Two Brief Stops in Faro: Part one

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Blog Intro

I haven't managed to travel much in my lifetime. As a child i remember watching Michael Palin's travel series on a Sunday evening and dreaming of seeing every different place he visited and loving the local experiences he took part in and people he met. I always loved to see new places and knew that i wanted to see the world. Unfortunately I still haven't managed to do a lot of travelling apart from a few short trips, escaping the resort on package holidays and spending six weeks backpacking alone around north / eastern europe / the baltics, couchsurfing and hostelling.

Two brief stops in faro: Part One

Me and Vicki ( girlfriend ) booked a week off work and used skyscanner to find a cheap flight from Manchester. We chose Faro, which was a good price at £75 return each, including one hold bag.



In faro we stayed in a hostel called Casa d'Alagoa, which was £6.97 a night in a good standard 12 bed dorm, within a large hostel that had a homely & relaxed vibe to it. For a small fee we booked a transfer from the airport as it was after 10pm and we wanted to get there quickly. The ryanair fight ran perfectly smoothly, in a newly fitted aircraft that, amazingly arrived at our destination 30 minutes ahead of schedule! The intelligent and welcoming hostel owner had realised we would be landing early and almost before the time we were scheduled to land we had arrived at the hostel.



We wandered the quiet winter streets of Faro until almost midnight. The city was almost deserted, apart from the odd local ambling along and a group of elderley men gathered socially in a deserted high street shop front. This small city is lovely to wander around, with interesting paving and softly coloured white plain and patterend tiles everywhere. Plentiful glowing street lights create some interesting atmospheric reflections on these tiles.



In the early morning, Faro came to life very slowly. The lit streets of the night before were now the canvas on which the cities workers came to life. Mostly older business men weariing suits resembling inspector gadget. These characters almost seemed to glide like curling rocks accross the icy smooth street tiles. The image was a strange one, with the outfits standing out against the light coloured tiles and walls, creating a contrast and an old fashioned character to this pedestrian commute.

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Photos

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Beautiful Faro tiled harbour at night.

Faro High street
Tiled High street

Charactered tiles
Daylight tiles