Surfing in Portugal?

Last summer my ex tempore trip to Portugal stole my heart away.

Although I didn't see much - considering that I spent most of my time surfing at the peninsula of Costa da Caparica - the old pastel colored buidings of Lisbon, the surf and the tropical climate among with the cheap prices were enough to assure me I would have to come here again. Also, I really love the language barrier - when most of the population only speaks Portugal and the possibility of people understanding Spanish let alone English is weak, you really feel like you are traveling. Although I love it how you can get around almost anywhere with English, it's also a bummer since it takes the exoticism and feel of adventure away.



So... I was thinking maybe I should go surf in Portugal for 3,5 weeks in between Rock Werchter and Tomorrowland..!!

I started thinking how sweet it would be to rent a villa or an apartment with some mates for the time :) But... I have NO idea who would come with me. Jasmine would probably be up for it, but she's the only one of my mates that surfs and is up for spontaneous adventures.. ANYONE UP FOR SURFING IN PORTUGAL IN JULY ?

-Second picture by Rafael-

Surf-less Rant #5741

Oh come on guysssss, stop linking travel blogs to me.

Especially those ones considering Bali & surfing. Hard Life.

1770's / Agnes Water, AUS 2010

I'm sitting at my fav bar/café Llama, waiting for my Spanish lesson (<3) to begin with AN URGE to quit school, pack my bags and say so long suckerz. Also the fact that Milka posted a picture on Facebook about her new surf board makes me frustrated that my own 6"8 is nowadays only a souvenir from Australia that's leaning against my room's wall... fuuu.

Longing to surf. I should NOT be here.
(Mmmmm Exchange year to Bali? ;) )

Ticket to the Moon

7.1 Berawa (Canggu)



Although I had had a shitty sleep due to Jonas’ snoring (seriously thought of sleeping on the couch at one point) I was happy to wake beside him. We were staying at Jean’s, Jonas’ french friend’s villa, which he was babysitting for his friend. When we finally got up I was a bit nervous to meet him because I kinda felt like an intruder in his house. Jonas and Jean were in full speed talking French when I came to say hi. Jean said hi and jus stared at me with this evil stare and smile and I was kind of confused what to say :D A week later on he told me with a snark that at first I wasn’t welcomed but now he would greet me with open arms. :D Gotta love Jean. I love it how he was just so French.. He would always look at you with this arrogant look on his face and say ”Uhalalaa” all the time :D Also his sarcastic and sometimes ”mean” French humor has to be mentioned when talking about him. BUT he is a really sweet guy and I really learned to like him :)



We went to Warung Satya with Jonas’ where all the rest of the Germans (Moritz, Flo, Jojo) and Jeff along with Milka where waiting for us. It was he spot where they all ate breakfast (and sometimes lunch/dinner) every day. Jeff had been eating there for a while, but a month ago when he really started hanging out with the Germans he also introduced them to the place.

 THE dress - and probably the worst picture to get the real feel of the dress!

After brekkie me and Jonas went shopping :D I just felt so happy sitting at the back of his scooter and even more when we went to the stores and I had to judge the clothes he was buying :D We were actually buying t-shirt for his brtoher but everything he put on looked so damn good on him that I insisted he should get in a size they both could wear :D I might’ve also gone a bit crazy in Seminyak... It’s full of boutiques so all the clothes are pretty unique and cool. So I see this lovely dress in the window and so we enter the shop called ”Somewhere”. I manage to continue this madness of a spending and bought a 800 000 rps dress.. hell-oh... day budget x 4.... :D I just had to buy it... It was just so me.. the crazy colors, lovely silhouette & cut and the way the dress screams ”LOOK AT ME” :D Also.. there might’ve been the Jonas-factor. When I called him to see what he thought of the dress, his eyes went O_O and he just went ”WOW” as he stepped from behind the corner... Sooo. You know... I just had to buy the dress.



After shopping we went to try to sell JoJo's board and fetch Jonas’ board bag that they had made for him. Man... Under 60€ for a custom made board bag (that fits 3 boards)?? I want one ! We bumped into Eddie, this Aussie guy who works and surfs in Simbawa, the island next to Lombok. He tagged along when we went to meet Jean for lunch at this Indian restaurant. All was well before I had to get up from the scooter. As Jonas got up, the board bag’s weight shifted me and my calve hit the steaming hot engine... I can tell you, it hurt. Because of what Carlos had told and showed me from his burn on his leg, I had been watching out the whole day of not touching my leg on the side of the scooter because I knew what would happen and I could also feel the heat. But still, I wasn’t fortunate enough not to get a Balinese Kiss. Or a Balinese Tattoo, like one would also say. Oh well ! At least now I have a memory of Bali and Jonas haha : D



Because of my burn I couldn’t surf Serangan. DAMN: when the waves actually looked like I could perhaps handle them ! Unlike that one time I nearly drowned... It was just me and Milka sitting on the beach and taking photos, talking about stuff (men). It was good to be a surffileski when for once you could actually tell where the guy you were supposed to follow was at (hooray for light blue shorts and a pink/light blue fish tail :D).



After Serangan me and Jonas left to get changed at his (well Jean’s) place. When we were driving the bumpy dirt road away from Serangan we were talking so much that we nearly had an accident ! We were only a meter away from the barrier before Jonas hit the breaks. Fuckk :D So close. A lot of laughter and the journey continued.



We got changed and all that and headed to the Jeff’s villa (or well, the villa he was babysitting) to meet the other guys (jeff+germans+milka+eddie+jean) for drinks since we were going out. Had a good time drinking beer although Jean was putting me through some kind of test buy making me open the beer bottle with a ligher. I was pretty confident I could pull it, since I had done it a couple of times in high school (oh, all that beer drinking...!), but fuck. I. JUST. COULDN’T.



Jean was just being all so french with his french humor ”oh Sandra, you DISAPPOINT ME, can not even open a beer bottle – should just kill yourself” *in a french accent that you can not really take seriously :D* At the same time all the guys were offering their help to me, but being to stubborn and to proud I announced I wanted to do it myself! Finally when Jonas’ gave me some advice I got that stupid Bintang open – JUST WHEN JEAN WASN’T LOOKING – He accused me of cheating :D



I may or may not have told you this, but Jean is the director in Bali of Ticket to the Moon, this company that makes mainly hammocks. So of course all the boys had hammocks from him (only for the cost of production) and there was at least one laying around every time. Jonas and Jean grabbed a hammock and decided to hang it above the pool from the trees that were beside the pool. I was sure the hammock would swing around (or the trees collapse/rope slide down) but amazingly it held Jonas and Jean ! Jean insisted for me to climb in and so I did – pretty afraid of falling in the pool and getting my dress wet. We got some ”promotional photos” for Ticket to the Moon haha :D



The guys also went a bit crazy and started hanging from two towels that Jeff had set for himself to do chin-ups with. I seriously thought someone would fall down and break their neck ! Luckily this didn’t happen. After enough Bintangs we got on the bikes with the idea to drive to Kuta. Just as we were about to leave Eddie drove into the fuckign ditch : D WTF. We hadn’t even left !!! Good fuckign start for drunk driving (which I DO NOT SUPPORT – by the way – It’s just that ”While in Rome” and besides,  there was no other way of getting back and to Kuta). We drove to Kuta and although I was a bit afraid (seems like that’s what I’ve only been doing the whole night) I truested Jonas to get us there safe. I as just so happy to not be sitting at the back of Jean’s bike because he drives like a fucking mad man :D



We went to Green Room, that was just beside the hotel me and Jasmine had been staying at. Never ever have I done so many shots in my lie in such a short time. I probably had 6 shots in only 15 minutes... Jonas or one of the guys would order us a tray of shots (40) and we’d just chug ’em and cheers to everything (christmas, new years, my b-day, jojo, etc). Thank gos Balinese shots are pretty mild (20%) unless if you get the good (fucking expensive) stuff.

We headed to Eikon to dance and had a good time. Danced Danced Danced. Really loved dancing with Jonas. He knows what he’s doing :) I had been worrying the whole night how the fuck we would get back home in one piece and my concearn just increased the more drunk I saw Joans getting (last night of drinking hey..). Thank god he just threw that tequila shot Eddie bought for us three over his shoulder :D Guess I had some good karma and luck when we managed to make it home safely with that amount of alcohol and all that heavy rain... But seriously kids, don’t play with your lives. Think of all the things you have to loose and wieight it with what you can gain. I don’t support drunk driving at all although I did get on that bike. Kinda feels hypocritical to to say and do the other but.. what’s done is done and i’m glad I came out of it alive (and on top of that it was a fairly fun night) :)

Top row: Jeff, me, Jonas, Jean, Eddie, Jojo -  Bottom row: Flo, Moritz, Milka

Some of the photos taken by Milka Koskela!

Near Death Experience @ Serangan Island

Good to be Alive - Paul and ME (c) Jasmine Färling

Mom, you shouldn't be scared of "the sharks" when I'm surfing but whether i'll make it to the surface after the wave bashes me...

So the surf was shit at Balangan Beach due to the on shore wind, so we listened to Paolo's (the Brazilian guy who's been traveling for 30 years, has lived in Indonesia for 7 years and owns a surf "village" on one of the islands in front of Java) advice and followed him to Serangan Islands. He said that this place would have an offshore wind, so the conditions for surfing would be great.



Scared might be undermining how I felt when I had to climb on the back of Jasmine's scooter.... I don't really trust my friend 8D She did fine though. After driving reeeeeally slow (20km/h) she was zig zaging everyone in the crazy traffic of Bali.

We lost sight of Carlos and Emma so we had to find our own way to Serangan Islands. We did pretty well ! Carlos and Emma were pretty surprised to see us but no one was in more disbelief than Paolo :D



We met this Spanish guy Paul and he was also a beginner in surfing. We were watching the waves for a bit terrified by their massiveness and aggressiveness. After a while we decided to head out anyways. We figured there was a smaller section we could probably take.

Well. We were terribly wrong. I borrowed Paul's long board and we paddled out quite far out. It wasn't until our third try to get on a wave that it happened. This massive wave broke on us and before we had even had the chance to try to stand up, we were in the water.


The wave and my surf board was dragging be under water for what seemed like ages. I must've traveled probably ten meter underneath the water before I could feel the force of the wave relax a bit. I was starting to panic. I was a bit lost which way the surface was and I hoped it as where I saw the light coming from.

Usually I'll wait a couple of seconds before coming up to the surface so that i'll know my board has passed me and isn't going to hit me when I surface. But this time it as difference. As soon as the wave loosened its grip, I was sprinting my way to the surface. I didn't care if the board would hit me and knock me out - I just knew I had to get to the surface N-O-W or I would drown. I wasn't sure how much longer I was able to hold my breath underneath water with my asthmatic lungs.



I was horrified - the surface seemed to be so many meters above me. The wave had really pressed me to the bottom and I was not sure I would make it in time to the surface. With each stroke I thought "when am I goijgn to hit the surface?!?!" It seemed like for ever. I was sure I would drown.



Just then I hit the surface and the sweet air. I saw Paul gasping for air next to me and I could hear him scream "I WANT TO LIVE" (which I later realized had actually been "I want to leave"). He hold on to my surf board and I was panicking because there was another massive wave just going to break on us. The worst thing was that out leg ropes were tangled to each other - "now we are really going to drown", I thought.



I was almost thinking of taking my leg rope off (thank god I didn't cause I wouldn't have made it out of the sea swimming. I suck at swimming..) when our leg ropes got free'd from each other.

I took the biggest gasp of air before the wave hit us. It wasn't as powerful though and because we had managed to hold out to our surf boards, we were back on them paddling quite fast. I paddled as hard as I could to get out of the break section. Luckily a wave broke behind us and the white wash carried us almost to the shore.

I was so happy to get out of the water and be alive.



I don't really know how to conclude but when I think about that moment underneath the water, I get shivers. I'm happy that I wasn't afraid to try it, but next time i'll also try to reason whether I can actually surf the waves before heading out.

Bonfire @ Balangan Beach

I woke up at 5 am to the sound of the waves. LOVED IT. It was raining so I just sat on the second floor and watched the waves. There was also this cat that was sitting on our terrace and I had to ”sush” it, because I was sure its meowing was gonna wake everyone up.


I went back to bed and woke up a couple hours later.



Got brekkie... pancakes y-u-m!



We rented a surf board for 150 000 rps with jasmine for the day.


Our Beach Shack, Man Sis Cafe & Accommodation <3


The tide was low and thus also the water on the reef was shallow. So I decided to wait a bit for the tide to rise.






Finally got to surf!



 


We decided to make a bonfire with Carlos and Emma and these two Spannish guys, Gonzalo and Kristian.



Gonzalo went to buy the beers from the supermarket and we went to search for wood.



Thank god someone had already piled a pile of wood on th rocks, because it was quite arbiduous to look for fire wood in the dark...



So we made a fire next to the rock and drank beers with Gonzalo playing his guitar. It was sooo good :)



We managed to say up till 23:30 which was quite an effort since usually we pass out at nine ;)

Balangan Beach

18.12.20011



I little video I filmed for you guys (in finnish, soz) in the morning, check it out: !
PS. I accidentally uploaded this to last night's post... Got the videos mixed up.. So if you wanna see last night's REAL video, click here.



So basically, realized, that Jasmine hadn’t gotten on her flight since she was not sleeping on the bed next to me. I decided I needed to go find an Internet café because I knew Jassu would’ve facebooked me ;) So I went to have brekkie (nice to have a GOOD breakfast included for once, instead of the rice crispy cereal brekkies they have at hostel in oz :D) and started talking with this  Aussie man. It was nice to have brekfast with someone and talk about stuff instead of eating alone :) Ps. Tim didn't really look this miserable unlike in this photo :D



So I checked my facebook (yes, jasmine hadn’t got on the plane from korea to bali, and would be here not until Monday 3pm) and read an email from Bahri (!!) the Jakartan man from last night’s dinner, telling me that he had found the kobra blood –shot –restaurant, and that he could take me there. SO STOKED. After the Internet café I decided to check out the sea conditions. I wandered to the beach but FUUUUUUUUUU. THERE WERE NO WAVES. I was in the state of ”hmm what the FUCK will I do today”. So. I guess no surfing for Sandra then!



After talking to these Balinease surfing guys, I left the beach and just decided to just keep wandering around and hoping to bump into backpackers that would be cool enough to hang out with me. I had tried to take a video on the beach but MY CAMERA WOULDN’T TURN ON and for a while I thought I had already managed to fuck up my camera .....before I realized I had just inserted the battery the wrong way... oopsiee ;D



After wondering around aimlessly and walking quite far away, I saw this guy that looked like a traveler. ”Hey, excuse me, do you know where’s the place to be, when it’s raining and there’s no waves? Where is everyone?”.



Carlos was this nice Chilean guy and after he said that he had no idea were everyone was and that he was looking for everyone too (since he was traveling alone as well) he asked me whether I’d want to walk around with him. I was happy anough to do that and to finally have had found another lonely soul backpacker ! hahahaa



We just wondered around in the sun (the rain clouds had finally pissed off! <3) talking about all the usual traveling stuff and we decided to go to a beer garden. As we were trying to find one, Carlos asked me whether I wanted to check Balangan Beach out and _GO SURF_. He had been there the day before, as he had been killing 4 days already while waiting for his friend to arrive. Needless to say,we ditched the idea of cold beer and went to rent a scooter from the guy Carlos had rented it the day before.



We paid 3,5€ each for a days rent on the bike and headed off to my hostel. I had to get e.g. sun screen but things didn’t go as smoothly as planned, since we got lost trying to find our way back to the main street :D I think we were driving around for at least an hour before reaching my Mastapa Hotel.. There was also the fact that Carlos was trying to not bump into the cops since his Driver’s License was back at his hotel room!



After getting my stuff and his surf board we were on our way ! It was soooo nice to be sitting at the back of the scooter and what made me even more jolly was when it started to rain a bit as we were accelerating up the hill : D I was just laughing and loving every moment of it!



It’s amazing how the course of my day turned 180 degrees after meeting Carlos! I had thought that it would be a shit day doing nothing an wasting time in Kuta, because there were no waves and I was alone AND my hotel isn't the one where to meet people. If the surf's dead, there’s nothing to do in Kuta (you should see this place... There’s nothing more than k-marts, restaurants and heaps of clothing stores...) . I was  so sure I would end up just killing time :/ BUT THANK GOD I MET CARLOS!

Soz, forgot to photoshop my tan in...

Because I don’t have a driver’s license and I’m too much of a pussy, I don’t feel comfortable enough renting a (motor)bike. What if the police stops me? (ok I can always pay them) But what if something happens? I have no driving experience what-so-ever, my reflexes are shit and the traffic and amount of bikes here are crazy ! So renting a bike and driving by myself is not an option i’d be willing to take :D



But how good of a day did we have !



Balangan was BEAUTIFUL ! Although we were pretty sad with the fact of Balinese destroying the nature with the villas, hotels and resorts they are bulding :/ They also don’t seem to be that concerned about trashing the nature.. But the surf ws so gooooood. I rented a board for 100 000 rupihas for two hours (they had monopoly over board renting so I couldn’t really haggle the price down) and ran into the water. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD TO BE BACK IN THE SEA. Five months of not surfing had made me ITCH to get back in the water :]



I was surfing with a 7”6 long board and managed to do pretty well so I’m happy with that! One day... one day i’ll surf a short board! Also I realized that the programme i had asked my gym personel to make me to srenghten my arm muscles (to help me out with surfing) has had an effect ! I could paddle way more and not get tired... oh gosh I am sooo happy :) !



I had a really nice time with Carlos: We bought lunch and ate it in a shack overlooking the sea. Carlos would’ve wanted fried rice instead of noodles but because the restaurant was out of rice, he had to settle for noodles. Hahahahahah I can only imagine how sick he is of noodles after staying one year in Australia (working holiday visa)... .BEEN THERE DONE THAT! ;) We got some bintangs too and enjoyed life. Sooo good. We also had this dicussion about surfing and sharks, surprise there :D



After lunch we made our way up the hill and sat on this cliff to watch the beach break and the sun. This made me hope even more that I would’ve brought my Nikon with me. Next time i’ll bring it no matter what! It was so picturesque that I almost felt pissed off for not taking my good camera... You can’t do shit with a digital camera and a beautiful view..



As we were talkign and listening to the calming sound of the ocean (and I noticed i had burnt my face, my legs and my arms... shiiit) Carlos suggested, that maybe we should travel together. He was about to go get his ex from the airport (joo sanonko mitä... mun tuuria?? :D:D) and she was about to stay here with him for 10 days (Carlos on the other hand is staying in Indonesia for 30 days) so probs after that. Since we share the same interest (surf surf surf) it would be cool to wander around with him. I might’ve laughed A BIT when he told me his ex doens’t surf.. .haahahahahahaaaa good luck making her stay on the beach for 10 days as you surf!!! At least i’d be bored of not doing anything else but lying on the sand by that time... Just like in Airlie Beach hey... ;)



Carlos told me that at least New Years we should spend together and that would be cool :) I know i’ll be with Jasmine then so the more the merrier :)



As we were driving back to Kuta (unfortunately) I was pure smiles. The sun was beginning to set (SOO BEAUTIFUL, WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T I TAKE MY CAMERA) and the light was all pink and violet... It was magical...



He dropped me off at my hotel and said he had to go to get his ex from the airport but that he’d call me to my hotel (since we were planning to go out). Later on that night I was sooo knackered that I just decided i’d go to bed as it was already 2 hours after Carlos’s ex had arrived at the airport and I hadn’t heard from him.





Just as I was brushing my teeth I heard this weird sound. I was so knackered that it took me a while to realize it was the phone! I answered it with toothpaste foam in my mouth. As Carlos was calling from his Aussie phone from Indonesia to a hotel phone, the reception was really bad and I couldn’t really hear what he was saying :/ So, phone call for nothing. I just passed out on my bed and figured i’d see them tomorrow.