My Faro Experience
Good Morning! Now before we get to today's guest contributor let me give you a little background on where Faro is and what exactly this post is about.
Hubert is a friend of mine from France and he went on a internship in Faro for 6 weeks. He got and internship as a Real Estate Agent Assistant in Portugal which is explained below.
Faro is a historic and culturally rich city that boasts a variety of fascinating tourist attractions. Sadly, Faro is often overlooked, considered purely for its airport, but spend time in Faro, and you will discover a charming and authentic Portuguese city.
The delightful historic centre of Faro is encircled by ancient city walls and contains a Gothic cathedral, the Bishop’s palace and pretty cobbled back streets. Outside of the walls is the modern city centre, with its pedestrianised shopping streets, scenic plazas and variety of restaurants and bars.South of Faro is the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, a series of saltwater lagoons and mudflats, which are a haven for migratory birds and wildlife. Along the seaward side of the Ria Formosa are three sandbar islands, and these are the location of Faro’s pristine beaches.
Now let's get onto our guest post :)
If I had a keyword to describe my own experience in Faro: Wonderful. Before even revealing it to you, let me introduce you to my past as a student.
While I was in my last year of my Bachelor of Applied Foreign Languages, my colleagues and I had to do an internship of at least six weeks in France or abroad to put our knowledge into practice and especially to validate our year.
That was the beginning of the nightmare for people who had not yet started looking. Many French companies favoured business school students and they even thought we didn't have enough knowledge. Even the President of our course with the person in charge of the internships and a member of the administration had invited us to a so-called meeting and replied: instead of going on holiday to ski, look for your internships. Similarly, there was blackmail, with an addition of weeks if there was no deadline before.
For my part, since the beginning of the academic year, I had sent eighty applications throughout France and the world, where I only received four positive feedback from abroad. From Belize as a Real Estate Agent Assistant, to Tahiti in French Polynesia for the same function, to Gabon as a freight assistant and finally to Portugal again as a Real Estate Agent Assistant.
As the University had judged French Polynesia too far away and it would be difficult to find accommodation, I then opted for my end-of-cycle internship in Portugal in a very small bilingual agency. After several documents requested by my Faculty, I was finally ready to go on an adventure.
Wanting to enjoy the trip like an explorer, I took a bus company called Flexibus, to go there. It took me two days to discover Caceres, Lisbon, Huelva and finally Faro.
To make you travel, I would like to show you on this map, my endless journey that I made between my hometown: Saint-Etienne and this seaside town is located in the far south of the country.
On Sunday, March 31, Faro Airport, 10:20 a.m., I set foot on the ground for the first time in Portugal.
As soon as I arrived, I was lost like a toddler in a supermarket, I don't know where I had to go to get to the Centre. That's when I ask in English, I'll get a nice answer, compared to an arrogant French.
The journey will only take 16 minutes when all the Portuguese words I had learned in class had disappeared. Happily I had not left alone, my faithful friend the Larousse French Portuguese dictionary was within my reach.
For the weather, it is beautiful, a few clouds and some storks to decorate the old houses.
It is a town with a population over 69,000 inhabitants composed of a modern city and an ancient city including a wall following the Muslim invasion, a chapel with a crypt decorated with more than 1200 human skulls and ancient houses including an ancient palace that could date back to the 18th century.
From the point of view of the population, it was surprising to me. I saw more tourists than the local population. The tourists I met the most came from Germany, England, Canada, Italy and France. Many of them liked to go to bars to watch a football match or take a boat trip to one of the deserted islands to see a wide variety of birds and dolphins.
My best memory and advice I could give you is to go to the youth hostel and meet the other person. We can make incredible new friends, we can share food and discover ourselves inside.