S25 Portugal 2010 - StrokeyBlofeld - Day 1

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StrokeyBlofeld
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S25 Portugal 2010 - StrokeyBlofeld - Day 1

Post by StrokeyBlofeld »

So, I've been working on a write up for the S25 this year, and I think it will be better to break it down a little. Here is day 1's entry from my point of view:

My journey for the S25 Portugal 2010 started on Thursday morning when my alarm clock rudely woke me up at the ridiculously early time of 3am. After received my passport only 15 hours earlier it was quite a miricale that I was actually attending this year. I had decided on wednesday evening to get an early night (this was a really good idea in principle), I felt completely shattered. Having spent half the previous evening online checking stuff and chatting to people and getting hyped up, I eventually had my bags packed a little after midnight, and managed probably 2 hours sleep at the most... so much for the early night!

I'd thrown all my kit for the holiday in the car the night before so all I had to do when I woke up was to light the cigerette I had wedged in my mouth before going to sleep, boil the kettle for the quadruple mug of coffee I had prepared the night before, and neck the bottle of red bull I had placed in the fridge door. With all that out of the way, I jumped in the car and headed for the "park and ride", an easy 40 min drive at this time of the morning. After sorting out the parking and getting the free lift from them to the airport, I had arrived with perfect timing to sit down and drink some more coffee. I accompanied this with some expensive BurgerKing (seriously... crazy prices).

With only hand luggage and already having booked in online I had plenty of time. I headed off for the boarding gate with 20mins to spare. "Hmmm, let me see, gate 22, ok... no problem." I started walking, about 10 mins later I am just passing gate 12. Ok, so I am pushing it a little now, it's taking 2 to 3 mins between gates so I break into a gentle jog. I get to gate 18 with 2 mins to spare, now it is time to start really pegging it, I have 2 mins before I miss the boarding and the gates close, so I sprint all the way to gate 22 and reach it bang on the closing time. I'm huffing and puffing and sweating like an idiot, I see 2 attendants at the desk for gate 22 and the rest of the area is completely empty.... "uh oh", I think to myself, "I've fricken missed it!" I almost collapse struggling for air with these 2 girls peering down at me from behind the desk, one of them smiles as I look up and announces in a very patronising European accent "ahhh, our first passenger has arrived". I couldn't believe it! Everyone else strolled in over the course of the next 30 minutes. I guess I just suck at flying eh?
Half dead, I stand at the front of the queue safe in the knowledge that I could at least pick my seat. No chance, first go the "speedy boarding" passengers (seriously? £18 to get first pick of seats on a 2 1/2 hour flight?). Then she lets the queue to my left go, then the queue to my right, and then my queue. So after running like a caffine pumped insomniac, arriving first and smelling like a fart-filled sauna I eventually boarded the plane almost last. Never mind, at least I was on the flight and heading for the S25 hotspot!

The flight was beautiful. I've not been on a plane for 20 years or so, and it was fantastic. As we flew I spotted snow-capped mountains pushing up through the clouds, quite a sight and it turned out to be the mountains of Geneva. We landed safely in Faro airport about 25mins early thanks to a tail wind. It was now a few minutes after 8am. I rushed through the gates and passport control and headed out the front of the building, no... not to see what Portugal looked like.... I needed nicotine. And I guess I figured I could check out the airport surroundings while I got my fix.

After having a stroll around, and picking up a pay-as-you-go sim for my mobile (the smartest thing I did, although I didn't know this at the time), I headed up to the bar to wait for adder and Al. It was now 8:30am, I had been in Portugal for 25 mins and I had just learnt my first Portugese word: "Super Bock". This turned out to be very important, without it I reckon I would have been screwed as I ended up having to use this word to communicate virtually everywhere I went!
Ok, 3 pints later I decide to give Al a call as his flight is in. We meet up and head back to the bar for more of this "Super Bock" and wait for adder to get in. This happens about 30 mins or so later, and he joins us at the bar for another "Super Bock".
Several "super Bock" later, Lazy picks us up and we headed off to the house.
Arriving at the house, Lazy announced that he had to go for a while. He pointed us in the direction of the strip, we needed no more promting. We chose our rooms, dumped our kit, and headed off to the strip. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur, so I will just point out things that stuck in my head:
We had some food. Food is good as it is required to drink ridiculous amounts of alcoholic beverages.
We had more super bock. Super bock is good, it's smooth, not too gassy, and it's over 5%. Does it get any better?
We made our way up and down the strip drinking super bock, vodka redbull, vodka from a jar of strawberries, and many other shots, all of which I don't know what they were. We had to be back at the house to meet Lazy and the Germans for dinner. (The Germans being Coma and Huggy). We headed off to this Brazilian restaurant which Lazy gauranteed us was amazing.... he wasn't wrong! The meal was called Rodízio, and roughly translated into my kind of English means "many meat on sticks". Well, that's what I reckon anyway, and it was literally that, the waiter would come to the table with a skewer of meat, and slice a load off onto your plate, then he would dissapear and return with another skewer of different meat. This continued all night, the more you ate, the more he would bring out. It really was amazing! The meat was rich and fatty, the kind of stuff that was sure to give you a heart attack after a couple of mouth fulls, but it was so tasty you had to keep eating.
Then came the drink, Lazy had ordered us some Caipirinha's. This was made of lime, sugar and Cachaça, (this is the liquor which can vary from 38% to 80%, in this case it was closer to 80%). This stuff was sharp enough to snap your neck after a couple of sips, crazy citrousy taste. Not my thing but I managed half a glass.
We returned home after a successfull meal, and with Lazy heading home again we had no other logical choice but to hit the strip for some more drinks and some clubs!!! We finally rolled into the house around 4 or 5am, I can't remember really, still being fairly wired, I went back to the strip for more drinks while everyone else went to bed. I returned a little later to find Al asleep on the sofa.
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Re: S25 Portugal 2010 - StrokeyBlofeld - Day 1

Post by DutchNvG »

Wow nice writing, I guess you shocked when you saw no-one at gate 22 haha. Hopefully I can once join the S25 aswell..... (if you guys are still doing that then). Anyway, I love to hear you guys have had a good couple of days! (Jim has had a nice day so I guess the others aswell ;) )

This text is a good practice for my English exam Thursday, thanks for that Jim :D
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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