TR AVEL STYLE
that a person can be sprayed with chilled Evian water, in my experience, without finding it a somewhat humiliating experience for both the sprayer and the sprayed, and the unique Nespereira experience is that you feel part of something real, as opposed to being a cash-cow suspended in a glitzy bubble to be milked to within an inch of your life and forgotten with the first change of bedding. My friends and I took great delight in playing house in the beautifully restored ‘montes’ (the local word for villas) with their high ceilings and numerous rooms featuring terracotta floors
totally elsewhere is heightened
and marble walls, but when we
in a way you don’t find in, say,
wanted to eat seafood so fresh
Barcelona, where people have the
that I was half expecting it to
same crazes and references as
jump up from the plate and sing
people in London. Which isn’t to say it’s staid;
a verse of ‘Under The Sea’ washed down with the coldest, crispest
at a gorgeous Faro bar called
Portugese wine, it was only ten
Columbus, I ordered the only
minutes along the track, with
drink I haven’t been able to
eagles swooping overhead.
finish, a €2 shot (everything is
Other days we went out and
eye-poppingly inexpensive in
Above: Watermelon and feta salad with local edible flowers Below, from left: The pool at Nespereira; the local beach; a bathroom at the larger ‘monte’ on the resort; poolside dining
a Portmeirion that has broken out of Wales and run away for its day in the sun. We sat eating the local custard cakes at a pavement café while a smiling accordion player serenaded us with ‘La Vie En Rose’ and it really was one of those perfect moments you know you’ll think of in the future to get you through darker days. The taxi driver who took us
sampled the local firewater,
Portugal) called a Sushi Pearl,
to the airport told us that the
Aguardente de Medronhos,
made with 85% black absinthe.
temperatures we’d experienced
and heard Sergio Leone themes
Shortly after one sip, I forgot
there in May were already what
playing in our heads as we
my ATM pin number, and had
Portugal usually didn’t get
walked the sultry, clean streets
to request a new one when I got
until July. We arrived home to
of Odemira and Sao Teotonio. To
home. Faro is lovely; its cobbled
torrential rain and I’m already
me, Portugal is slightly time-
streets, gothic balconies and
missing Nespereira, having
warpy, with none of the flip
archways giving it the look of
decided that sunshine is the
hipster spin of Spain or Italy, but this lends it a charm all of its own and because ‘the past is a foreign country’, the feeling of being
❝
We sat eating local custard cakes at a pavement café while a smiling accordion player serenaded us with ‘La Vie En Rose’
82 | W W W. SU SS E X ST Y L E.CO M | J U NE 2014
greatest luxury there is. Let’s face it, once you’ve seen one pillow sweet and one origami’d toilet roll, you’ve seen them all.