I took an early bus at 7:30 from Sevilla to Faro and arrived around 11. I walked around the city for awhile and stopped by the Bibloteka(Library) and surfed the web. I met Elina at the Airport and we decided it was so beautiful outside that we skipped the bus and walked back to town. I met her in Stockholm and she hosted my friend Vicky and I. We both had a blast with her. Elina and I share similar passions for traveling so we made plans to see Portugal together. Its interesting how trips can be different based on the people you travel with. I really admire Elina's way of traveling. She doesn't care too much for all the places and things most travelers see or do. She wants to be with the people, goto smaller town, eat the local food, and learn the language. The way I'm traveling right now is very different. I do see the local people but I'm usually going to the big cities seeing the sites, and I don't give myself the right amount of time to travel like she does. I think someday I will travel more like her but right now I'm more into taking a big bite out of Europe. We started walking the 5 kms towards town. Elina had a google map print out and we went off that but eventually she just asked some people if we were on the right track. She speaks Spanish fluently. Portuguese people understand Spanish better than Spanish people understand them. So she would ask them if they spoke Spanish and they would always move there hand and say a little. It really helped to have her around. I usually just use my hands when I can't communicate to people who don't speak English.
We stopped by the grocery store and it was shocking how cheap the bottled water was. A 5 liter jug of water was under 1 Euro. After getting to the Hotel we had a strange encounter with person at the front counter. He was very quiet and didn't greet us. When he opened the door to the room we started looking around and I turned around to ask him some questions about the Hotel and he vanished. He left the key in the door and just left without saying anything. It was very different from what I'm use to. In the States customer service is very important and they will greet you with a smile and hello. They usually tell you information about the Hotel and when the check out time is. I talked to someone from Portugal and they said there's some place that when you walk in they'll yell What do you want!? He said its just a cultural difference and its what people are use to in the area.
After relaxing for awhile we decided to go for a walk and find a place to have dinner. I'm following Elina's way of traveling but there is a flaw to it. We were looking for a local restaurant that wasn't so touristy and it took a long time. With luck we found a really nice place. Elina spoke to a women who was trying to sell us on coming inside. She was so genuine and kind when she simply told us there nice fresh fish inside. We accepted and walked into the dinning room where we had the whole place to ourselves. It was like we had the whole place rented out just for us. We ate fresh sardines, tuna, and codfish. They were all delicious. What a great way to start off the trip.
Day 45 Lagos
Elina and I caught a bus to Lagos(2 hours). There was some beautiful beaches about 5 km away. It was a sunny day so we decided to walk. We stopped by a place to have something to eat. Elina had a Pina Colada and I had an English breakfast. Next we started walking towards the beaches and realized we were lost. Thats what happens when you leave a Finnish girl in charge of directions :P It was really nice that we did get lost because otherwise we wouldn't have found that nice place to eat and it was really cheap. After getting on the right track we went to some gorgeous beaches where there was barley anyone. We found some spots where we had the beach all to ourselves.
Day 46 Tavira
We took the train and arrived in Tavira around noon..After checking out some pretty views of the city we found a pretty garden. Next we started walking towards the beaches and we decided to try and catch a ride with someone. Elina had done it before but I've never hitch hiked before. Thumbs up and soon enough a nice old Portuguese lady pulled over and picked us up. She was a retired teacher and she shared some stories of her travels. We got dropped off in a town a few kilometers from the beach. As I was walking up close to the beach I could see the big waves and it was pretty impressive. We layed down for awhile and then went into the water to get our feet wet. Then we went to lay down and get some more sun. We looked up and noticed a man doing some strange stretches and exercises. There wasn't dangling in between his legs and after focusing more because he was a good distant away we noticed he was naked. I watched an older man walking on the shore of the beach and It was funny because I knew what was going to happen. When the older man got closer he just looked up and turned around to walk away. I love people watching and seeing there reactions. On the way back we got two more rides from nice people and went to the train station to wait for the next train. We had bought return tickets and already knew the departure times. As we were waiting a girl walks up to us and asks if we're waiting for a train. We said yes and then she tells us that they were having a strike that started at 1pm. We then rushed to the bus station and luckily got there in time for the next bus leaving back to Faro.
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