Exploring Portugal

Sunday
This afternoon I am flying to faro from Manchester to explore the Algarve for the 1st time. While waiting for the flight I had a yummy pasta with salmon and crayfish inside. This Italian restaurant is in terminal 3 after security and serves really quickly so you aren’t rushing your food and feeling stressed and ending up sitting next to 2 people on the same flight. Flight was good and I was sat next a friendly Australian man and had a good chat. Arrived in faro just by the sea so you get a great view as you are descending to the airport. After chilling for 2 hours waiting for my mate we got the taxi to the hotel and had some tasty fish,sweet potato fries, sweet watermelon and some ice cream.

Monday
Woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We headed to Lidl to get some suncream and other essentials before heading to the beach before it gets really hot in the day. We both swam in the ocean at different times but it was still absolutely freezing. After that I needed to warm up but without get burnt so sat in the shade while reading a book. I was a little hungry so we tried to Portuguese tart which has custard in a pastry which was delicious. I couldn’t help but think of getting a ice cream after this so after wondering about a little bit I did some Google and found a place nearby which had some nice flavours. I had a passion fruit and forest fruit which was amazing. After wondering back to the hotel we checked out the pool which was really refreshing but tiring swimming after 10 mins.

Tuesday
Today was going to be the hottest day so far with reaching 34 degrees in the afternoon. In the morning we wondered along a sandy path above the cliffs by the beaches with a few holes looking out to the sea which had stunning views. Later in the day we had booked a caves boat tour along the rugged coastline of abrefria to armacao de pera. The caves along the sea were beautiful the way they had been carved out through erosion. Afterwards we went out to the ocean to look for dolphins but they were nowhere to be seen. Once the tour was finished we went to find the old town before heading back to the hotel. Old town was really nice which had a nice coffee shop. I had a raspberry and toffee ice cream which was the best one of the holiday so far.

Wednesday
We had a last full day in the Algarve so we found a day trip to Faro, olhao and Tavira. Faro was nice sunny city with lots of character the old town was beautiful surrounded by city walls. Olhao was alright but it didn’t grip me the way the other places have plus we only had a short break before the coach left. Taveria was a lunch stop so we stopped found this smaller place a little bit away from the tourist restuarants and had some amazing tapas. The highlight for me was the prawn risotto. It was creamy, cheesy and had a bit of parsley on it

Thursday
For the next 2 days we were going to staying in Lisbon as we had separate flights and Lisbon had better options for flying back to the uk. So the easier option was a 3 hour coach ride. The motorway was really quiet until we got 10mins from Lisbon. After arriving we got the metro which was so busy because the trains only had 3 coaches for some reason on this day. After getting to the hotel it was time to explore the city so we wondered around, found some food and then found the beautiful river that comes from Spain and flows all the way to Lisbon and in the sea

Friday
For the last full day in Lisbon we booked a free walking tour around the city so we could get guided around by a local who loved living in the city. Everywhere in Lisbon has smooth stones close together so be careful if it’s rains as it could be quite slippery. Our tour guide was really good and friendly and loved talking to us about his beautiful city with lots of beautiful squares. You need come in may as there is a wonderful blue blossom everywhere you look. After much wondering about the guide treated the whole group to a custard tart with cinnamon and iced sugar which was amazing plus we were near a ice cream place so had that as well which the flavours were really good and tasty. We ended the tour overlooking a beautiful view of the city.

As I conclude this holiday Portugal has been amazing. People we met in the hotels, on the caves boat ride, on the faro tour have been really friendly and yes the food has pretty good too plus the views but meeting strangers and having good conservations has been quite special.