Minimal Language-Confidence-Building Tour Of Iberia - Part 1

Go To Faro : Why?

1) Chicken that tastes like fish (having been grilled on the same coals)

2) Psychotic child graffiti

3) 8-Bit Architecture

4) Illegal Seagulls (I know there aren't any such things as 'seagulls', but for rhythmic purposes I'm sticking with this popular delusion)

5) Pleasantly close to the airport

6) Other (less blocky) buildings

7) A good selection of interesting doors.

FARO. Its actually better than you would think - a perfectly pleasant town to wander around for a day or two, and probably the sort of place that's actually better to live in that visit. We managed to wander for 4 hours and not find the enormous market that I was desperate to show my fish-hating partner, Sarah. I could have bought her an apple.

You also have more of a choice between Super Bock and Sagres (and a few places have Carlsberg, for those of you without an imagination). There even seem to be a few very small and homely restaurants serving traditional Portuguese fare, which admittedly mostly includes fish, but then its very cheap to eat fish in a town where they catch it. God knows what a steak would have cost (if we could have found a restaurant that actually sold cow in the first place).

Lastly, Faro is great as a starting point for exploring the Algarve, as the train station is right here on the front, plus plenty of buses heading east and west.

This excursion nearly compensated for having my camera stolen last time I was here. This time, no police involvement. Thoroughly reassuring.