Hello Cleveland!

When Tiia (jokingly?) asked/insisted that I should join her mom, her mom's hubby and her to this Portugal trip I laughed out loud and told my boyfriend about her suggestion. "Well, you should go if you find cheap flights", he said and started to look for those for me right away. I thought that a) he eagerly wants to get rid of me or b) he knows how much I miss my friends, how much I love travelling and that I really am in a need of inspiration and solace of sun and friendship. It would not be more perfect timing to go and spend some time abroad with the most creative and the loveliest person I know. 

So, we found pretty good deal thru se.skyscanner.com. Though it's a bit more of a hassle with 5h lay-over at Gatwick airport in London on the way there and another 3 or so on the way back I don't mind, cheap is cheap and fun is fun!

To make things more interesting from the beginning we had a little misunderstanding - I thought that the group Finland are staying 'til the 13th... so we booked the return flights for that date. Well well, when I was surfing and checking the general info on Finnmatkat.fi site I noticed that damn, they'll fly home already on the 12th. Too late. 

After a 10 min slight panic attack I went to Tripadvisor.com site to check if I could find a decent price for one extra night and phew, I sure did and booked a room from this nice hotel in Faro, city close to the airport. Good reviews and nice price, 43 euros for a single room. Or actually 40 euros, 'cause the owner (I assume) Mr da Silva offered me lower price without request, very kind man indeed!  Or there's something fishy about it... I'll cross that bridge when I get there. 

On the plus side I have an extra day to explore Faro, but hopefully we'll go there together with Tiia at some point too. It should be a nice town. At least I want to see Nossa Senhora do Carmo,  which contains chapel lined with the bones from over 1.200 monks. AND there should be a whole lot of birds to shoot (with camera, we would NEVER kill birds) at Ria Formosa lagoon if we are lucky and if we feel like checking it out.

Now I just have to fix a transport from the airport to Albufeira. Public transport is not an option that late, which I would've preferred. I got an offer via Albufeira.com's Transfer Service for 30 euros one way but now I found this airport shuttle for 12,80 euros at www.shuttledirect.com. I'll try to contact our hotel and check if they have free shuttles of their own but I doubt it. I'll figure it out!

-Aija writing from Lund, Sweden -