Photo of the Week

Today I’m in Portugal! I’m spending the tail end of the week in the beautiful seaside city of Faro. Faro is located in the south of Portugal, but is usually overlooked by tourists which means it’s not crowded and still has tons of good food without the touristy prices. I’ve spent my day taking a walking tour, eating lots of food, and relaxing on the beach. It’s nice to escape the English weather every once and a while. Faro has tons of amazing history and I don’t have time to share all of it, but I have some cool photos that you may like! I’m actually staying in the first hostel ever built in the city which is crazy cool. 

One of the things I loved about the city was all of the detail. Portugal is famous for tiles, so all of the sidewalks have these beautiful mosaics made of Portuguese tiles. The designs range from fish to Portuguese guitars, to more abstract pieces like the one above. This sidewalk is older than America!

Faro also has a ton of old buildings. This church used to be the center of the city when the Romans ruled. It started as a mosque but the Romans destroyed it during their reign. 

Here is some more of the beautiful Portuguese tiles!

This is one of the Roman gates that leads into the city. Romans liked to have two major roads in every city: one going north/south and one going east/west. They would meet in the middle at what would be called the “forum” (which is where that church is). This is the western entrence to Faro. 

I could go on and on about the history of this city but I’ll save it for another post about the Iberian peninsula (the southern part of Portugal and Spain) in general and it’s rich history (and amazing orange juice). Have a good weekend everyone!