Pairs ...

JLife School often employs the method of teaching through opposites ...not necessarily to judge one as good, the other bad, but to respond artfully, as if good and bad were only concepts ... today's lesson is transport related, since travelling from Tavira to Coimbra requires more than willing legs, given the time constraints. .. an early visit to the train station finds a friendly young woman, modestly admitting to speak a little English ... she is fluent and explains the issues around the proposed trip: second class on the  15.05 Coimbra train is fully booked, and two of the local trains to Faro are cancelled ... the 14.02 connecting train expected to run ... also, for information, all trains cancelled on Monday, due to a strike ... this won't affect walking, of course ... as for the class question, an extra €10 solves the problem and 50% senior citizen discount makes this novel experience good value ... since mind is already on leaving Tavira and spending a little time in Faro, a bus alternative is researched, via a miserable and abrupt young woman at the bus station, who also speaks English (this is quite important to ensure accurate information given the appalling level of your writer's Portuguese expertise), and imparts the minimum information before turning her attention to her mobile ... offence declined and seat booked, albeit on the 12.00 bus, since the 10.45 doesn't run on a Saturday, a question we didn't have time to explore, though the printed timetable on display was clear enough ...

Before all that, Harald presents an elegant model boot cast in clay ... a kind and heartfelt gift and accepted gratefully and honestly with the information that the weight may be surplus to requirements, which, as an experienced hiker, he already knows ... some place along the road may be right for it ... perhaps a pilgrim hostel. .. unlikely to reach Finnisterre, where boots and other paraphernalia are traditionally dumped, sometimes ritually burnt, though the practice is discouraged these days ... a fond farewell also for David, intermittently at the hostel and enjoying the Friday holiday, though without pay ... a perk of organised labour, which has other axes to grind ...

At the dentist Joaquim, working voluntarily this holiday weekend, is open early, since he doesn't like patients waiting for the door to open ... gum stitches removed painlessly and information that next stage could start as early as mid-May and will require a couple of weeks between xray, impression and final fitting ... let's see, anytime after that is fine, high season best avoided, cold, neglected cottage waiting, volunteer drivers for Wheels to Meals less abundant than one might think, given the sheer joy of the job ...
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Bus trip gives another perspective of the Algarve along with the chance to meet another Italo-German Erasmus pair, this time young women ... they have been having fun at the Sports Festival on the Island, playing by day, dancing by night ... and convinced that in Europe, at least, national boundaries are finished ...

Faro looks lovely in the sunshine and aimless wandering, with two hours free for lunch, amazingly reveals the very vegetarian restaurant visited before ... self service, second helpings allowed, though not taken, since bread and cheese from breakfast, laced with beetroot from supplies, await the lucky first class customers sharing space on the train ... a glass of red wine for the pleasure of it ... a picture of Ray, from Liverpool, who skipped town in 2009, met a Portuguese woman, now working at Gingibre e Canela ... how he must miss those Scouse scenes ... drizzle, ferries across the Mersey, Beatle heritage ... if you are in Faro, good luck finding it ... though it seems google maps may help ...

Meanwhile, on the train, it appears first class mainly provides wider seats, though half of them still facing backwards ... the idea that wealthier folk have fatter arses is rather outdated however, maybe the extra space just enables less intimacy ... maybe, like 5 star hotels, the mechanism is mainly to exclude the kind of people the rich prefer to avoid ... anyway, the first class folks don't look much different to the peasantry and a complimentary drink leaving Faro and another after Lisbon are making the upgrade quite a bargain ... though it doesn't get us to the destination any quicker ... we all zip along at speeds up to 210 kph, though mostly closer to 140 ...

And so to Coimbra ... and a fair walk from the station to the Youth Hostel. .. route remembered from last time and at Reception Mariana and Joao from the last Portuguese Camino ... maybe a photo in the morning in case you forgot them ... in the room a Californian pilgrim, Loren, walking from Lisbon ... things are warming up ...