After a decent birthday weekend spent in London (watching Australia beat England in the rugby out at Twickenham)it was back to Gatwick airport for a trip to Portugal. It was good to be flying BA again and I had the exit row which was goood. The flight to Faro took a couple of hours although the time went quite quickly as I was bailed up in conversation with a couple of wealthy punters who come to the Algarve to play golf every year.
The descent into Faro was great as you could see quite a bit of the coastline. As soon as I stepped off the plane the blue skies and warmth hit me and I was immediately a huge fan of the place. Obviously I must've appeared a bit dodgy going through immigration as I had to wait quite a while to secure a stamp from the customs officer who looked through just about every page of my passport!
I then jumped on a bus into Faro which only took about 10 minutes. It is quite a small medievil place but had a really nice harbour. I got some advice from the Tourist Info and then spent the next hour tracking down Hotel Adelaide. The map I had was pretty useless but I eventually found it. Spent the rest of the day checking out the town and trying some of the food. It didn't really seem very busy - the main tourist season had finished and most of the shops were empty. The sunset was all quality.
The next day I jumped on a bus and headed along the Algarve - stopping at some of the small towns along the coast including Albufeira and Portimao before making it to Lagos by about 12. The funniest part of the journey was when our bus had to follow behind a mule and cart for about a kilometre! The bus timetable wasn't that great (hire car is probably the way to go) and the only way I could make it to Sagres (near the most south-westerly point of Europe) and back was to jump on a bus which left about an hour later so I had to bolt around Lagos! It was a really nice town with some great beaches just on the outskirts. There were also quite a few boat tours offering trips to the grottos and caves which looked good. I was still glad I chose to make the trip to Sagres though because it had an awesome coastline, was really laid back, and a bit less touristy. After a couple of hours wandering around here (after unsuccessfully trying to hire a bike!)it was back on a bus to Lagos. I had another hour or so to walk through Lagos and I came away thinking that it'd be a great place to spend a couple of days - there were heaps of restaurants and bars and it had a really good vibe. Jumped on a bus back to Faro and watched an amazing sunset on the way.
The next morning I jumped on a train and headed to Tavira. This was a really nice place (hopefully the photos I took have done it justice)about 40 minutes from Faro and I covered quite a bit of ground on foot and also had some breakfast down by the river which was great. The travel guidebook also talked up a quality bakery in the town so I thought it was worth a crack and it turned out to be pretty decent. Once back in Faro I took a cruise around the Ria Formosa estuary which was pretty good - there was quite a bit of birdlife but I wasn't as excited about it as some of the other punters on board who were taking many a shot! We stopped at an island - and had a walk around before heading back to Faro where I jumped on a train to headed to Lisbon. The trip took about 4 hours - the train was really modern and it wasn't that packed so it was a good way to head inland.
Arrived into Lisbon at night and tested out the subway on my way to tracking down a hostel which had been talked up on the internet (living lounge hostel). It was probably the best hostel that I've stayed in terms of comfort and cleanliness. It was also really central and I had a chance to check out some of the nearby sights that night and grab some food. Despite being offered plenty of drugs, I really liked the feel of the place and was looking forward to checking it out over the next couple of days.
I had a good night's sleep and after getting stuck into the breakfast I hit the streets. Lisbon is really unique because it's really hilly and there are heaps of narrow alleys where these tiny tramcars cruise around and save your legs from quite a bit of work. It was quite a cool day but clear blue skies and sunshine so I covered quite a bit of ground. I went up to the Castle behind the city where there are great views back over Lisbon and you get to see some really unique neighbourhoods around the area. Sometimes Lonely Planet's can be pretty average but the walking tour they recommended was some of their very best work.
That afternoon I jumped on a St Kilda Beach style tram and headed to Belem which had a few museums and monuments and also Belem Tower which looked pretty impressive right on the side of the river. I was also very keen to check out a bakery here which has become famous for making these egg tarts - you can get them right around Lisbon but these are meant to be the best and I'd have to say that they were very decent!
Once back in Lisbon I had a look in a few of the shops in the city centre and then grabbed some dinner (quiche and salad) at this cafe which i really rated not far from the hostel. Because Lisbon is so hilly it also has these really big furniculars and they are great for catching a view of the city from a decent vantage point. Returned to the hostel and met up with some punters who were really good value and talked about the stuff that we'd done around the city.
The next morning I was off to Sintra - this was a world-heritage listed place about an hour by train from Lisbon and well worth a visit. There are heaps of palaces around here and I went into a couple of them (Palacio Nacional and Quinta de la Regaleira). Had some good banter with the security guards at the Palacio who gave me the heads up on Quinta. From Sintra I jumped on a bus to Cabo de Roca, the western-most point of Europe. It was extremely windy there but fantastic scenery. I watched the sunset along with quite a few tour punters on bus tours who'd rolled in before getting on another bus down to Cascais.
As it was now dark I probably didn't get to see the best of Cascais but apparently it's meant to be a pretty decent place to bike around. I grabbed some dinner at a shopping centre there and then got a train back to Lisbon which took about half an hour.
Met up with a couple of girls back at the hostel and we headed out to Barrio Alto and Chiado which has a heap of restaurants and nightspots. The locals don't head out until really late so we cruised around the streets at about 1am and a lot of the lanes were starting to get really packed. It's basically like a massive street party where people drink on the streets. We also stopped by a coffee shop which is quite famous (although I hadn't heard of it!).
My final day in Portugal came around all too quickly. Farewelled a couple of the friends who I'd met and then headed to this area near Vasco de Gama Bridge (one of the longest bridges in the world). Nearby was a cable car attraction that looked good but unfortunately was closed for maintenance so I walked around the area instead. Grabbed a bus to the airport which was really close by and before long was boarding my easyjet flight back to London.
Portugal was definitely one of the highlights of the year for me and I would've liked a couple more days to see Porto and some of the nearby places around there.
