Noite Branca

Last night was one of those epic nights that last forever…and ever…and then another hour after that. Noite Branca (white night) is a European tradition where everyone dresses in white and roams around the city center, shopping, eating, drinking, and in a more modern twist, dancing to trance music. Rita and Isabel picked me up at 9pm, we got Emilio and headed to Loule, about 30 minutes from Faro.

We started with an elongated dinner of sangria and seafood (as promised I passed on the sardines and chose a traditional Algarve dish of grilled tuna steak with caramelized onions). Our waitress was only 11 years old, we were pretty sure. But she had nothing on the Indonesian child workers and took about 30 minutes to set up our table and another 30 to bring our sangria...all while the party we came for was proceeding without us at the end of the street. We finally paid and joined the party. The streets were packed with people in white, and all had huge white cloth canopies overhead. Every few hundred yards there were make shift living rooms in the middle of the street with overstuffed couches, bean bag chairs (in white and orange) and old Moroccan looking lanterns. There were fire performers everywhere and stilt walkers too, sauntering around every corner with their creepy david lynch-like gait.

Also, in true European fashion, there was a castle in the city center. This is one thing that Europe has on the States. Yeah, I know what your thinking, ‘what about the fact that milk only comes in cardboard boxes?’. We all love that, of course. But even better than that is the scattering of real castles throughout the cities that just happen to be the backdrop of everyday modern life. So, my Portuguese friends indulged me and we got some drinks and hung out under one of the roman arches. This castle had a modern flare and the grounds were lined with subterranean lights that were fading on and off which gave the whole place the feel of some industrial dance club.

Next stop was the make-shift dance hall which was cooler than most real clubs I have been in. There were smoke machines, colored lights and huge white sheets draped all over everything, all surrounded by ancient town walls.

We ended up at a bar down the road, drinking and talking. Every time I looked at a watch it was a couple hours after the last time I looked and it still only felt like we had been out an hour. The bar was not too happening so we walked back to the dance hall, made friends with a guy who had passed out in one of the outdoor living rooms. He didn’t talk much.

And then started walking back to the car. On the way we heard the alluring crone of the Eurythmics coming from a second floor bar (which I think was actually someone’s apartment) and, this being an epic night already, we went up. We made our entrance to the Bangles “Walk like an Egyptian” all striking the called for walk in procession, and then danced to all time favorites such as Great Balls of Fire and 3 o’clock rock (it was an eclectic mix for sure) and finally decided to call it a night. We called it a night in Loule anyway. At 5am we arrived back in Faro, got a beer at Nordik and danced for another hour to yet another trance-like dj. These people truly go forever. On the way home, we stopped at a bakery for some bread filled with chorizo, which may not be the ideal choice for everyone at 6am on the way to bed, but it was so good. After some hours of sleep I am now recovering at home with some of Sonia’s mom’s feijuada, getting myself amped up to go sit on the beach all afternoon. Weekend ife can be tough here for sure. Thank god I have more gels to analyze tomorrow.