First day in Faro

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I spent a few days around Faro in Algarve and I had a great time there. As most of trips, I did Couchsurfing there. On the 1st night when I arrived my host took me to have a drink in a nice bar in the center. Going there, he showed me around his city. It seems a small but nice city. And there I could taste Portuguese wine for the 1st time I think! Indeed, as French, I am more used to drink French wine, but Portuguese wine is also really tasty. My host told me about a special kind of wine in Portugal: green wine. It should be good, I was looking forward to tasting it and I could do it on the 2nd day 😊 At the bar, we met some of his friends and I had interesting talks with them. Especially with a guy, who was coming from Zimbabwe. As I am planning to visit the south of Africa next year, I was happy to meet him to talk about those countries.

The 2nd day of this trip was really fun. We woke up quite early to go to the fish market. There, we met one of his friend with his family and we had breakfast together. It was a nice beginning of the day. And could you guess where his friend and family are from....? Germany of course. So not even one day after leaving Germany, I was talking German again but in Portugal!! Weird. After this nice breakfast, we visited the fish market and fruits and vegetables markets. All those fresh fishes seemed so delicious. I was really looking forward to eat some Fresh fish! Living in Germany, fresh fish is not that common and I wanted to take advantage of beiing in a country where fresh fish is so common to eat as much of it as possible!

At the fruits and vegetables market, I was amazed by the prices! When I bought 1kg of tomatoes, I could not believe the seller when he asked me for.... 0,8€!! In Germany, I am paying 4€ in my bio supermarket for it. At that time, I thought that I will try to find a good market near my home, to see if I can get better prices for tasty fruits and vegetables in Germany as well!

At the market, we bought some fruits and vegetables for the dinner on Sunday evening that I wanted to cook.As French, Ratatouille was planned on the menu on that night 😉 We also bought honey and lemon to prepare a puncho for the bbq party planned in the afternoon. Buying thos things, I was really feeling that holidays where starting :D

After the market, we went to the beach. I could then go for a swim for the 1st time this summer. Ok, I swam in Barcelona in May, but it was at night time and water was really cold... There, in Faro, it was perfect! Water was so clear, beach was clean and as the morning was not that sunny before the beach was not crowded at all!

Then, we went for a bbq party where I had loads of fun with his friends. I was quite amazed by the good level of Portuguese people! I had no problem to talk to any of them, which is not always the case when I am travelling. We stayed until the night there and then we went to pick up my friends, who were arriving at the airport one day after me.

Of course, the day was not finished at that time!! After drinking a glass of green wine -I told you that I would taste it!-, we went to a city 20km away to party at a beach club. The club was nice. It's really a holiday place with water fountains inside 😉 The only small issue was the music: the DJ did not really know how to mix and was changing every other minute...

Then, you would think that after fish market, beach, bbq party and beach club party the night would be going to end, but no! We went to the ocean which was close by. This was great because for my 2 friends, that was their 1st time to see the ocean!! So, they had fun there, walking in the water.

Ok, after that it was time to go back home to have a rest before the 2nd day, which was quite promising as well: deserted island was on the program!

Pratical information:

Columbus bar: Praca Dom Francisco Gomes, 13, Faro http://www.barcolumbus.pt/ . Really nice coktail bar in the city center of Faro.

Fish market: in Olhao. 8 km away from Faro airport. possibility to go there by train (1.4€), by bus (3.5€) or taxi (22€)

Praia de Faro: 30 minutes by boat (3€ return ticket) from Porta Nova, close to Faro's harbour

Puro beachclub: in Villamoura. 20 km from Faro. go there by bus (4€ but I am not sure there are running at night) or taxi (30€).

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