Yes, you may call me "master chef".

After leaving Lisbon, we took the bus to a place in Algarve called Faro. My first impressions of Faro was that it was a small, sleepy little seaside town that moved at its own pace and didn’t contain many typically “touristy” things to do. I was right, and this pleased me greatly. We had planned that Faro would be our "catch up" and "chill out" spot, as we had pushed ourselves during the past 10 days and needed a bit of a rest before I continued on travelling and Eliza returned home to Durham. Henceforth , we did a lot of "housekeeping" and readying ourselves for our imminent departure, so I'll keep this blog short and sweet!

Apparently, this is "evidence" for my parents...

After arriving in at the bus station (which isn't that welcoming) we found our hostel easily enough  and we decided that we would walk around and explore before once again attempting to cook dinner (and doing laundry-the exciting lives we lead!)This meant a trip to the supermarket.

We bought the necessary ingredients for our time in Faro, and returned to our hostel, where the next four hours was spent by me doing chores and Eliza surfing Facebook, bus lines and who knows what else whilst she waited for me so I could teach her how to cook.

Building in the "Old City"

After I rendered our bathroom almost completely inaccessible and un-usable due to my drying clothes, we went to the kitchen to begin our Master-class. We were going to make pasta with home-made tomato and white wine sauce. Needless to say we were devastated when we found that the kitchen had a beer opener but nothing for our corked wine. Our plans had been foiled! Once we recovered from the disappointment that our home-made sauce (that already tasted amazing) wouldn’t have any wine in it, we realised that we had still done “bloody well” for ourselves, and were quite proud that we hadn’t repeated our disastrous attempt at cooking in Valencia.

The night went past in a blur o resting and trying to manouver past clothes, and we awoke the next morning to a chilly but lovely day. We found that the toaster didn’t actually work, so after a small breakfast of bread, jam, Yoghurt and juice that lasted suspiciously like dishwashing detergent we set out to explore.

The "bikeway" apparently...

We walked around the marina, and then (unknowingly) into the old city, which reminded me (due to the walled nature and cobbled streets) of the Kasbah in Rabat. We kept wandering, managing to avoid a public altercation with a rude and rather stupid man who was hassling us to take a piece of paper about who-knows-what , after which we hightailed it to a small store to buy a corkscrew. Priorities!

After meandering for a while we returned to the supermarket to buy our lunch, and then made our way back to the Hostel for the afternoon. The plan was to start packing and for me to finish drying clothes, whilst also doing a little bit of planning for my upcoming trip. I have come to realise that whilst travelling every day is so much fun, it is also exhausting and rest is needed so that you can make good decisions and feel refreshed.

After a quick walk to the bus station to buy tickets and check times for the next day, we returned to the hostel and cooked some dinner-white-wine and tomato sauce with pasta take 2! Yes, you may call me “master chef”. 

White wine was most important ingredient-
right ize?

We spent the night in, finishing our wine (we couldn't use all of it in the sauce!) and beginning to pack as the next morning spelt goodbye once again as we parted ways at the bus station.

The 10 days that I spent with Eliza travelling around Spain were so much fun, and I have created so many good memories with her, from the sight-seeing, jokes and music to just relaxing and taking it easy whilst having a much needed catch up! We met some awesome people and had a whole heap of fun, so to everyone that contributed I want to say thankyou *smiles*.

After Eliza left from Faro I continued on with my travels, and I'm now finishing this blog from a roof top terrace in Cordoba, with the sound of building and slight scent of jasmine reaching me on my perch. However, in between I managed to see Seville, so before I even begin to describe my current location, I must catch up on all my happenings!

Until next time!

Love Love!

Clem xx