S25 Memoires - 1 month later

You can talk about anything here

Moderator: Global Moderator

Post Reply
User avatar
Soccerman771
N3O Officer
N3O Officer
Posts: 2874
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:25 am
Location: Sachse, Texas (near Dallas)
Contact:

S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by Soccerman771 »

S25 Portugal – May 13 – 17 2010 as experienced by Jarrod Tackel (Soccerman771)

May 13th – I pack the night before. I leave at the airport ready to leave. Sit in the airport for 3.5 hours because of delays. First they tell us that the inbound was late, then late again, then late some more, then we find out that they had to steal a plane for us to use because the inbound plane had a mechanical issue. I sit next to Mario, who had missed his flight that morning and thus was going to miss his connecting flight to Frankfurt. Plane finally boards and we land at Neglecterino Airport (formerly London Heathrow) at 10:45, 3 ½ hours after scheduled landing. I miss my connecting flight and have to go through immigration, etc., thus causing further delays. I get on the 12:10 flight to Dublin, Ireland 5 minute prior to departure. Land in Dublin, go to currency exchange and then to the pub at the gate called the Golden Clock where I drink a pint of Carlsberg Beer in about a minute and a half. Pretty good stuff. I keep the glass it was served in as a souvenir. I call Henrique (Lazy) to let him know that I’m in Dublin and everything is on schedule regarding my arrival in Faro. Flight to Faro is uneventful save for the final 15 minutes where I get absolutely beautiful views of the coastline of Southern Portugal and the sea that seems to go on forever.
I go through immigration and collect my baggage. I then proceed out the main exit to find Jim (Strokey) and Lazy anxiously awaiting my arrival. I am greeted with warm embraces and then we set off for the villa. I find out that they had been late to gathering me from the airport and thus Jim was in for the ride of his life as Lazy did his best grand prix driver impression on the way to the airport. We took a short detour to the beach on an island on the way to the villa. Once we arrive at the villa I met everyone, including Al who was very ill from something that we may never know about. Everyone except Al piled into two cars and we proceeded to go out to eat at a restaurant that was very nearby. Everyone except Marco (Comadevil) and Jim had seafood (otherwise known as fish). Me and Huggy split a Cataplana (the meat version) and Sporting and Adder split the fish one. We finished off the meal with Petrol, which Lazy says is an authentic alcoholic beverage called medronho. We chased everything with espresso shots. We went back to the villa, and since it was only 11 PM, we then drove about 15 minutes to a casino. Jim went on a tear at the blackjack table while we all drank Super Bock (Portuguese beer that is quite tasty) and watched Lazy tell us about the nice lady’s across the border of Spain about 40 minutes away. On the way out of the casino we had the grand idea to put wash powder into the fountain close to the villa as a) I’d never seen this done, and b) Jim had noticed the fountain outside of the casino. We finished up at about 2 AM and headed back to the villa for the night.

May 14, 2010 (Saturday)
Everyone was up around 9:00 AM with me being the last to arrive. Al was over his sickness thank goodness and we had a little time before Lazy showed up. We hopped onto ESO for a couple of quick games. No one that played on my laptop won a game FYI, I think it’s an omen. At 10:00 AM we all piled into the cars and left for the marina. About 45 minutes later we were on the boat headed to sea. We stopped at two spots and no one got so much as even a bite. We moved to the third spot and the game was on! Chris (Blackadderthe4th) started yanking them in left and right. He was a mad man with a pole and couldn’t be stopped. It was like a Hatamoto versus a strelet. Everyone except Lazy caught a fish and that’s only because he didn’t try due to recent back problems. At about 3:00 PM we reeled in the poles and moved closer to the shore for lunch where we had grilled chicken, chips, salad, and bread along with either beer or wine on the boat. I have to give major props to Sporting for purchasing motion sickness pills and sunblock for everyone prior to the trip. Not one person barfed on the boat, or off the boat for that matter ;). We all soaked in the view as we took a brief tour of the coast line before going into port. After the trip we stopped at a small place at the villa where we had a sausage cooked over a flaming ceramic bowl and some beers. Jim found some smokes as he was out of them. We then proceed to look for Lazy’s car, as he seemed to have miss-placed it. There’s only one way I know to loose a car like that and I’ll go into more detail on that later.
After we got back to the villa, Lazy went home for 3-4 hours to spend some time with his family while we napped or showered, gamed on ESO, played four in a line, watched TV, etc.. Many of us played several card games like Cheat, and find the ace (old maid). Lazy showed up around 9 PM and we drove to Silves for some prime eating. The first restaurant that we went into said that the kitchen was closed so we went next door. We convinced Jim to have some seafood and we all thought he was going to barf just from the smells in the place. Me, Al, Sporting, and Lazy all split a seafood platter that had everything out of the sea on it and it all tasted superb. We walked around a bit afterwards and then went back to the villa. It was really amazing to see buildings that had been around for 800+ years and castles that were once used in epic wars. A lot of people crashed and a couple of us stayed up on ESO. Everyone was up rather quickly in the morning except Texas (me) as I slept till noon.

May 15, 2010
After I got up I found that everyone had been playing a game called “four in a line” known as Connect Four to the rest of civilization. I was told that Chris was a magnificent player and they asked me if I was any good. I told them that I beat my six year old playing the game all the time. Remember I had just woken up no more than 2 minutes ago and we started playing. I didn’t get to play my 5th play as I beat him on the fourth play (for the un-learned, this is the absolute quickest victory possible). Everyone died laughing because I’m not sure any of us had seen this before. We then all got dressed and walked down the strip to the beach. Upon arriving at the beach we soak in the view and some sun rays while we see Sporting starting to get ready to go in the water. Marco (Comadevil) and I cannot allow him to go in by himself so we get ready to go in as well. Everyone else wimped out by staying on the shore. I had not even thought about going in the ocean so I have just my plain khaki shorts and boxers on with my t-shirt and sandles. What the heck, this is a once in a lifetime deal so I strip down to my shorts and put all my personal items in Marco’s backpack and then proceed to run and dive into the freezing ocean. I swear someone should have told me that they diverted my plane to Antarctica. The water was absolutely the coldest water I’ve ever swam in, and it wouldn’t have been that bad, except that it was only about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Once we swim for about 10-15 minutes we three join the rest on the beach and hang out for a little while and then start to walk back toward the villa as we were supposed to meet Lazy to get to the LAN party by 3:30. We stop in a bar on the way back and have a beer, and then we meet up with Lazy prior to arriving back to the villa and gather our things then drive both cars to where we are going to play out LAN games. Once we get to the location of the LAN party, Marco parks a car but forgets where he puts it, and then Lazy parked his other car. We walk inside and meet the gentleman who runs the internet café that is wearing a Dallas Cowboys football jersey. We start to play foosball where the Europeans totally rock the games while the games are being installed. The install is taking much longer than planned and Lazy is getting hungry. So, Lazy and 3-4 others go to eat at a local place. They take the keys to the car that Marco drove without telling him. Note- they do not drive that car to go eat. When they return 2 hours later we are still not up and running. Chris and I spend a lot of time playing MW2 on PC while Marco and the guy running the café work their tail-end off to get the games up and able to be played. Six hours after we arrived, we are all up and running and able to have the LAN party. We’re hungry again, so we order pizza’s and those go great with the beers we’re drinking. We LAN out for about 2-3 hours and around 12:30 we decide to call it a night. This is where it gets interesting. Me, Lazy, Jim, Sporting, and now AL all pile into Lazy’s car. You see, they had parked Marco’s car in a place that he would not find it and well they neglected to tell him about it (on purpose). We all follow Marco, who is on a mission to get to where he parked the car. After he passes the place where the car was parked (there aren’t ANY cars parked there), he keeps walking. And walking, and walking, and he’d probably still be walking if it hadn’t been pointed out to him that he’d already passed the point where the car had previously been parked. Ah, well after about 30 minutes of playing around and asking him where he left the car, Lazy finally tells him what they had done with the car. We go back to the villa and depart with Lazy.

Day 4 – May 16 2010 – going home
Having arrived 3 days ago, it is now time to leave. I’m at the villa and I’m not going to sleep for 3 hours waiting for my taxi to arrive, so Jim, Huggy, Sporting, and Coma all wait up with me to wait on the taxi. She gets there about 3:30 AM. In the mean time we all show each other where we live on google earth and talk about the different things to do around our houses. We play a little on ESO. Before I leave, Jim, Huggy and Sporting all go to the nearby fountain with the wash powder to create the bubbles. Marco goes to bed, and I stay waiting on the taxi because I didn’t really want to be stranded 5,000 miles from home. They get back to the villa in about 20 minutes and tell me about the encounter they had with the 4 cops that are guarding the fountain. The taxi arrives in about 10 minutes and we all shake hands and I walk out the door. The taxi driver takes me to the airport in Faro from Albufeirra and I wait for the ticketing line to open up. It opens at 5:00 for my 6:10 flight. I go to check in and the lady at the counter tells me that I don’t have a seat and I have to go speak with a representative at a counter a couple of hundred feet away. The ash clouds over England are getting worse by the minute and I’m starting to panic about being able to leave. After 30 minutes of them trying to get their act together, they finally give me a boarding pass. Apparently when I missed the first connection in Dublin, they had me be a no-show and didn’t expect me to be on the flight. Thankfully they had room and I was able to board with no problem and made it to Lisbon on time. I get to Lisbon and purchase some honey and chocolate for the ride home. I get to the gate and several flights to London are closed, but not mine. I get to London, where they don’t have a ticket for me either, so I go straight to the gate and show my ID. I know I have a seat reserved so I didn’t think it’d be any problem. 10 minutes later I get on board. All the hassling at Heathrow was really unfortunate because I had about 60 Euro’s I wanted to blow on souvenirs, and now I have nothing. The flight in to London takes about an hour longer than planned because of storms in Dallas. However, because of all the cancelled flights into and out of England, the flight is not full so no one sits next to me or behind me on the plane, which is very nice. The plane lands, I go through customs where the people don’t really know what they are doing and an hour and a half later I’m in my truck driving home. Once I get there, I get big hugs from both my girls and we relax while I recant my adventure.

Aftermath
I really have to give props to Henrique, Jim, Bernardo, Marco, Al, Pierre, and Chris for being really great people. I made friends this trip that I’ll always cherish even if we only spent four days together. Henrique is a great host and generally speaking a great individual to know. I was humbled to see how he treated everyone with kindness and knew exactly how to host the even. We all are indebted to him for this journey. For those of you that missed the gathering, you really missed out. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am fortunate to have taken. I will always remember the experience. Thank you all.
jtackel@hotmail.com

"Do you know how difficult it is to micro Napalm?" - Lazy_Tuga

"This isn't going to work. I've picked a water deck and there isn't even a pond on this map." - Blackadderthe4th
User avatar
DutchNvG
N3O Member
N3O Member
Posts: 416
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:59 pm
Location: Goirle, the Netherlands

Re: S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by DutchNvG »

Good to hear you have had a great time :)
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
User avatar
36drew
Honorary Officer
Posts: 2713
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 6:22 am

Re: S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by 36drew »

I could start to pick out individual sentences and quote them, but I will restrain myself. There are too many. I can't wait to see the photos from the event. I've seen a few on facebook, and the impression I get is that text and photos don't even come close to doing the S-25 justice. Simply an amazing event.

Kudos to all of the N3O members who attended. Friendship is a key part of the clan and it's so great to hear such an amazing event.
User avatar
Soccerman771
N3O Officer
N3O Officer
Posts: 2874
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:25 am
Location: Sachse, Texas (near Dallas)
Contact:

Re: S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by Soccerman771 »

Yeah, someone has all of the photos from the event. He might be too busy or too LAZY to get it done, if you know what I mean....

BTW adam, we're all still waiting on a picture of you with your new t-shirt...
jtackel@hotmail.com

"Do you know how difficult it is to micro Napalm?" - Lazy_Tuga

"This isn't going to work. I've picked a water deck and there isn't even a pond on this map." - Blackadderthe4th
huGGy
N3O Officer
N3O Officer
Posts: 1738
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:06 pm

Re: S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by huGGy »

[quote=""Soccerman771""]S25 Portugal – May 13 – 17 2010 as experienced by Jarrod Tackel (Soccerman771)


Aftermath
I really have to give props to Henrique, Jim, Bernardo, Marco, Al, Pierre, and Chris for being really great people. [/quote]

It's actually spelled and pronounced Blurt afaik. ::/
User avatar
LaZy
Honorary Officer
Posts: 2444
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:44 am
Location: Ferragudo Portugal
Contact:

Re: S25 Memoires - 1 month later

Post by LaZy »

great write up bro. It was awesome 2 finally meet u. We truly had a great time together, 2 short 4 both our likings Im sure.

TY for having crossed oceans and continents 2 make this yet another amazing experience for all of us 2 remember.

Pics will b done.....sometime, soon ;P

out
Post Reply