Faro, a Portuguese seaside town
Today is the first day of my journey from Spain to Portugal. I chose to stop by Faro before entering the capital city of Lisbon because it is located in the middle of Seville, Spain, and Lisbon, Portugal. The distance from Seville to Faro is 202 km, a 2-hour 9-minute drive. The road is an intercity expressway with few cars, so it is easy to drive. There is no passport check between the cities, but you need to use a credit card as insurance. At the expressway booth, you can park and swipe your card, then you can enter the country. I read that they will deduct the toll fee from your credit card, but I don't know if they will deduct it or not because I didn't come back to check it. And I still have to pay for the main expressway, so I don't know why they swiped their card. After crossing the country for a while, I reached the exit to Faro. I chose to stay at a luxury resort on the mountain because I have a car to drive anywhere conveniently. The price is not expensive, and I thought that Faro is a small city, so there should be no tourist spots... Completely wrong. 😊
The hotel is on the top of the mountain. My room is on the corner with a great view. It is glass on all sides. I can see the view of the city below. It looks great at night. The lights you see are the view from the top of the mountain. Looking down, you can see the swimming pool, but the weather is very cold, so I didn't see anyone wearing a bikini playing in the water. 😆 The road to the hotel as suggested by Google is very narrow and steep. The width is just wide enough for cars to pass. I complained to the staff. They told me that I took the wrong way and told me to take another way that is wider. Google Maps did it again. When I went out again, I took the main road as suggested. It was really wider. Cars could pass each other even though the road was a bit narrow.
I checked in and went down to talk to the chef who checked me in. He spoke very good English. He had been to Thailand before. He suggested going to the old city. The road that separated from the expressway was a 2-lane road. What surprised me was that he drove like in Thailand. When he was going to turn into an alley, he would turn on the blinker in the middle of the road to wait to cut into the alley on the opposite side. This is something that you don't see in Spain. If it's a turn in Spain, they will leave a space in the middle of the road for people who are going to turn to park in the waiting space. This way, drivers who are going straight don't have to risk hitting cars waiting to turn in the middle of the road. It's just like in Thailand.
I drove straight into the old city. I saw a sign for a parking lot so I turned in and parked in an underground parking lot several floors down. Before I could find a parking space, I had to go down to the -3rd floor. It was an automatic parking lot. It was very modern, just like in big cities in Spain.
When I came out, it was a restaurant. Seeing the pictures mostly showing seafood, I decided to eat at this restaurant. I asked the staff to recommend a signature dish. They told me I wouldn’t be disappointed… who knows… it was too greasy😫 I should have chosen it myself. The pictures showed many delicious dishes like those we have at home, but they recommended things that weren’t on the menu. They came over to ask how it was… Good… what can I say?😅 After eating, I walked along the map on Google Maps, looking at the old town. It’s a community that still maintains the condition of buildings from a thousand years ago. The exterior looks old, but the interior looks modern. Every corner is decorated to be photogenic. It’s a very large old town. I walked until my legs were tired and still couldn’t see it all. Most of them, or you could say all of them, are shops for tourists. There are no souvenir shops, but there are brand-name shops, restaurants, and many other handmade products. I took a walk and stopped to look here and there. There were chairs and I stopped to rest. The weather was cool and comfortable. I only wore a sweater, about 16 degrees. It’s an old town by the sea, so the atmosphere was very inviting. No one mentioned that it was such a nice place to visit. There was a luxury hotel by the river. I checked the price and it was very expensive, so I changed my mind to stay in a luxury hotel on a cheap mountain instead.☺️ There were rows of restaurants by the river that looked lively… too much for me… so I just walked past and ate for the atmosphere.
I went down to pay at the machine. Then go to the car, drive out, insert the paid parking card at the barrier at the exit, drive out, pop up on the ground, Google must be confused, not showing the direction, so drive around and around at the roundabout in the middle of the city about 3 times. People around there acted confused, wondering what happened to this car, why did it drive around the roundabout many times. I didn't care, because I really didn't know where to go 😂.. until Google stopped being confused, gave directions back to the hotel, so I left the city. When I got back to the accommodation, I was tired of seafood, so I ordered steak to eat, which made it less greasy. Today, I got to sleep under the stars all night. It was really quiet.
Breakfast was a buffet, with a lot to choose from. It was the first meal that wasn't dry on this trip. It felt like Thailand in another way, not dry like breakfast in Spain. It was starting to get fun, because Portugal is different from Spain in many ways. The chef told me that Spanish people often come to Faro for lunch or dinner because Portuguese food is more delicious, flavorful, and more varied than Spanish food... It must be true...😋 And there are more people in this country who speak English than in Spain, so it feels more familiar. #faro #portugal #europe