Fleeting Rain

We woke up early this morning to try and catch the Sunday market in Sevilla. To our dismay, it was raining quite a bit. We figured we'd give it a try but unfortunately we were correct; it had been canceled. We drove around a bit taking rainy snap shots and looking for a quickie souvenir shop, but didn't find much in that regard, either. We decided to abort the Sevilla mission for the time being and get on the way to Portugal. I had booked our hotel night in Sevilla and Teri was in charge of booking the Portugal hotel. She had printed out the information to our hotel and I went to plug it into the GPS. However, I took one look/thought at the GPS and said out loud “Oh shit.” Teri looked at me and knew exactly what I realized. The location is in Portugal. We are in Spain. TomTom doesn't know Portugal!!! Eek!!

So, we set the GPS to Ayamonte, the most far east city in Spain and hoped we'd find it from there.

We stopped at a gas station in Ayamonte in search of a Portuguese map. This is the real Spain, not the fluffly, heavily populated British Spain I live in. When I went to the register to inquire about how to get to Tavira (Portugal) the man behind the register was giving me information (in Spanish.) I understood some, and kept saying “Si.” The other worker standing off to the side says quickly and under his breath “Todo es si.” They laughed. The clerk then asks me “Me guapo?” and I replied “Si. Te guapo pero soy mas guapa. No se mucho Espanol pero entiendo un poco, muchas gracias.”

What just happened? He's giving me information, I kept saying Si. The other gentleman thinks it's the only word I know, so the clerk tries to trick me into saying he's good looking. I respond “You are good looking, but I am better looking. I don't know much Spanish but I understand a little bit, thank you very much.” Take that! I know how to curse them out but we didn't get that far. So they laughed with me, and then I asked the comedian for more clear instructions once he was convinced I was somewhat able to communicate. 2 pats on the back for that one! :)

The bad news is the gas stations didn't have any Pim's, so we kept having to buy imitations. We called them Pam's. Not bad, but not a Pim.

We get onto the road to Tavira, and I for some reason decide to check if TomTom switches countries. Low and behold! He does! See what happens when you go with the flow? It works! We plugged in our address and again, off we went.

We arrived at our quaint little hotel in Tavira, Portugal. Now, I must say that the advertising on the internet was a tid false, but we still really enjoyed the hotel. We were in the family suite which had adorable wall paper and a fold out couch, with a view of the city. Tavira is an itty bitty teeny weeny city with a beautiful river going through the middle of it. Most everything is in walking distance. The manager at the front desk gave us a map and told us where the tourists and locals eat. He also told us that we had lucked out considerably – there was a fair today! In fact, it was the last day of the cultural fair and it was literally right outside our door and across the river.

Teri had some work to do on the computer but I was outta there! I stuck on my headphones and headed out to Tavira. What a magnificent day! I fell in love. The fair was amazing – so many wonderful and quirky boutiques. The people were so nice. Now I really had no idea what anyone was saying because I speak English and only a morsel of Spanish, and now they're speaking Portuguese! But everyone was so kind and friendly. I shopped and shopped and shopped. I headed over to where the manager at the hotel said the locals eat to sit down and have a sandwich and a beer. The sky couldn't be more blue with a gentle and cooling breeze. I sat outside and read my book “Mastery” while eating a sandwich with home made bread and drinking literally one of the best beers I've ever drank called Sangres. Actually, I had 2 of those. I sat and read and listened to the beautiful French sounding Italian with a dab of Spanish Portuguese and the bridge. My 6 Euro tab for the meal was a pleaser, as well.

I heard music! The town fair now had a live band playing. Teri and I decided to meet up at the center. I got to dance with one of the instructors in the middle! It was so much fun! I took a short video (posted down below) so you can hear the music and see all the joy that was happening there that day.

I just love Portugal so far! The views, the weather, the people, the culture, the clothes, the prices, the music, the style, the food!

I headed back up to the room and chatted with mom a bit online. Shortly after this we lost our internet – explaining the lapse in blogs. Teri and I decided to walk around and see what was open for dinner. Well, we ended up getting a bit lost and walked a huge circle around the entire city. Fortunately for us this only takes about 40 minutes. Nevertheless, we had already walked off what we were going to eat.

We found a cute little place with the soccer game on. I got a glass of white wine, with Filet Mignon in an almond sauce. This, my friend, was crack! Geez! What are these people trying to do to me? Ok, Ok! I get it! Portugal is amazing. Stop yelling! Teri had a peppercorn steak that I'm pretty sure my mom would die for. I haven't been able to stop thinking of Daniela here. I feel like I understand her more now. I miss that crazy girl.

We walked home to our quaint little hotel room. We had breakfast coming to the door at 9 am so we figured we'd head to bed.

I love Portugal.

Life is good.

P.S. - FR is a well traveled bunny!!!

Random bridge shot... but I love this pic!

Bunny at the market! :)
river in Tavira, medium tide

view from the top of the stairs, mid village

My bed in our cute room! :)