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Portugal – expectations vs. reality
Hi all! Finally it is time to review our Portugal trip and see, whether my expectations were met or not. Before our trip, I wrote this post about my expectations towards this trip. In case you missed the post, go ahead and read it now! I had visited Portugal once before, and I mainly formed my expectations based on that visit back in 2019. I wrote about the weather, activities and daily life, cost of living, food and finally about the culture, language and people. In this post I will go through all these categories and summarize, how the expectations were actually met. This is a nice review for me…
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What to see in the Algarve? – part 2
Hi there! As promised, I am back with the second part of my Algarve recommendations. Today I’m going to take you to Loulé, Olhão, Vale do Lobo and Carvoeiro. Hope you enjoy! PS. As I am writing this, there is a thunderstorm outside. We were lucky and had an exceptional January and February, as it was not raining at all and the temperature hit 20-22 celcius degrees for many days, but now in March the weather has completely changed; it is raining a lot and temperatures stay under 20 degrees! Hopefully we can still enjoy some sunny days before heading back to Finland (which by the way is already in…
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Algarve after three weeks – how does it actually feel like living here?
Hi there, Three weeks have gone by here in Portugal, but honestly speaking, it already feels that I have been here for way longer. As things have become more and more familiar, this place really feels like home. In this post, I am going to share my honest feelings on how things have gone so far, and what it actually feels like spending winter time in Algarve. First, let me start with some positive stuff. I couldn’t be happier that we chose this apartment among many choices, as there is still nothing to complain and all is working more than fine in our apartment! Quarteira as a location turned out…
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Traveling to Portugal in 2022 – practicalities & first impressions
Finally, a week ago on 30.12. we arrived to Faro. In this post, I am going to tell about the first feelings and impressions about Algarve and especially Quarteira, where we are staying for these three months. Before going into that, I will shortly let you know, what we needed to consider before traveling to Portugal in terms of COVID restrictions. The COVID cases have increased around Europe and many countries have tightened their restrictions during the past weeks. In Portugal, starting from 1.12.2021, all entering Portugal (even EU citizens with a vaccination certificate) needed to have a negative PCR test taken within 72hours before departure. Alternatively, a negative rapid…
