Home Again

We're home! We had some excitement at the JFK airport, everyone was a little testy.
The flight was fine.
We were a little sad to see all the snow, after prancing around Portugal.
But its always good to be home!

Back in the USA

Up at 4:30am. (That's 11:30 Tuesday night for Pittsburgh)
We managed to be in our car and moving by 5:45am.
Turned our car in and got in the line of insane length for check-in. Just to find out we have to be in another line to get a boarding pass first. Geez.

Our first flight left Lisbon at 8:20am, and we were headed back to Paris. That was all fine and dandy. Had just enough time to switch flights in Paris, our next was at 12:30pm. Well, it was a huge flight, and boarding took forever. And then they switched planes on us, so they had to bus us across the airport. Well, then we sat on our plane for another two hours. We finally left around-- 3:00pm? And this was the big flight, 7 hours. But was longer, since now there was no room for us at JFK, so we circled around a little bit and finally had a scary, very bumpy/swerving landing. eek. And finally we left the plane at 5:45pm.

And then one more flight - ooh, it is cancelled, due to weather. So, now we are in a tiny Super 8 room, and will be up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow. So, we are all exhausted. Just ordered some pizza to our room. We've been awake and flying for nearly 24 hours. That's one long day.

Portugal - Land of Rainbows and Port Wine

We packed the Passat, its so full. The trunk is a bit smaller than the Octavia, we had a bag in the back with us, but no biggie. It took us about three hours to get back to Lisbon. We took the old highway, the more scenic one, for most of the way, then got on the toll road. It was 18 Euros on our way down, we took the toll road the whole way. Today we only paid 5, and then another 2 or so to cross the big bridge. It’s a suspension bridge similar to the Golden Gate bridge. The plan was meet Al & Pat for lunch at Bethel at 12:30, but we sat in traffic right before the bridge for so long. We didn’t make it. Change of plans! (a part of us wished we’d taken the same taxi guy (in his same sweater) from yesterday, it would have cut our travel time in half) We did see a few rainbows while driving, since it was rainy on and off. We saw rainbows - even a double rainbow, so intense - when we were in Lisbon before.

We decided to go back to our favorite little restaurant in Sintra for lunch! It was where we went with Al & Pat before, and got goat chops. Mmm. So today we had baked goat, with potatoes and rice. Oh and cheese and bread and olives! YES!

Then we went to another one of the ancient castles, near the Palace we went through. it’s a Moorish castle from the 15th century. What I didn’t realize is it was more like a fort, no roof. Perfect kind of thing for a rainy day. And hail too, actually. Brrr. But the castle (fort) is neat and fun to explore, especially for Nicole who was so chic in her high heels. (We were planning on changing before coming). There’s lots of little steps all around, and narrow walkways atop the walls. We may have attempted the hike to the top if it weren’t for the hostile weather. And Nicole’s shoe situation.

We had our last coffee top in Sintra, such a cute little town! Full of big old houses and tiny little roads. And then finally we got to bethel and had a nice evening with Al & Pat. They are so adorable! He pulled out his "special" port and let us have a taste.

Tomorrow we will be up at 4:30am, and off to the airport. See you soon, Western PA!

(Lauren) Oh no, I broke the flan
(Nicole) No one’s getting in my camera.
(Corey) Do you want some cheese with that goat?
(Lauren) Until this moment, nothing artificial will pass these lips

Monday Monday

Our last day in Albufeira. Too bad it wasn’t what we planned.

Our poor car was carted off last night, and we were picked up by a taxi to go home. That was like, actually, 3:00 am this morning. The taxi ride was crazy! First of all, it was a Mercedes hatchback thing, and he was driving 130 km/h … on tiny little mountain town roads. He was following our GPS, and I think it was having trouble keeping up. Basically we were home in 2 minutes.

The irritation continued when we finally called Europcar back to see when our replacement car would arrive. There answer was as informative as last night : Oh, we didn't know you had a problem. Our computer shows you still have your car.

So they sent the taxi back for me and Lauren to take us to the next town where they had a new car for us. Haha it was the same taxi, same driver, wearing the same bulky sweater. And away we went!

The nice lady at the Europcar in the next town was like: where's your car? Why are you here, I didn't know anyone was coming? But she was helpful and made the calls and soon got us in a sweet WV Passat.

But! We left the GPS cable in the other car, we realized today. Grrr. Thus began the most difficult hunt of the day: where is the Octavia? It was nowhere. No one knew where it went. Finally we got word that it arrived in Faro and we could go retrieve our things. Sounds simple enough, but somehow the car wasn't there when we asked the less-than-friendly man at the desk. His shoulder shrugs weren't exactly improving mine & Lauren's glares, and magically the tow truck pulls in just as he's on the phone. Yay!

It was a bummer it took us ALL DAY to get this worked out. We're most bummed that we couldn't meet Peter & Anna for service, since Lauren had an appointment to visit the one lady again. So we will meet them for coffee tonight to say goodbye. And then we're off to Lisbon in the morning. We will be at Bethel with "Uncle" Al and "Aunt" Pat for lunch, and then we'll probably check out another castle in Sintra. We're hoping to get some bacalhau, since we've been spared the experience the entire trip.

What will you miss about the Algarve?

(Corey) The mountains, and the ocean. And all the pleasant Dutch people... okay, mainly just Watson.
(Lauren) Meia de leite, and $2 bottles of wine.
(Nicole) Not the weather. But definitely Robs and Watson.

Quotes?
(Lauren) Its not Friday, its not thirteen. But its still a bad day.
(Keri) The car is not arrived until this moment.

What's all the Racklet?

It’s a rainy morning. Again.

One of our new favorite people - Doug - gave the talk this morning. This is our last meeting with the Albufeira congregation! They all said they’d love to have us back again…. Hmm…..

After a spot of lunch (cleaned up the remnants of food, like cheese, and ice cream) we drove West to Lagos, to catch a boat tour of the grottoes along the rocky coast. I got to use my Portuguese (I think it was somewhat lame after a weekend of Spanish corruption) to ask for directions to the right beach - Praia Dona Ana. We were the only ones there! And actually, no boaters in sight, just a fisherman. So we just explored a little, the view is spectacular! Its funny, the fisherman was watching us the whole time, and others too. I don’t know what it is with us, or if its just Portuguese, but people stare

Since we came via the highway (or motorway to the English here…) we took the scenic way home. And Corey was co-pilot and tends to trust GPS to a fault, and we were ended up on some tiny back street, which turned into a dirt road, then a dirt path with terrible ruts, and then pretty much a field, and wouldn’t you know, it came back to pavement and we were just one round-about from our apartment!

Now we are at Peter & Anna’s house for the evening - I made some “rice-krispie” cookies, Portugal style. The bag of marshmallows were half strawberry flavor, and I picked out a fun chocolate, star-shaped cereal. We wanted to make them an American dessert, but go figure, we couldn’t really find the ingredients for cheesecake or pumpkin pie. For dinner we had racklet - put some boiled potatoes on your plate, then grill some yummy things for on top - like cheese, bacon, onions, olives, etc. Its a special grill thing and everyone has their own try to make whatever they want!

And, our car has bit the dust. It won't start, and we're waiting for a taxi now. Hopefully we'll have a new car by the morning.

What do you all have to say?

(Lauren) Watchtower, right??
(Nicole) Pass me the paprika, please.
(Corey) Skype me when you're sober.
(Anna) Pass me the gherkins.
(Peter) Ahh, don't scrape the pans!!
(Lauren) If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

Pass the Paella Please

Manuel & Pili are the best. Enough said.

After breakfast (a feast of bread and coffee - oh, and more of that awesome cake) we were supposed to see the sights of Sevilla with some of the other friends from the congregation, but, go figure, it rained. Manuel said it never rains in Sevilla. Well, that’s what happens when some Pittsburghers visit, we bring the weather with us. Its ok, Manuel pulled out the guitar. Turns out his father, him, and his son are all excellent flamenco guitarists. See for yourself:







Pili had a little secret of her own - a couple of flamenco dresses in her closet! She had as much fun dressing us up as we did “dancing” in them. Our moves are a tad rough.

Pili was in the kitchen the whole time, making something delicious - the ultimate Spanish meal, Paella! The pan was huge! Full of rice and seafood creature squigglies. (I just ate, didn’t think about it). Reuben, Annabelle, and baby Reuben came to eat with us. That baby is so adorable!

What do you think came around the corner after we stuffed ourselves on lunch? The rest of that chocolate cake! She ended up wrapping it up and sending it with us. Mmm. Along with a bag full of other delicious things. Finallywe had to say goodbye, pry Lauren’s fingers off the railing, and head back to Portugal. We stopped back in town again to shop a little more, it was really crowded, and we only got lost a little. The streets are so cramped and don’t often go through to other streets. And our car was by the store “Corte Ingles”, and finally we realized there are three buildings in close proximity that with Corte Ingles. Good times. Lauren got her magnet, so all was well.

I’m glad to be back in Portugal, where I can understand what’s going on. Heh, heh, I didn’t think it would be so hard for me to switch back to Spanish for a few days…. Wrong. I could hardly even say “Pili, tenemos un regalo para ti.” It was like torture. Lauren coached me for hours, and I somehow managed to tell Pili we got her a present, some chocolate olives. I quickly corrected it with some Portuguese “temos um presente para você”

I liked all the bridges and buildings, the architecture was interesting and pretty. What was your favorite part of Spain?

(Corey) I like all the little streets, and there’s NO room so everyone is double parked.
(Nicole) Hmm, where do I begin? I just liked eating - I liked everything we ate! And I’ll probably not drink coffee again until I return to Spain, because it will just be a waste of time.
(Lauren) I loved discovering what I will pursue in the New System, a lifetime of flamenco!

Any good quotes from today? Mine: Oh no. Everyone get your raincoats on!

(Lauren) Come on here, baby!
(Nicole) How’s your mum? Is your mum on the mend?
(Corey) I’ll just be three seconds…
(Lauren) Two coffees…… and a churro? How many churros do you want?

Flamenco on My Mind

Snoozed til noon, wow. But, we didn’t get to sleep until almost 4 am. We had no idea what time it was, and Pili was just letting us sleep. She’s another one on our adopted Auntie list. She got us some warm bread and Serrano ham, peach jelly, coffee, …. And… wait for it…. The leftovers of the big chocolate cake and hazelnut spread came around the corner! Yes! And I even drank the coffee, and liked it! We had a visit from Pili’s daughter, sister and brother-in-law while and mother today. We met the 10-month old grandson last night, so that pretty much makes the whole family. I keep speaking to them in Portuguese, its so hard to remember Spanish. Lauren keeps me on track with the Spanish.

The Skoda felt a lot better today after a good night’s rest. Didn’t we all …

We drove into town near the Tower of Gold, and went to some shops. We found a lot of nice things, bought a few. Perhaps mine and Lauren’s shining moment - a fabric store! It was full of nice stuff, a lot of polka dots, which I figured out later is a common pattern in Flamenco dresses. We only had a couple hours, since we had an 8:00pm reservation at the best Flamenco show in the city!

Of course Pili wanted to feed us before the show, more soup and cheese, olives, bread, mussels. Yeah, Lauren put a dent in those. But we just made it to the show, the traffic tried to ruin our plans. Its on a narrow, old, little back street in the old side of the city, and we did some crazy parking on the curb and spent the next two hours in Lauren’s Flamenco dreams! (She was really excited) The one guitarist is Reuben, Manuel & Pili’s son. And one of the four women dancing is Annabelle, Reuben’s wife. The entire show was so fantastic, each performance just got better. There were three men on guitar, three men singing, one woman sang, four more women danced, and a man danced. It was so loud and exciting and colorful and full of emotion. At the end everyone was on stage doing their thing, and the castanets were jamming and heels were clicking and hands were clapping. Just wonderful! Sorry, there was absolutely no picture taking allowed. Everyone needs to come to Seville and see it for themselves someday!

We went walking around afterward, and stopped for some food. It was a different place, the menu had things like meat and cheese plates to dinner with scrambled eggs. So that’s what we got! And some dates stuffed with blue cheese. Oh how we’ll miss eating in Europe!

(Lauren) I’m so stinkin’ excited, I’m so stinkin’ excited!!
(Corey) Vale!
(Lauren) This castanet fits like a glove!
(Nicole) Oh no! There’s four girls in the garden!
(Man from balcony) Hola!
(Keri) There’s definitely something going on in the garden…
(Corey) Doing it Slim-Jim style!
(Lauren) I’ve just realized I’m in the wrong profession, I want to be a full time Flamenco attendee!