Andre met us outside the station by car and took us to the studio apartment. Had he not met us, we would not have been able to find it because the address given is wrong. It is in Rua Antonio Variações, number 3A, not Rua Carlos Daniel number 5.
The photo of the Fashio Studio looks cute but does not reveal that this is a bedsit with own shower and toilet in a converted cellar approximately 2 meters below street level, accessed by a very steep staircase and a narrow passage at the end of which is "the terrace" containing a small table and 2 chairs right next to the toilet window. The apartment is ultra compact. and smells of drains. The double bed is jammed into a corner which means one person cannot get out without disturbing the other. The bedding barely fits the bed and the warm blanket provided is dirty from previous guests boots and dried blood. Another bedcover is ripped, there are 3 pillows, one pillow case is stained, the duvet is too small for a double. Three deodorisers and a plug-in in the shower room/toilet and a plug-in in the main room do not mask the drain smell and we had to remove the plug-ins in order to sleep semi-healthily. The toilet contained remnants of previous use at the bottom of the bowl. We cleaned that but the smell remained. In the morning we found no jug to make coffee, dirty cups which we washed, dirty plates which we did not use because by then we had decided to leave. There are no flat surfaces to prepare meals . Only one small frying pan and one small pot do not provide adequate self-catering facilities. We do not eat fried food. The oven is dirty and there are no oven dishes. Neither are the freezer and fridge quite clean.
Unfortunately the location was not suitable for us. The very low easy chairs provided are suitable only for children. We are both over 70 and found the steep climb up to the apartment exhausting on the way up and slippery on the way down. We had checked on Google earth maps but this was not obvious and anyway we could not find the actual address.