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The Algarve

11/16/2011

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I've had a very busy week! I've been to the southernmost and westernmost points of continental Europe, three countries and two continents! 

Ilmer and I spent a great weekend staying with his brother and sister-in-law Wiebe and Maddy and exploring the Algarve-the southern state of Portugal. Ilmer grew up in the Algarve, so I had a local as a tour guide.

We bummed around the coast in his 1989 pimped out ride. I don't remember the make of the car, but it was originally designed by the French to transport two farmers and a case of beer...what more could you ask for?

We checked out Lagos and Faro (two of the coastal towns), did a little kayaking, enjoyed some great dinners with Wiebe and Maddy and I even had my first conversation in Portuguese!

I have always wanted to learn Portuguese, and spent much of my two weeks in Portugal speaking Spanish with a Portuguese accent and guessing or trying to translate words and phrases I saw. A lot of the words are the same or very similar to Spanish and the Portuguese can understand me but I can't understand them. Thanks to Ilmer's conversation lesson, I picked up some words and even now spice up my Spanish with a few Portuguese words on occasion. Of course, that's just my excuse for accidentally mixing the two languages! 

Anyway, more to come on the rest of my adventures from the week. Here are a few pictures from my weekend in the Algarve:
Picture
At the edge of the world, waving to New York. It was so windy!
Picture
Ilmer and I at the beach in Lagos
Picture
Ilmer and his super ghetto/awesome car we bummed around in all weekend!
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    “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”
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