a short stop to lisboa, a sensuality of lambada

we woke up at about 8 am, i just brushed my teeth, since i showered last night it doesnt seem so important to do it early in the morning, the girls and ben went to the shower room and freshen themselves up, i just stayed outside of the car and looked at the wire fences to see the beach just behind the walls - it was amazing! the sun was so clear and the waves pounding on the soft sand, i could have requested to stay here than go to lisbon and the algarve, but i am so excited to see lisbon! i heard so many good things about it! it would be a regretful thing not to see one of europa's beautiful, majestic and romantic capital city.

so were off at 8:30 am. the we put our foods and stuff on the top of the car, to make room for the guys at the back, so they can sleep comfortably and they did ^_^ hahahaha. but alex was a bit complaining now that his back hurts. he was the first to crack in our group. hahaha. after a quick heebeejeebies all of us were ready to hit the road again and to the much anticipated algarve!

as we were driving around the campsite - would you believe we got lost again?! hahaha bloody hell! hahaha then a man motioned for us to go straight - yeah right - straight to dead end! hahahahahahah hahahahahaha. fortunately we found our way, but this one was very ridiculous, as the campsite was not that big at all!

at the camp entrace - it would open at 9 am! blah blah blah - so we have to wait for 30 minutes - so while waiting - we ate some breakfast. our itinerary for today was to do a short trip to lisbon, buy pablo's family a gift and then head straight to the algarve. i took a look at the map again, i calculated the distance - it was about 300 kms from where we are to libson, i couldnt believe that it was that far and i didnt know - well, i didnt expect that from north to south of portugal is long.  in germany, since we dont have any speed limits in the autobahn - 300 kms is nothing - its just 2:30 hours driving - but in portugal and spain they have only until 120 kms/hour so its much more longer than i imagined.

getting out of cortegaca to the main highway was a tough challenge, as cortegaca is located on the coast and only dirt roads leading up to the main highway, we got lost in little towns for a good hour. and at one point were going back to furaduro again, i was just so frustrated as i couldnt do anything! then the second to crack was rubs, she got a bit sick and she needs a cough syrup :( poor rubs, so as we were trying to find our way out, we were looking for a pharmacia - thank god its also the same in spanish - farmacia - so we kept our eyes open, and when we found one, i accompanied rubs to the drugstore which was thank god open.

lori and ben checking out some things at plaza pombal.

i asked the woman in the store if she can speak english or spanish and she said she can speak a bit of english. i asked for a cough syrup but she couldnt understand me, haaaayyy this is the thing that i was avoiding with language barriers, to act stupid just to be able to understand one another, so i acted that i was sick and coughed in front of her and she instantly understood me! hahahahha i just rolled my eyes! so we bought the cough syrup. and headed back to the car. i was really worried for rubs and to the other guys, as i had been doing this kind of hard roadtrips well much harder in the philippines, and i am used to it. but if it would endanger the health of my friends, i would turn and head back to spain. this is how i care for my friends.

miraculously, we found our way out of the little towns back aghain to the main highway, i felt we were so blessed, as someone beyond in the universe were guiding and helping us in times of desperation.

a rare moment between me and alex! hahahaha

i can only look in the sky.

the weather was so gorgeous and beautiful, clear blue sky with clouds that looked like cottons in the heaven, and it was fairly hot too. i was sweating inside the car, alex, rubs and hannah were sleeping, lori was writing in her journal, ben was driving comfortably - though i am feeling anxious that he was driving for some time now. we already played most of the cd's - metallica and hardcore music, then i put something out of the blue, the gigolo aunts. it was nice! its a perfect roadtrip song. we were humming along the tune and in good mood.

suddenly our good mood were lost as we had to pay tolls again - and were a little bit pissed off of that - its ripping our pool money apart. then we gassed up, then went inside the gas station and bought our lunch, i bought something familiar in germany, kind of like currywürstchen bread and it was YUMMY. alex knew about that bread and bought one for himself. we hang there for like 30 minutes, freshened ourselves up and a bit of stop and relax for ben. we were driving for like 2 hours now and lisbon was still a bit far - like 1-1.30 hours away. bloody.

we arrived at the outskirts of lisbon at about 1:30 pm - we got fucking lost again - as signs are so rare in portugal - we were in some kind of industrial area and we kept driving into this mall of some sort. then we drove around the area - sure we were inside lisbon - but - we were in some kind of a ghetto with rundown buildings and well, full of colored people. i was a bit scared to ask directions. we looked at the map again, redirected ourselves after more twists and turns were finally driving in the right way!

we finally found centro and parked robbocock in a parking space. basically we just had to follow the long "avenida" that will lead us to the historical center of lisbon. we made our way to to plaza pombal where a massive huge monument was! hahahahahahahaha we were so amazed how huge it was and of course took pictures of it! lori doenst want to spend much time in lisbon, our main thing was just to buy presents for the grandal-caneiro family. but since most of us were fascinated by lisbon, we decided to go further! it was a very interesting city in the middle down pombal was a treelined avenue full of tropical plants from brazil!

at the very entrance to the old part of lisbon, we saw a souvenir shop and contemplated what kind of gifts shoud we buy for the family - lori said a vase to put flowers - but  i want more something special, something that would symbolize the family.   we took a look about stuffs and we still hadnt decided. i bought some ref magnets for my mother, she would kill me if i didnt hahahahahahaa.

the old part of lisbon was stunning! lisbon reminded me alot of athens - thats what alex thought too! but lisbon has many wide avenues, trees and spaces than athens - but it has the athensy feeling to it. i would love to walk around the old quarter of lisbon and explore its little alleys, mingle with lisboans....  go to a little cafe and eat and drink in the sun. i have never seen a city in europa with so much african heritage! i mean portugal together with france and belgium, has lots of african colonies than any other european countries - angola and mosambique are on the top of my head as portuguese colonies.

sensual ms. cheetos! ^_^

lisbon has so many beautiful people. the beauty of the people mixes perfectly with the citiy's magnificent architectures and edifices. a very sensual city. the mixture of the people and the architectures i find so sexy and alluring.

we didnt wandered further from the plaza - since we dont have much time - so of course :D rubs, lori and me went to mcdonalds - fast! because we need fast food and hahhanh brought some fresh pastries and bread from a portuguese bakery because shes vegetarian.

after milling around in the plaza - we went back and i thought of a perfect gift for the family - since the family lives near the sea - and pablo works in the spanish navy - a miniature sailboat will be a perfect gift! :D

so we bought it, and i asked the lovely girl where is the nearest metro going to pombal and she directed me to it - paid the metro - a bit expensive in lisbon 1. 30 something (but nothing can match in düsseldorf! hahah 2.20 cents) hahahahahaha.

when were trying to get our of lisbon - we have to pass the bridge 25 de abril bridge - it was hell massive and modeled after the golden gate bridge in san fran and a miniature statue of christ like the one they have in corcovado in rio de janeiro.

it was ANOTHER TOLL AGAIN TO PAY. we have to collect again 20 euros from each of us. our money is going fast and we dont really have a target where to go - i mean to lagos and all but we will still see when we get there. ben was also tired now, he was complaining a little bit. now i am a little worried,  and the bad news was : ben WAS cracking.

a beautiful structure!