PORTUGAL +Berlin

(august 2018)

My flight was on Sunday early morning from Berlin TEGEL airport (total price for return tickets 95euro). There isn't so easy to find some transfer bus at night from Poland so I decided to come to Berlin day before. I caught BlaBlaCar from Poland and Saturday afternoon I came there. In Berlin started my alone journey. My friend Pola joined me the next day evening in Portugal. I'm sociable person so I didn't want to spend that long time alone. I used "Couchsurfung app" to meet with someone. Finally in short time Ignazio (Italian who lives in Berlin) joined me. We went together to grab some german beer and than he showed me Berlin at night. We were walking along the streets with music and enjoyed city lit up at night. I was in Berlin many times but some years ago and don't remember all places as well. (Thank you so much! See you!)

My flight was 6:00 and last direct bus to airport (one way ticket about 2,80euro) was before midnight. I said Goodbye and See you in future to Ignazio and went in to bus. I didn't book a hostel becuase I need to wake up so early to arrive to airport and I was afriad to oversleep. My bed for that night were chairs on the airport 😄.

Honestly I planned to sleep on the airport but than I met group of people from Poland. We started to talk whole night. They had got a flight to Mallorca island also 6:00am so the same like mine. Lucky me becuase without them my time could going crazy slowly. (It was really nice to meet you guys! See you next time! ) Unfortunatelly we haven't got photo together :(
 My flight was delayed one hour! Ehh (one hour less in Portugal 😐). I was even afriad if we will start finally becuase there is a problem with Ryaniar airline. A lot of flights are cancelled in all europe! Finally they opened GATE and we went on board. I was so tired and dreamed only about sleeping. According to the bording pass my place wasn't next to the window but finally turned out I have got 3places just for me! 😆😆😆 Lucky girl! I could sleep whole 3,5h.

I arrived to Portugal about 9:30am (local time) and went straight to hostel to leave my backpack. Faro airport isn't far from centre, there is just some kilometers and public bus costs only 2,3euro. On Sunday I was alone in Faro so I needed small plan what to do all day. My bestfriend Pola (best travel company 😄) joined me about midnight. It was so hot that day, more than 30degrees.

 After exploring centre I went by ferry to Praia de Faro. It's one of the beach in area of Faro. (two ways ticket -3euro). On ferry I've met couple from France. They gave me a lot of advice about area of Faro and told me about best places in France.

 I spent there almost half day. I needed a rest before next days, It was also my first time when I saw ocean.
That days in Faro was FOLKFARO festival. There were shows by groups from many countries like China, Croatia, Nigeria, Russia and so on. You could try also some regional dishes, cakes and drinks.

On  Sunday evening I met Andre-Portuguese. We were talking and walking around small market in centre prepared special for FolkFaro. Than Pola joined us and we went together try Brasilian drinks - CAIPIRINHA. Caipirinha is so similar drink to popular mohito. The owner of that pub was Jimmy-so positive person!

On Monday morning we went to Albuferia to explore beaches there! Andre went there with us! Albufeira is located about 40km from Faro on the west side. It's once of the main cities  at summer in south Portugal. According to statistics Albufeira has about 45000inhabitanta and  it expands to approximately 300,000 residents during the summer and during New Year celebrations, owing to the number of hotels and lodgings in the district, that includes marina facilities, golf courses, restaurants and bars for the annual flood of visitors.

On the way you can see funny roundabout or colourful bulidings 😄

First point in Albufeira was main beach Praia de PENECO. It's city beach which you can recognise by high 28meters elevator "Elevador do Poneco". 

 Next point on map:

On the beach you can buy kind of cake which I saw only in Algarve. It's a little similar to dounts but the taste is a bit different. Much better!

 

Praia de PONTA PEQUENA and  

Praia do Ninho de Andorinha

The evening has come and we needed to think about some place for sleeping. In Algarve in the season all hostels/hotels are fully. Also prices are quite high! We even were thinking about sleeping on the beach or going for camping and rent tent or hammak (Yes hammak! there are many places which offer rent even hammak 😄. We wanted to try but unfortunatelly it was fully booked. Finally we've found GUEST HOUSE MARIA in centre of Albuferia. Albufeira is great place if you look for good nightlife, especially area of Rua da Oura with many clubs and pubs. In my opinion it's the best city for party in Algarve. City doesn't sleep at night! (Uber is working there so you can get there in easy way). You can choose between a lot of great clubs with wide selection of music.

 Club area isn't so far from beach. You can go there for night walk or try to swimming at night 😆 (Night swimming is always good option!)

 Tueasday morning has come so without wasting time we went to explore new places. 

Praia de Marinha

Evening has come so we came back to the hotel and than went out to centre! Guest house localization was perfect! Totally next to main street with cluba and pubs!

Wednesday was a time to visit Benagil Cave! Benagil cave was awarded one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe so we had to see that. You can go there only from the water side by boat, kayak or you can swim there from Benagil beach. Benagil Cave is about 25km from Albufeira and about 35km from Lagos.

We went there with more people which we met by Couchsurfing app from Portugal, Belgium, France, Morocco and Argentina.

 

 

It was such amazing day with a great people! Benagil cave definitely should be on your "musi see" list if you will be in south Portugal! The best option is rent kayak to explore rocks from the water side. Unfortunatelly it's not that easy. There are a lot of people so you need to be prepared to wait a long time. We were lucky because one person of our group had got his own kayak and we could use it.

Than we started to looking for some good place for jumping from rocks! Of course you can do only with your own responsibility so firstly we needed to check some places. Finally we have found  good place!

That evening we stayed in Portimao. Portimao is the second largest city in the province of the Algarve with about 50 000inhabitants ( without tourists of course). City is known by famous beach Praia da Rocha where every year come a lot of tourists. There is also big harbour which is destination of many ferries.

The next day morning we had got BlaBlaCar straight to the Lisbon. There are many options to get there but comapre prices and time BlaBlacar is the best!

 TIME TO LISBON!!!

MAIN INFORMATIONS ABOUT LISBON:

*Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and the the country's biggest city. It's located on the estuary of the Tagus river, on the European Atlantic Coast. 

*Portugal’s official language is Portuguese. Portuguese is the third most spoken European language in the world, with around 250 million speakers

*Around 3 million people live in the Lisboa region, with around 600 thousand living in the capital itself.

There are many places where you can rent a bike. Bicycling in centre isn't easy becuase you go up and down but you can explore area along of Tag river. (We paid 15euro for day +10euro deposit)

 

The evening has come and we came to hostel 😄 (14beds in one room, just me, Pola,some French girl and 11 men😂 HAHA. But hostel was in good price and in centre! That was a positive side!). Honestly after that active day I could sleep even on floor. In fast way we booked a BlaBlaCar to Lagos (south Portugal) for the next day morning and went out to centre. In Lisbon there are many pubs and clubs, especially in Bairro Alto area.

We were going to join couchsurfung group but we couldn't find them. Probably they chose not much popular place and even with address it wasn't easy. First place where we stopped was a club where men had got more make up than me and their eyelashes were longer than mine. We stopped there just to go to toilet. What a bad luck! Than we went to other pub but beer which I used to drink days before had got "strange taste" there. We went out and decided to back home because in he morning we had got Blablacar to LAGOS. It wasn't our day for party definitely. On the way at home we saw  "Kamasutra"pub and funny older woman which invited people there (I think her look didn't really encouraged the guys there HAHA).  It wasn't GO-GO club. It was just pub with funny name and provocative name of drinks. Nothing more. We went there to check it out.

 When we came back to the hostel all of people in our room were sleeping! There were also 2extra people sleeping on balcony "VIP places" HAHA!. What is more there was also one Asian loudly snoring and sleeping in daily clothes inside of room.  That's sitiations can happens in hostels!

Thursday morning has come and we went to meeting place with BlaBlaCar driver- Lucio(Portuguese) and other 2 people (from States).

 From Lisbon to Lagos is about 300km but time flew very quickly.We had got great team in car and a lot of interesting topics to talk about. We could exchange our travel and life experience. It was so nice time! At the end we forgot to take a photo together. Unfortunately, we won't turn back time but I asked about sending their own photos. ! Thaaaaaank you! 💗

LAGOS - is one of the most popular places in Algarve. A lot of tourists come there very year to explore beautiful beaches, try to delicious portuguese food,get to know the wonderful hospitality, traditions and openness of the residents.

Praia do Porto de Mos was the last beach, last point for that day. We stayed there for restiing. We needed to charging the batteries before long way back to Lagos and before evening! Finally we fell asleep on sand. I don't know how long we were sleeping there, probably about 30min or even more.

We came back to centre directly for a dinner and went to restaurant recommended by TripAdvisor. It's a website where you can find opinions of other people who visited the place.

Saturday morning has came. We check out of hostel and went out to explore area. We were walking around city and visited Meia Praia in Lagos.

The next point on a map was Praia de Falesia. We went there with Andre. Praia de Falesia is one of the most famous beaches in Algarve. There is between Albufeira and Faro, quite far from Lagos in a east side so we went there by car.

The next point for Saturday was Praia da Ilha de Tavira. It's beach on the island where you come by ferry from Tavira city. Two ways tickets cost just 2euros.

[www.google.pl]

The next day I had got flight back to Poland. It's so sad but the best time always runs too fast! Definitely too fast! It was last time on the beach in Portugal. Now I miss so much that time 😢

Evening was coming so we needed to back to Faro. The last night in Portugal was coming. We needed to say Goodbye (not Goodbyt...just   "See you soon  Portugal" 😃)  in a good style!

Than we checked in hostel and talked with roommates from Canada and Nepal. We wanted to take some nap also but there wasn't time for that. There is always so busy time on holidays! That night we planned to go for party with a concert of famous Brasilian singer CAROLIINA! Honestly before travel to Portugal I've never hear about that artist but after heard first time her songs we were listening that everyday!

 We didn't forget also about our friend in Faro! Before party in Vilemoura we visited his bar in centre Faro for before party with best Caipirinha drink . If you will be in Faro you must necessarily put that bar to the list of places to visit!

The time to go for party has come. BLISS club is in Vilemoura city. It's a city about 25km from Faro. Before party we went to explore that place. It's a touristic resort with a large harbor with rich yachts, golf courses and multi-star hotels.

Our party has been finished about 5:30, than we came back to the hostel in Faro. I took my backpack and went straight to the airport. My flight was about 3hours later. Pola's flight was afternoon. She was really lucky, could sleep and enjoyed beach the next day.

 On the airport I drank a fast coffee with one Portuguese and than went to the plane. I flew to Berlin Tegel and than by Blablacar to Poland.

BASIC INFORMATIONS:

Beaches visited:

1. Praia de Faro

2. Praia de Peneco

3. Praia de Sao Rafael

4.Praia de Ponta Pequena

5. Praia do Ninho de Andorinha

6. Ponta Grande Cala

7. Praia de Coelha

8. Praia Grande de Pera

9. Praia dos Salgados

10. Praia de Gale

11. Praia de Marinha

12. Praia de Buraco

13. Praia Carvalho

14. Praia de Benegil

15.Praia da Rocha

16. Praia do Pinhao

17. Praia Dona Ana

18. Praia do Camilio

19.Praia do Pinheiros

20. Praia da Piedade

21. Praia do Burranco do Marthino

22. Praia do Canavial

23. Praia do Porto de Mas 

24. Praia de Falesia

25.Meia Praia Lagos 

27. Praia da Ilha de Tavira

Cities visited:

1. Faro

2. Albufeira

3. Portimao

4. Lisbon

5. Lagos

6. Tavira

7. Vilamoura

Type of transport:

1. PLANE (Berlin Tegel - Faro - Berlin) 95euro

2. BlaBlaCar (Poznań-Berlin 7euro; Berlin-Poznań - 12euro; Portimao-Lisbon-21euro, Lisbon-Lagos 18euro)

3. Bike in Lisbon

4. Buses

5. Car

6. Metro 

if you will go to Portugal... Don't forget about:

1. eat  Bola de Berlim

2. drink Brasilian drink "Caipirinha"

3. drink "Ginja" in choclate glasses

4. drink dresh orange juice