LISSABON – ALGARVE
BY CAR

When I drive a road I’ve never been before, I get a tiny adrenaline rush. When I see the first views of a never ending wheat field or the nest of a stork in an electricity pole… I can feel really happy for a moment. That’s what I love about roadtrips. Sit back and let the road marks take over. Me and The Babe are about to start a roadtrip from Lissabon to Lagos…

“Do you guys know what time it is?!”
“Time to order the next jug” I said while finishing my last sip of sangria at LX Factory.
“It’s 17.00…! Didn’t you say you had to drive all the way south today?”
“Uhm.. yes, I did told you that…” And after a quick goodbye, we were all set in our rented Opel Adam and ready for take off.

The Babe is driving so I have to guide us out of there… Wich is quite a task for me because maps and me… we don’t get along. I focus on a Golden Gate look-a-like bridge that helps me guide us the right way. As we are approaching this red stunner I start to scrabble the backseat for a camera.
“Ready?”
“Yeah, yeah.. Almost!” I answer him in a stressed tone – terrified to miss a shot of the Golden Gate copy cat. But suddenly I noticed the Rio Christ statue look-a-like on the left!
A classic moment of capture-stress. That’s what happends when two visually oriented people travel together. Worries about missing a shot, an image, a moment.
But today we are taking it as it comes. Earlier we decided not to plan the entire trip.

We are going to be just fine, we told ourselves.

ROADY DINNER
By the time we got hungry, we couldn’t find a place to eat. In our case, that is a serious problem. We stopped at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. Neverending fields, 3 small buildings and a telephone booth. We parked our car, let our sunnies down and entered the roadhouse…
‘Hi there, do you also serve dinner’ I asked the lady at the counter. She looked tired and dated, even though she was about 35 years old. She had a grey color covering her face, like it was a veil.
She smiled at me, started waving with her hands and said: ‘Noh, bat drive straight and watch your right”. I was totally surprised by her reaction, it was the opposite of what I thought about her.
We took her advice and we found another roadhouse.
Two police officers were parked in front of the door and by entering the place, a small bell rang and the local customers stared at us. They were watching the sports channel on a small tv hanging from the ceiling. Both of us had the feeling we were in one of Quentin Tarantino’s movies. We enjoyed the interesting environment and tried to consume the food as fast as possible accompanied by the sports channel’s background noises.

CABO SARDAO
Inspired by our Japan experience with capes, we took a shot at Cabo Sardao, at sundown. It was B-E-AUTIFULL! Impressive rock formations for as far as we could see, wild waves smashing in the dept and a pink-ish sky… We were one of the few people there when the sun dipped into the sea.

BEACH
I live with a guy who does not really goes nuts for the beach. He’s more like an adventurer… Anyway, this time the beach itself was an adventure. We brought the Go Pro and suddenly the life beneath the water was a lot more interesting.
We also found ropes thrown around rocks at Praia Dona Ana.
‘Watch this for me, ok?’ and off was the adventurer. Leaving me with his phone, wallet and keys.
But this time I shared his ake for adventure and so I put my shoes on and followed him to the other side of the rocks. I totally felt 5 years old while I was climbing the rocks with a rope!
On the other side were even more rocks, beautifull formations and awesome views and colors. Total silence except for the sounds of the sea.

Praia da Ponta Riva is hard to find but really nice. It looked liked surfers’ paradise. We sat down on the rocks and found one really rare stone. It was dark and in the middle it had one perfect white stripe. Too bad it was so heavy, I really wanted it to take it with me.
“Wait, you have to see this one!”
The Babe turned around; “I saved you a few too, just take ‘m with you”
We were both looking for the perfect stone to take home with us. But there were so many, that we couldn’t choose in the end. I carried around about 5Kg on stones the entire time. I forgot to take them out of the rental car… so now I just have a few small ones… stupid me!

Other beaches we loved:
– Praia da Bordeira is a more touristic beach but nice to chill for a bit. It’s really large and the sea is stunning on every beach…
– Praia do Malhao is in the middle of a greenbelt. Pretty!