Residencial Mestre D`Avis Faro

... security passes that had to be scanned on exit and entry. If you had not used a card to get out you couldn't use it to get in and going out or in the car required that you hand over all three cards to one of the gate attendants so that they could scan the cards for you.

We walked into the town through a nature reserve that was adorned, in what we now recognized as normal Portuguese style, with plastic bottles ...

... to the station. I sit on the bench and pick away at the ruby red fruit. Pomegranate is similar to sunflower seeds, in that psychologically you are eating, but physically you are consuming so very little.

I arrived in Faro early in the day, located the nearest internet cafe and sent out a flurry of requests to both Couch Surfing and WWOOFing hosts. I wander the streets, hoping to accidentally find the youth ...

In Albufeira, we went to a Portugese bullfight, not the real deal as in they don't kill the bull, rather they stab them in the back with a bunch of arrows. I thought it was mean, especially the first bull because it was pretty much still a baby and looked scared instead of angry. Jon ...

... to head into London city to get to Gatwick) but since we landed at Terminal 4, we needed to get ourselves to Terminal 5 in order to get on the shuttle service to Gatwick (to do this, we were told to use a local bus, however even the locals had troubles identifying which bus one would catch from which stop as they keep changing them so often,

It actually took 30 mins to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. When at Gatwick, we had problems identifying which was the ...

... speak with me than Virg, this being the opposite experience to the one we had in the north of the country, and come to that, everywhere else.

Nevertheless, it was lovely to chill for a few days and the hotel, with its rooftop terrace bar and pool provided a good base. The only complaint...they do need to do something about allowing kids to run riot in the bar after midnight... but the kid thing has all been said before.

A&Vx

Bussed to Faro, a small seaside town with not a hell of a lot really!!

Our room had no window, but faked the appearance by having a curtain anyway... nothing like a little bit of closet sleeping!!

Went for a swim at the beach/lagoon with our 1.60 euro bottle of red ...

... cafe for dinner, ending up at a tiny cafe watching over what appeared to be the opening celebration of a kids Dolce and Gabbana store (yuck).  On our second day in Faro we grabbed some warm, almond-filled croissants for breakfast and headed for a cathedral we had heard about in the centre of the town.  We charged inside past some of the most aggressive Roma beggars we have yet encountered (if we spoke Portugese, we would probably be offended by whatever it ...

... around the old town - the historic center of Faro. It's surround by really old walls that used to be part of a fortress or castle I think, very quaint. At the end of our walk along the port we stumbled upon a seafood festival that was amaaazing. All these local vendors had stands set up with really fresh seafood - clams, crabs, shrimp, everything. Very delicious and very cheap. We also tried some "vinho verde" or green wine, which apparently is very ...

This Episode has yet to be finalized and edited. Read at your own risk. This morning I woke up in hallway after a night of battling shouts from kids who appeared far too old to behaving as they were and an olypic level snore-athon staged by one of my room mates. Let me explain how it came to this. I retired to my Hostel early last night in hopes to have a good nights rest and get an early start to my day trip to the nearby villiage of Olhao. In the beginning of the evening some ...

... way to the beach, due to the tides and my sore back ("boo hoo - you're breakin' my heart!"). After a short siesta early in the afternoon we were back out to meet friends, watch Germany scrape by Argentina in the quarters and get prepared for the Festival Med concert that would be happening in the neighbouring town of Loule that night. Loule (pron. Lol-le ...