Days 122-125...Portugal

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We arrived to a lovely day in Faro, southern Portugal - the sunshine was a welcome change to the smoggy london weather! We elected to take a public bus to our apartment in Albufiera (about 15miles from Faro airport), little did we know that we would spend the next 4+ hours (!) tiki-touring around the general area! It was quite an ordeal, considering we just wanted to get to our hotel complex and relax - On the up-side we did see a lot of the area around the Portugese section of the Algarve coast - whether we liked it or not!

We finally arrived at the central bus station in Albufiera and caught a cab to our hotel - reflecting all the while that we probably could have WALKED from the airport in a similar time! However it was all good, because we almost instantly melted into the laid-back lifestyle that dominates here 😊 Our apartment at Cerro Mar was huge, 3 large rooms, completely set up for a family of 4+ with all the creature comforts you could want, there was a massive gym with saunas and steam rooms, and 3 large pools - one indoor, one rooftop and one outside the main bar/restaurant area. Despite all of these cool features we actually spent virtually no time at the apartment at all - as absolutely fell in love with the town 😊

Our descision to do to Albufiera was pretty uneducated, we just saw a few pics on the internet and thought it looked nice (the only other option we thought about in Portugal was Lisbon - but wanted a beach holiday). However we got very lucky indeed - Albufiera is a magic spot: right on the beach, the town is built up in a large bay and the low hills surrounding. It is gorgeous, white washed stone buildings and cobbled streets as far as the eye can see. The town itself was once a lowly fishing village but 600-700 years of fascinating maritime history have seen it develop into a medium size town with huge tourist appeal. The area we stayed in is known as 'Old Town' where most of the buildings are extremely old and the towns quaint character abounds from every direction - the main town square is a wonderful spot, surrounded by cheap bars and restaurants - it was a pleasure just to sit around and watch the world go by 😊 Kristi and I did just that for most our time there! We drank MUCHOS sangria and just absorbed the atmosphere.

We did manage to explore the wider area of the town, including 'the strip' - a long street of tourist friendly bars etc - but kept finding ourselves drawn back to Old Town and the beautiful beach. There is a cool little road-going train (no tracks) that cruises around the main areas of town and is a very cool and funny way to get around.

The weather was fantastic for the whole time we were in Portugal and we couldn't have asked for a better way to unwind and consume frightening amounts of Sangria - we were in town less than a week and still managed to establish a few haunts where they knew exactly what we wanted before we even sat down 😊

The food was great and very well priced, the people were lovely and generally very friendly, the town was beautiful and full of character - we would both go back to Albufiera in a heartbeat! But sadly it was all-too-soon time to pack up and head off to Dublin for a couple of days. We sensibly arranged a transfer back to the airport this time, and, wouldn't you know it, it took about 30 minutes!

Next stop - Dublin!

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