Entries from June 2006 ↓

I’ve arrived safely in Porto and am out of phone credit - so don’t freak out parents!

First impressions are that it is astonishingly hot and I haven’t even started heading to the hotter southern bits yet - argh! I’ve spent the day walking around Porto, I think i’ve almost covered the whole place. Quite a nice city, especially just drifting through the World Heritage listed homes by the Douro river. Lots of beautifuly tiled exteriors, plenty of cats and washing hanging out on the balconies.

I spent most of the morning searching for a camera. Fi is keeping ours for her birthday celebrations this weekend and I was meant to grab one duty free at the airport but i queued up about 1 1/2 hours to get onto my flight. I was just about the last person onboard - thats what you get for flying with a cheap nasty carrier. So I lashed out a measly £50 for the cheapest camera I could find. I’m sure the quality will be pathetic but I don’t care.

Tonight i’ve hired a car and i’m driving up to the Gerez region further North (I’ll survive in a LHS car Dad!). It’s meant to be a beautiful forest area and i’m going to camp under the stars tonight and do a short hike tomorrow. Speaking of camping, Royal Mail, our local carrier, lost my tent in the post! Fi ended up buying me a £15 cheapie from Argos, which isn’t ideal, but I guess its not raining or cold so its all I need. Still, I was extremely pissed off yesterday learning that I didn’t have a tent 5 hours before I was due to fly out - thank god for girlfriends.

I wish I could post some photos, but I haven’t figured out how i’m going to do that bit yet - i’ll work it out.

I actually wrote an agenda for Portugal last night. Couple of days in Gerez as I said, then down through the Bacoao Forest and across to Nazare and the beaches for a bit. Then i’m heading through Obidos and down to Sintra, a historical town next to Lisbon. Then across to Lisbon for a bit and over to Evora in the middle of the country. Then it’s down to the Algarve - Salema, Faro and finally Lagos to meet up with the girls. Work seems so far away!

It’s the final countdownnnnn (I can’t believe that song popped into my head, I love you Mordialloc skate rink). Horrible memories of 80’s music aside, its now 12 hours before the pilot asks the cabin crew to take their seats and i’ll be on my way to Portugal beginning my journey of self-discovery (how deep and spiritual). The journey starts in Porto, north Portugal. I’m hiring a car and travelling south towards Lisbon and ultimately the Algarve to meet up with Fi and half of the rest of London. The excitement is starting to hit - i’ve been too drunk over the last week to think about what lies ahead (I’ve had four 4am finishes in 8 days - at least i only fell asleep on one train). Everyone is totally concerned with my preparation (I haven’t packed yet) but i’m a last minute specialist so my confidence isnt soured. I’m going to try and update the site as much as possible for all of you as I go along (Read: expect an update in about 3 months).
The past month or so has been hectic at work and play. The frivolity began in Brussels. Verity (mate from uni and work) and Carl (mate from work) joined me for 3 action packed days drinking some quality beer and sampling the local delights (chocolate and seafood). Brussels is not the greatest city in the world but it was nice and quiet and had lots of stunning parks. A very relaxing weekend until I got lost one night, couldn’t wake up Vez or Carl and ended up sleeping in some random hostel room. I missed check-out and had the other two searching Brussels for my body, on the verge of calling the police. Oops. All good fun guys!

So now that I have ridiculed myself once more, it’s time to sign off. I’ve promised about 18 people that I will send postcards from every city, so I may do more writing than sight-seeing. But whatever I get up to, make sure you watch this space for the next 3 months of fun. Good luck me.