Well this one is a long time coming! Seems a life time ago that I was in Albufeira, back in September. This was the first time I did not travel solo and I have to say I had a brilliant time travelling with two Irish pals, Denise and Elaine. Very Scot's of me to refer to friends/mates as 'pals' - its a real thing!
I've known Denise for over 30 years, when we first met when we were both living in Sydney and working at the Sydney Opera House. Over the years we've stayed in touch, lost touch and reconnected with both of us living this side of the world.
It was the first time I'd met Elaine, face to face, we'd had a couple of video calls prior to travelling, but we got on like a house on fire and certainly a new pal! Elaine, Denise and I had great banter and explored, drank, ate, sunbathed, swam and all with huge amounts of laughter.
This was also the first trip I took without my camera and relying totally on my phone. Didn't regret it and didn't miss the extra weight of the camera! Has made me realise that phones can do a good job, but I'll look into getting a lighter weight digital camera, if there is such a thing!
So flying with Aer Lingus, the Irish pilots on the intercom were as funny as hell to me, indistinguishable, as all the pilots seem to be, but with an Irish accent - still sexy as hell!
While in Albufeira, I kept seeing dopple gangers of people from NZ! Would it be too weird taking a photo of them, incognito of course and then posting it on social media and tagging their NZ dopple!! Hahaha - jokes thats just plain creepy!
We stayed in a lovely apartment complex Choro Mar - so accommodation, bar and restaurant all on site. It was very 'Benidorm', my worst nightmare - loads of brits of varying stages of tan - from ghostly white to overdone rotisserie chicken and karaoke a few times a week. Rest assured I stayed well away from the karaoke!
Each day Denise, Elaine and I would head to the restaurant for breakfast and either then went straight poolside or headed into town to explore or shop or headed to the beach. As Denise and Elaine had stayed at Choro Mar before they had befriended one of the barman, Lionel, who on our first day took us out and about around the Old Town and for a drive further afield including to a beautiful beach. We were very fortunate to have our very own local tour guide!
Left to Right; Elaine, Me and Denise
Front and Centre; Lionel
After our full on days, we'd have a few drinks at the apartment bar and then head to our apartment, have some more drinks while we all got ready to go out on the town. Was really lovely to get dressed up each night, before heading out for a meal and drinks.
Left to Right; Elaine, Me and Denise
On our first night there it absolutely poured with rain and while we had good intentions to do a bit of bar hopping, we ended up staying in the one place. While there with the pouring rain, one of the punters got the bar owner to put 'singing in the rain' on and went outside with an umbrella and serenaded us all - we were in stitches!
We did find we ended up going to many of the same bars each night, especially the one where there was an absolutely gorgeous barman, Darren, English guy who could sing the house down. Turns out Darren was gay - not much use to us 50 something single gals, but an absolute entertainer.
At the end of each night we went back to the apartment and all slept in the one room - so talked for ages about 'stuff'. This great friendship between us all has continued since we got back, with daily communications on WhatsApp and video calls. Our travelling together went so well, we now have another three trips booked! Rome - New Years, Prague in February and Albufeira again in April. Plus a couple of trips for me over to Ireland for St Paddy's Day and to go and see Lionel Richie.
While Elaine has been planning on spending even more time in Albufeira, so much so that she is looking at buying an apartment, Denise and I both fell in love with it and are both looking at how we can work remotely in the future and live there and also to see how we can make it work for other European countries. Watch this space!
Well I must away and get onto the next Blog, a bit out of sync, it'll be the one for Rhodes, Greece, from when I was there back in July. So pleased for both these blogs, I'd taken some notes. Then I'll do one to mark the 6 months I've been in Scotland, so much has happened - living my best life!
Cheers
Sara (aka Miss Sassy) 😘 🦋 💌
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