Portugal!

Carmel and I decided we definitely deserved a nice holiday after all our hard work on our projects. With only three criteria in mind we went to a travel agency and Portugal was the place that had nice weather, good food and was cheap. yay!

The weather wasn't extremely warm, but nice enough for a holiday (i.e. the rain fell at night). Our appartment was very close to the beach and the strip of shops, pubs and clubs and because hardly anyone was staying in our building, we had the pool to ourselves too!


Actually, hardly anyone was staying in the town at all (the demographic was limited to English and Irish over-60s and under-10s, really), so we took a few daytrips. First, we went to Lisbon for a day. I saw the monument for the Portugese explorers that once covered my notebook in primary school and we took cute little trams up a mountain and walked back down into the city centre.

We also went surfing, which was really cool. I had never tried it before, but it's my new favourite thing.


Waiting for the bus to Zoomarine (a parc with dolphin shows and cute little mini rollercoasters), wonderining why it took so long, and finally seeing it creeping up the road:
Carmel: Jesus, that thing is slow!
Mariekschen: maybe it is carrying someone with a spinal cord injury
Carmel: that would be a logical explanation.
Mariekschen: well, they're picking us up at four again, so I guess we should make it there before that time.

My new friend the manatee is having a little snack:


Oh and we tried all the cocktails on the menu too!