Lost!

I can't find my bikinis! Damned.

-Aija-

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 - 

So wrong!

There's a cool photo contest for the Finns... but the subject is "photos from Spain". Well, that was close! Wish there was a similar one for Portugal.

Darn. Should we take a bus to the border of Spain just for this, Aija?

-Tiia-

The hotel & surroundings

The hotel we're gonna stay for a week is called Blue Star Cerro Mar Garden, and it's located just "above" Albufeira. It sits on a high hill, and to get downtown you have to climb steep stairs down. And of course up when you want back. Of course, there's also a bus ride between the hotel and Albufeira, but at least I've decided to use the stairs, the brave sport as I am.

The four star hotel looks so comfy we might even spend a few hours there! We have a 2 bedroom + 2 bathroom + kitchen + livingroom for 4 people, with all the fun stuff like air condition, satellite tv, a big balcony and everything! A bit of a change to the cheap hostels I've used to stay during every trip abroad, following some bands I love.

A few pictures from the hotel and one from the old town of Albufeira. I can't wait to take photographs on those narrow streets!

-Tiia-

I'm IN!

Right on! I'm in! I'm in!

Just testing this thing.... how exciting!

One week and counting!

-Aija-

So first there was the idea..

We only started planning this trip a couple of months ago. My mom suggested she could take me somewhere warm & sunny, since we haven't been spending time together in years. Only some short visits and such. I think we didn't even concider other options, but picked Portugal right away. It's a lovely country, and we've been there a couple of times before when I was 12yrs or so. Once we even spent a whole summer there, in the lovely town of Aljezur in southern Portugal.

I've so missed the country ever since!

We decided to take one of these last minute trip that are cheap to get a week or two before your actual holiday. I checked a Finnish site with a good listing of such regularly (Napsun äkkilähdöt) and soon noticed there were plenty of flight & hotel packages to Portugal with decent prices.

Then, just a few weeks before our planned date of leaving the country, my good friend Aija (now living in Sweden) decided to join us! I'm soooo happy! I really enjoy spending time with my mom and her hubby, but at least my mom's the biggest sun worshipper I know. And I'm not into sleeping by the pool that much. I wanna run around and see things, meet people and photograph everything I can see. So, Aija is the perfect pal for doing stuff like that.

So, the price for one traveller (including the flights, transportation from the airport & a 4-star hotel) was less then 400 euros. I think Aija got off a bit cheaper, since she got an excellent deal for flights.

More about the hotel & Albufeira soon!

-Tiia-