Comigo tu vais ficar

Now it is time to speed up my writingprocesses - blogwise and projectwise. It has been a while due to being so busy and lazy at the same time. So a few weeks ago I had a visitor coming from my homeland dearest and the guest was my neighbour dearest, Janet! I was so looking forward to having her here, I really missed our stupidsilly hangouts. With my fellow erasmusans we had been planning a trip to Spain, Cies Isles out in the coast of Vigo and we had a hard time finding a date which would be suitable for all, and it was soo important for me to have the trip when Janet was here, so I tried pushing and pushing it. And then out of the blue - the guy who organises the Erasmus events announced the date of the trip to be at the perfect time - the weekend I was entertaining my guestiebestie :) The trip started the best way possible, all of the gang in a big bus heading to Spain - just like back in the day with your class on a fieldtrip. Only organising something with this many people, something is bound to go wrong.. one of the Barcelos eramus girls felt a little sick so our departure was delayed enough for us to miss the ferry to the islands and it cost us around an hour on the island. The Cíes Islands are an archipelago (cluster of islands) which are also a nature reserve and a part of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park. So every one of us got their own (queres um) saco aka a plastic bag to take all their trash with them once leaving the island. There are no bins on the island, so everyone is responsible for preserving the island in its pure form. Finally the ferry came back for us, since we had missed the first embarkation. 

The ride was unexpectedly cold, as I love to travel extralight, I often leave out necessesary jackets etc stuff that would help me not freeze. And ofcourse we seated ourselves on the upside (:D) so the wind could really enjoy bullying us. Even the clouds made a big grinny-figure just to laugh at us. No, not really. Finally the ferryboatie arrived at the destination and we could start discovering the island. The first glance at the island was already impressive! We started our hike to the lighthouse at the other end of the island in the horizontal-vertical direction. Luckily the weather was just perfect for scamming through the island. We passed a walkway which was surrounded by a beautiful rocky bay on one side and a salt-lake on the other. And the ascending began. The sights were absolutely mesmerizing - beautiful blue waters, boats floating on the sea, heights with amazing views down on a neighbouring island and on the greenery of that island. Once reaching the mountain top with the lighthouse we rewarded ourselves with some cookies, yum. And after that it was time to go back down to the beach. Since the isles reminded me a little of my alltime favourite Jurassic Park, I thought it would be a sin to leave my dino behind.. Dinos adoption to my family was a compelte surprise, and now he is a true travel companion of mine. So I took some shots of him in the wilderness:D:D

But the beach was really the wildest wilderness of them all. We found a spot to enjoy the sun and have a little snack and all that other stuff you do at the beach. And then Diogo informs us that ´you have to be careful of the seagulls, they like to steal your food, even from the bags.´ OH BOZE. They really were circling around us the whole time. And the worse was when someone took out anything edible. Christina offered everybody her cookies, not the usual canela bolachas from Continente, but a new, cheaper version. I got to take a bite of it, when the noise of humangous wings flapping behind me scared me so much, that my hands first reaction was to throw the cookie far away and save myself from a fate worst then death (now i´m just quoting HP). I was so ashamed.. it wasnt even my cookie that I just sacrificed. And the gullie stormed to eat it.. nasty bird. Its flockbuddies weren´t any humbler than him, one of them tried to sneaksteal food from šarkas bag, it got it open already when someone noticed the sucker and schooed it away. Other than that the beach was incredible! Another spot with crystalclear, lightblue water, though it was supercold, even us, the tempered surfing girls, didn´t want to take a dip. The boats floating on the water made it just into an idyllic sight.

The next day was the day of the long-awaited pool party at Brunos house. After arriving in Ponte de Lima, the crimescene of awesomeness, we ran straight to the tennis court. Yes you heard(read) me right, a tennis court. And we stayed there for over an hour, funfunfuninthesun! And when it was time for us to jump in the pool, it was just perfect! Funfunfuninthewater now! Playing catch or dog or whaatever, diving from the board, maybe slipping..ssh(!) The feeling I got from being there is truly undescribable, but I´ll still try to paint you a picture. An exceptional group of people all together at a yard that is so full of activities that even my granny couldnt stay idle. Tennis, some faulty badminton, volleyballey, football, ballgames in the pool, then real pool, darts, farts(maybe..), dancinnngg to kizomba, everything you could possibly need was there. And then just being there, going from person to person, enjoying the company in a place where you can really mingle. On top of it all snacks and cocktails to enjoy. When the sun was setting, everybody was dancing to kizomba, cause I had my kizomba-partner with me (ANNA), demanding to them kizomba tunes. šarka had gone around telling everybody that at 10 sharp we gather at the pool. So we took some lousy quality photos but great quality jumps into the pool and did some wife-boxxing or whats it now :) Luis is really like a fish in the water, at first I couldnt get on his back anyhow but then he invented a technique which only took him like 2 seconds to have me fightready on his shoulders.

The drive back home was really..sad in a way. It had been such an amazing day, even overwhelmingly awesome and it made me and my co-passengers so sentimental, driving in the dark, all those fresh memories spinning through our heads, trying to come down from that cloud we were still floating on. And arriving in front of the resi made me think that its so nice to be home, crash into my bed and rest for the upcoming week. It´s home.

And live your life like there is no tomorrow, son

This weekend was finally time for us to bon voyage ourselves to the amazing Algarve. The travelparty consisted of 8 cast&crew members so no doubt it was gonna be a friggin fizzing time! We met with the Barcelona gang in Porto where our journey began. And once we arrived and got our cars, we couldnt believe what goldpit we had fallen into. Let me paint you a picture.. in order to still have liquidity after this trip, we booked the cheapest vehicles with no airconditioning and definitely no panorama roof. But what did we end up with?? These huge carriages to ride around with equipped with cool air to help us survive the hot algarvian weather and the austrian duo and myself were even blessed with a seethrough roof for enjoying the amazing view to a sky full of stars!! And this was ofcourse the first song we played in the moving planetarium - greetings to Tiago ;) Inspired by the horrible bosses, I sat my bum down in the middle of the backseat to get a good view of everything that was happening around. Each of us had an important role to play in getting from point A to point B- a short introduction - the responsible and very roundabout-and-parkinglot-circling-loving driver Lisa, the ever-so-talented navigationsspezialist Christina and me.. dj, entertainer or bag-giver, which ever one was most needed. The first destination was our airbnb provided house in Quarteira, which was supposed to be equipped with a pool, but go figure, no pool. But also no problem, cuz eventually we didnt even spend any time at the house. Except the last evening..drumroll until the end where Im telling about that :)

So after having a lovely breakfast with the girls, we headed to praia de Benagil - one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. I couldnt even imagine it being so impressive! Even the beaches in Lagos couldnt rock my boat as hard as Benagil. The water formed rings of different blues, beautiful crystal clear water, which was a perfect combination of salty and cool. The beach was surrounded by grottas from both sides and didnt reveal all of its glory at once, but when we thought to swim more out to sea with Christina, we saw the awesomeness this place had to offer. Right around the corner was a breathtaking cave with two openings, and another one on top, so the sun could warm a patch of sand inside. We were extremely lucky, cuz it was low tide, the sun was just on the right spot, and it was possible for us to swim in there and enjoy this nature-made miracle. And I really treasure that memory because forcibly we had no devices on us and could just lay there and take in the moment.

 This remarkable beachexperience was followed by a ride to Lagos, where we stumbled upon a really sweet resto, where the staff really went out of their way to satisfy the customers. We were discussing where and what to have for dessert, and the waitress must have heard my speech about wanting something bitable and chocolatey, cuz they brought us 2 plates with the tastiest most chocolatiest chilliinfused brownies I had ever tasted!! It was sided with limecreme, and the combo of the two made all of us grunt with each bite. And did I mention it was on the house! 

But the evening was far from over, our next stop was cabo da são Vicente, the end of Europe - the place to be when the sun is setting. Needless to say the view was worth the drive. And as soon as the sun had been sucked into the far horizon, the lighthouse on top of the cliff started showing way. As it was thursday, day of the second semifinal of the Eurovision, the simultaneousness of the sunset and the show caused me to miss most of it. But as soon as we had aplauded the sun on its way, we drove to Sagres and found an empty café with a TV, asked them to switch to eurovisão and I could at least see the recaps and also the fresh finalists. Eurovision is not so big in Portugal and the owner of the place explained that it was cool 30 years ago haha. I have to say this was really the perfect day!! And the caves must have really made an impression on me. I found myself in the middle of the night standing on the bed, jumping down from it, and trying to reach the insides of the ´caves´ with my hands, to guide myself out. Good that christina woke me up..or did i wake her up.. either way it was creepy :D:D

 The next day we spent visiting different beaches and gettin our tans on! The beaches in Algarve are made truly spectacular by the different types of cliffs decking them - grottas, red cliffs, rockcliffs. After frying ourselves and having a photoshoot with my dino, we headed to Albufeira, the old fishermen village with the best nightlife here. We werent even in the barr arrea, but it was still pretty cool! There were a few karaoke bars and ofc I wanted to sing something, but it didnt ever cross my mind to do it alone. And then the girls encouraged me to go for it. Ok it was extorsion - either I sing, or no eurovision hihi :D baaah, I was sooo nerveous, and the few cocktails I had had, suddenly disappeared and I sobered up in a heartbeat. So I sang the ultimate karaoke song, Can´t fight the moonlight. My throat had shrunken into the size of a bloodvessel and it was too hard to carry a tune, but I guess it got better in the end, when I felt a little more relaxed :D But Im sooooo thankful for the support from my girls, its something I had always wanted to do but never had the courage or the push!!! :)  The live band nextdoor was amazing and the empty barclub with the nicest DJ made me feel like we are VIP. I asked for some kizomba, and in addition to the best muzic we also got some free shots with a little show from the barman. Aaaand as always when im wearing sandals, I dont just get some liquer down my throat but also on my toes:)

And finally the big day had arrived. It started with the loveliest little hike on top of the grottos and through the fallen caves. Due to too big waves the boat trip the others wanted to take, was cancelled, which was such a pity, cuz its really a must-do in Algarve. Im so lucky to have experienced the grottas in all the different ways, ok flying i can´t check off. 

So the preparations for the evening began, a little grill and sangria and at 8 it was already time to tune in, which for me was unusually early, but not as early as to the Australians. It is suuuch a great feeling to have your country host the event, not that I really remember.. but i´m kinda guessing. Also it was so cool to see the show with so many different nationalities all together. So funny to see the reactions, when neighbours either give you points or dont, and have a better insight to how the neighbouring votes work in other countries. I have never been one to think about the bonds we share with our neighbouring countries, I always cast my vote to whoever I like. But it made me feel a little sad, like it or nor, that is a part of the Eurovision, and if we cant expect votes from our closest countries, then happens what happened this time to Germany and Austria, who finished without any points.. Like the Austrian singer sang: we are the zeroes of our time xD And even Estonia, our song was good enough to get high points from our neighbours but I guess the identity crisis we have as belonging to the Baltic our Scandinavia, is losing some of the votes for us :D But luckily Estonia was picking up the crums and that brought us the 7th place! Even Portugal gave us a point! I would like to think all my portuguese friends voted for my homeland but i severely doubt it. I don´t think they were even watching :D And I am proud to say the little prediction-bet I had with my dad, I nailed. And ofcourse Sweden with its frikkin mindblowing performance deserved the win. I still can´t get enough of watching the cartoony and the dancing god on stage hihi. And really i want to thank you girls for watching the Eurovision with me, it really meant a lot that you would sacrifice your last night in Algarve for that!!!.. But who knows, maybe you will find yourself watching it again next year and thinking damned it i caught the bug aswell :D:D