Cats, dogs and gals

Hellooo readers! (If we have any..)

It SUCKS that we cant update every day. The internet connection at our hotel truly sucks, not to mention the stone age computers they have for using it. There is no wlan available, and we're just too lazy to spend any time in internet cafes when there's so much else to do.

Today we woke up at 6am with Aija, cause we wanted to go down to the harbour and take some photos of the fishermen. After walking thru the town and feeding a few stray dogs on our way we arrived at the harbour and realized we prob weren't allowed to enter the area we wanted to. There was a gate and some portuguese signs to keep us out. Too bad!! Also, the boats just aren't the same as almost 20 years ago. The lovely wooden, colorful old boats are gone, and they're all using the boring (but no doubt, more efficient) modern boats these days. Aww!

After that we took a short walk to the Albufeira Marina, but everything was still closed at 9am. Also, no people in sight, just a lonely guy here and there getting ready for the day. The portuguese people sure know how to start the day without any extra stress! It's really hard to find a cup of coffee or a sandwich at 9am, OR to go shopping! Practically impossible.

At the marina we wanted to find out about the dolphin sighting cruises, but as I just pointed out, there was no-one to talk to. So we are going to call them later and see if we get onboard tomorrow or so. These cruises will take us to the seaside caves too, which is way cool!!

I know my friend Satu is going to hate me if I spot any doplhins... BUT I'll try to keep our friendship alive by taking a few nice photos and maybe print out some of them to her! :)

The days so far have pretty much been the same, basicly. We wake up (too) early, go for a long long long hot walk around the town, eat something light, take a swim, then pass out for an hour or two. It's funny how the siesta works out for you! It's just so natural to take a nap at the hottest time of the day just after lunch. I never do that at home! But, then again, I don't go around walking for 3 hours up and down the narrow paths and steep hills in Finland every morning...

So what else have we done so far? Hmm, we had a little family drama on evening, but in the morning the sunshine woke us up to a better morning.. everything was forgiven and the day continued nicely.

Oh, yesterday we visited the big shopping mall, too, called Algarve shopping.. it looked pretty big when we arrived, but we soon realized there wasn't that much to see after all. So we ate some lovely vegetarian food and Italian ice cream (BEST EVER!!!!) and headed back to the hotel.

I got some artsy fartsy photos at the mall's parking lot, of a fountain. Sunset and all. Boy, don't they look spooky, gotta update the blog with photos when we get home.

Ok, my half an hour on this computer is full, gotta run. Have to go buy some more cat & dog food from Lidl nearby, since the small creatures ate everything we had last nite. Lovely animals. Wish I could adopt them all!

Ta ta for now.

-Tiia-

Punk in Drublic!

Hello listeners!

Just a quick hi from one of Albufeiras busy nightclubs! Aija is getting me a drink, my mom & her husband are trying to find Karaoke from somewhere over here, and a young guitarist is playing Oasis and making the whole bar sing along. Happy people! Extremely happy people!

I dont have much time since the rest of the crew are waiting for me, but I just wanted to tell you everything is nice, we dont have a wlan in the hotel room so we cant be updating as often as we would like. Anyway! Got lots of pictures, (and just now Aija was calling me to come to the bar, they made me a LONG LONG drink with 10 different fruits, something sparkly and on fire and the longest straw youll ever see!).. and we'll be updating WITH PHOTOS later on.

Anyway. What was I saying? Cant really remember. The amazing drink is calling me.. and its call is pretty loud.

A says hi to M and S With love.

Bye for now, Tiia

E Depois de Adeus

So here we go. A good friend of mine, Satu, is gonna pick me up in 40 minutes (can you imagine? She's getting up around 5am just to take me to the airport!!).

I still have a few things I to do, but I'm pretty sure I've got everything covered. At least I hope so.

While waiting for us to finally start rockin' & bloggin' from Albufeira, you can enjoy some Portuguese Eurovision culture from the year 1974 by clicking here.

Gotta love the passion!

-Tiia, just about to leave Espoo-

Fears and excitements

Tomorrow it is. I've packed most of my shit and again have to admit that I overdo it every time. Can't help it. "What if it starts snowing, you never know when you need a pair of wollen socks."

So at 8.30 I'll head for the train station and to Kastrup airport in Denmark. Flight leaves at 11.20 - I hope. (I just realized today that I'm suffering from fear of delayed flights. Someone should come up with fancy Greek/Latin word for it. I actually tried to look for it and found a site that lists all kinds of phobias. I find it funny that fear of long words is called Sesquipedalophobia, which is one of the longest words on the list. Congratulations, you just created a fear of spelling phobia names.) Well well, we'll see if I'll make it to the second flight. I DO have that 5 hours lay-over so I should make it easily and get drunk (twice) but again, can't help it. I'll report from the Gatwick airport if I'll find a hotspot. Like, wi-fi hotspot. Like.

Tiia & co should arrive to Albufeira way before me so I'm expecting cheery and very intoxicated welcoming committee. Sangria, por favor!

-Aija, yet in Lund -

3 nights to go!

..and then we're off! I would be lying if I said I wasn't already counting the hours to the take-off. This trip is going to be such a relief, getting away from everything for a week is just what I need. AND I get to spend some time with people I haven't seen enough lately!! That's the best part... getting a bit of sunshine (which we'll hopefully have at least on most days) is almost as great.

I haven't started packing yet. I've usually left that to the last minute, but I guess I could try and get to it a bit earlier this time. I don't want to forget important things, it's too annoying.

Guess I could write down a few things.. so here's a short checklist:

• Camera, memory card(s), all the lenses, flash, transmitter, battery & charger
• Laptop & usb wire to transfer photos
  
• If Aija has an iPod or such, the portable speakers.. although, yeah, our taste in music is so different I can prob just skip this one, haha.
• Meds
• Sookie Stackhouse novels, 2 would be enough
• Yarn, hook, small scissors
• Sunglasses
• Sun & after sun lotions
• Venus Breeze (girls know what this is!)
• (Dove soap, can prob get it from Portugal too)
• Earplugs, just in case there are babies or noisy kids on flight... GRRRRR!!!!
• Pens, pencils, a small sketch book
• Bikini & swimsuit
• Shampoo & conditioner in travel bottles
• Moisture cream
• Nail kit
  

That's about all I can come up with now. Geeze, wonder if it's all gonna fit in my faithful 18-year-old red suitcase. But I have to have it for this trip! It was originally bought for my first trip to Portugal when I was 13 and travelling with mom & dad.

It's gotta bring us good luck.

-Tiia-