08 November: Faro

Today we took a bus to Olhão. I'll say right now, I'm not really sure why we did this, I think we were on the budget Algarve trip!

In Olhão we wandered some amazing fresh produce and fish markets right along the sea-side while waiting for our ferry. The fish markets absolutely amazed me, I couldn't believe they had hole moray eels and wray for sale. I certainly didn't expect to find them, except when scuba-diving!

Then we caught the ferry to Culatra, one of the many surrounding islands. On Culatra we took a walk thru the "town" (photo on right) and out over some dunes and then found ourselves on an almost deserted beach. We were very lucky because it was by far the most stunning day we've had so far. Beautiful sunshine without a cloud in the sky! We lazed on the beach for a while. I tried getting my feet wet but the water only felt marginally better than Cape Town, so I didn't even pretend swimming was an option.

A little later we caught the ferry back to Olhão and then had some lunch at a fabulous little pizza place (we sat upstairs and had a lovely view) before catching the bus back to Faro.

I thought I would be spending a relaxing afternoon in the hotel, Afonso III, with a full stomach because my legs have been so sore whenever I have to walk any distance since the lengthy Sintra walking day (I think it might be shin splints or something?) but I was wrong. I ended up going for a lengthy stroll around old Faro this afternoon after I'd ditched the rest of the group.

I stayed in tonight and watched bots of old movies on the hotel TV: Death Becomes Her and one of the Back to the Future movies. Was nice to just do nothing and laze in bed. I didn't miss out on much because most of the others just went back to the same restaurant as last night anyway. I was still full from the lunch time pizza, but munched on an apple in bed :)