PEOPLE Hank & Carina

THEN OLHÃO FOUND US...

... and we weren't even looking! Hank and Carina's story of how they came to love and live in Olhão

Welcome to our monthly column celebrating Olhão. After exploring Portugal top to bottom from Braga to Tavira enjoying so many coastal and inland locations in our RV, we decided Olhão was the place to buy our home to celebrate our “golden years”. Olhão was not on our radar at first. In fact, the discovery of Eastern Algarve was a pleasant surprise with the scale of development so much less than areas to the west. A chance winter rental introduced us to Olhão, a place we quickly found attractive for many reasons. “Walkability” is, above all, a main highlight and each month we will introduce you to places only steps away from our front door. Questions, Comments or Suggestions for new columns? Email us at hankryan2003@ yahoo.com We hope you will enjoy our column!

Saturday Morning in Olhão

Our early morning walking routine each day usually has us venturing off in different directions enjoying the promise of a new day. Olhão is kind of like a visual amusement park with birds and water and natural places in all directions. Even the normally busy parts like the esplanade are special early in the day offering perhaps the best time to be engaging in imaginary and unrealistic boat ownership dreams. Carina likes to walk fast and I’m amazed at some the ground she covers in an hour or so. Her aim is to use the wizardry of her phone camera to capture images here. This week she is looking for special doors. I’m often off to either Continente, Lidl or Pingo Doce to pick up something. All offer a reasonable walking experience and even if I just come home after finding a few packs of coffee on sale, I’m a guy on a mission. How can I not rise to the challenge? So that is our routine for most days, except for one. Every Saturday morning, it’s an easy stroll to the open air produce market located between the Ria Formosa and the Olhão Mercado buildings. With open air parks on both ends and plenty of places to relax outside the cafes in front of the Mercado with a bica (espresso), or a Pastel de Nata facing the crowd, this place is busy busy! Add the open

tubs of local olives, honey, herbs, flowers and bedding plants and you’ll understand why everyone has a favorite stall to return to week after week. Even during cooler winter months, local greenhouses supply fresh fruit and veggies. This open air market combines with the indoor Mercado spaces where if you cannot find the fresh fish variety you are looking for, someone else probably just took the last of it home! It is worth a reminder to come early on Saturday if arriving by car. Olhão advertises over 1380 parking spaces near to the market on this poorly placed new billboard. It is pretty much impossible for drivers arriving towards Olhão to see what the sign says (perhaps turning it 90 degrees would help), but those spaces it promotes fill up quickly!

Bruna Welcomed Us To Olhão...

Call us impulsive if you like, but when we arrived at our one month Marina Village “escape from winter” rental in January of 2021, within 5 days we put a deposit down to purchase our home here in Olhão. We have no regrets. Our introduction mentions several reasons for this including the safe and flat as a pancake walkable layout of this small city facing the Ria Formosa waters that we now get to gaze out to each day. But plunking down our hard earned savings was also easier to do because we felt so welcome in Olhão even with our non-existent command of the Portuguese language. Olhão features dozens of restaurants, almost too many to count, all within walking distance. These days, our presence here is met with warm greetings in so many places we visit as customers, both restaurants and other markets alike. Early on, we discovered Marisco, located on the southwest corner of the Mercado where the outdoor seats facing the Ria Formosa inspired us to share some red wine while enjoying the winter sunset. During that first visit, Bruna, a long time server there initiated a conversation with us demonstrating her perfect English. She made us both feel like we were instant locals. Since then we have enjoyed many sunsets there engaging in chit chat with Bruna. Make no mistake, her hospitality is not just for us to enjoy. Bruna treats all her customers with the same welcoming conversation. We don’t suggest that she is an exception to the way other Olhão local businesses greet us. The common demeanor of the Portuguese people is both gentle and welcoming. That attribute fills restaurant tables all over Olhão, but she was there when we began our time here and that mattered! The full name of the business is “Restaurante Cervejaria Olhão Marisco. Pictured on the right in the photo above is owner Maria Louisa Jesus Carmo. She came from Culatra to Olhão in 1974 and has operated her business since 2002. Marisco offers a full menu featuring local seafood fare along with affordable prices on drinks. They are closed Sundays. On the left is Bruna Daniela Rosa Sousa, born and raised in Olhão, who has been with Marisco since 2017. Not much is guaranteed in life, but we are sure you will feel welcome when she appears at your table! For our full introduction, see our first column online in the December 2021 issue. (eastalgarvemag.com)

Fine Print – We choose to focus on businesses here in Olhão where we have actually been customers first. Any future advertising from these businesses that supports Eastern Algarve Magazine is purely coincidental :-) *** If you know where we can find the most special decorative door fronts in Olhão, please write, or better yet, send a photo! Thanks!