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Saturday May 19th, 2001 13:35
Diary of a new local in Carvoeiro
A train journey to Faro
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This week I decided to do something a little different from my
normal pursuits in and around Carvoeiro. I decided to hop onto the train and journey over
to Faro, where most people begin their journey in the Algarve. I had unfortunately missed
this beautiful city, by arriving on the train and not by air. Friday morning began clear
and brilliant and I reached for my sunglasses before mounting my trusty steed and cycling
off to the station, a ways off in Estombar. It took me about twenty minutes of cycling
before I arrived at an old dilapidated station with graffiti adorning the walls and paint
peeling off in large quantities. Grass growing through the tracks reinforced my doubtful
thoughts of the train arriving on schedule and arriving at all! 11h36 came and with it the
locomotive hauling what seemed to be all first class carriages. Paying for second class
seemed to be a much more worthwhile deal and I settled into the comfort of Portuguese
Railways.
The countryside flitted by and it was a pleasant enough trip. As I have mentioned before I
love train-travel and will often choose that over road or air as it is a far more relaxing
way of seeing the countryside, even if it does take a little longer than other modes of
transport. I arrived in Faro and wandered over to a small marina, slap bang in the centre
of town. It was beautiful and I sat down to enjoy my home-made sandwiches. A jet flew past
on short finals to the Faro International Airport just over the way and as I knew it was
there I followed the jetīs path and was surprised to see it adding full power on
touchdown and screaming off into a left bank away from the airport. Mmmm.... strange, the
jet came in again and did exactly the same thing, again and again. Yesterday I learnt from
some local pilots that it was a training landing exercise for the pilots of GO airlines -
a charter operating out of the U.K.
One of my main reasons in coming to Faro was to check out the Air Charter businesses at
Faro airport so I embarked on a lovely long walk from the center of Faro to the airport.
On arrival I was met by two gorgeous young female airline hostesses and.... ooops hang on.
I strolled around and eventually got a few numbers off an information desk lady, but there
were no air charter outfits basing themselves at the airport - which I found fairly
strange. It is the most logical place to put your air charter business. It doesnīt seem
to be a very big industry here in Portugal anyway.
I caught the bus back, as my weary legs couldnīt carry me much farther and I waddled over
to A McDonalds and wolfed down a Big Mac meal. Iīm not sure what weary travellers would
do without McDīs to sustain them. The McDonalds was surprisingly well situated, looking
out over the marina from a third floor balcony .... really good views. I strolled around
the old town, enclosed by a castle wall before travelling back on the train at 19h25.
Around Albufeira, the train stopped and as it was fairly warm , I cracked open the window
and a rumble of thunder crackled overhead as huge big droplets of cool rain splattered
upon the dry and sunbaked soil. The rain poured down and a spectacular thunderstorm ensued
- I mused over my bicycle ride home: Was my bike going to be there? Would it still be
raining? I thought about these things afterwards as I cycled home with a sunset blazing
orange fire behind my back and big cold drops of rain plopping down around me. I thought
how trivial they are compared to most peopleīs worries, ahhh what a relaxing life this is
and a bolt of lightning spewed across the darkening sky.
The next day was looking threatening as I poured myself another cup of coffee. It was
Saturday and we had a wedding to prepare in the restaurant, so we had to start work at
10am. Finally everything was prepared and we could be off until 16h00 and the guests
started arriving at 18h00. It turned into a beautiful evening, after spitting with rain
earlier and everyone had a fantastic time until three in the morning.
I am looking forward to meeting some friends from Germany this week and hopefully we will
go and explore the night-life of Carvoeiro together - if we ever get in touch. Until next
week...Cheers
Nick - nick@carvoeiro.com
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