Faro: Last day in portugal

December 10, 2018

I had a nice morning to spend in Tavira before catching a 9:45am train to Faro. I went wandering around the city and found a cathedral.

It had lovely gardens inside the walls

And a fantastic view outside of them.

Wild poinsettias?

Back in Faro I dropped my things at the hostel and went walkabout. I think I semi-accidentally had duck fried rice for lunch, but with the language barrier I'm not entirely sure.

I went to visit the cathedral in the old part of town, with hopes that I'd time it right and finish in time to catch sunset over the water at dinnertime. The cathedral itself was grand.

And it had a Capela dos ossos, a chapel made of bones. They used skulls in place of bricks for some of the construction. Theres another bigger chapel like it in another church in Faro, which I was disappointed to find closed for renovations.

Also a nice courtyard with orange trees.

As chapels so often are, the inside of this one was gorgeous with ornate gold everything.

I payed the extra euros to climb up the bell tower.

And was rewarded with a great panoramic view of the city and coast.

This bell appeared to be stationary, but there was still a working one close by that scared the bejeebus out of everyone standing on the top of the tower when it tolled without warning.

Luck was with me, and I did sit down ahead of the dinner crowd but right at sunset. I chose a restaurant with a good view on purpose. 

The drink I chose had gin and cucumber and lime among other things, and showed up in a teapot. I wasn't expecting that.

It was delicious with my spaghetti and the view.

I took one last spin around town before turning in for the night, exploring the cobblestone streets at random.

A successful last day in Portugal.

My one day in Dublin on the way back was pretty chill. I did some shopping, went to a park, ate some ice cream, and had dinner in a pub with a live band. Another successful last day, but not a very photographically interesting one.

All in all my first trip to Europe was a 10/10, would go again.