Little Coffee Break (Faro, Portugal)

When I started to think about the cold Ocean water in the beaches which are near Lisbon area and not even to mention Porto with whole north of Portugal, I wanted automatically to move away somewhere else more to the south of country and to see the region of Algarve where I can really enjoy in sunny coast, old medieval towns, nice bars, relatively good water for swimming and interesting local festivals. Using a short break from volunteering obligations on smart path was in fact a very hard, since I had no plans but I eventually bought my ticket for Lagos and let the fortune.

(Lost Medieval Town, Silves)

Photo taken by Igor L.

Passengers enter inside, bus was on its way heading to the highway track and I fell asleep exhausted from afternoon sun. I woke up somewhere in the middle of driving noticing that something was wrong. First road sign table showed me that Tavira is only 20km away, the next one that Tavira is 10km away when I realized that we are not going towards Lagos but instead in the totally opposite direction! The driver told me that change for Lagos was at Faro town but that he did not wanted to wake me up while I was sleeping! I was both angry and shocked but then I saw a good chance to also see Tavira during the couple of hours which turn out to be nice place but at that day it was full of hungry mosquitoes so I decided to take last train for Faro and to sleep there before continue of my journey & Silves visit.
 

(Praia do Pinhão, Lagos)

Photo taken by Igor L.

For Faro I had a lot of time anyway because I definitely wanted to go back there again but when I was already here I decided to visit port and some other main attractions. After I found out on the Internet and from people in the hostel that in Silves is currently held an funny medieval festival, I sat on the train next day and get out in the Silves train station which was empty and looked more like a scene from some western movie. Major problem is that the Silves station is not very close to Silves town and I had to walk with couple of other tourists for a while reaching the road which leads to this place. In the town vendors are just beginning to open their new stalls dressed up in medieval costumes and the whole place was redecorated so that you felt like you're back in the old knights ages. Slives has preserved fortress in which at that time was located Pirate exhibition with original stuffs and ships from the time of Piracy... I would stay there even longer but I had already booked my place in Lagos so I rush to go back through the huge road on the Slives train station.

(Little Coffee Break, Faro)

Photo taken by Igor L.
  

At Lagos I felt like in paradise, beaches with stone walls and caves forced me to explore sights on the long walking distances, clear water in which I was finally able to swim like a normal person without freezing and tons of great bars at night with many people from all over the world. Of all the beaches that I visited I liked the most Praia do Pinhão but also and all others are real natural jewels. My two-week long vacation almost came to an end and it was the right time to go back home, but before that I enjoyed in the beautiful sunny day at Portimão port and stayed in Faro for once again. Before I went to the station to buy my back bus tickets I found an excellent coffee shop where I sat during the pause and drink famous Delta Coffee with milk. Sometimes it seems that in Portugal there is not any other kinds of coffee choices except the Delta Coffee but it does not matter since they are anyway always very good.