We’ve talked a lot about why we decided to move to Guimarães but wanted to take time to go over some of the counterarguments. We weighed each of these ten things (and more) as we made our decision. In no particular order here are ten of the things we know we will miss that won’t be easily replaced post move. Of course the most important thing we are leaving behind in Olhão are our friends, but in this post we just want to focus on tiny snippets of life that consistently brought smiles to our faces.

Canecas At The Waterfront: Being able to walk to the seaside boardwalk in about 10 minutes was great, even if there wasn’t quick beach access. A caneca is the Portuguese word for a pint sized, ice cold beer. Although you can get a caneca at almost any bar in the country, we knew of a few places on the boardwalk that served them at the perfect temp with a few ice chips floating just below the foam.

Excellent Graffiti: I’ve written quite a bit about my love for excellent street art in other posts and specifically about Olhão’s amazing displays. When we head back to visit I’ll be looking for new murals around town!

Ferry Trips To Ria Formosa: The beach islands visible from the boardwalk made for the perfect afternoon beach getaway. One thing we definitely learned about ourselves is that we enjoy going to the beach 2-4 times a year, but we aren’t every-weekend-beach-people. Many Portuguese people give their beach obsession as a top reason for living in the Algarve.

Summer Rooftop Parties: Our massive rooftop terrace was so perfect on a cool summer night with friends, yummy food, and a few bottles of Vinho Verde. Vinho Verde may be my favorite summer beverage, but I won’t say no to a bottle regardless of the season. It is crisp, slightly bubbly, and significantly lower in alcohol content than red or white wine. You wouldn’t want drink too much though since our terrace was only accessible by a horribly scary staircase!

Duck Pancakes At Restaurante Chinés JIN SHAN: We both really enjoy a certain style of Chinese restaurant food and originally wrote off the local restaurant as sub par. We went twice and both times ordered their heavily promoted combo meals which had some good parts and lots of mediocre offerings. In search of a late night snack after language class one night we just wanted something small to share and got the duck pancakes. We fell in love with that dish and discovered that we really loved the food at Jin Shan… just not the combo meals. By the time we left Olhão Jin Shan had become our favorite non-Portuguese-food restaurant in town.

Board Games With Friends: We had a long standing weekly game night with good friends which involved themed potlucks and a huge variety of games. Additionally we played all different games with people at our house, their houses, and even the cafe. Bianca was almost always down for a game of Uno. Friends knew we were the board game people and would ask us to provide games for parties they hosted (of course we were invited too!). Our only relatively untapped gaming opportunity was the local board game store. We always talked about going more frequently to play with the owner João, it just didn’t end up fitting in between everything else.

Benfica Games At Café Bianca: Our neighborhood cafe helped us fall in love with Portugal! The local feud between supporters of the two major sporting teams (Benfica and Sporting) was always amusing and sometimes a little intense. We did our best to go to the cafe for the games as a good meal was almost guaranteed along with the company of our lovely neighbors.

Awesome Neighbors To Exchange Food And Property With: Speaking of our neighbors, we inadvertently started some insane exchanges after dropping off some baked goods. I was originally worried because one of the local grandmas chided me about bringing something on a paper plate (which she deemed wasteful). That worry subsided when neighbors started bringing all different plates of food to our house! The real trick was to buy cheap glass plates for the exchanges, often when they were returned they were full of something yummy. In addition to prepared food we were gifted a huge array of things including holiday decorations, clothing, multiple pounds of tuna belly, bags of citrus, and stitching supplies to name a few. We returned the favor by crafting gifts and preparing adventuresome treats for the neighborhood.

Xarém & Clams: If you are near the seaside in the Algarve, not the beaches but the mudflats, you will likely see people bent over picking teeny tiny clams out of the water. They sell these clams to local cafes and restaurants where they are prepared and served standalone or in a local specialty called Xarém. Xarém is a cornmeal gruel (like a loose polenta) with a hefty portion of the little clams adding a local flavor.

Lunch At Alma Ria: Finally a shout out to what might be our favorite Olhão restaurant which happened to be about 100 meters away from our house. Alma Ria is a very popular local destination featuring a variety of Portuguese dishes for very affordable prices. We especially loved their piri piri chicken and mixed meat or fish plates.

I’m sure we could have easily tripled the amount of items on this list. We’ll be heading back to Olhão to visit friends and will be sure to update you with more things we miss along with our new discoveries! We sure will miss that little city by the sea.