From the moment we set foot on Portuguese soil, we felt welcome in this country.
The people were really helpful and nice and even the police were very approachable. My darling daughter Skye and I were happily shocked by all the handsomeness going on in this country. EVEN the cops ;)
Our bus was going past the beach before heading into the city so we decided to have stop off there and spend some time at the beach.

My first 'selfie' at the beach in Faro

Of course, where we have me, there are always some back-roads to travel

I am not sure who it was, but earlier on someone in the family decided to use my phone extensively and this left me with 18% battery life on my phone by the time we were ready to get to the apartment.
We were supposed to meet our host Nuno at 5 pm.
Busses from the beach (and airport) usually go every 30 minutes or so, however, I didn't check this properly so when we got to the bus stop we could just see the tail lights of our bus disappear and after inspecting the time table, I came to the conclusion that we had to wait for 45 minutes for the next bus.
I managed to send Nuno a quick text to let him know we'd be late.
Stupid little me didn't write anything down, all the information was on my phone, including the address for our apartment and Nuno's number.
When we finally managed to catch the bus into the city, it was 5.30 pm!
I had spoken to Nuno for directions but didn't quite get that right either and the street name....well, let's say it was hard to remember. Our host mentioned a restaurant and terrace with white parasols and that's when my battery went dead.
We found a restaurant with white parasols, but guess what? There are more than one restaurants with white parasols!!!
Who would have thought?
We walked around aimlessly, dragging our bags around the place. I asked a few people if they knew the apartments but no one did.
I knew that the only right thing now was to find a charger that would fit these sockets. I ended up buying one in a shop and ordering coffee in a place so we could charge my phone.
Finally I spoke to Nuno again and he told us not to move, he would come and get us.
At last, we found each other. At this stage, we were more than one hour late!
Our host Nuno must have thought all kinds of things about us, but if he did, he didn't show it.
He greeted us with a big smile (another drool moment for Skye and I) and warmth and to be honest: I'm not sure if I could have mustered the same enthusiasm at this time.
Nuno packed us all into his car and drove us to our lovely apartment. After a lot of apologies and the promise that if he ever visits Ireland, we'd welcome him the same way, we finally said good bye to our awesome host Nuno.
Sigh....

Some views from our apartment balcony

Here a few more photos taken in Faro

Check out these sand statues at the airport! Definitely worth to go to the exhibition/competition when they have it on I think!!

And our attempt to make a sand statue

The lovely beach in Faro

more beach

Conclusion: One day in Faro isn't enough! I'll be back!!

Unfortunately, besides the beach, we couldn't explore much of the city.
But from what I've seen so far, it is definitely worth a visit.
The beach alone was great, the little city centre was pretty cool. We were there on the 31st of October, so Halloween and the whole town was filled with witches, skeletons, werewolves, vampires and more.
It must have been a great party!

Ho'oponopono

!steemitworldmap 37.019139 lat -7.930069 long Faro, Algarve, Portugal. d3scr