last days in Portugal

9/06/11 Day 2

Slept over at Denise's but we couldn't stay any longer becuase of his house mates who weren't very happy with the idea of having two strangers in the flat
while he is in Italy. So, he went to Italy and we went hunting bikes. We got our bikes from the city centre, a shop called Sport Centre.surprise, surprise ;)
 We got two white beauties, faith gave us identical twins. First they didn't seem to have two similar bikes..even after "checking" the store, only after we
 showed them the map and gave a brief introduction to what we were going to do with those bikes, they discovered a fault in one of the bikes and all of a
sudden remembered that there might be another one just like the one in working order.Not only that..we also got a super service and sercvice boy's facebook
name and email..happy days :) So - always talk to the people who are taking care of the goods your going to buy!
After all that big shopping, we unpacked our rucksacks just outside the shop and geared up our horses, then very gracefully pushed them down to the metro
 station ( too scared to hop on..it has beeeen a while since we'd last seen a bike from close up) and then alll the way up..because apparentaly one is not
allowed to have bikes in metros at some particular times or days..or something like that.
Then found what we thought was a train station, so we could take a train out of Lisbon..but the so called train station was not indeed a train station but a
ferry terminal. After several guys trying to explain us how to get out of city..in portuguese of course..we found ourselves quing up with other people to get
 on the ferry. There you go - don't try to ask us how, or where or how much..cos it just kinda happened.remember this blog is not a travel guide.we can't
even guide ourselves..everything ..well..you know..just kinda happens ;)
But bikes did go for FREE on that ferry.
We got to the other side, to Barreiro and had a first go on our bikes..weehaaa..exciting! Then we got few trains (bikes FREE in zone 1-4) and ended up in
Setubal , where we just HAD to get on our bikes.
Setubal had a lovely water front green sitting area just out of city , where we had our dinner while watching enthusiastic personal trainers trying to
motivate overweight and lazy females to lift their arms and legs..that was a very entertaining show indeed, best TV ever. I have to say that it didn't even
cross our minds that we should've been doing all that before our trip..nope.not even for a second ;)
According to an expert camper, Melissa, this place was no good for camping. After considering few abondoned houses and a roadside park, we peddalled
on and found a dirt road, leading to..god knows where - a perfect spot. That was our first tenting  experience in Portugal.
And..oh, oh - we saw fire flies that night!!!!! Fire flies!!!!

Right now we're back in Setubal, trying to organise our bags a bit better, because my pannier already caught the spikes and broke a bit and Melissa, well,
 she's lost our tent on the way and went after it. Hopefully she will return.
Happy days!

10/06/11 Day 3

Evening, pretending to be mosquito buffet. They're having fun, we are not very keen on feeding them..FOR FREE!!!Good thing Melissa went back and got our
tent back, which of course, was nearby our starting point, so she cycled all the way back..good for her, litle practise does only good for us and it was
a good lesson as well - just fasten your damn gear properly! :)
It's been quite a day today, we're both sunburnt and still trying to get rid off more stuff..starting to understand the meaning of light weight travelling ;)
It's been a proper cycling day as well - oh, are our arses aching or what!!!
According to a friendly local guy, who spoke excellent English, today is Portugal's day - so no SUPERMARKETS! But he came back from his car
and kindly recommended a snack bar where he had just had his lunch plus a good cheap combo dish. And how right was he -  it was delicious and huge!! It was
our first day staying within the budget limits and we had a fantastic meal in a small town called Aguas de Mousa. A combo dish of chips, rice and loads of
meat for 4.80 Euros enough for two people! And we even saved two bits of meat between slices of bread for our dinner ;)
after a little rest and cooling down in a fountain, we cycled a bit more.
We were knackered.
Found a private eucalypt forrestry and dispite all the angry looking signs, we stayed. It's getting dark.
Good night, love you all!!

11/06/11 Day 4

It's good waking up and not knowing what time it is or having the alarm screaming in your ears - we just wake up whenever we feel like it but I think we
have to start waking up and packing as soon as we open our eyes - peddalling midday is just impossible. Was being stubborn again and rode in my tshirt and now my
arms are truly, truly sunburnt
oh well ..
This morning's surprises - Melissa's bike has lost a thingy that attaches her pannier rack to her bike but with smooth McCyver moves, we managed to attach it
back with using a cable looking thingy from my ring binder, damn we're awesome! Long live temporary solutions!
And her saddle had come loose as well.
We're having a little break somewhere between Palma and Alcazer, which is our destination for today's shopping - can't wait..very hungry ;).
We turned in to Palma, to get some water and spotted a fig tree, so Melissa went hunting figs while I was being glued to biggest lemons I've ever seen...
amazed like a child in a sweet shop.
She came back with quite a few ripe ones and few not so very ripe ones for later..which I dragged around in my back pack. I also picked a lemon size of
a melon...

12/06/11 Day 5

After Palma we peddalled towards Alcazer, but it got very hot and Melissa hadn't eaten anything but those figs and she hadn't been drinking enough water
(lesson - always make sure you've got enough water), so when we reached the suburb of Alcazer, the first thing we did was going to restaurante, cos her hands
and body was already visibly shaking. Don't think the heat did any good either.
so we had our lunch/dinner there and once again blew our daily budget.
Yesterday's lesson - refuse any extras they put on the table - they cost! Don't eat in Restaurante, eat in Snack bars. I have to say that it was cheaper for us
 to eat in that snack bar before, rather than buying things from the supermarket (super mercado).
Our dinner in the restaurant cost us all together 11.25 Euros, but dish was huge, so one was plenty for two.
Outside the restaurant, Melissa asked a local man to fix her saddle and he was absolutely hands on ready to help, walked back home and got his tools and even
 asked whether my bike needed something done. What a nice man.
About the restaurant we ate in - we must've looked starving, poor and exhausted cos we were treated with an excellent cooling cold dish each, consisting of
crusty bread, olive oil, cucumber, tomatos, onion, garlic and some herbs plus water. An amazing summer dish which came with a wink..for free!
After siesta, we cycled to city centre and it was a truly beautiful water side town wih cobble stone roads.
Later on we got some sweets, coffee, fruit, bread, salt and sugar and some other stuff plus an aluminium cup and a pot with attachable lid, which on a later
 examination turned out to be a baking thingy with inner tube.
Tried to send some things back home (too emotional to bin them) and send a post card to our very first donater Tom but the post office was closed.
So we headed on to find a camping site for the night but we were a bit late and decided to set our tent just beside the road behind the bushes.
And it was actually an all right spot. Forrests are all fenced to keep away people like us..so camping in a ditch.
The moon was shining bright and the sky was full of stars plus we had a sunset one cannot describe with words.
Woke up with sun tenderly rising and playing on treetops, painting them soft amber colour.
I woke up Melissa to get a good early start, she made fire and we had our first morning campfire coffee with sandwiches. Sense of utter happiness and freedom
are the words to describe that morning.
What seemed like two hours later( so much of our early start) , we hit the road and it was mainly downhill..S -curves on a rode with close to nil traffic,
wind rushing by..what an adrenaline filler!!!
At the moment we are having siesta by a lake called Vale de Gaio. I had my hopes high for a cooling swim, cos I'm not coping with the heat very well, but
NO swimming in this lake! No lovely shores or clear water..plenty of fish tho.
And the lake is about 2 km off our route but at least we can have a nice rest here before heading towards Torrao.. Hahahhaaa..Melissa has fallen asleep.
Snooooring :)
There's a few Russian speaking families camping here, so of course I had to show off my fantastic (read out pathetic) russian skills and asked about the
swimming possibilities and they didn't seem to be even an inch surprised about a random cyclist in Portugal approaching them and speaking some form
of Russian. What a disappointment ;)
Melissa's toothache is not likely to surrender and we've only got one painkiller left.
Oh yeah nearly forgot a very important event taking place yesterday - we had a proper wash in a service station..FOR FREE and it felt god damn gooood!!!!


14/06/11 Day 7

A week in Portugal, what a fantastic life!
Casting my mind back to day 5 by the like Vale de Gaio..when Melissa woke up, we decided this place was no good. It was steaming hot, full of ants
 (i've got a slight fear when it comes to ants, specially the black ones with big bums), filthy, no swimming place and chances to keep in the shade
was dicreasing rapidly with rising of the midday sun.
So we hopped back on our white horses (which by now have names as well..oh yeah..Bella and Pedro...we're getting quite personal here), kicked up the dust
and took course towards Torrao.
Once in Torrao, we were awestruck by the idyllicnlittle place it was, with it's narrow s-streets and old men sitting in front of every possible door still
hidden in shade, all staring at us like we were some sort of rock stars :)
It was getting pretty late and the fact that it was Sunday, made it all clear why the town seemed to be in sleep mode.
First thing, we found a pharmacy to stock up painkillers for Melissa..which (touch wood) doesn't seemed to be neccessary anymore, thank god for that!
And the men in the pharmacy were so kind to go and find the shop owner, to open the shop for us, how amazing is that?!
And what did Melissa buy - bloody loaf of bread and a frozen chicken!!!! And very expensive as well.
But I have to say the it made an absolutely gorgeous dinner later on..
And that's how we met Fava, who was happy to practice his English and very keen in talking to us. So we ended up in a snack bar with him, tasting local
 delicatessen - snails. It would be too complicated to compose the words to discribe the challenge of sucking the snails out of their flats...It was a
fun and interesting evening in Torrao with Fava but we had to get going, so we left the cute place and headed on on search for our next camping spot.
We didn't have to cycle far til we found an open gate to freshly cut meadow with a swampy river flowing past. We named the place The Swamp.
Spent a very good night in hay cushioned tent which felt better than any bloody baldahiin could ever feel!
Melissa made fire by the river, cooked our half defrosted chicken and made few sandwiches. Being very happy and proud of herself, we ate the dinner in full
 contentment.
The next morning I was waken by the sound from a scene in The Terminator, where the flames rush through the city and they show this kids park and an empty
burned swing rocking in the wind -feeding time in a nearby piggery-  I swear to god, I thought they were burning people alive somewhere, it was a nauseous
 sound.
Back on the road we were welcomed with our very first flat tyre!!! Melissa's Bella had a lazy saddle and a flat tyre..
The next town, Odivelas - 18 km.
We were in the middle of nowhere, no desire to cycle back to Torrao, we walked.
And of course we didn't have any puncture repair kits or tools or not even skills to fix a tyre..
And we walked.After hundreds of kilometers (well probably only half a k later), we sat down, ate an apple and had a ziggy when we saw a car approaching and I
automatically waved for it to stop..and it stopped! We couldn't believe our eyes - it was a pick up truck.
And that's how our roads crossed with Jose.
Speaking no portuguese, we managed to explain what had happened and came to understanding that he will take us to Odivelas. He asked around there but nothing,
 so he took us to Ferreiro, another extra 14 k. We did well that day covering the kilometers :)
And he didn't accept any money for petrol.
We got Bella fixed up with three Euros and spent a day in Ferreira, sorting through our bags, sent some stuff back home and..well.. pretty much just hanged
around and did nothing. Good times!
After too much of doing nothing, I got a bit cranky..at least that's what she says ;)
I was hot, sweaty and hungry and had already sorted all my bags and put them back together and I guess I just got booored and desperately needed toilet.
After 20 minutes of crossed legs torturous walk down the steaming streets,  found a little medical centre, asked for the toilet and shit the beautiful white
sterile place into a nuclear war zone. Washed my hands, smiled to the reception bimbo and left the buildng. Mission complete.
Back on the road, we found a place called Cuba on the map and agreed to go and check the place out. Before arriving to Cuba, Melissa was getting a bit low in
 motivation to keep on peddalling but I didn't let her stop and she was thankful  later on. Specially when we passed a group of people waiting for us by the
road, all cheering and clapping.
At this moment I felt very special and proud of ourselves.But we didn't make it up the hill, too hot. Dot.
Heading toards Cuba, we cycled through another village surrounded by squats and the contrast of rich and por was striking.
It was a creepy little place with creepy little people in it so we pedalled through as quickly as possible. By the time we got to Cuba, we were knackered
and it was getting late.
We found public toilets and used the opportunity, stripped, washed ourselves and our clothes  right next to a bar, hoping no one would walk in. No one did.
But the sun went down and we knew when the sun sets, we're hopelessly late for finding a place to camp. It gets dark within minutes. so we asked around and
found a hospedes called Lulu.
And we just had a wash in public toilets!!!
It was an OK room - clean, hot water, TV, no Internet - 30 Euros. Double bed, private ensuite.
It was a well deserved sleep in a safe place between white sheets with my lovely Melissa.
I'm not saying anything bad about the place but it could never beat the hospedes we stayed in Lisbon - it had some character..one could smell the heat of
wooden stairs..
But we made the most of our stay - recharged all the appliances, uploaded pictures to laptop, made coffee with tap water, plucked our eyebrows, SHAVED
and had a hot shower..and still had some energy to spend on each other... ;)
Today is our seventh day in Portugal.
The start of the day has been fucking fantastic..literally. We found a fig tree just outside of Cuba, full of ripe sweet figs. We ate til we felt sick!
At the moment we're in Beja and planning our route to prolong crossing the border to Spain.
We're not done with Portugal yet!
Cheereo!

15/06/11 Day 8

Current location - Rio de Odearce.
Beja was extreme sport experience.To find a bicycle pump and locks, post office and to do the shopping in oven conditions in a city so tensly built in and
 populated that even ants would get claustrophobic, was..extreme.
But not as extreme as finding our way out of the city.
Once on the right track, it took as back to city centre (these people love cobble stone streets and miniature roundabouts). We went with  the traffic flow,
eyes closed. It was so much fun- mainly down hill, from one roundabout to another,bumping on our bikes, trying to make some sense in the chaos, we finally
made it and fully enjoyed the smooth asfalt again.
As it was getting late..again..we were in a kinda hurry finding ground to set our tent up. So decided to turn off the main road, to get to a small town
called Baleizao and from there to Pedrogao.
Arriving to Baleizao, we couldn't find any more signs indicating towards our next stop.Grabbed our map and went asking around. after a minute or two, Melissa
was in the middle of a fierce portuguese discussion of which way this Pedrogao has been for last centuries. Very comical to watch from the side.
Needless to say that it didn't seem to bother them that our Portuguese vocabulary consisted of greetings, thankyous and bicycle parts. Our inquiery
resulted with this sweetest old and very small (and very old) lady in black with a black Avon carton bag in her hand walking us back all the way we entered
the town, indicating to a dirt road and still speaking about..something.
We were blessed with two real portuguese kisses on both cheeks and off we went.
PS. on our way out she banged on people's doors and windows for unknown reasons.
We didn't go far, just five minutes up the road, had a wee break  next to a strange communistic monument, had a ziggy and kept going.
The problem with this sweet little lady was that Melissa figured out quite quickly where we needed to go but we just couldn't refuse her help..so we WALKED
out of the city and lost valuable half an hour of daylight.This night we camped in the middle of an olive grove, had fire and Melissa cooked a finger licking
stew while I built the house.
Another adventurous day had ended.

17/06/11 Day 10

We're only about 16 km away from Spanish border, having siesta in another picturesque town called Mourao. Mouraoa is visibly wealthier than the last few
places we've passed.Today has been a rough day, becuase the wind has been against us all the way. About yesterdays camping - we had to stop with darkness
crawling close in the first suitable place we could find and it happened to be on top of orange rocky hill in an old olive grove - solid rock ground but
 million dollar view.
We were knackered and hungry, had three sandwiches and went straight to..tent.Day had been steaming and I had my first nose bleed while rushing down hill.
I am really, really struggeling with the heat but I woun't give up! ;)
On day 9, we pedalled through olive groves..as far as we could see - nothing but olive trees. It was very isolated and we came to a ford we instantly
fell in love with and made our minds up to stop and spend our day and night there.
Facing a slight problem tho - nearly no water left.
When I pointed to a creature looking like a crab or a prawn or something like that (how the hell should I know..maybe even a lobster), Melissa suddenly
jumped and caught two of those buggers  with her bare hands. Greyfish.
That was it, I took Pedro and disappeared to unknown to find some water and perhaps few beers while she was catching us lunch.
4 km and only uphills later I ame across Pedrogao, returned with fresh water and 4 beers!!!
First time having any alcohol since we started cycling.
Meanwhile Melissa had caught a whole pot full of greyfish ready to cook.Our time by Rio de Odearce has so far been our nr one camping spot - isolated,
 beautiful, free food and river for skinny dipping!
It was a great day!

Things that have surprised me in Portugal:

lack of bread in shops
relatively expensive food, specially bread
fruit so sweet, juicy and delicious
free wifi spots in parks (but go and figure out how to charge your laptop..)

Just remembered:
after leaving Paradise by the river the next day, we saw a fella using his laptop in Pedrogao and asked about the Internet.What we understood was -
 free wifi, no password. So Melissa dived into the depths of Internet while I went hunting bread. Had an interesting conversation with the shopkeeper..
Portuguese is actually very easy to understand, at least I think I understood her and tried to talk back. I returned to a bit shaken Melissa who had had
 a brief encounter with a crazy lady who was in her face agressivaly talking something about using the Internet.
But at least we know that it still exists - lovely Internet, miss you!