2024-02-17 11:09:57
Veronika Rosová came to Portugal for the first time 19 years ago. While still a student, she hitchhiked with a friend. Two years later, she moved with her boyfriend to the small fishing town of Olhão, about 12 kilometers from the Algarve capital Faro. Today, she and her husband run a business in the salt fields.
There are several similar stories like Veronica’s in the south of Portugal, where about a hundred Czech compatriots maintain close relations.
“Ninety percent of our Czech-Slovak community are women,” says Veronika. Czechs also run a Czech school in nearby Faro. “We have 25 children from Czech-Portuguese marriages coming to us,” explains the functioning of the Saturday classes, which are attended alternately by students from four to fifteen years old. “We also organize a St. Nicholas party for them,” says the trained teacher from Nové Jičín.
However, he no longer devotes much time to teaching. Together with her Portuguese husband João, she manages the Salinas do Grelha salt field. During the main season, they stay in the fields in an old tidal mill in the middle of the Ria Formosa Natural Park, then they move to the town for the winter.
“I met my husband in a local choir because I’ve been singing all my life,” she continues her story in front of one of Olhão’s biggest attractions – the food markets.
Mussels and fresh fish under one roof
One of the two Mercados de Olhão halls is located on the Avenida 5 de Outubro embankment, from which you can see the islands of the Ria Formosa lagoon during low tide. In the shallow water here, at low tide, the locals collect a well-known delicacy – mussels.
At the pier, a replica of the Bom Sucesso fishing boat sways in peaceful waves. In 1808, she brought seventeen sailors to Brazil, thousands of kilometers away, they were oriented only by a primitive map and the stars. The sailors wanted to let King João VI, who lived in exile in Brazil, know that Napoleon’s troops had withdrawn from the country.
Mussels and dozens of types of fresh fish can be found at the famous fish market, which is one of the most famous in the Algarve. On Saturday mornings, there is a lot of activity here. Locals came to buy ingredients for lunch or dinner, meet friends and discuss the news. Only a few tourists can be seen here at the end of the season.
Locals select the best fish, vendors cut the fillets and pack the shiny fish bodies into bags. In addition to traditional cod and mackerel, the menu also includes squid and stingray. The smell of fresh fish fills the entire hall, but it is not unpleasant.
In the opposite hall, vendors offer all kinds of juicy fruits and fresh vegetables, green olives pickled in herbs, as well as typical local sweets. And that there is a lot to choose from.
Low white houses and flower corners
A short distance from the market is the oldest part of the town, with narrow streets full of low, white-plastered houses with colorful details and corners full of flowers. Modern sculptures referring to the legends related to the history of Olhão add variety.
For example, about Arraúl, the son of Hercules, who was shipwrecked at sea and was eaten by a whale. However, despite all the bad luck, she finally brought him to the shore in the places where the city is today. Arraúl immediately fell in love with the place and decided to protect it by building a sandstone barrier, which is today’s strip of sandstone islands in the Ria Formosa lagoon.
Numerous terraces of cafes and restaurants invite you to spend pleasant minutes eating local fish and seafood specialties and let yourself be pleasantly tickled by the sun. Or just drink a cup of espresso, which costs up to 30 crowns in the south of Portugal.
Although the current Olhão has a rather sleepy impression outside the main tourist season, according to Veronika Rosová, the town has been growing and developing in recent years. “A lot of houses are being repaired, the number of arriving tourists is increasing. But the outflow of Portuguese people continues, they return more for holidays,” he admits. “Fishermen are still here. There are also young people among them. But those who graduate mostly run away,” he adds.
Salt flower from the nature park
The Czech woman and her husband are among well-known local entrepreneurs. Salinas do Grelha, which produces salt of the highest quality, including the sought-after salt flower, was founded in 2009 and continues a century-old family tradition. It is located in the middle of the Ria Formosa Natural Park. On the salt plains, Češka helps, among other things, with guided tours for individual visitors and schools or with the operation of the spa.
The couple came up with the idea to start operating the Portuguese “Dead Sea” when they were thinking about what to do with the water after extracting the salt that they no longer use. This is how an open-air relaxation center was created.
The 2,000 square meter lake has the same concentration of salt as the Dead Sea and boasts healing properties. In addition, the family also started offering a mud wrap, which, combined with salt water, helps nourish the skin and relax the muscles. An adult pays eight euros for swimming and the recommended length of stay is set at two hours with regular breaks between swimming.
The outdoor spa is one of the popular places in the area and visitors from different parts of the world find their way here. There are also Czechs. After all, this Dead Sea is closer to the Czech Republic after all.