Hi everyone,
I can’t believe how much I’ve neglected this blog, I apologise (although I’m sure you don’t all really care, I doubt there are many of you actually left). Once again I make the comment I promise I’ll post more often now (however realistically how many times have I said this, I’ll try my best!)
I’m currently on my summer holidays from school (thank god!) and on the first week I went to Portugal with my family, staying with friends in Tavira. I’ve never been to Portugal before so I was really excited!
I broke up from school on the 20th July, went home and got ready to go to the airport to go to Portugal. We arrived very late at night and so we went to sleep as soon as we got there.
On the second day I unfortunately couldn’t go out in the morning due to being ill (typical!) so my family all went out and enjoyed delicious breakfast in a cafe whilst I lay on the floor under the air conditioning to try and comfort my feverish sweats! Fortunately, after a long sleep I felt okay and manage to make it to the pool. After relaxing and attempting to read my book for my personal statement (but failing in the heat), we went back to the apartment and freshened up for the evening.
We walked to the restaurant and I got to see the centre of Tavira for the first time. I loved the houses, they had all the original tiles on the outside of the houses.
Our meal was average, some people’s food was overcooked and mine was just mediocre, nothing to really rave about.
The next day we walked to the Camera Obscura, which they only have a few of across the world. It’s basically a camera that projects itself in front of everyone and zooms in on certain parts of the town allowing you to see what is happening right at that moment. It was nice to see the whole town (without having to walk around in the heat) and also hear the history to it, we heard stories about abandoned schools that are haunted.
After that we walked to the castle gardens which were covered in the most beautiful coloured flowers. It also had an amazing panoramic view of the town.
Afterwards we got changed and drove to a beach, we relaxed there for a few hours (me rather uncomfortably as I HATE sitting on the sand, it makes me feel ill, the feeling just goes through me). Then we went for lunch at an oyster place which had an amazing view of the beautiful blue sea.
The next day, we drove to the ferry to go to Santa Luzia beach. I’m not the biggest fan of boats (the sea in general freaks me out- can you tell I’m not the best person for the beach!) but luckily it was very short.
This time I had a little chair, so I managed to actually relax and read my book this time. We got the ferry back and had a BBQ back at the apartment whilst watching the sunset. We then went into to the town in the night and I had a late night Twix flavoured ice cream, it was amazing and had real chunks of Twix in it. Then we went to a bar where I had a glass of red wine and we sat outside on a cobblestone street in the warm night air, it was my European dream.
On the fourth day we spent the day at the pool and then came back to get dressed up for our evening meal. We went to this amazing tapas restaurant called D’Gusta I thoroughly recommend it, it was my favourite dinner of the whole trip. We ordered a lots of dishes to share but my favourite out or selection was the brie fondue. I adore cheese, especially brie and they’d mixed it with a lot of garlic which made it even better. I put it in my mouth and just died.
The next day we went for a morning walk in the town and found this beautiful church. The colours were outstanding, as well as the detail.
Later we went to the beach again and I actually went in the sea because it was so hot. The waves were so powerful and I ended up actually falling and cutting myself (told you I’m not meant for the beach). In the evening we went for dinner at a restaurant called Bairrada where they served steak on the stone. For any of you that don’t know what that is, it’s basically where they give you a hot granite stone and you cook your own steak as much as you want on it. We even got bibs!
Afterwards we went to an outdoor cinema which was part of the European Film Festival where they were screening Listen To Me, Marlon. I learnt so much about Marlon Brando and his thoughts, it was so interesting. It also made me feel really sympathetic for him, his life was full of tragedy.
On our last and final day before our departing day we spent the whole day at the beach, where I finally got sunburnt all over my chest because I was so relaxed I completely passed out!
If you ever get the chance definitely visit Tavira, it’s such a nice and peaceful town with beautiful architecture.
Thanks for reading,
Roma x
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