about me
finally catching up with these videos!
october had its ups and downs. world postcard day came and went and afterwards we went north, caught up with family, ran all the errands, ate a francesinha, renewed our passports (just in case the borders open!), played games, hiked… there was a bit of everything, and it felt like an intense month.
i’m glad november is being a bit more low-key… i feel like i need time to catch my breath!
lighthouses swallowed by volcanic ash, and new islands that emerge from the sea. i’m always fascinated by volcanoes.
forgot to write last week, but there’s been much going on!
– 2 hikes in 2 weeks! we went around the seven hanging valleys to finally see the benagil cave from above. it was a nice walk, with lots of pit caves poking the limestone karst landscape. the second walk was an 18km trail around the countryside in bensafrim, as part of the walk&art fest. the countryside hills are always more demanding and less fun than the coast, but it was still a nice walk.
– in the first walk, i went to the bathroom midway through the hike in some random beach café, and left my phone there. fast forward to an hour later, when i suddenly couldn’t find my phone. we walked back and it was still there! :D pfeeew!
– spent a day in sagres, soaking in the good food, catching the sunset and resting our muscles after the long hike. we love sagres for the birdwatching potential (we saw northern gannets and griffon vultures this time), but also for the mix of hippie and old school that coexist in its streets and bring a different kind of vibe to the place.
– over 2 years after the last time we entered a cinema, we finally went again and saw dune! i really enjoyed the movie, and hope to read the book at some point.
– boardgame nights return! :D we played kill doctor lucky with friends, and it was nice to have them over after so long. i hope to see many more of these game nights in the horizon.
i’m so late with this video, but here it goes:
lots of family moments, walking on the treadmill, food experiments, and the first rains of autumn. also, i rode on my brother’s bike for the first time, and was only a little bit panicky. :D
“we’re home. we’re home. we’re home.” like a mantra, repeated to exhaustion.
– just before the pandemic started, we bought a newer car and left the old one in porto. the plan was to take more public transportation on the south-north-south trips, and then use the old car to move around in between our families in the north. this should help us make these trips more eco-friendly, save money and also allow us to have more relaxed trips without the stress of driving. but then the whole pandemic came around, and it took us 1.5 years to be comfortable riding public transportation on long trips again. we finally did it on this last one, and boy did we save money. :| we scored some €5 flixbus tickets to go from porto to faro, which, even adding the fare for the train to get us to conceição is still several times cheaper than driving a car up. the trip does take longer, but there’s electricity and internet, and i’ve also read more in these 2 rides than i’ve done in ages, so i’m pretty much sold.
– i finished reading blockchain chicken farm, about the surprising ways in which technology is changing rural china, which was interesting — i wish we had a bit more of that rural entrepreneurial spirit around here. started reading ready player one.
– we didn’t even consider these factors when we rented (and then bought) the house, but having access to trains and long-distance buses less than 5mins from the place where we live is amazing.
– other than that, it’s been a pretty crummy week. moving right along!