Algarve has showed me more interesting stuff the past weeks. I also went away for some days to Spain this past week to meet a bunch of Finns. Now I’m back in Sagres, but I have someone I know from Sweden around again.
Algarve Pizza Night
This event has been one of the craziest and most memorable things on this trip so far. Imagine a party in a hilly forest from 6 PM to 6 AM with all you can eat pizza for the first hours. I heard about it from someone at Baleal in the fall but I had completely forgotten about it. It popped into my mind again while talking with Finnish park neighbors in Sagres about interesting stuff to do down here. I didn’t get my neighbors to join me, but I went alone Friday last week. The last stretch of road was bad and bumpy, but I got there in one piece.
I arrived alone, but did not have to be alone for long. A Dutch couple and two young German fellows were parked close to me and we started chatting and ended up spending the evening together with about two hundred other people. Once you get the tickets at the entrance, you walk into an area smelling of wood oven and delicious fresh pizza. And there are a lot of people lining up for pizza too… The hordes of hungry people caused some delay with the first slices. Later it was easier and you didn’t have to wait at all.
There were two stages that had DJs playing (theme was drum and bass) and a third one that had nothing going on now. I guess it’s because it’s winter season. I can hardly imagine how the parties look during summer with almost ten times the amount of people.
There’s another aspect about the party that made it “interesting” too. As you can probably guess from the picture above, there were drugs going around too. I stuck safely to beer (and suffered accordingly the next morning). Some of the people I partied with more or less skipped alcohol and enjoyed other things. The atmosphere was very safe and chilled and nobody forced or tried talking me or anyone else into taking anything. Also it felt very safe generally too.
Finnish vanlifer meetup
I told you about this meetup in my last post and I was a bit hesitant about taking the long drive. I’m really glad I did. I arrived there last Sunday and just one van was there then, but on Monday there were 12 Finnish vans and about twenty people there. Also close to ten dogs participated and they seemed to enjoy each other’s company too. The spot was really nice for a big meetup. Plenty of room for vans and flat sandy area with nice mountains around it.
Most of the people there had vans that they had built themselves. Naranja was an exception along with a new and expensive Hymer camper and one older mobile home. But even if their vehicles (homes) and backgrounds were very different, the world views seemed to align nicely. I think for someone to choose this lifestyle there needs to be at least a bit of critical of the “normal” way of life with kids, houses, mortgages and the (over)working to pay for it all.
I have to admit that the stereotypical vanlifer life with wilderness and bonfires and interesting conversations is not something I’ve had a lot. Until now that is. We had bonfires on Monday and Tuesday nights and the discussions were deep and interesting. I ended up getting a lot of phone numbers and social media contacts this trip. I’m sure I will meet again with many of these people. And if there’s ever a chance to take part in something like this again, I definitely will.
Meeting an old friend
My Swedish pal and park neighbor from November Petter sent me a message while I had just arrived back from my Christmas trip to Finland. He told me that he would be heading this way in February to have a break from the winter. We met yesterday in Sagres again. He is leaving back to Lisbon on Monday again so it’s not going to be a long reunion, but I’m really enjoying his company again.
Today we went surfing on Praia da Martinhal, some distance from the park. It was a new spot for me too. We had already given up on surfing actually. We were having a walk and Petter spotted some surfers in the water on a beach further away, so we decided to give it a go. It was not easy, because the wave broke really close to the shore on really shallow water. We caught a couple of small waves each and also watched some really good surfers do magical things.