Storyline: Portugal by trains
Tue, Jan 10
Last night we dragged or carry-ons through the beautiful streets of Faro in the dark without noticing much but the Xmas lights decorating some streets in the center.
After the absolutely delicious dinner mentioned in the previous post, we finally crashed in the bed of our studio rented through Airbnb for five days.
We chose to stay in Faro first because there was a direct train from Lisbon Oriente Station to Faro and we could make it by the evening of our arrival day. Had we chosen Lagos we would have had to change trains at Tunes and the arrival time would have been later.
We woke up to spectacular views of the city from the wall-to-wall windows of our studio. It is on the 8th floor, which given the ground floor and the one above marked with S (souterrain?) it is practically the 10th.
Faro is the capital of the Algarve region. The Ria Formosa lagoon attracted humans from the Stone Age. The first settlement dates back to the 4th century BC. The area is rich in history. Moors took over the area in 713 and 500 years of their rule has left marks in architecture and more.
Last night we were lost in the local grocery store. This is the first European country we’ve been (and we’ve been to a few😊) where everything is written only in one language. Portuguese. Or perhaps we understood enough from the other languages not to notice it. Alex’s phone was in the studio charging so no Google Translate to help. Even our Spanish won’t help. Produce is obvious, but packaged goods not so much. We found the dairy section. Had no idea what kind of milk we’ve got. The yogurt was more obvious. Especially the Greek one. Although we managed to screw this buying not plain but some kind of sweetened Greek yogurt. But then which of all these products is butter? Which is cream cheese, which is…? so many products in same shaped 250g plastic containers. We eventually found a young couple who spoke English and they helped us with it. Then eggs. We knew eggs in Europe are not stored in fridges, but couldn’t see any on the shelves. Asked a young lady, but she only spoke Portuguese. I tried the Spanish word “huevo?”. She just shrugged. A helpful store attendant who spoke English came to help. Oh, “ovo”, she says and runs around the store to find them for us. “Sold out” she says, coming back. That explained why we could not see them.
Our first impression during this winter month as compared to our home in Canada: it is nice, warm and peaceful. Locals are very friendly. A quaint, charming walkable small city.
Our studio is very close to the pedestrian area. Walking down the street we noticed a group of women enjoying their company while sipping coffee. “What’s different with this picture?”, says Alex. I looked puzzled. “Remember our last January trip? Casablanca?” Oh, now I get his humour. Almost exactly three years ago, we were walking the streets of Casablanca, headed down to the harbour. Many outside tables all full of men sipping their mint tea. The women were only seen shopping and carrying their bags.
The pedestrian area is really nice. Full of stores, cafés and restaurants. It was noon and we wanted to have lunch. After scouting a few places, we first aimed at a small seafood restaurant, but although it had just opened it was already full and waiting time could be two hours.
Apparently very popular with the locals with its 10€ menu of the day (menu do dia).
We settled on a small place which had some sandwiches, soups and sweets. There we shared a 8.50€ menu do dia, which always includes alcohol. It was an easy win. I’d have the soup and the espresso, Alex the sandwich and the beer.
And we share the sweets. In the previous post I mentioned the dirty toilets in the train station.
So, to change the impression of it all this tiny little place had the best toilet I’ve seen here so far. Had to take a photo.
Covering the small cobblestoned area, walking by the marina, the Arco da Vila and Jardim Manuel Bivar, we decided to find a sim card for my phone too. We rely a lot on google maps which together with other apps drains Alex’s phone battery fast. First thing off the airplane yesterday was to buy one SIM card for his phone.
A back up would be good. There was a Vodaphone booth at a shopping mall some 3km away. And so, we walked to the mall. Really nice new residential areas. And the mall was nice too. We bought my card for 10€, half of the price we paid for Alex’s on the same plan at Lisbon airport.
But we needed a local phone yesterday to call our host who would open the doors of the building and the apartment for us remotely, via Internet.
Never understood how this worked but when we called, she buzzed us through the entrance, stayed with us while in the elevator, and then buzzed us in the apartment. All that time, she was in Lisbon.
Getting back to our area, tired and still a little jet lagged, we decided to have dinner at the same “Burgers & Bowls” place as the previous night. It was close to home and opened at our dinner time. In the morning I had used the washing machine to do our travelling clothes laundry. I had it on a drying rack. It was almost as wet in the evening, so we realised it won’t be dry anytime soon. Unless we turned the heater on. It is around 10C at nights, so the heater is a great asset.
Wed, Jan 11
Still adjusting to the jetlag, we had a slow start. I guess these days we don’t rush to anywhere, unless we have to catch a train or a plane (then it’s an almighty rush to get to the station or airport at least an hour earlier than the recommended arrival time – A).
There was the old part of the town to be covered today plus the Bone Chapel. We headed to the Igreja do Carmo church. The Capela dos Ossos de Faro was in the back yard of the church. It is so morbid and so real at the same time. It is to remind us that we all will become bones at the end.
The entire chapel is covered with bones and skulls. Well preserved. The bones belong to 18 century Carmelite monks. Above the entrance, there is the following inscription:
“Pára aqui a considerar que a este estado hás-de chegar” (“Stop here and consider, that you will reach this state too.”)
Lunch time or “menu do dia time”. We walked by a nice place with menu do dia that included the couvert, a fish of the day, wine, desert and coffee. Great to share. The fish of the day was dorada (gilt-head bream in English).
The couvert is something that here, we learned, one can order or not. It is always a selection of bread, olives and variety of butters, dips or other spreads. You only pay if you order it. In many other countries, like Italy for example, they bring you bread and butter or similar and you pay for it. If the restaurant has a table charge, you pay it. Here you only pay if you order it. Took us a while to understand the concept. Why is it called couvert (cover charge) if it’s optional, we don’t know.
After a delicious meal we walked to the old part of the city. It is near the harbour.
We first located the fishermen’s memorial and then turned towards the old town.
Covered by cobbled stone streets as expected it shows well preserved 18th century Moorish-influenced architecture.
Is it because of the winter, but aside from a school group of teenagers and a bus load of tourists we didn’t see up the hill, it was a very quiet, almost deserted part of the city. We had it almost to ourselves.
Our private walk back in time was mixed with nowadays living in this part of the city. Small streets with semi-ruined “garages” and abandoned cars.
Not sure if someone was actually working on the cars or they were just stored there in small, often gutted arcades.
The views from the old town and the 13th century cathedral are spectacular. A monumental archway leads to the old town with its maze of cobbled streets.
We were close to home and that day we had a surprise. After walking all day around the city, we found out that the elevators in the building were not working. Up we go to the 8th floor (10 flights of steep stairs). I think at least one of us (Alex) slept well this night (ongoing jet lag certainly contributed – A).
Our visit to Tavira will be covered in the next post.
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