Portugal: Evora and Faro

Next up on our rapid fire tour of Europe was the little Portugese town of Evora. Almost devoid of accomodation options and needing to move pretty fast we checked into the local Ibis franchise, damn europe is expensive. Evora is a little walled town with narrow alleys and some supposed charms, but really Lisbon managed a lot more charm despite its huge comparative population, go figure.

After getting pretty heavily rained and retreating to our hotel the first night, we did a quick exploration of the old town which seemed quintessentissentially quaint with its wee cobbled (read deadly slippery) alleyways, odd little eateries, one internet cafe and houses built into the arches of the 16th century aqueduct. The two star attractions were the ruined roman temple, and the church with a chapel lined with human bones. Neither of which filled me with a greater sense of my own smallness, but then I never took classics at school.

In fact the big surprise of Evora in fact was just how insanely difficult it was to travel from Portugal to Spain by bus. In order to travel directly eastwards across the now mythical border would have reauired two buses and a taxi ride. So instead we zipped south to Faro found a great, cheap hotel right by the bus station and shipped out again early in the morning for Seville. Faro seemed like a nice small seaside town, but by the time we got there the only place open for dinner was McDonalds (why yes I will have beer with my quarter pounder) and we were left with a nocturnal inspection of the town square and it's vividly painted ceramic goats.