Turtles, Peacocks, and Sangria! Three of my favorite things in once place, so obviously I had a great time. Where to begin? Well first, why I chose Faro. Basically, Monday, October 28 was a bank holiday in Ireland, so in addition to me not having classed on Thursday and Friday, I got a 5 day break. My original plan was to stay i Stockholm, Sweden for those 5 days, but RyanAir (the cheap airline) wasn't flying to Stockholm until Saturday. So, I found a cheap flight to Faro for Thursday, and a cheap flight from Faro to Stockholm on Saturday; 5 days, 2 countries; 2 birds, 1 stone.
 |  |
I stayed in an awesome hostel. My only prior hostel experience was Belfast, and that was fine. But this, this was amazing. First, I got a room with 4 beds, to myself, so that was awesome. Then, the hostel cooked dinner every night for about 5 Euro each, which is a great price, and it was really good. They had wine, soda, water, and even a keg on tap! Plus, I made some friends, one from London, and one from Florida State, who I got to know and ended up exploring with them.
 |  |
For those of you who haven't heard about my Galapagos Islands trip back in high school, we literally survived off of 'Maria's' cookies/crackers. So that is basically what I lived off of until dinner. On the right are two of the people that worked in the hostel. They were really nice and had some great stories. The guy in the white shirt hitch hiked all the way from Budapest to Faro, without paying for a single ride. He is working there in return for room and board. Another guy that I talked to had been traveling for about 2 years, and has slept in streets and even woke up to monkeys stealing his food... It's very strange to think that some people live like that, and choose not to get into the 'real' world. It was definitely eye opening for me to see the different kind of lifestyles people have.
The cool thing about Faro is that it isn't a tourist trap. There aren't many souvenir shops, not a lot of people with fanny packs, just locals. I really liked that. While there weren't any breathtaking views, or absolutely amazing sights, I did a lot of shopping at the markets. And the best part was you could always negotiate prices, so my Spanish came in handy (yes, Portuguese is the official language, but most people could speak Spanish too).
The shop turned into a fair at night
There were probably 50 tables set up selling everything from knock off Gucci bags, to frying pans, to cell phones, to kids' toys.
Since there weren't any amazing things to take pictures of, I just took pictures of the random streets/rooftops because they were kinda cool, not like anywhere else I've seen:
I do like taking pictures of churches...
But this had to be the creepiest one I've even photographed: the "Chapel of Bones" and it is exactly what you think...a chapel made from human bones. 1,245 bones to be exact.
FOOD:
So for dinner the first night I went to a random restaurant, and explained to the woman (who turned out to be the owner) that I wanted to try any authentic Portuguese dish. So, she brought me out a glass of Sangria and some bread, and told me to wait about 30 minutes.
She brought out a dish called, Cataplana, which gets its name from the clam-shell pit it's cooked in. I think I have heard of it before, but never saw it. But it was wicked good. It was basically a bunch of seafood cooked in this crock-pot like thing, and tasted great.
Then later, the friends I made and I went back to the fair and got Churros (10000x better than the ones in Barone) and ordered Sangria, and ended up with a pitcher of it:
Coffee:
As you all know, I have been looking all over Europe for coffee, with no luck. I've gotten everything from frozen/blended coffees, to hot coffee with 3 ice cubes, to a glass of hot coffee and a glass of ice (the closest thing), but Portugal was a first...
I tried to order an iced coffee, and was told they don't have ice. Okay, okay, I'm used to that answer, so I decided to order a regular coffee. So I ordered a 'hot coffee to go' and got this:
Literally a dixie cup with a shot of expresso.
I. GIVE. UP.
Last, but certainly not least, the best part of the trip:
When I asked some people at the hostel where I should walk to first, one replied, "well there's park with some peacocks and birds if you wanna check that out." ... I was gone out the door before he could finish his sentence.
#PortugalForTheWin
