figueira da foz

This time last year I made the first of my many trips to Figueira da Foz. Figueira is only about an hour on the train away from Coimbra (where I lived), so what could be better on a day off than going to the beach! Now looking out thew window to a gloomy, rainy day in Finland, it's a bit bittersweet thinking about Portugal.

I remember this day so well, because it was just the beginning of April and sitting on the terrace of a café, drinking ice tea (Portuguese people seem to love ice tea and drink it all the time - I miss that!), I was telling my friend (and then-housemate) how it felt like summer already and how wild that was. I genuinely would have gone swimming, and basically did as once I stepped into water (photo above) and while wading on the beach to see how warm the water was I got drenched by a wave. But that was fine since it was warm enough for my skirt to dry in about ten minutes.

Figueira is a rather small city, but becomes busier in the summer season with both tourists and all the locals escaping the inland heat. But this was still spring and it was all lovely and relatively quiet. There's lots of little Portuguese cafés/restaurants to have lunch at - or have an ice tea, haha. Although, the only one I've been to multiple times is 100 Montaditos, which is actually Spanish but serves cute and cheap tapas-style sandwiches, sangria and beer. You very much go to Figueira to go to the beach, but there's also other things you could do: taking a boat on the river, getting out of the city on some hiking trails, and there's also a casino and probably other things I don't know about. But I've basically just been to the beach. Next to the beach is the Santa Catarina Fortress, which can be a bit underwhelming but still worth seeing and apparently sometimes has events and fairs that we happened to miss. And like anywhere in Portugal, there's always pretty architecture to spot, so I'd recommend checking out the city centre/old town at least to get a glimpse. My favourite was definitely the Castelo das Conchas that is next to the beach - how cute are all those seashells decorating the building! I kind of miss Portugal.

 Skirt - Bershka // Top - 2nd hand/Lefties // Shoes - Primark // Backpack - Amazon // Sunglasses - Citymarket