Faro—sandy beach—a half hour boat ride away—May 29–June 1, 2024

It was just a 15 minute walk from the train station to the Tila Hostel under a bright, blue sky with temperatures in the mid 80s. My kind of weather.

I passed this nearby church on my way to the Tila Hostel.

Although I got a bottom bunk, I was surprised to see 3 triple-decker bunkbeds in my room. I guess this was to accommodate the massive summertime crowds that flock to this beach side resort.

As I headed to the ferry boat, I passed by this beautiful flowering tree along with vendors selling their goods on the waterfront. This Faro sign was in front of the marina.

The ferry boats took me to the island where the beaches were. In Faro itself, the shoreline was littered with mud flats and rocks, and there was no place to swim or sunbathe.

The ferry boats ran from about 9:30 AM till 7:10 PM. I purchased the tickets in a little booth just next to the remains of the castle fort walls.

It took about a half hour for the ferry boat to get to the beach island. I was surprised to see the number of people at the beach, particularly families. The following day. I learned that it was a holiday.

I was surprised to see there were no beach chairs or umbrellas other than what people had brought, so I went to a little store and learned that you could rent umbrellas and chairs so I rented them for two days for €18.

When I went there the second day, the beach was relatively empty. When I took my half hour walk along the beach, I came to a spot where there was almost no one around.

Since I didn’t want to walk back on the beach, I headed toward what I thought was a road and it turned out to be a boardwalk. so I climbed on it and walked back.

On each of the two days when I returned from relaxing on the beach, I walked through the shopping area. It was primarily walking streets. I then stopped at these restaurants that had chairs outside where I ate dinner.

I learned that these restaurants had huge indoor seating areas apparently for the massive crowds that would come during the middle of summertime.

I would feel more comfortable if the seafood were sitting on a bed of ice rather than just in a cooler looking at me.

I ate at two of these restaurants and had their set meal of the day for about €12. At one restaurant, I had tried their fish—bass eith bones— dinner one night, and the next night, their meat dinner which turned out to be pieces of chicken overcooked— The lemonade was good though.

Fish

Chicken

At the second restaurant, I had selected chicken which came with a nice salad and a delicious dessert berries topping some sort of sweet creamy yogurt. it was the better of the two restaurants both in their plating, and then the taste of the meat and salad. Unless you ask otherwise, the accompanying vegetable is usually french fries. I always tell them no french fries, and I’m usually pleasantly surprised with the alternative of rice. salad, or vegetables.

Chicken

Berry sauce with creamy yogurt.

At the train station, they told me there was no train that went to Seville, my next destination, so I went online and booked an Alsa bus that left at 12:30 PM and arrived at 4:30 PM. It seems like a long time for such a short distance, but then I realized that Spain was an hour later than Portugal.

The bus station was under this huge hotel that is primed for the summertime crowd.

The bus was on time, but the driver had me put my bag in the storage area rather than with me. I prefer to keep my bag, but he he didn’t let me. I think I could’ve if I didn’t have those trekking poles sticking out of my bag.