Today is Republic Day in Portual. A national holiday to mark the overthrow of the monarchy. I figured to would be a good day to travel.
One of the things I really like about TAP Air Portugal is that they allow you a stop over in Porto or Lisbon. It gives you an opportunity to see the bigger cities while travelling on to other parts of the country. The flight from Lisbon to Faro is so short, you actually spend more time checking in, going through security, queueing to board the plane and then exiting the airport than you do in the air. All good though, lost of good food and shopping at Lisbon airport to keep you occupied while you wait.
Faro is a place that I first visited four years ago. And like most people it was just a transit spot to or from the Algarve. After spending a night here I knew that I had to come back for a visit. Faro has a lovely little marina, there’s a university here so there is an energetic vibe for a small city and it has all the shops/services that you would see in a major city.
As I was chatting with my AirBnB host about thinking about moving to the Algarve, he mentioned that Faro is still mainly Portuguese. This really is one of the major reasons I’m attracted to it. If I do decide to move here I want to learn Portuguese, the local culture and live like a local, not in some expat enclave.
With today’s holiday I decided to set out on a little walking tour of the downtown. As I expected most things were closed, but that provided an opportunity to enjoy the spaces around.
