so we just started walking. Eventually we stopped at a little grocery store and asked for directions (my Portuguese was apparently still functioning) and only had to go a little further to get there.

When we got there we found out that the hostel and adjoining restaurant have the same name. We went in the door that clearly wasn’t the restaurant. I asked the girl behind the counter if we were in the right place and she said the place was next door. I looked puzzled then she said, oh, are you looking for the Hostel? It’s right here. I thought, two guys walk in wearing backpacks saying they have a reservation. What do you think is going on? It all worked out and the hostel was actually pretty nice. We dumped our stuff but it was still early and wanted to go out.

We asked the chica behind the counter if there was anything to do but she had no ideas. We walked around a bit but there really wasn’t anything nearby. We went back to the hostel and asked how far the city was and were told it’s too far to walk and she didn’t know where to get a taxi. She got an F in helpfulness for a hostel worker.

We did end up walking all the way to the city center on the side of the highway. It was kinda interesting. The walking, not the city. Faro is pretty boring. We wandered around for a while then found a cab and had an exciting drive back to the hostel.

The next morning we walked back to the airport and picked up our little rental car. We got our stuff, grabbed some stuff from the grocery store and headed off for our next destination: Albufeira.

Ok, so I brought my laptop so we could figure out where to stay along the way… but I don’t have time right now to post much but I will throw up to teaser pics.  If you can see my face in the first one… it is pure shock and surprise, Carter saw it coming but I didn’t.

Well, I got caught up on my sleep so we ended up getting a fairly late start on the day. We were up last night walking around the Christmas market downtown then trying to watch some Football on Carter’s computer but the Steeler’s game wasn’t shown in Seattle so we couldn’t get it on his SlingBox. Anyway, the Christmas market was pretty cool. Lots of little tents set up with crafts and what not to sell, the buildings were lit up, and Christmas trees were all around. There was one place that had a church all lit in red that looked a little creepy and this crazy carousel in front of it. The carousel looked like something designed by Tim Burton. Seriously, it was crazy and looked like it should have been in the movie Big. The pictures I took don’t really show enough so I’ll put some video up to show how crazy it is.

In the morning, after I got my lazy self out of bed we went upstairs to a Turkish restaurant and got some gyros but they were rolled up in something more like a tortilla instead of the more common folded in half pita thing. It was pretty good. We also had some French Fries which are actually from Belgium and quite tasty except that you have to pay extra for ketchup. After that we headed downtown to go to some museums… or so we thought. Turns out, like in many places in the U.S., museums are closed on Mondays. D’oh. So we took off for the Belgian’s version of the Arc de Triomphe.

The park that the arc is in was originally used as military exercising grounds. It was later used for exhibitions and what not. The arc and the buildings surrounding it were built by Leopold II around 1880, but the arc itself wasn’t finished until the early 1900’s because of the cost.

As we entered the park the arc was straight ahead about 1/4 mile. We started to walk towards it till we saw an empty pedestal. There were statues all over the place but this one was apparently missing. Why? Who knows, but i thought it would be a good idea to climb on it and take some pictures. Walking over to it I heard some weird bird noises, I looked up, and realized the bird was green, like really bright green. Odd. It took off and I realized it was a parrot. Then all of a sudden I noticed they were everywhere. On a cold, windy, overcast day in Brussels, in a park with bare trees, there were parrots all over the place. Very odd. I looked online for an explanation but there appears to be none. We took some pictures of them then took pictures of me on the pedestal. The pictures are on Carter’s camera and I’ll get them later but I guess me climbing up onto the pedestal was funny enough to film so I put it online as well.

Well, the museums there were of course closed too, so we just wandered around the city all day. Carter bought a tripod since we realized how hard it was to use his new zoom lens and hold the camera still enough to get a good shot and we figure it will be good to have in Portugal. Then we went home for some dinner and back out for some dessert. Seriously, though, I can’t emphasize enough how anything sold in the U.S. as a Belgian waffle is like buying Chinese food at Panda Express and calling it real Chinese food. Belgian waffles are roughly a bagillion times better here. (That’s a pretty big number.)

Guess where I am…

(more…)

I just got back from what I would consider a ‘Haglund Trip’.

I flew into Ontario, CA around 3:00pm on Monday to see my Grandma and help her with some computer stuff and whatever else I could around the house. Then I was dropped off at the airport the next day at 3:30pm.

Having flight benefits but also having a job makes short trips necessary most of the time. My dad is the absolute king of short trips. To Los Angeles from Pittsburgh and back, business meetings and what not and not gone longer than 36 hours. I pulled off a trip to London last year where I was outside of the airport for only 23 hours. My mom flew to NYC from Pittsburgh just to take my dad his cell phone because he forgot it in my car and needed it ASAP. Eighteen hours on FedEx was too long apparently. Anyway… also in the Haglund style, my dad happened to be in Burbank for meetings and Josh lives in Los Angeles so my Grandma and I went to dinner on Monday night and soon enough those two showed up for dinner, frozen yougurt, then turned around headed back to the coast.

It was a quick but fun trip. I went from fresh snow and sledding down a road at 25mph with my girlfriend on the weekend to sitting in a t-shirt at In-N-Out back to cold but without a sweatshirt because I forgot it in CA in about 36 hours.

I didn’t take too many pictures on this trip but I did take some with my approved electronic device before we passed through 10,000 feet.

To everyone I’ve invited to come skiing in Utah: I think we’re ready.

To everyone who’s not sure why I live in Utah: my house is by the red arrow. Seriously, look at the view out my window.

My backyard.

Very cool post to follow in a few days… A country I’ve never been to.

I normally post when I travel somewhere. For Thanksgiving I didn’t really travel anywhere except all over Provo so I didn’t really think about posting anything. Kenzie reminded me that maybe I should post something since I took a lot of pictures and everyone else traveled to get here.

My family’s tradition for Thanksgiving seems to be to have it anywhere else but at home. Growing up it was normally in Mesa, AZ or Upland, CA. That has shifted in the past few years to Pocatello, ID. Sometimes it was in Irvine, CA or Abiqui, NM, but it was always away from home at other family members homes. Last year I was in London with Carter at his sister’s house. I can only remember one Thanksgiving at home and it wasn’t because we didn’t try, we just couldn’t work the whole flying standby thing to work in our favor and after a day in the airport we went home.

On a past trip a few months ago I found myself in my aunt Judi’s car going to crash on her couch where many a Haglund has slept on a Phoenix overnight layover. We were talking about where we were going to have Thanksgiving. She was going to have it at her daughter’s house (my cousin) in Springville and my family was coming to Provo. Our houses are maybe nine miles apart so we decided to join the two feasts. The end result was pretty good. My family came in from NYC, Los Angeles, Rexburg, ID and SLC. My grandma even made the trip from Upland, CA.

I still had to work some days and right when everyone was showing up my furnace went out as the temperatures outside dipped near freezing for the first time in weeks. It all worked out though. I got out of as much work as I could and we just kept making more pumpkin pies to keep the temperature in the house up and we weren’t eating at my house anyway.

In the end I think fun was had by all but I’m still hungry for pumpkin pie.

Here’s some pics:

Adam killing the Turkey with a sub compact XD.40.

A little Catch Phrase waiting for the food to be ready.

No on in the family really watches football.

Jacob Ian with his grandpas.

The brothers. (Haven’t gotten around to photoshopping it yet.)

Everyone. (Also in need of photoshop.)