Mercado Municipal de Loulé

Saturday was much more relaxed than Friday but it was also kind of tough for me. I started getting a migraine in the morning so I took some medicine and then tried my best to just roll with it. I kept my eyes shut and got what rest I could as we drove to our day's destination and prayed that the medicine would kick in enough for me to enjoy the day.  I felt a little off all day, but I was happy I chose to go out with everyone instead of staying behind at our apartment. Anyway, we went to the market in Loule in the morning because walking around a market is always interesting; you're guaranteed to at least see some displays of beautiful fruits and vegetables. The market is in a beautiful old hall and was filled with stalls selling fresh fish (super stinky but cool to see), fruits, vegetables, flowers, housewares, and baked goods, plus pottery and trinkets for the tourists. On Saturday, the market spreads out into the surrounding streets so there was lots to see, taste, and smell. 

We walked around inside first. The amount of seafood for sale was kind of amazing for this non-seafood loving family - almost half of the market hall was taken up by stalls with fish displayed on beds of ice. We grabbed a couple of snacks from one of the bakery stalls. We're loving the breads here. One we tried today looks like a crunchy baguette, but it's actually soft and slightly sweet. We also tried a suspiros, which is the largest meringue I've ever seen, that was yummy and big enough that we ate some in the morning and saved the rest for later. We were looking at some tablecloths and got taken for a ride by the saleslady. Initially, she was asking €55 for the thing. It's "all cotton and no stains madam." I thought that was too much so she asked how much we'd be willing to pay. Jared said €25, she countered with €35 and we settled on €30. Later we saw the same one for €18 in a shop in town. So she made a good profit off us but can you imagine if we'd just paid the €55 she asked for initially! 

One of our goals for the day was to find Abigail jeans. Her crazy muscular thighs can't be contained and when we were at the beach the day before her jeans straight up split across the front of one leg at about mid-thigh from one side seam to the other. Poor girl has one more pair of jeans with her for the rest of our trip. We thought maybe we'd find something at the market, but there weren't any stalls selling clothes which is different from what we've experienced at markets elsewhere in Europe. So we spent some time wandering through the downtown area looking into shops to see what we could find. What we found were lots of jeans that were "artfully" ripped to shreds or bedazzled. Not Abigail's style and not something we wanted to spend money on. We wanted whatever pants we bought to be something that she could wear not just out of desperation while we're here but also after we get home as well. But the pedestrian area in Loule was so pretty even if the jeans were not ideal. We loved the designs on the sidewalks and the beautiful buildings. 

We kind of went in a big circle around the center of town and we happened upon a Kebab place on our way back to the car. It was close enough to lunch time so we went inside. This restaurant was like nothing we've experienced before. The decor was what was so cool. I think it was called Cleopatra Doner Kebab and the theme was very Arabian nights. The walls were painted deep, dark red. The floors were covered in Oriental rugs. The tables were low to the ground and the seats were like little ottomans. The lighting was colorful glass lanterns and the ceiling was covered in swags of fabric. Even the music had a distinctly middle eastern vibe. The Kebabs were pretty standard, which was awesome because you never know outside of Germany if it's going to be what you expect. The bread and the sauce were slightly different, but still super yummy. After seeing how good it all looked, Natalie took a break from her vegetarianism to partake as well. Initially she'd ordered only fries and a drink but the kebabs looked too good to pass up. 

We were still on the hunt for jeans and a quick google search led us to an outlet mall, which was next door to a regular mall, which was next door to an IKEA. The outlet mall was a waste of time - who wants to spend €80 on Levis when you can buy the exact same style at the BX for $30? The mall was a good option because Primark is always a bargain. We found jeans for Abby plus hair things, two pairs of flip flops, one pair of sandals, and a dress for €30. Not too shabby. 

Jared and Abigail went to a local semi-pro soccer match later in the afternoon while we were waiting for it to be time for General Conference. They weren't there for the whole thing, and it rained, but at least they can say they've been to a soccer match in Portugal! 

General Conference was so good. In addition to just being inspiring and giving me things I need to work on to be a better disciple, I was trying to pull out talks that will be good to discuss in Relief Society over the next six months. My list of talks that I loved and want to learn more about in our Sunday meetings is way too long. With Relief Society being held only twice a month, I'm going to have to pare that list down. Basically, everything was inspiring and worth reviewing and learning from again. In between sessions we headed out to dinner at a Japanese hibachi place. We went to a place like this in Maryland but not all the girls went with us. I think only Samantha had had the experience before. It's fun to watch your meal being cooked in front of you on the big griddle. Abby described watching it as "like Charley's but a million times better." Natalie chose to eat meat again at dinner. I guess she figured since she'd already had some today she'd just go for it and start again tomorrow? 

We got back from dinner in time for the afternoon session of Conference. Abigail loved the choir, Dad loved Elder Holland, I loved everything but am especially appreciating anything that can pertain to ministering as I received a call today asking me to speak about ministering interviews at the leadership session of Stake Conference next Saturday. Which, I've got to say, seems like a strange topic but I'll give it my all. Since we won't be back until super late Wednesday evening, I'm going to have to work on that while we're on vacation.