dinner
Nat and I went for a quick trip back to my mum’s home town Faro in Portugal. We both really enjoy Portugal and we love our family there. Our avo (grandma) is just great. She is always so hospitable and always serves up fantastic food.
On our first night we had a massive Faustino dinner (Faustino is my mum’s maiden name). My grandma, two aunties, one uncle and four cousins were all there. My aunty served up a yummy feast and it was good to catch up with everyone. It had been ten months since we were last in Faro, but gees it didn’t seem that long ago.
On Saturday my aunty and her boyfriend took my grandma, Nat and I all around Faro and out to a little island. We walked around the beach and had lunch there. Afterwards we came back to the main land and walked around a large sized market that was going on selling everything and anything.
It was my cousin Patricia’s 17th birthday on the weekend we were there, so we joined her for her bday dinner and party. We ended up heading out to various clubs after a few wines and beers at dinner 🙂 Nat and I had a great time speaking broken Portuguese to Paty’s friends (mine more broken than hers) and I’m sure they enjoyed speaking broken English to us. We went from club to club and drink to drink and had a little boogie here and there. It was great fun, especially because after a few drinks you become more confident to speak more Portuguese 🙂
In one club Nat and I got our drinks and the guy said you pay for them over there at the other side of the bar. Every time we got a drink he stamped our cards. We tried to move to that area to pay but it was way too packed. Nat and I couldn’t help but think this’d be a good opportunity to “pay” for our drinks “later”. This happened the next time and after a few times I suspected it this was too good to be true and was one of those schemes where you pay from the stamps on your card. So on the way out the door Nat and I “lost” our cards and decided to plead ignorance. The bouncer on the door wouldn’t have a bar of it. We could not convince him that we didn’t know that we had to keep our cards. We even tried pulling the “we are tourists and don’t speak good Portuguese” but he didn’t care. How rude! Anyway we went back to the bar and Nat spent ages telling our story to the barman. Nat ending convincing the guy and we ended getting out of the club paying for just two drinks instead of the many. Great work Nat! 🙂
Before we knew it, it was our last day. We headed to a beach near the airport had lunch, exchanged loads of conversation about each other’s language and before we knew it were heading back home to London.
I really had a good time and every time I go to Portugal my vocabulary triples. I had such a good time with my grandma, aunty and her boyfriend. I thank them all for a great time. They were all so hospitable and put on a good show for us while we were there. I really can’t wait to go again in warmer weather and to get some colour back into my skin that London took away 🙂 Nat and I are going there for a week starting July 30, right in the middle of summer. It will be great and I promise to come back brown.
For photos from the trip visit here:
http://www.gabnation.com/albums/2007/faro2/