Albufeira, Portugal

Our bus to Albufeira took 3 hours with a quick stop at the services for some ice cream. We were met by Tiago our host, a very tanned Portuguese man. The property was spacious and open plan with a big bed, breakfast bar and most importantly...sun loungers!!

The following day we worked...Steven still had his job! He didn't want to tell them he was travelling so he logged on as normal. We were expecting Steven's friend Tom and his girlfriend Grace to fly into Faro later that evening so we decided to explore the town a bit. Three hours later and definitely a few cocktails in, Steven realised they were scheduled to arrive the following day!! We finished the night with some more cocktails and some karaoke.

Woke up the next day poorly. Dehydrated. Very sad. Steven met Tom and Grace and had dinner with them.

Steven: it was a very difficult decision to make, leaving Amy at home. I made her a cup of tea, a bowl of cereal and tucked her in. I met Tom and Grace at a restaurant overlooking the sea called *Oceano* and ordered vegetarian black linguine - the vegetarian option because adding seafood literally doubled the price; black linguine because I wanted to prove I wasn't scared of a little ink...

Amy: on the 17th we had a BBQ. We had a trip to Lidl and bought some seafood goodies: octopus, prawns...and some sausages and some potato salad. Steven tried his best to cook everything and everyone very politely nibbled their octopus. Luckily, the potato salad was smash hit!

Before Tom and Grace left, we booked a trip on a boat to see the Benagil caves. The coastline is full of cool caves and little beaches. We were lucky enough to see some dolphins! or *golphins* in Portuguese...

We spent a whole month in Albufeira, mostly working and suntanning. Some highlights of the rest of the stay included:

**The Yolo Lounge** is this huge bar spread across at least four floors, the best being the rooftop. It had an indoor rodeo, hammocks, and (Steven's favourite) a tattoo parlour inside a cave!! Behind the bar was an extremely muscular female bodybuilder. I ordered the strongest Mai Tai I've ever had. Like petrol!

**Rutz** is a small café in the centre of town that quickly became our favourite place for a morning coffee. It served acai bowls in half a coconut.

**Faro** is a nearby city, quite a bit bigger than Albufeira. We hopped on the bus for a day trip. There, we had *francensinha*, a sort of sandwich filled with meat covered in gravy made from tomato and beer.

**Portuguese chips** aren't necessarily French fries...sometimes they're more like Walker's crisps but made then and there! They're soggy and sort of rubbery, and we had them at this place called Hamburgology which appears to be a very popular chain. Burgers come with either chips or rice (??), with or without bun!!

Our last night in Albufeira was bittersweet. We had come to love our little home here. There was this restaurant in town covered in seashells that, whenever we walked past, Amy would say "we should have a drink there at some point". That's what we did on our last night. It was pretty good.Read more