So this week marks one year since I moved back to Utah, a feat I said I would never do, but it’s been a good year. I still managed to travel a lot, got a promotion at work (two really), actually got a girlfriend!, and a lot more. Here are a bunch of pictures as sort of a summary of the past year in Utah (and travels elsewhere).
Portugal: Sagres, Loule, Quarteira
It’s been harder to finish this trip to Portugal post than I thought. Work kinda fell apart on me while I was gone then my computer has had some hiccups while I did a few upgrades but today, right here, right now, I will finish my posts for my trip to Portugal.
Sagres is about as far West as you can go in Southern Portugal. If you look at a map of Portugal, it’s the little point that sticks out in the most Southwest point of the country.
On our way there we found a cool little shop that sold pottery and clay tiles which are two things Portugal is famous for. I was able to get some Christmas gifts there for a pretty reasonable price for my family. It was a nice little surprise off the side of the road.
Up to this point we had only been hit by waves and and waded into the water a bit so we decided to jump in the ocean just so we could say we did. So on the tip of Portugal I jumped into the pounding surf and froze. It was cold enough to make it hard to breathe for a second and then as I dove under the waves I couldn’t hold my breath for too long. It was fun though. No pictures since we were both foolish enough to do it.
After that we went to this huge fort sticking out into the ocean. The walls of the fort were huge but only cut off access from the land. The sides facing the ocean had no protection but I’m pretty sure the two hundred foot cliffs would stop any real invasion. (Unless there was a really long rope, then Andre The Giant could carry people up on his back.) Also, the cannons at this fort along with the cannons on other peninsulas canvased the coast so there was no way for ships to get close.
It was pretty windy and I was still kinda wet but I had to walk the whole way around the place cause it was really cool. There is a modern lighthouse on the peninsula but you can’t go in it. Also, in the the middle of the peninsula there is a hole in the ground that goes all the way to the water… it was kinda creepy. I just couldn’t believe what a severe drop it was all the way to the ocean on all sides.
Back at the fort, there was a little church, there used to be a school of navigation, and there is a huge wind compass (or sun dial, they’re not entirely sure). The Portuguese were the ones who figured out how to navigate far away from land which is how they became such a naval power. Columbus learned how to navigate from the Portuguese as well.
We headed down to another beach to catch a few more sunset pictures then headed out to find some food. We found a little restaurant on a side street that turned out to be the best meal of the trip in my opinion. We were chilly and got to sit right by the fireplace and had the best fish soup ever. I tried to get the recipe but with no luck. Then I had seafood lasagna. It sounded interesting and I always have good luck when I’m that close to the ocean with seafood and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a good dinner.
After dinner we headed back to Lagos for the last night in Portugal. In the morning we headed over to Loule to see a big farmers market that we read about. It was pretty cool and an easy stop on the way to the airport. We wandered around the city for a bit afterwards, partly because we were lost and partly cause we were trying to see the whole city really fast. We found some medieval ruins but it was only part of a castle wall that was left.
We still had time to kill before our flight so we went to the coastal city of Quarteira to get some lunch and one last look at the ocean. Again, we weren’t disappointed with some big Portuguese sandwiches smothered in gravy. After that, it was on to the airport, the crazy Ryanair flight back to Brussels and a few hours of sleep before I headed back to the U.S. and all the craziness that had has since unfolded at Sherwin Williams.
Post Script…
We’re thinking maybe Egypt for our next big trip.
Oh, and here’s a picture of our little Mitsubishi Colt that took us everywhere.
What’s that? I should actually finish writing about my trip? Ok.
Before we left for Albufeira we had already found a place to stay in Lagos. The reviews were excellent on this little guest house so I figured it should be a good time. So at the end of the day in Albufeira we got back on the highway and headed West to Lagos.
When we got there we tried finding the guest house on our own with absolutely no luck, but we did get a good idea of the layout of the city. We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions and they could only get us to the general area then they told us to ask for better ones once we got to the neighborhood. We tried that with no success. We drove around and around stopping to ask for directions every few minutes for quite a while. I think we must have asked for directions at least a dozen times till finally we stumbled across the missionaries. Yes, the Mormon missionaries. It was quite funny. I hopped out of the car and in English said, “Hey what’s up guys, do you know where this address is?” handing them a piece of paper. They looked confused so they asked the guy they were talking to if he knew where it was. Then I switched to Portuguese and said, “Everyone keeps saying it’s right around here but we seriously can’t find it.” The missionary had an idea, pointed to some buildings and said that’s probably them (in English). I just said, “Sweet, thanks Elders.” hopped in the car and we drove off. We were laughing at the chance encounter and laughing because they were probably pretty confused at what happened. We never said who we were or why I spoke with such a strange accent. I’m sure they figured out the basics of what happened but it was still funny.
We eventually found the address… but it wasn’t the guest house. It was the owner’s apartment. She was crazy!! I explained that we had a reservation and said ok, then she asked if we were Spanish. I have no idea why she asked this considering Carter is half Chinese and last I checked I wasn’t speaking with a lisp like the Spanish. I told her no we were American but she decided we were Spanish anyway and started speaking Spanish. After a few minutes of this I explained, no really, we’re Americans but I speak Portuguese. So she just switched back to her native tongue.
She showed us how to get to the guest house and said she would meet us there. We made it without getting lost which we were happy about but then the crazy lady showed us around the guest house. I really can’t explain all the crazy stuff she was talking about because everything that came out of her mouth was nuts so it would take too long but just believe me, she was nuts.
Eventually I got the room key off her, she finally left, Carter and I looked at each other and said, we’re finding another place tomorrow morning. So we left that place and wandered the city and the marina that night and left promptly the next morning to find a new place. That’s what was really nice about having a car was that we could just throw all of our stuff into it and not worry about having to carry it around with us while we were looking.
We had breakfast at a place that had the Internet and found a few options, checked them out and ended up at a great hostel where we got a really good deal. We wandered the city a bit more before we got to the hostel but after we stashed our stuff there we headed out to the coast again where there are bunch of trails along the cliffs.
We were out climbing all over these cliffs for probably about six hours. Some of the trails took us right down to the beach and others took us along some very sheer drop offs high above the beaches. It was awesome. I didn’t manage to stay very dry though. Sometimes it was on purpose, sometimes it was to get a good picture and other times it was cause I was an idiot, tripped on my own pant leg and face planted in the sand as a wave came in.
The next day we decided to get up early to take pictures of the sunrise. We had no idea what time this would be at so we just got up real early. Turns out it was REAL early. We waited around trying not to freeze for an hour or so, got some pictures, and went back to bed for a bit. When we got up just a few hours later we headed off to Sagres, the furthest West we could go.