Lay by pool all day and got kicked out for not checking out in time. Argued that they didn't tell us a check out time. They were going to then charge Sirena 30 Euro a night because she was not with Busabout, but then the nice manager winked at her and said 'I didn't see you, right?'. Lucky or what!!
Sirena and I said goodbye to Racheal and headed to the airport for the evening flight to Athens. A complete nightmare flight because it turns out Virgin Express fly every single European flight via Brussels, which is almost all the way back to London! Totally unimpressed with the whole trip as nowhere to sleep at the supremely crappy Brussels airport for the six hour stopover we had in the middle of the night. Flight over a complete nightmare. Brussels airport....nowere to sleep at all. We attempted to sleep on some cold hard plastic seats but it was pretty pointless. Air conditioning on full blast in this enormous room the size of a hanger and it was pretty miserable. Gave up in the end and around 3.30am went in search of coffee and breakfast. Flight out was then one and a half hours delayed (just to make it all the more painful). We didnt take off until 8.30am. Virgin Express charge you for food and drinks!! Made it to Athens midday next day only to find my backpack had been broken into with the lock jimmied and now rendered useless. All my papers and letters I have yet to send rifled through and crunched up. No idea why anyone would do this? Demanded an apology from Virgin Express carriers but they refused. Have now added Virgin Express on my Most Loathed Airlines, next to United.
Got the bus into town, and then ripped off in a cab to the hotel. Athens very hot. The hotel we had managed to find on the internet, although central, was crap to say the least. But we were both exhausted and didnt really care as it was only one night. Sirena coming down with a cold. We crashed out until about 5pm, sleeping through a Summer downpour outside. When it cleared up, we took a walk to the Plaka disctrict where all the restaurants and outdoor markets and souvineer shops are. After checking every single restaurant menu, we lucked upon a cheap outdoor place with gorgeous views over the Acropolis, lit up on the hill behind us only about 100m away. I finally got to satisfy my cravings for Greek Salad, Tsatziki, Taramasalata and eggplant salad. Yummmo. Sirena had the house specialty ... the most tender lamb strew ever. We feasted till late then caught a taxi back to the hotel, completely satiated. :-)
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Monday September 1st. Bridget Jones Does Lisbon - A Day of Disasters
8.00am. Jane's alarm goes off.
8.05am - 8.35am. Hit snooze button several dozen times.
8.36am. Jane gets up and makes breakfast for everyone. Shakes Sirena awake who is out cold.
10.15am. Jane ready to hit the road and explore Lisbon. Racheal announces she will skip shower and be ready in five minutes.
10.35am. Racheal in shower.
11.05am. Finally leave cabin.
11.07am. See our bus leave without us.
11.20am. Still waiting for bus into town.
11.45am. Made it into Lisbon. Sirena announces she is now hungry. Jane reminds her that is because she didn't eat any breakfast. Jane explains she really needs to get to the Amex office to get some cash out as refuse to pay 7% commission to change TC's at regular places.
12.15pm. Jane still penniless. Amble up main shopping street of Lisbon waiting outside every single store while Racheal and Sirena simultaneously perform a bizarre shopping comedy entitled 'let's randomly visit every shop at different times with no clear purpose and all get lost'. Jane finally understands what it's like for a guy on a female shopping trip he didn't want to be on.
12.30pm. Wait 15 minutes for Racheal to take photo of small-begger-boy-with-accordian-and-adorable-singing-puppy-with-bucket-in-mouth.
12.45pm. Janes loses it. Needs help. Must speak with sane person immediately. Locate policeman and ask in best Portuguese "Por favor. Donde este telephonis?". Policeman takes Jane by both shoulders and spins her around. Jane is staring at a row of telephone booths. Ouch.
12.49pm. Got through to Kaoru on a Monday night at home! Rejoice. Sirena and I share a short call to her before getting cut off by stupid expensive portuguese phone cards! But not before giving her our cabin number so she can call us back tonight from work :-)
12.55pm. Jane finally manages to convince girls she really really does sort her money situation out as ATM card not working and no other options. She even offers to meet them later. They wanted to stay together so head via bus to Amex office which was fairly easily located owing to nice locals pointing us in right direction.
1.30pm. Finally Jane is cashed up! All of us starving by now and Jane needs to pee.
1.40pm. Get bus back into main square in town. Get on another bus but go too far out of town and for some stupid reason don't get off at the restauranty area like we should have done. Very reminscent of Prague Tram Disaster.
2.00pm. Stand at bus stop to study map and analyse how far back we have to walk. Nice man approaches and tells us there is a great restaurant 'not too far' that he can recommend with 'reasonable prices'. We fall for it hook, line and sinker.
2.25pm. Stoopid stoopid stoopid! Even a cable car couldn't have climbed the hill we've just been up! We walk around in circles for miles, Sirena rapidly losing the plot and Jane now really really needing to pee! Eventually we locate this ridiculous restaurant with a teeny tiny sign above the door and it's not even open. Not only that, but judging from the price list on the wall is out of the question anyway. Arrrrrgh!!
2.30pm. Walk all the way back down the hill into town. Head straight for air-conditioned mall and it's cheap resaurants inside.
2.45pm. Jane's vegetable soup and delicious portuguese pastry thing inhaled at break-neck speed. Sirena and Racheal go for cod that tasted like it died a nasty drowning in the Black Sea....totally inedible, even for a salt-lover like me.
3.00pm. Upon buying coffee, Jane's discovers missing 17 Euro from wallet which should have been change from lunch. Attempt to brainstorm where it could be. Come up with the possibility that she forgot to get her change? Go back to shop and attempt to mime this scenario to the shop assistants, none of whom speak English. Eventually they tell her to come back at 5.00 after the till has been cashed up. Jane very annoyed at herself.
3.30pm. Find slowest internet connection on earth in dodgy cafe along main square and bang out two e-mails in 1 hour. Jane and Sirena also attempt to book hotel in Athens but have no luck as connection keeps timing out.
5.00pm. Return to lunch spot and am returned only 5 Euro with no apology.
5.55pm. Racheal now at half her usual pace and attempts more shopping. Wait 40 minutes outside Zara for her. Jane not impressed. They leave her to go in search of better Internet. Locate bizarre pre-paid system in shopping mall/video shop/live entertainment area. Managed to book crappy overpriced hotel in central Athens with only 1 second to spare before PC kicked us out. Phew.
7.10pm. Locate Racheal, still shopping in La La Land.
7.30pm. Racheal finally buys 2 Euro earrings she had been dithering over for past two hours.
7.35pm. All supermarkets by now closed so we have to find a restaurant. Head down to the marina by cable car.
10.35pm. After dinner of average steak and chips and fish and rice, attempt to catch night bus back to the camp ground.
11.35pm. Still waiting at bus stop.
11.55pm. Waiting, waiting.
11.56pm. Signs on the bus stops all wrong. Cable car pulls up and takes us to the correct bus stop where we get the correct (and last) night bus from.
2.30am. Something goes right for Jane for the first time today! Kaoru calls from Tokyo and they chat for ages. She also gets to speak to Andrea, Alex and Carolyn. Very happy bunny!!
8.05am - 8.35am. Hit snooze button several dozen times.
8.36am. Jane gets up and makes breakfast for everyone. Shakes Sirena awake who is out cold.
10.15am. Jane ready to hit the road and explore Lisbon. Racheal announces she will skip shower and be ready in five minutes.
10.35am. Racheal in shower.
11.05am. Finally leave cabin.
11.07am. See our bus leave without us.
11.20am. Still waiting for bus into town.
11.45am. Made it into Lisbon. Sirena announces she is now hungry. Jane reminds her that is because she didn't eat any breakfast. Jane explains she really needs to get to the Amex office to get some cash out as refuse to pay 7% commission to change TC's at regular places.
12.15pm. Jane still penniless. Amble up main shopping street of Lisbon waiting outside every single store while Racheal and Sirena simultaneously perform a bizarre shopping comedy entitled 'let's randomly visit every shop at different times with no clear purpose and all get lost'. Jane finally understands what it's like for a guy on a female shopping trip he didn't want to be on.
12.30pm. Wait 15 minutes for Racheal to take photo of small-begger-boy-with-accordian-and-adorable-singing-puppy-with-bucket-in-mouth.
12.45pm. Janes loses it. Needs help. Must speak with sane person immediately. Locate policeman and ask in best Portuguese "Por favor. Donde este telephonis?". Policeman takes Jane by both shoulders and spins her around. Jane is staring at a row of telephone booths. Ouch.
12.49pm. Got through to Kaoru on a Monday night at home! Rejoice. Sirena and I share a short call to her before getting cut off by stupid expensive portuguese phone cards! But not before giving her our cabin number so she can call us back tonight from work :-)
12.55pm. Jane finally manages to convince girls she really really does sort her money situation out as ATM card not working and no other options. She even offers to meet them later. They wanted to stay together so head via bus to Amex office which was fairly easily located owing to nice locals pointing us in right direction.
1.30pm. Finally Jane is cashed up! All of us starving by now and Jane needs to pee.
1.40pm. Get bus back into main square in town. Get on another bus but go too far out of town and for some stupid reason don't get off at the restauranty area like we should have done. Very reminscent of Prague Tram Disaster.
2.00pm. Stand at bus stop to study map and analyse how far back we have to walk. Nice man approaches and tells us there is a great restaurant 'not too far' that he can recommend with 'reasonable prices'. We fall for it hook, line and sinker.
2.25pm. Stoopid stoopid stoopid! Even a cable car couldn't have climbed the hill we've just been up! We walk around in circles for miles, Sirena rapidly losing the plot and Jane now really really needing to pee! Eventually we locate this ridiculous restaurant with a teeny tiny sign above the door and it's not even open. Not only that, but judging from the price list on the wall is out of the question anyway. Arrrrrgh!!
2.30pm. Walk all the way back down the hill into town. Head straight for air-conditioned mall and it's cheap resaurants inside.
2.45pm. Jane's vegetable soup and delicious portuguese pastry thing inhaled at break-neck speed. Sirena and Racheal go for cod that tasted like it died a nasty drowning in the Black Sea....totally inedible, even for a salt-lover like me.
3.00pm. Upon buying coffee, Jane's discovers missing 17 Euro from wallet which should have been change from lunch. Attempt to brainstorm where it could be. Come up with the possibility that she forgot to get her change? Go back to shop and attempt to mime this scenario to the shop assistants, none of whom speak English. Eventually they tell her to come back at 5.00 after the till has been cashed up. Jane very annoyed at herself.
3.30pm. Find slowest internet connection on earth in dodgy cafe along main square and bang out two e-mails in 1 hour. Jane and Sirena also attempt to book hotel in Athens but have no luck as connection keeps timing out.
5.00pm. Return to lunch spot and am returned only 5 Euro with no apology.
5.55pm. Racheal now at half her usual pace and attempts more shopping. Wait 40 minutes outside Zara for her. Jane not impressed. They leave her to go in search of better Internet. Locate bizarre pre-paid system in shopping mall/video shop/live entertainment area. Managed to book crappy overpriced hotel in central Athens with only 1 second to spare before PC kicked us out. Phew.
7.10pm. Locate Racheal, still shopping in La La Land.
7.30pm. Racheal finally buys 2 Euro earrings she had been dithering over for past two hours.
7.35pm. All supermarkets by now closed so we have to find a restaurant. Head down to the marina by cable car.
10.35pm. After dinner of average steak and chips and fish and rice, attempt to catch night bus back to the camp ground.
11.35pm. Still waiting at bus stop.
11.55pm. Waiting, waiting.
11.56pm. Signs on the bus stops all wrong. Cable car pulls up and takes us to the correct bus stop where we get the correct (and last) night bus from.
2.30am. Something goes right for Jane for the first time today! Kaoru calls from Tokyo and they chat for ages. She also gets to speak to Andrea, Alex and Carolyn. Very happy bunny!!
Sunday 31st August - Lisbon
Nice 11am but pick up time today and short 3 hour drive along the coast to Lisbon. Sirena took the train arriving a couple of hours after us.
"Camping Lisboa" best location yet. A huge pool area, plus the three of us had our own little 2-bedroom cabin, complete with kitchen, balcony, bathroom and cable TV! All for the bargain price of 12 euro. Busabout apparantly get a big discount on the regular price so they are good for something after all. Finally got caught up on all the news and I got to see a BBC documentary abot a run-away biotic algea living in the Mediterranean Sea. Cool.
I bagsed control of the kitchen and was in heaven, cooking up a pretty good pasta and salad for dinner.
"Camping Lisboa" best location yet. A huge pool area, plus the three of us had our own little 2-bedroom cabin, complete with kitchen, balcony, bathroom and cable TV! All for the bargain price of 12 euro. Busabout apparantly get a big discount on the regular price so they are good for something after all. Finally got caught up on all the news and I got to see a BBC documentary abot a run-away biotic algea living in the Mediterranean Sea. Cool.
I bagsed control of the kitchen and was in heaven, cooking up a pretty good pasta and salad for dinner.
Saturday 30th August - Cave Grottos
Only just returned the scooters ontime (a la same pattern as yesterday morning), and had to run to catch our boat booking to the cave grottos at 12pm. The grottos are just a collection of caves carved out by the sea. Was very unusual but unfortunately the tour was a bit crap - instead of telling us about how they were formed etc, they just made stupid jokes like 'that's Micheal Jackson', and 'that's the elephant/hippo' etc.... It whiled away a couple of hours though, after which we all completely splashed out on a totally non back-packers lunch at the marina. Coconut mango prawn curry with rice and poppadoms and a glass of wine for me. Spicy chicken wings and prawn saland for Sirena..... not exactly backpacking but hey. Sirena is proving to be the worst influence on me and I blow my budget every day. Having loads of fun doing it though and no regrets! Lay on the beach again till it started to get dark and then headed for the ice cream shop. Mango, pineapple and macadamia nut three scoop enormity for me. Where do I fit it all in?
Sunday, September 28, 2003
Friday 29th August - Scootering around the Algarve coast.
I got up in plenty of time to make the 10am booking. Breakfasted and ready but Rachael and Sirena still not up at 9.45. Then I got bollocked because I didn't wake them up... ! Sirena, bless her, ready in five minutes but Rachael stuffed around doing god-knows-what for ages and we didn't get to the scooter office until after 10.30. Were then informed by the rudest woman on the planet that we would have to wait a half hour for the next pick up. An hour later we finally got taken to the scooter garage and got sorted with the insurance and paperwork. Around 12.00 we got on the road - map in hand, ready to concur the Algarve coastline. The scooters weren't the best but Sirena and I thrilled to be back on our beloved scooters again! First time for Racheal who was understandably a little nervous.
It turned out to be a brilliant day out, despite the rocky start. We visited all the little coastal villages right out to Sagres - the southern most tip of Western Europe and the place once considered to be 'The End of the World'. Luz, Burgau, (where we beach-picniked on the left-over mackeral which was still devine), Salena, Budens and inland to Vila do Bispo. We spend a couple of hours at the fortress of Henry the Navigator, who was famous for in the 1400's, charting and mapping much of the geography of the area without ever actually sailing anywhere.
Incredible views of the steep cliffs and the local fishermen perched on the edges, casting their lines out to the crashing waves 100 feet below. It really did feel like the end of the world and I can now understand why they used to think the earth was flat.
In the evening, we headed back to a restaurant we had spotted on the beach at Budens. Arrived as it was getting dark, after getting a little lost and having a nerve-racking time finding just one elusive gas station, after we had passed so many on the way there~! Isn't that always the way? I rolled into the station on fumes alone.
Dinner was another feast. We shared plates of chicken-mango salad, the most perfect grilled swordfish and juicy lamb cutlets. The electricity kept cutting off making for a strange semi-candle-lit evening for the three of us under a million stars, with Mars shining right above us. Portugese food proving to rival French cuisine!
A chilly ride back to Lagos with nothing but our sarongs wrapped around us for warmth ~ very uncool. Saw a shooting star on the way home~!
It turned out to be a brilliant day out, despite the rocky start. We visited all the little coastal villages right out to Sagres - the southern most tip of Western Europe and the place once considered to be 'The End of the World'. Luz, Burgau, (where we beach-picniked on the left-over mackeral which was still devine), Salena, Budens and inland to Vila do Bispo. We spend a couple of hours at the fortress of Henry the Navigator, who was famous for in the 1400's, charting and mapping much of the geography of the area without ever actually sailing anywhere.
Incredible views of the steep cliffs and the local fishermen perched on the edges, casting their lines out to the crashing waves 100 feet below. It really did feel like the end of the world and I can now understand why they used to think the earth was flat.
In the evening, we headed back to a restaurant we had spotted on the beach at Budens. Arrived as it was getting dark, after getting a little lost and having a nerve-racking time finding just one elusive gas station, after we had passed so many on the way there~! Isn't that always the way? I rolled into the station on fumes alone.
Dinner was another feast. We shared plates of chicken-mango salad, the most perfect grilled swordfish and juicy lamb cutlets. The electricity kept cutting off making for a strange semi-candle-lit evening for the three of us under a million stars, with Mars shining right above us. Portugese food proving to rival French cuisine!
A chilly ride back to Lagos with nothing but our sarongs wrapped around us for warmth ~ very uncool. Saw a shooting star on the way home~!
Thursday 28th August - Day in Lagos
Racheal and Sirena already good friends. Which is good because, to be honest, Racheal is doing my head in a bit. She is one of the dizziest people I have ever met. Everything seems to take her twice as long as anyone else and she remains blissfully oblivious to the fact that she keeps me waiting all the time. I find myself constantly waiting for her to catch up and get with the programme. I know I'm sounding harsh, but this is the exact reason I prefer to travel by myself.... unfortunately what I've realised is that doing Busabout it is hard to escape people like it is when you are truly doing independant travel (remember Boring Brett?) as you all get put in the same place to stay. I am trying to be very patient though but boy does she test it. You'd be discussing what time to eat and she'd be standing right there, apparantly listening, and a time would be agreed on and she'd NOD, and then five minutes later she'd be like, "umm, so, what'r we doin' again?". Maybe funny once, but several times a day can get very annoying!
Today I got everyone up at 8.30 and we had breakfast on the balcony. Our plan was to save some money on breakfast by self-catering from the supermarket so Racheal and I had brought supplies yesterday - bread, milk, honey, coffee, yoghurt. Turns out Sirena is not a morning person (Dad - I am now, honestly!) and can't even look at food. She gives me evils the whole time... yikes!
We walked around town again and booked scooters for 10am tomorrow. A nice lunch of grilled sardines, the local specialty, for Sirena, and a cheap crappy hamburger I'd rather forget, for me. Then onto the beach for the afternoon. Can't seem to tan under this sun ~ you just don't change colour at all, it's so weak.
Dinner was delicious grilled mackeral, a bargain for 11 Euro because included was a vat of vegatable soup, salad, dessert and coffee! Sirena and I discover we have a huge love of seafood in common and Lagos is proving the perfect place to satisfy our cravings. We couldn't finish it and doggy-bagged the rest. I have no pride.
Today I got everyone up at 8.30 and we had breakfast on the balcony. Our plan was to save some money on breakfast by self-catering from the supermarket so Racheal and I had brought supplies yesterday - bread, milk, honey, coffee, yoghurt. Turns out Sirena is not a morning person (Dad - I am now, honestly!) and can't even look at food. She gives me evils the whole time... yikes!
We walked around town again and booked scooters for 10am tomorrow. A nice lunch of grilled sardines, the local specialty, for Sirena, and a cheap crappy hamburger I'd rather forget, for me. Then onto the beach for the afternoon. Can't seem to tan under this sun ~ you just don't change colour at all, it's so weak.
Dinner was delicious grilled mackeral, a bargain for 11 Euro because included was a vat of vegatable soup, salad, dessert and coffee! Sirena and I discover we have a huge love of seafood in common and Lagos is proving the perfect place to satisfy our cravings. We couldn't finish it and doggy-bagged the rest. I have no pride.
Wednesday 27th August - Seville - Lagos (Portugal) and Sirena arrives.
Up early next day to get the bus to Lagos. Watched Friends episode on the bus - when did Rachel and Ross have a baby???
Arrived at around 11am and managed to wangle a room for the three of us (including Sirena). Nice clean rooms, shared clean bathrooms, kitchen and huge balcony. Lagos a tiny sea-side town, suffering (or surviving?) from too many British package holidayers, but great to be by the sea finally. All this in-land travel is hard-going without a beach to escape the heat from!
Carlos, our hostel owner, gathered us all together on the balcony, intent on giving us loads of information about what to do in Lagos and extracting promises from us all that we would not miss the cave grottos.
Spent the rest of the day looking around the tiney town and lively city centre, checking out the good bars and shops. Everybody speaks English (more than in Spain) and we marvel at how cheap everything is. We 'snacked' on soup, tomato salad, toasted sandwiches and orange juice, all for about 5 Euro which is a pretty good deal.
Sirena due to arrive around 6pm and I texted her the train times using Racheal's phone and told her where to meet us. We calculated that if she got the 4.45 train from Faro (airport town), then she would arrive at Lagos at 6.30pm. She was bang on time and we actually fluked bumping into her as at the last minute I decided to change meeting places from the centre of town to the main road, which was just as well as she would not have found us. So happy to see a familiar face again!
Arrived at around 11am and managed to wangle a room for the three of us (including Sirena). Nice clean rooms, shared clean bathrooms, kitchen and huge balcony. Lagos a tiny sea-side town, suffering (or surviving?) from too many British package holidayers, but great to be by the sea finally. All this in-land travel is hard-going without a beach to escape the heat from!
Carlos, our hostel owner, gathered us all together on the balcony, intent on giving us loads of information about what to do in Lagos and extracting promises from us all that we would not miss the cave grottos.
Spent the rest of the day looking around the tiney town and lively city centre, checking out the good bars and shops. Everybody speaks English (more than in Spain) and we marvel at how cheap everything is. We 'snacked' on soup, tomato salad, toasted sandwiches and orange juice, all for about 5 Euro which is a pretty good deal.
Sirena due to arrive around 6pm and I texted her the train times using Racheal's phone and told her where to meet us. We calculated that if she got the 4.45 train from Faro (airport town), then she would arrive at Lagos at 6.30pm. She was bang on time and we actually fluked bumping into her as at the last minute I decided to change meeting places from the centre of town to the main road, which was just as well as she would not have found us. So happy to see a familiar face again!
Tuesday 26th August - Discovering Old Seville
Today, back to the Post Office to send Racheal's stuff home to Australia.... it was too much for us to carry yesterday. In the morning, we picked up our laundry which I was pissed off at because my whites came back grey and nothing was clean. Grrrr.
Andre Agassi turned up bang on 11am and cut our hair in the bathroom. Unfortuntely he refused to do what I asked and now I hate his guts. Got to grow it out again for another six months to get the length back. Arrrgh MEN!! Okay I know I need to get a grip so the less said the better. I'm almost over it. But I did sulk for three days.
In the afternoon, after we eventually got done with all our organisation, I navigated us to the Plaza de la Expana, a cresent-shaped plaza with a huge fountain with a intricately-tiled cresent-shaped building surrounding it. We lunched at the Saint Maria park opposite - bagettes, ham and olives we'd bought at the supermarket in the morning.
Then we made our way back through the Alcatraz Gardens (palm trees, fountains) and into the old Jewish Quarter. The buildings were spectacular.
White doves nesting all over the parks; it was a most peaceful afternoon and I took an entire roll of film.
Andre Agassi turned up bang on 11am and cut our hair in the bathroom. Unfortuntely he refused to do what I asked and now I hate his guts. Got to grow it out again for another six months to get the length back. Arrrgh MEN!! Okay I know I need to get a grip so the less said the better. I'm almost over it. But I did sulk for three days.
In the afternoon, after we eventually got done with all our organisation, I navigated us to the Plaza de la Expana, a cresent-shaped plaza with a huge fountain with a intricately-tiled cresent-shaped building surrounding it. We lunched at the Saint Maria park opposite - bagettes, ham and olives we'd bought at the supermarket in the morning.
Then we made our way back through the Alcatraz Gardens (palm trees, fountains) and into the old Jewish Quarter. The buildings were spectacular.
White doves nesting all over the parks; it was a most peaceful afternoon and I took an entire roll of film.
Monday 25th August - Getting Organised
Today was our day of getting organised. Racheal and I granny-wheeled all our clothes down to the laundromat and then found the post office to send all my blankets and pottery home to NZ. In the afternoon we had a plate of delicious of fresh calamari and then sat in an outdoor cafe for several blissful hours, drinking lattes, people-watching and catching up on our diaries. We got talking to a lovely Portugese couple about Portugal, our next stop which I was psyched about.
One man we saw was a few sandwiches short of a picnic though. He came into the square, wearing a huge placard which said:
"I am Alan Mitchell, the adopted son of Marilyn Monroe and JFK. Harrassed, drugged up and isolated by the BBC. BBC are in Spain under false pretenses. I invite the BBC to deny these alegations. I invite the press to interview me and also invite a lawyer to represent me!" No kidding! This is word-for-word....total psyco.
Did a few hours on the internet and got a nice surprise - Sirena will fly out in two days time to meet me in Lagos so we can see Portugal and Greece together. Cool! I finally had a friend to play with!
Late dinner at Burger King - it just had to be done.
One man we saw was a few sandwiches short of a picnic though. He came into the square, wearing a huge placard which said:
"I am Alan Mitchell, the adopted son of Marilyn Monroe and JFK. Harrassed, drugged up and isolated by the BBC. BBC are in Spain under false pretenses. I invite the BBC to deny these alegations. I invite the press to interview me and also invite a lawyer to represent me!" No kidding! This is word-for-word....total psyco.
Did a few hours on the internet and got a nice surprise - Sirena will fly out in two days time to meet me in Lagos so we can see Portugal and Greece together. Cool! I finally had a friend to play with!
Late dinner at Burger King - it just had to be done.
Sunday 24th - Tarifa to Seville
Bus left around 12.00pm and a pleasant journey to Seville in South-central Spain. Glimpsed a flock of pink flamingos out the window. The guide played Oceans Eleven on the TV and George Clooney and Brad Pit made the three hours go very fast. Most of the Moroccan girls on the bus with us.
In Seville, Racheal and I paid a bit more to have a double-room with large bathroom, simply because we had so much stuff between us and needed the room to sort it all out before getting it to the Post Office. Five flights of stairs up though! Also to avoid all the Princesses who I was getting sick of.
Dumped our stuff and rushed straight back out again to go to the Cathedral which had free entrance on Sundays only. Whohoo! Very impressive gothic cathedral, 3rd largest in the world next to St. Peters and St. Pauls. I cunnningly tagged along to a Japanese tour and learnt all about Christopher Columbus' (supposed) tomb, (they'll know for sure some time next year when the get the DNA analysis done), as well as the enormous pipe organs, an huge baptism bowl made from alabaster marble and the 6 meter high painting of St. Christopher and an angel which hung above it and the fascinating story behind it. Turns out that if you stand at a certain angle to catch the light you can make out a rough line around the saint where he had been cut out and stolen by thieves. The portion was tracked down in New York somewhere, returned and the painting restored.
We then climped the 38 flight Giralda Tower next to the cathedral for some beautiful views over Seville. It wasn't as bad as you think as there were no steps, just slopes, so like walking uphill.
Back at the hostel and straight into the BATH - pure heaven. Scrubbed so clean I changed colour several times and was finally free of the remainder of the Moroccan dust. Felt a m a z i n g ! Deep-conditioned my hair, re-did my toe-nails (to ditch or not to ditch??), and spent a good five hours becoming human again.
Now, we'd been told by our Busabout guide, that the Red Door cafe, with cheap drinks and free Flamenco dancing was 'just down the street'. To cut a long story short, three hours, a trip back to the hostel for directions, one taxi-ride across town and much sense-of-humour failure later, we eventually arrived at this place with no name. It did have large red doors however and was located in the middle of no-where down some dark and life-less side streets. Completely unsure if we were in the correct place, but by this time in need of some stiff drinks, we decided to stay put. No sign of anyone from Busabout at all. Either our guide was talking bologny or I was just a complete space cadet when it comes to directions. I suspect both.
Drank some local 'Tinto deVerado' (red wine with lemonade - not bad actually), and sat in the outdoor courtyard for a while people-watching and listening to live Spanish music. We moved inside and watched the girls on the tiny stage perform some very sexy Flamenco to a man singing folk-songs and playing guitar. Flamenco is a big deal in Seville, where it originated from.
Got talking to an Andre Agassi look-a-like guy at the bar who spoke only broken English and me with my seven words of Spanish. He was a hairdresser and promised to come by our hostel to cut our hair the day after next.
The three of us moved on to a huge outdoor club and all of a sudden it was 4.30am. Got a taxi back home - a great evening out!
In Seville, Racheal and I paid a bit more to have a double-room with large bathroom, simply because we had so much stuff between us and needed the room to sort it all out before getting it to the Post Office. Five flights of stairs up though! Also to avoid all the Princesses who I was getting sick of.
Dumped our stuff and rushed straight back out again to go to the Cathedral which had free entrance on Sundays only. Whohoo! Very impressive gothic cathedral, 3rd largest in the world next to St. Peters and St. Pauls. I cunnningly tagged along to a Japanese tour and learnt all about Christopher Columbus' (supposed) tomb, (they'll know for sure some time next year when the get the DNA analysis done), as well as the enormous pipe organs, an huge baptism bowl made from alabaster marble and the 6 meter high painting of St. Christopher and an angel which hung above it and the fascinating story behind it. Turns out that if you stand at a certain angle to catch the light you can make out a rough line around the saint where he had been cut out and stolen by thieves. The portion was tracked down in New York somewhere, returned and the painting restored.
We then climped the 38 flight Giralda Tower next to the cathedral for some beautiful views over Seville. It wasn't as bad as you think as there were no steps, just slopes, so like walking uphill.
Back at the hostel and straight into the BATH - pure heaven. Scrubbed so clean I changed colour several times and was finally free of the remainder of the Moroccan dust. Felt a m a z i n g ! Deep-conditioned my hair, re-did my toe-nails (to ditch or not to ditch??), and spent a good five hours becoming human again.
Now, we'd been told by our Busabout guide, that the Red Door cafe, with cheap drinks and free Flamenco dancing was 'just down the street'. To cut a long story short, three hours, a trip back to the hostel for directions, one taxi-ride across town and much sense-of-humour failure later, we eventually arrived at this place with no name. It did have large red doors however and was located in the middle of no-where down some dark and life-less side streets. Completely unsure if we were in the correct place, but by this time in need of some stiff drinks, we decided to stay put. No sign of anyone from Busabout at all. Either our guide was talking bologny or I was just a complete space cadet when it comes to directions. I suspect both.
Drank some local 'Tinto deVerado' (red wine with lemonade - not bad actually), and sat in the outdoor courtyard for a while people-watching and listening to live Spanish music. We moved inside and watched the girls on the tiny stage perform some very sexy Flamenco to a man singing folk-songs and playing guitar. Flamenco is a big deal in Seville, where it originated from.
Got talking to an Andre Agassi look-a-like guy at the bar who spoke only broken English and me with my seven words of Spanish. He was a hairdresser and promised to come by our hostel to cut our hair the day after next.
The three of us moved on to a huge outdoor club and all of a sudden it was 4.30am. Got a taxi back home - a great evening out!
Saturday 23rd August - Tangiers - Tarifa (Spain)
Away by 9.00 and Brendan and Rachel dropped us all off at the ferry terminal. They had another group starting the same trip that same night. Full-on seven weeks in a row, seven days in a row and no-one I think envious of the job they did. As I write this in my diary, they will already have been to Chefchaoun and have hiked in the Rif mountains all day today.
Only just manages to make it off the truck, into the port and onto the boat with all our extra bags. The group was saved by a man offered to load 19 backpacker's worth of bags, averaging 30-40 kg's each, plus all out additional bags, onto his manually-pulled trolley and lug it, in the 30C temp, the 300m or so to the port. This guy must have towed 300kg or more, wearing an ill-fitting suit, tie and shoes along with it! Talk about a hard-warker. I vow the whole way there to get rid of my beloved red nail polish and all other unnecessary accessories. (Seven years in tokyo can do that to a girl). Sorry Carolyn! I slippe d it back in when you weren't looking..
Peaceful boat trip back to Spain; all of us thinking only of hot showers and a bed for the night. Rachael passed around baby wipes and we realise that the 'tans' we thought we had gotten was really just dirt. Honestly we had turned a different colour! FActions united at different restaurants around the boat. All of secretly glad to be rid of the others I think.
Racheal and I fumbled our way around the port town of Algeciras, finally locating the correct bus stop and bought tickets to the port town of Tarifa, the next pick-up point for Bus-about.
We arrived around 5pm (lost two hours so Spanish time) and found were all out of luck finding a hostel.
Tarifa is a pleasant town on the very tip of the southern Spanish coast , famous as the windsurfing capital of the world and was completely packed out with windsurfers. Racheal and I persisted, trying about six or seven different places, and eventually found the last remaining room to be had in the town. A single room in which they put a mattress on the floor for us. No space to put our packs and a shared bathroom along the corridor. We secured it just seconds before a couple were turned away. But after a week of smelly camping and disgusting tents, this was five-star luxury!
Straight into HOT showers and out for a bite to eat before colapsing into bed at 10pm.
Only just manages to make it off the truck, into the port and onto the boat with all our extra bags. The group was saved by a man offered to load 19 backpacker's worth of bags, averaging 30-40 kg's each, plus all out additional bags, onto his manually-pulled trolley and lug it, in the 30C temp, the 300m or so to the port. This guy must have towed 300kg or more, wearing an ill-fitting suit, tie and shoes along with it! Talk about a hard-warker. I vow the whole way there to get rid of my beloved red nail polish and all other unnecessary accessories. (Seven years in tokyo can do that to a girl). Sorry Carolyn! I slippe d it back in when you weren't looking..
Peaceful boat trip back to Spain; all of us thinking only of hot showers and a bed for the night. Rachael passed around baby wipes and we realise that the 'tans' we thought we had gotten was really just dirt. Honestly we had turned a different colour! FActions united at different restaurants around the boat. All of secretly glad to be rid of the others I think.
Racheal and I fumbled our way around the port town of Algeciras, finally locating the correct bus stop and bought tickets to the port town of Tarifa, the next pick-up point for Bus-about.
We arrived around 5pm (lost two hours so Spanish time) and found were all out of luck finding a hostel.
Tarifa is a pleasant town on the very tip of the southern Spanish coast , famous as the windsurfing capital of the world and was completely packed out with windsurfers. Racheal and I persisted, trying about six or seven different places, and eventually found the last remaining room to be had in the town. A single room in which they put a mattress on the floor for us. No space to put our packs and a shared bathroom along the corridor. We secured it just seconds before a couple were turned away. But after a week of smelly camping and disgusting tents, this was five-star luxury!
Straight into HOT showers and out for a bite to eat before colapsing into bed at 10pm.
Friday 22nd August - Asilah - Tangiers
Only one more camping night to go. Very happy about this. Sick of the lack of hygiene. Camping utenslis we have to use for cooking barely clean and covered with dust at the end of each day. Fingernails constantly black. No clean clothes to speak of and once-white underwear now grey and sweaty. It's truly horrid. Rachel and Brendan (guides) oblivious to the flith. Camping sucks so much. I never liked it and I never will. There is something seriously masochistic with people who actually like camping. However, consider myself very intrepid! Would never have coped with this ten years ago. Oh for my spotless Tokyo apartment and double bed with duvet!!
Half-day in Asilah with finally some precious free time. Asilah a small town about an hour out of Tangier with a laid-back medina in it's center. Of course it took me ninety minutes of our three hours of free time to find the internet cafe and then the Busabout website was down so I couldn't check my sector bookings anyway. Did manage to book a Virgin Express flight for 150 Euro from Lisbon to Athens however, avoiding all the backtracking I would have to do with Busabout via San Sebastian, Madrid and Barcelona. Very chuffed at myself. For some reason it is via Brussels with a long stop-over, so kind of takes the meaning out of 'Express' - it's going to take me 24 hours to get there! (But the other alternative is two weeks on the bus).
Back at camp for a quick sandwhich lunch again before driving the hour or so back to Tangiers. We stopped along the way for some more supermarket food. I spotted a granny-style wheelie trolley in the shop and snapped it up with the last of my remaining dirham (150), exactly what I had in my wallet. I bargained him down to 140 so had only 10 dirham left for an emergency. I finally had a way to carry the pottery and blankets from Fes. I am a superstar!! Nicole of course made a bitchy comment to my face about being a pack horse. Charming. Everything was somewhere hidden under the seats in the truck and I was no longer sure of what I had even bought. Not looking forward to packing!
Tangiers evening was fairly chilled.... just what the doctor ordered. Still cold showers and still can't get clean. However after seven nights on our camp stretchers I have found I can sleep like a baby, although they cetainly took some getting used to. They were really just thin pieces of green canvas smudged with dirt, onto which you attach four brackets hooked into metal poles on either long-side. Sleep comes easy though I think it's from sheer exhaustion from all the daily activities Rachel and Brendon manage to pack into one day.
Steak and potato salad for dinner, but I had no apetite... too exhausted. Angela attempted to make courgette patties for the vegetarians in the group but the frypans were useless and even I couldn't rescue them as Moroccan Okonomiyaki. More like Moroccan Mush. We had to throw it all out. Chocolate-stuffed bananas wrapped in tin-foil and baked on the hot coals (first and only campfire) and toasted marshmallows for desert.
Everyone spent hours packing all their stuff up before it got dark. By some complete miracle, I managed to fit all my stuff into my pack and the trolley. There was not an inch of free space anywhere and I reckoned I had accumulated at least another 20kg's. Idiot.
Half-day in Asilah with finally some precious free time. Asilah a small town about an hour out of Tangier with a laid-back medina in it's center. Of course it took me ninety minutes of our three hours of free time to find the internet cafe and then the Busabout website was down so I couldn't check my sector bookings anyway. Did manage to book a Virgin Express flight for 150 Euro from Lisbon to Athens however, avoiding all the backtracking I would have to do with Busabout via San Sebastian, Madrid and Barcelona. Very chuffed at myself. For some reason it is via Brussels with a long stop-over, so kind of takes the meaning out of 'Express' - it's going to take me 24 hours to get there! (But the other alternative is two weeks on the bus).
Back at camp for a quick sandwhich lunch again before driving the hour or so back to Tangiers. We stopped along the way for some more supermarket food. I spotted a granny-style wheelie trolley in the shop and snapped it up with the last of my remaining dirham (150), exactly what I had in my wallet. I bargained him down to 140 so had only 10 dirham left for an emergency. I finally had a way to carry the pottery and blankets from Fes. I am a superstar!! Nicole of course made a bitchy comment to my face about being a pack horse. Charming. Everything was somewhere hidden under the seats in the truck and I was no longer sure of what I had even bought. Not looking forward to packing!
Tangiers evening was fairly chilled.... just what the doctor ordered. Still cold showers and still can't get clean. However after seven nights on our camp stretchers I have found I can sleep like a baby, although they cetainly took some getting used to. They were really just thin pieces of green canvas smudged with dirt, onto which you attach four brackets hooked into metal poles on either long-side. Sleep comes easy though I think it's from sheer exhaustion from all the daily activities Rachel and Brendon manage to pack into one day.
Steak and potato salad for dinner, but I had no apetite... too exhausted. Angela attempted to make courgette patties for the vegetarians in the group but the frypans were useless and even I couldn't rescue them as Moroccan Okonomiyaki. More like Moroccan Mush. We had to throw it all out. Chocolate-stuffed bananas wrapped in tin-foil and baked on the hot coals (first and only campfire) and toasted marshmallows for desert.
Everyone spent hours packing all their stuff up before it got dark. By some complete miracle, I managed to fit all my stuff into my pack and the trolley. There was not an inch of free space anywhere and I reckoned I had accumulated at least another 20kg's. Idiot.
Friday 22nd August - Asilah - Tangiers
Only one more camping night to go. Very happy about this. Extremely sick the no hygiene thing - even if you want to you can't get anything clean. Permantly black fingernails. Camping utensils covered in dust all the time. Racheal and Brendan oblivious to the filth after so much time in Africa. No clean clothes to speak of. Once white underwear now grey and sweaty. It's truly horrid. Consider myself very intrepid though ~ would never have coped with this 10 years ago!
Half day in Asilah, a small town with a laid-back medina in the centre. Unfortunately in took me half of our three hour free time to find the internet cafe, and then the Busabout website was down anyway so couldn't check my sector bookings. Did manage to book a Virgin Express flight for 150 Euro from Lisbon to Athens (via Brussels!!) for the 2nd
Half day in Asilah, a small town with a laid-back medina in the centre. Unfortunately in took me half of our three hour free time to find the internet cafe, and then the Busabout website was down anyway so couldn't check my sector bookings. Did manage to book a Virgin Express flight for 150 Euro from Lisbon to Athens (via Brussels!!) for the 2nd