Market is in town

Tuesday March 6^th

My first day on the road with the car except for the bit I drove on the highway when Wendy was too tired. Have not driven a standard car for a while. Only came close to stalling it once in a traffic circle when I was in third gear and was going uphill. A quick shift to second and lots of gas and I was ok. Not sure what is under the hood of the Skoda but it is not the 6 we have in our Grand Prix at home. Must be better for gas.

Market day in Albufeira. The gypsies, that is what they are called, are in town. They travel from cities to cities and set up shop for the day and then move on. Most have cube vans but a few have larger trucks. Not sure where they sleep inside, outside or if they have home somewhere in the area, probably not. There must have been at least a 1000 stalls set up in a large field. The most common thing you hear is 5 euro, 5 euro as it seems that is the most popular selling price. 80% of the stalls sold mostly the same thing: Shoes, socks, purses, underwear, wallets, watches and clothes. The others sold some household stuff and a few other things. The were a few food stalls. Fresh fruit & Vegetable, cheeses, olives and a few with some sausages. The had a couple of sandwich trucks as well. They were making fresh churros and donuts. Stocked up on fruit and vegetables, some salt cod to make fish cakes some day. Also bought a pair of Croc like slippers as the tile floors are cold in the morning. I guess I will be going again in 2 weeks when they come back to town, might even convince Wendy to come. Will need to mention all the shoes and purses. Our niece Symone was in Milan yesterday, on her high school trip any chance she found shoes and purses for 5 euros?

Next stop is the city market which is about 1 km from the house. The Gypsy market is about another .5 km further. The city market is a permanent building which houses: 10 Fish stalls, 10 Vegetables stalls, 2 butchers, a deli for cooked meat and a couple of stores, restaurant. I got a 1 kg dorado from one of the fish stalls. I asked him to fillet the fish as I did not want to do it in our house. I told him I did not want the head and bones but he said there was lots of meat on them and just to fry them up. We will see how Wendy handles that or if it will just be me that will be picking at the bones. It was a bit expensive but there should be enough for 2 meals. On Saturday's the farmer also set up at the market. If we are in town on Saturday we will need to go.

Next stop was to go for Oranges as we are down to 2. It takes 6 oranges in the morning to make 2 glasses of freshly squeezed OJ. Found the road where all the vendors park on the side to sell oranges. I bought a 5 kg bag for 1.5 euros. Should do for a few days.

Today`s bounty

Got back to the apartment around 11:30. At noon Wendy says let's go for a walk. We went to a supermarket that we saw last night. It is about .3/4 km from the house. In this same mall there is also a Ticket Shop, these are little stands all over the city where you can buy tour tickets. Todays special was 5 Euro to visit 3 different cities for the afternoon, I will have to take advantage of these deals in the next weeks. We picked up a few things we were missing for groceries, then made lunch while Wendy was working, then had it on the balcony in the sun..

Went for a walk downtown before supper, Wendy hadn't been to the Church yet that we can see from the apartment. Came back by the beach, and climbed the steps and the hill instead of taking the escalators back, the climb up the river hill after golf is going to be easy after this! 

Saw this neat restaurant, look at the roof top

I cooked up ½ of the fish for supper that I got at the market, very yummy, tomorrow we will have the rest for supper.

Tomorrow I plan to go to a football/soccer game somewhere for the afternoon. My list tomorrow includes laundry, a much overdue haircut, planning our weekend, and the stuff I want to do. I am going to be a very busy man, I'll update you tomorrow on what actually gets done...