Last month I'd mentioned to my mate Stevo that Grant and myself were planning a trip south - Stevo said head to Portugal and we could hook up in Lagos - Stevo had managed to lie low here in 2022 during the latter part of the medical emergency- Ok I said, see you there.

We were up early and headed to the Bus Station in Seville -it was an 8 o' clock departure I think - it was pretty well organised in there, we had a Cafe Con Leche - then got on the bus - usual sort of stuff, blobbed out along the way looking at the scenery, generally it became less fertile looking and by the time we got into Portugal you would probably be wondering why we'd left Seville - Abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere covered in graffiti, the odd fridge and upside down rusting car in a field by a grazing donkey was not an uncommon sight. Grant started showing me some economic statistics about Portugal and it gets a score close to the Balkans on the Eastern side - They need to pull their finger out if you ask me as if I was your regular tourist I would have said fork this - First impressions and all that.

The bus did a couple of stop offs - first at Huelva - which is a port where you can jump a ferry to Tangiers - Must admit I was quite tempted by that and will possibly do it in the not too distant future. We also stopped off at Faro airport , that's modern and they've pulled their finger out there. That's where I'll be flying from next week. Eventually we get to Albufeira - the outskirts were more garbage and graffiti - not exactly encouraging the tourist dollar here guys. We stopped at the modern bus terminal and the surround high rise blocks looked ok but empty - it's quiet here in the Winter but home to the Heavily Tattooed Bellowing Ape tpye lot in the summer. Mrs. Gibbs holidayed here once in the the early 1980's and said it was the one place where she'd felt the most unsafe - So I'm glad we were getting out of Dodge as quickly as possible. Stevo had flown in from Singapore in the week and had rented a gaff in Lagos, He said he'd get a car and pick us up. So after 5 minutes of being dropped off, Stevo shows up in the Hyandri car, and parks in the bus bay, promply pissing off the bus driver behind him. We get in and sodded off to the sound of a beeping bus horn.

Things generally improved as we headed to Lagos although the weather was now pure UK grey drizzle - apparently it had been quite good earlier in the week - but it does slowly clear up and Stevo takes us to a seafood restaurant he know, for grub. Vino Verdi, Squid Cod etc were the days catch and we got stuck in there.....Thanks for that one Stevo - was a nice gaff. It's now sunny and we head to the place Stevo has rented - it's by Lagos Marina and so we have a wander around to get the lay of the land - we also take a look at the beach - which is very long and very nice - we pass the Railway Station and Grant takes note as he'll be jumping this train on Monday heading to Lisbon and Porto. It's back to the apartmento, for a couple of beers on the balcony before freshing up to head into the town centre for some evening action.