Yamas, Corfu!

I forgot how much I like video, I think the next few weeks will be focussed on a few projects I completely neglected when I lived in the land of terrible laptops. Moon and I spent the whole evening a couple of nights ago watching some old videos I made, they just feel so much more tangible, I'm excited.


My tan is starting to fade a little now but the scars from my incredible mosquito bites are still holding on. Here are some photographs from an amazing week with my best friends.



View from the kitchen balcony.
We chose Corfu completely at random based on our great Villa Plus holiday last year and where Villa Plus villas were. Corfu was pretty different from my experience of Athens and I could not recommend everything any more, it was great.

We stayed in the small village of San Stefanos, it had completely wound down for the end of season, which made it nice and peaceful, something that became particularly clear when we went to busier parts of the island.

It was just such a nice, relaxing week, I swam in the sea so much and saw more fish than I ever have while doing so. I would actually go as far as to say not only that Corfu is somewhere I'd like to return to but that particular part and even that particular villa!



There were a lot of 'wild' cats around, they were terrible beggars but they were very much up for affection too. We had one that was a nightly visitor. Unfortunately some of them were flea-ridden and a little mangey but overall they seem to be treated pretty well, better than what we saw of the ones in Portugal last year anyway.

Bock O'Clock :: Portugal Snapshots

This week you'll find me well and truly back into the swing of everyday life and missing poolside Portugal life terribly. Last week was spent enjoying sunny, beautiful Portugal in a villa fit for a king.

I think really I was mainly in desperate need of a holiday, having not taken any real time off since Christmas, but going somewhere completely new with a great group of people was just what I needed. Considering we booked it all back in February, it came around really fast and minus a couple of hiccups, it went off without a hitch, I'm already eyeing up where to go for our next one!

We stayed in the most beautiful villa, which might be one of the best places I've stayed, just off from Albufeira Marina with a wonderful view of the harbour. The bedrooms were quite basic but the rest of place was great. It even came with a patio that allowed you to (although you probably shouldn't have) jump from the house into the pool. Having only stayed in villas with family, doing it with friends was definitely much better than had we booked a hotel, it allowed us so much more freedom to do what we want, even if that just meant relaxing or barbecuing - almost every meal we had at the villa might have been a barbecue.
We booked it through Villa Plus, with our flights and cars being done separately because at the time we booked it was cheaper. It was really easy though and they have so many more places to choose from across Spain, Greece and The Algarve so I'm sure they'll be taken into consideration if we do something similar again - I mean all their villas have a ping ping table, so...



The general holiday vibes were just spot on. My one regret (have to get this out there) was our visit to the abysmal Zoo Marine, honestly if you're heading to the Algarve any time soon, don't believe anything you read - it's a shoddy water park and an even worse zoo - only allowing you to see most of the animals through the medium of show. What.



Glad to say I tried the traditional seafood cataplana, not really my thing, the piri-piri chicken I had was much nicer.



Naturally, because I'm me, I have a few more posts coming up, I took a pretty offensive amount of photographs as usual but as I don't mean to overwhelm (but probably will anyway), I figure it's easier to break it down, sharing this snapshot selection first.


Silves Castle was a great way to spend an hour, and for €4, you can't really complain.








Selfies in Silves.







'Wanna dig a hole?'



Favourite room in the villa. ♥







Famous Sir Cliff's Famous Wine.



'Best Viewed From Above'.



I must say that even though it was only Portugal and only for a week, and in a pretty touristy area, this little trip has really inspired me to travel more. I hadn't even realised that, Northern Ireland not included, this was my first time abroad in over a year. It's not that that's a long time but I hadn't even been thinking of going away.
Obrigada, Portugal for igniting this wanderlust in me, refreshing me and getting me ready for whatever the rest of summer has to offer.