Carry on Algarve 2018

Travel makes me happy, Travel teaches me things about myself and about the world around me, Travel helps me to explore and discover new places, Travel.. to me is what I love to do.

Every year around summer time, I try to go away with my sisters on a girly holiday, for the last few years we've been going to the Algarve in Portugal. I am originally from Portugal, I was born in the Algarve and raised in Lisbon, so to me going back home is so important and always so much fun.
This year was no different, we booked our flights way in advance, we found our favourite spot of Olhos De Agua and booked an apartment that we had stayed in before Vista Das Ondas, and we rented a car too. Everything was booked and ready to go months before. It had been a really hard year for us all, for different reasons, but we had also just had the major job of moving house 2 weeks before so we were stressed and ready to unwind and relax in the sunshine.

The flight there was fine, we landed and picked up our car very quickly at the airport, the car was very similar to my old car back here in the UK so it was a dream to drive I was very used to the gears and the clutch (that's always a worry for me in Portugal as they drive on the other side of the road and the steering wheel is on the other side too). We drove to our apartment and we were very happy with it all, we had a beautiful balcony with a poolside view, we had a spacious front room and bedroom, the bathroom and kitchen were all clean and ready and so we quickly settled in and went to eat in the near by old town of Albuferia, then we came home and fell asleep straight away as we got an evening flight out there and we were exhausted from the journey.

We were there for a total of 14 days, that's 2 weeks, the first week went by so quickly and it was a blur, with lots of sleeping, eating, and chilling by the pool and the beach. We explored some places that we absolutely love going to, such as Silves and the moor castle, we had lunch there with a live band, we attended a medieval festival that we go to yearly and we all got dressed up as princesses and queens. We explored the old town and the new town, spent days by the sea in Gale, and even went to discover Villamoura marina some more, (This was where we found the BEST crepes we have ever eaten in Portugal). The only thing that happened within the first week of our holiday was my sister Sylvia had an allergic reaction to something she ate and so a rash appeared on her face, we quickly went to the chemist and they were able to help, Sylvia however wasn't happy as they basically gave her Piriton but charged her 18 euros when in the UK it costs her less than a fiver, but all in all a nice first week.

Then on to week two of holiday and disaster struck. It was a normal start to the day, we woke up and decided to go to the beach, I suggested a different beach, so we could explore some more of the coast line in the south of Portugal, so we drove a further 20 minutes out than normal and stumbled upon a brand new beach, we parked up and walked down the stairs hoping to find some beds and umbrellas. We approached the man who was working that day and asked for 3 beds and an umbrella if possible, his response was "we haven't got anymore today, those ones are all reserved, if you keep walking down the beach and you will find some more that will be available". May I point out, there was 4 rows of empty beds, and in each row was 8 umbrellas and 16 beds, that's a total of 32 umbrellas and 64 beds!! We did as they instructed and started walking further along the beach, we walked for about 10 minutes before we realised that there was no more beds on this beach and whats more was the beach was getting more and more packed, it felt like sardines jam packed together. We decided to leave and head back to the car. We drove off a little annoyed and tried to locate another entrance into the beach, we did find one eventually, but once you parked the car it was a half an hour walk down some wooden planks to actually get to any sand. What even is this beach!? at this point my sister told me to give up and just get in the car and drive to our local one, and so that's what I had to do after a wasted morning. We pulled up at our beach, ordered our beds and then went to have lunch. The rest of the day at the beach was smooth and perfect, we then left to go home in the evening.

We had dinner and then got dressed up to go out for the evening, we got back at 1 am and we all passed out asleep within minutes. At 2:30am I was woken up by a loud bang, I thought it was my sister in the bathroom so turned over and went back to sleep. I could hear running water and I assumed she was in the bathroom having a shower, I let the water run for about 5 minutes before I finally came to and realised.. "Why is she showering at this time of night??", I got up and started walking towards the bathroom when SMACK!! I fell straight down on a wet cold floor, that was when I fully woke up, there was water everywhere, and it was just pouring out of one of the walls in the kitchen behind a panel. I shouted for Sylvia to wake up and she came into the kitchen and saw me crouched in the corner. Between us we tried to stop the water flow, but with the panel now off the wall the water was just shooting straight at us as if it was coming out of a fire mans hose. We tried to turn all the different taps off but this was in an apartment block and no one had shown us where the main water supply was located in the building so we had no idea where to go to turn it off. At this point panic set in. I tried to call the emergency out of hours number that was left by the company we were renting with but no answer. I rang the emergency services and the phone was put down on me twice, by the third time the operator was just saying things like "Is anyone hurt?" and  "do you need us to come out?", which I thought was stupid, I wouldn't be calling if I didn't require assistance. Sylvia woke up my other sister Monica and told her to lift all our suitcases and belongs off the floor on to higher ground. At this point the kitchen, front room and bathroom were flooded. We open our front door and the water had leaked out of our apartment into the hallway and was approaching other peoples apartments, some of these people were on holiday like us, others actually live there so we had to start ringing doorbells and waking them up so they were aware for their belongings.

I told Monica to go down stairs and if she saw the police to wave them down as they may not be aware of where we were located, when I say that it was such a struggle, with neighbours getting out their buckets and mops trying to clean up, me trying to hold the panel in place so less water came out, Sylvia running backwards and forwards between everyone and Monica downstairs waving at the first officers she saw (which were not intended for us, but she still waved them down). We were half asleep when all of this happened and so Monica went to wave the police down with one of her breasts just hanging out of her top in her mad dash to put some proper clothes on, When the officers walked in, I could have easily won a wet t shirt competition and Sylvia was swearing blue murder. One of our neighbours happened to wake up and as he lives in the building he knew where the main supply was, he was able to turn it off and that was when the calm started. The water had ran for a total of 40 minutes and flooded the whole apartment, ruining rugs, sofas and beds. It went out into the hallway and into others apartments, it went down two floors, from the second floor (which we were on) to the ground floor and into the electrics causing the wifi to go and electricity to mess around. It was seeping out of the walls from the two floors below us, dripping through the light fixtures and into the lift as well. It was a complete shambles, and that was when the out of hours office finally answered and had to check to ask "What are you doing ringing the emergency phone number at this time of night?". 

We were told to pack our stuff up and we will be moved in the morning. We finally passed out at nearly 5am. After the police and firemen all left but by 9:30am Sylvia was outside the office complaining. They said that it being August and the busiest time of year for them, they had no further apartments available, they searched around and finally found somewhere for us but we were warned its empty and its not been rented out this summer because it needs to have some work done. We got all our stuff into our car and drove 10 minutes up the road to a golf village, we drove through it and to the end of it there was a private villa, we were shown around and told this would be our home for the remaining week of our holiday. It was a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa, with private pool and games room. We couldn't believe our luck had changed and we were loving life, we had our own Terrance to eat, and a roof top view, our own private pool and choices of rooms to sleep in. We enjoyed our day there, spent it by the pool, chilling and eating lots. We finally thought this holiday was back on track and we could relax again. It was a very short lived feeling.

The next night we went out to dinner in the local town and then when we finished dinner and went back to the car, it wouldn't start. We tried for 10 minutes, we rang the number that was left to us for an emergency but just as before, it was closed and there was no out of hour number, we were told to ring back in the morning for them to sort it out. I thought about ringing road side assistants but was told by one of the restaurant workers that if I did that, I would get charged as the car is not mine, and me calling them out may not be what the rental company would do, he suggested the best thing was to leave the car, get a taxi home and ring in the morning to sort everything. At this point I was stressed again, because I knew that it would take all morning to sort anything out so I felt like it was another wasted morning, but I had no choice, we got a taxi and went back to the villa. The next morning we rang and it took them an hour in a half to get to us with a new car, we then had to sign all the new papers over etc. The guy who was delivering our new car, got the old car to work so we were shocked but after we left him, he text me 20 minutes later to say he was waiting for assistance as the car had just stopped again on the side of the road. It took us all morning but we finally had a new car that worked, and on the plus it was the same car make and model so easy enough for me to continue to drive. We needed lunch at this point and I knew the perfect little restaurant, it was quite a bit out of the way, but the food was worth it. I drove for half and hour to get to the restaurant and then be told the food had stopped being served as its the nap time period. As you can imagine Portugal was infuriating me. We drove back home and ate by the pool.

That night as we headed out, we were joking that its like being on 2 holidays, the first one was in an apartment with a black car and this second one is in a villa with a white car, when we froze. LIZARDS. We had never realised that they were there, but lizards were around the outside of the villa and they clearly came out at nighttime. I am petrified of lizards, its like a phobia. To me they are in the zoo behind a glass screen and I'm still very scared.. to have them just hanging above my head or on the walls freaked me out BIG TIME. I suddenly didn't want to be at the villa and would rather be in my apartment, this is also one of the reasons I also always try and get an apartment past 1st floor, less likely to get those kind of things along with the big Portuguese cockroaches. I spent the rest of my holiday petrified every time I left the house after sun down. I kept windows and doors closed so they couldn't get in to the house or I would be sleeping in the car. I'd had enough, my anxiety was higher as I was so afraid, this was NOT relaxing.

One night to try and salvage this holiday, we went to a street party, we had been looking forward to it for ages, and we were excited to see an old folk singer we had grown up with Quim Barreiros. We drove for 35 minutes, got there and we were in the queue to buy tickets when I was groped by a group of boys, I was so embarrassed and my sisters would not let them get away it with. Sylvia went and got the police and the security of the event and then we had to answer some questions, I was in so much shock that this happened to me, but I knew I had to report it as it wasn't right for them to touch me without my permission. The police were very helpful and handled the situation but Sylvia didn't feel comfortable after that and just wanted to leave. I tried not to let them ruin my night, but who was I kidding? it was ruined and so we went home. The next day getting ready to try and keep the show on the road and continue exploring ended up with Sylvia and Monica locking themselves in the bedroom as the door handle was broken and we weren't aware, thus started the mad rescue mission from the room and also "that work that needed to carried out on the villa" soon began to show. The upstairs bathroom had some terrible plumbing going on, it was ridiculous. It stank so bad, I closed the door but the smelled travelled into the 2 upstairs bedrooms, I closed them off too and the smell came through the drains in the kitchen, I had to buy baking powder and vinegar and put some down the drain and that seemed to work but those 2 bedrooms and the bathroom was definitely off limits, at that point I couldn't even be bothered to call them and have them come out and fix it AGAIN, i'd had enough of Portuguese plumbing.

We enjoyed the second part of our holiday to an extent, we spent lots of days by the pool so less at the beach which means we saved money, we went and explored more of Villamoura and we even drove all the way to Tavira, where we got a boat and went to a desert island. I managed to read 3 books on holiday so I must have been somewhat relaxed and had time, but it also felt very tiring, and stressy and everything just kept going wrong. For the bank holiday weekend, my boyfriend Michael managed to come down and that was absolutely perfect. It was just what me and my sisters needed. A piece of home had come to visit. He got to unwind from a tough week of work and we all got to enjoy showing him a little bit of home. When he left it was sad but I also knew I had 3 more days and then I would be coming home too, I hoped nothing else would happen in those 3 days. Having Michael there helped with my fear of the lizards too, he tried to ease me and make me see that they wont harm me etc, not that it made the fear go but it helped relax me a little. I still wouldn't sit outside in the evening by the pool though.

All in all, I found it to be a stressful holiday, I found if I spoke in English the locals were more friendly, and I found that peoples patience had run really low in the south of Portugal compered to central Portugal Lisbon when I went there a few months ago. I mean one man in the middle of the supermarket put his hands in the air and declared, "I've had enough of serving all of you, I'm going to go and chop the potatoes" and then walked away from all the customers leaving one woman to fend them all off on her own. I mean can you imagine if that happened in London in like Tesco, someone just stopped serving and walked away from customers, the uproar that would cause? I think me and my sisters have agreed that its time to go some place else in the summer, somewhere more relaxed, somewhere new that we have never been. We have been going to the Algarve for the last 4 summers and I think we have outgrown it, its time to change places and I'm excited to see where next year takes us.

I feel like a need a holiday to recover from this one though, (I've already booked a little escape for October as have my sisters) as I feel so much happened. This is the longest and most rambled post I have ever done, but I had so much that just needed to be written down.

Thank you if you read all the way to the end about the horrible experiences I had on holiday but also the lovely little memories me and my sisters made. 'Claire's clip on" will forever make us laugh as will the "lifeguard floats" and the film "Carry on abroad". haahaa This is why me and my sisters ALWAYS use the hashtag #KeepingUpWithTheKristinas when we go on holiday, as i feel like there is always so much going on around us.

Have you ever had a holiday from hell? that just kept on getting worse and worse? I'd love to hear your stories so I'm assured its not just me that its happened to.

Ana
..xo