Corinne CrawfordMy choices to get to Faro from Alvor included a long bus ride with a transfer in Portimao or I could take the bus to Portimao and then get myself to the train station there to catch a train to Faro. The train was faster and so far all of the trains I had taken in Portugal were super convenient and comfortable so I definitely preferred the train. Turns out the train station in Portimao was only about 16km from the town of Alvor and was only a 12€ Uber ride from my door to the train station.
That seemed like the best option so that morning, I ordered my Uber and headed out making my way to Faro. The train station in Faro was very central and only about a 6 minute walk to my next apartment. The apartment host, Pedro, met me at the door and I was pleased to see that the apartment building was on the main pedestrian street in the center of town with tons of bars and restaurants just steps from the building. One of those bars was a sports bar and the World Cup was going on so it was bound to be lively here. The host assured me that up on the 3rd floor apartment with his sound proof windows, I shouldn’t be too disturbed and he was right. You could still hear a little bit but it muted enough of the noise to not be a bother at all. That is the trade off you get with a central location and I actually like the sounds of a lively town center. The apartment was lovely and I will say this was the most comfortable bed I had found on the whole trip. After settling in a bit, I did my normal routine of starting a load of laundry and finding the grocery store.
They had a lot of little markets near me but I was going to be here for 5 days so I wanted to make sure I got all the essentials I needed so I walked the 20 minutes to the larger chain grocery store on the edge of town. It was a nice night and I didn’t mind the walk plus it allowed me to see more of the town for later exploring.
I spent the following day catching up on some work and looked for a good place to take myself to dinner. As mentioned in other posts, people generally eat dinner later here and most restaurants don’t even open until 7pm or 8pm. I was antsy to get out of the apartment so I looked up a good wine bar, Columbus Cocktail and Wine Bar, and stopped there before dinner at about 6:15pm. They opened at 6pm so it was a great place to start. I enjoyed the atmosphere and music at the place and someone even started playing the piano along with the music. The wine was good and I was already starving so I thought I would get a light snack while I finished my wine before dinner.
My “light snack” was delicious but a bit more than light. So I took my time finishing my wine and headed to the spot I had chosen for dinner at about 8:30pm. I picked a restaurant that was just down the way from my apartment called Seven Cuts, a steak place and even though it was starting to get chilly, I chose a table outside. I don’t think I will ever want to eat inside a restaurant ever again. I ordered the Sunday special which was some olives, bread and tapenades for an appetizer, the house cocktail, the main course which was a mixed meat plate with rice and vegetables, and then it also came with a dessert and coffee. Maybe if I had not had my “light snack”, I might have been able to make a good dent in it but as it stood, I just barely managed to eat half of it. From my seat at the outside table, I could see that about 50 feet down the way and across was the McDonalds and it seemed to attract some transients and drunks on the tables outside. No big deal. I didn’t even mind when a man in a wheelchair came by my table to ask for some change and I happily gave him some. As I was eating my dinner, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that one of the men that was sitting at an outside table did a slow tip over onto the middle of the sidewalk and just stayed there. A few people just stepped over him and then a guy walked by my table and noticed what was in the walkway ahead of him. He gave me a look of “what the heck?” And I gave a look back of a shrug and “I dunno, he just fell over”. This guy tried slapping this guy on the back saying – hey buddy, hey buddy-you alright?. The guy was responsive but didn’t want to move from his spot in the middle of the sidewalk obviously having had enjoyed too many adult beverages that evening. The guy eventually walked away and shortly afterwards I saw a young couple coming from the other direction happen across this guy prone in the walk way. The guy also tried to get his attention and offered to help him up to no avail. I heard the woman say, “well, you did what you could, you were right to stop and check”. I also caught their eye as they passed my table and this time they stopped to ask me if I knew what happened. I told them that he just sort of slowly slid off his bench at McDonalds and stayed there and that just a moment ago, another guy tried to rouse the man as well. As I was telling them this, the original Good Samaritan came back and he had the police in tow. Now, I have to tell you that the police were extremely gentle, patient and kind and helped this man to his feet and let him sit a spell before walking away with him following. Both the first Good Samaritan and the second couple stayed and chatted with me for a bit and we found out that the one guy was a local although he was originally from Angola, a prior Portugal colony in Africa. The couple were on holiday from England and were not actually a “couple”, but just friends who actually met with they both were vacationing in Egypt. They started good natured-ly giving me a hard time about all of the food on my table and after some laughs and a to-go box, we all decided we would go out for a drink together. The couple were leaving the next day. Now I would be lying if I told you that today I remembered all of their names, but I do remember that the young woman’s name was Jaz and let’s just call the local guy – Local- and the other guy from England- Guy, for the rest of this tale. So Local, Guy, Jaz and I went to one bar that had three stories. We headed up to the top as the bottom floor was a bit crowded. We waited at the upstairs bar for a while with no one in site so Guy and I said we would trek back down the two flights of stairs to get drinks for all of us. We headed down all the way before we realized that we knew that three of us were getting the local beer but we forgot to ask Jaz what she wanted so Guy volunteered to run back up the flights of stairs to get her order. This is good, I had at least 15-20 years on him so he would make it faster than I would. I waited downstairs and could not for the life of me get the attention of a bartender and when Guy got back down, he informed me that there was now a bartender at the upstairs bar. Ok, so we hiked back up to the top floor and just as we got to the very top, we saw the bartender heading down with his ice bucket. Come on! And I am carrying my heavy box of leftover meat this whole time. So we wait at the top bar again for the guy to come back up with his ice. He does, we order three beers and a jack and coke. He poured one of the beers before it started coming out all foam, meaning the keg was empty. Come on! We had to wait while he changed the keg and finally after what felt like hours, we had our drinks and sat down to chat a bit. Turns out Local was something of a small time celebrity and showed us some of his clips of commercials and a soap opera type program. We decided we didn’t like the vibe at this place after our drink and Local suggested another place just at the other end of the block. We went there and it was a very small place and just as we got there and ordered our drinks, karaoke started. We rolled with it and all of us ended up singing a song or two and we had a great time.
Jaz and I joined together to belt out Love Shack and Don’t You Want Me Baby. We stayed for quite a while having a great time, all the while, my meat box sitting on one of the few booths in there. I finally said goodbye to my new friends and walked the block and a half back to my apartment carrying my meat box with me.
