Faro, Portugal
An 8-day trip to the south of Portugal.
I arrived, took a car, checked in at the hostel, passed by a supermarket and drove to check out a local beach nearby. The sunset was beautiful.
A couple of people were posing for a photo session. They were fully clothed and crawling in the water.
Grilled fish for the dinner was delicious and relatively cheap (16 eur with a beer).
I was too lazy to plan my activities ahead of time, so the next day I woke up and opened AllTrails to look for any hikes around.
I've picked Caminho do Ludo - São Lourenço - Salinas. It wasn't a long walk, just about 7km, but nice area with flamingos, turtles, golf fields and salty lakes/puddles along the way.
There was a beach in the middle of the way, with arriving planes dropping shadow on the sand. The water wasn't as warm as in some Vietnam/Thailand, but still quite comfortable.
Next morning I drove to Benagil. This place is famous for its caves and rocks. I took a boat tour on the spot, it was 35 eur for ~1hr and ~15 caves. Tours are frequent, I departed on boat in ~40 min after arrival.
Caves were ok, many of them were very dark inside, some of them had holes with daylight. We were moving from one to another quickly. It was difficult to take nice pics due to light conditions. Overall, I liked the tour, but hiking through the rocks later was better.
If you travel around, I highly recommend visiting Benagil for a walk. Renting a car was dirt cheap at Faro, I paid only 88 eur (and a temporary deposit of ~1.5k 😅) for a Fiat 500 for 8 days. Buses are also available.
The next day started with a bit of swimming, and then I explored the old city of Faro. Storks have built their nests right on the top of a clock tower/building. Old city is compact, you can easily walk around it in 1-2 hours.
In another part of the city there were several interesting graffities, for an unobvious reason many of them were referring to the Pink Panther.
I particularly liked a haunted house, fully covered with drawings.
The next morning I opened AllTrails again to see if there is anything beautiful to visit. Fonte Benémola trail looked nice and rocky. It was ok, but a bit difficult to move in some places because of the steep descent.
Then I went for another trail in Rocha da Pena, it is an easy walk with gorgeous views down from the rocks.
Along the way, I tried a dark olive off the tree, it was extremely bitter. 😬
AllTrails is convenient, in that it allows downloading GPX tracks of the trails at no cost. In the past I had issues with unstable Internet in the mountains, in the same conditions GPS is much more reliable. So since then I prefer to follow offline GPX track with OsmAnd app equipped with offline maps.
The day finished with a nice sunset at my local beach.
Next day I went for the beaches, Quarteira Beach was boring, I did not even finish the full walk. But then I moved on to Praia da Falésia and it was very, very beautiful. 😍
Sandy red rocks with green trees on top and winding paths looked like from a fairy tale. This was my favorite place of the trip.
There was another trail nearby, but I wasn't impressed after the beautiful Falesia.
The next morning started with a surprise. There was a heavy rain all night, and the hostel got flooded. It wasn't an issue for me, since I was on the upper bed together with my stuff. But my neighbor had his bag right on the floor and next day he had to dry everything, including some papers and documents.
Personnel was busy wiping the floor, when I left out to visit a couple of other places.
First I drove to Fonte Férrea, but this time I picked the place right out of Google Maps, without a proper track (like GPX from AllTrails). So I tried walking the trail using the signs. I failed.
In the middle of the walk, I understood there were too many paths to follow, and I had no idea which one to choose. I thought that was enough and navigated back with help of OsmAnd offline maps.
The walk was refreshing, passing through hills and eucalyptus groves with a pleasant smell in the air.
After that, I moved on to the Palace of Estoi. But before, I visited some Roman Ruins in the same town. The ruins were old and boring (2 eur ticket), I did not quite enjoy them.
I liked the palace (3 eur ticket) much more. It is small, but has a nice interior and a cozy garden. Even in the toilet, you're watched over by a lady riding pigeons painted on the ceiling. 🙈
The final destination for the day was a place that I missed during my old city walk in Faro. Capela dos Ossos is a creepy place built in 1816 entirely from human skulls (1245 units) and bones (with clay). 😧
Chapel is hidden within a larger church, Igreja do Carmo (2 eur ticket). I walked around it in my first old city walk, but did not know about bone chapel at that time.
The church is also creepy, with a horde of blushing cherubs staring at you from the golden wall. 🫣
On the way back, I stopped by the beach, but did not swim as it was too windy and cold.
The last day of my trip I decided to lazily spend at the local beach. It was windy in the morning, but became hot by noon.
I walked to the place where I was plane spotting on the first day, but this time all the planes were flying in the opposite direction with a different trajectory, without dropping shadow on the beach.
On the way, I found swimming glasses, it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, so I suppose the wave evicted it from the sea. I picked them up and tried later on the beach. Immediately I got hit by a strong wave, and they were gone. Probably it was neither the first iteration of lost/found nor the last, the sea has a peculiar sense of humor. 😆
Later that day, I received an SMS "Heavy rain/wind in your region in the next 36 hours. Risk of flooding. Protect yourself.", I had to fly next morning, so I thought it was possible that plane would be cancelled due to weather conditions. I mentally prepared for an adventure and carried on.
In the evening, I dropped the car at the airport. Fortunately, I did not crash it and return went smoothly, my deposit was returned in full.
Despite the warning, the next morning was calm and dry, I woke up at 5am and walked to the airport in 20 min (2 km). By noon, I was already enjoying the gray weather of Berlin.
This was a nice and pleasant trip. I can recommend exploring Faro with a car.