Getting Sunburned in Albufeira

by Eiva Poppins - 23:06

Last year around this time I went to Albufeira with my friend Sabina and we spent a week lying around on different beaches, eating a lot of food and sleeping (that’s me, I needed at least a three hour nap every afternoon in a hot enviroment). Albufeira is a really popular destination for English people so it is safe to say I am adapting well into the culture of Harry Potter and fish&chips. Pub next door to our hotel was even showing Brighton vs Bournemouth football match. Oh well.

We stayed in the beautiful old town rather than ‘the strip’ - the famous place to get drunk and go clubbing. We tried to go to the strip once just to see it but it was seedy and just terrible. Nothing Portuguese about that place. Maybe I am just too old for this but I doubt I would have liked it even a few years ago. I am just too cool guys, okay?! I prefer to stay indoors on holidays. The truth is even though I don't like to admit it, me and Sabina watched Kylie Jenne's series but after few episodes when our brains turned into a mashed potato it was time to stop..and watch some terrible romantic comedy instead.

(my arm is swollen from the sunburn!)

Sabina is someone who gets the 'holiday glow', her hair goes wavy, her skin is perfect, her tan is beautiful and she is in her element. My hair goes super flat, I am sweatting and I get spots. That's okay though because I don't owe anyone to look good, what I am trying to say is that hot weather is not something that agrees with me very well but I do have to say that I felt alright there and I wasn't even sick once haha. Cute, I know, guys! Anyway, on a holiday like this I need a lot of sleep, lots of food and a lot of sleep again. I am just not built for summer, I feel more myself during the winter. I was like a real idiot on this holiday, I got sunburnt on our first day, I managed to spray sunscreen in my eye two days later and on the last day I forgot my favourite jacket in a hotel. I am telling you guys - sun makes me dumb. Usually, I am like the smartestest person.

I don't think I would enjoy being on the same beach every day so during our week on the Algarve coast we took taxis to few different beaches to make it more interesting and also to get away from Albufeira's city beach which in comparison with the other ones is really nothing special. The cliffs and sea caves were so beautiful that I didn't mind the water being -100 degrees.

Like I said we were getting different taxis to the beaches, mostly uber when I had reception because it was the easiest thing. When I googled taxi companies in Albufeira and tried calling the numbers nobody ever picked up. So yeah we ubered to most places and it was never more that 7 euros. I think you can also get a bus to some of these beaches but I don’t think they run very often.

This is a really pretty beach it is called Sao Rafael and there are two sides of it and there is a restaurant as well.

One day we went for a boat trip in a tiny tiny boat which was actually pretty cool because we managed to get to all the small caves and we also saw dolphins! They were so beautiful. I didn’t take the best photos of them because I was mesmerised and wanted to watch them rather than to take photos and I was also trying to save Sabina's life from the 'captain' of our boat who was clearly hitting on her and was being a bit creepy to be honest.

There are many boat tours in Albufeira, you will see a lot of stands and tourist agencies offering different trips to different places, we went for two and half hours and that was more than enough because I really really needed to go for a wee and I may have or may haven’t of had to hold onto our tiny boat and have a wee right there and then while everyone was laughing. You can also book the trip online but don’t pay more than 30 euros.

This was Praia da Coelha. There was a lot of mussels and shells to collect (that was Sabina’s thing for the entire holiday, at the end she went though hundreds of shells that she collected and kept the prettiest ones).

Now here is a couple pictures of me looking beatiful:

This is before the boat trip after I accidentally sprayed sunscreen in my eye and was trying to water it down. It didn’t work hence why I worn sunglasses the entire time we were on a boat. Ouch.