Portugal

In the last blog post, I promised a tale of adventure. And as we headed to the little town of Viana do Castelo in the north, I felt like a contestant on The Amazing Race. After a plane ride, enduring a 9 hour multi-country power outage, and then finding transportation for the final leg, I received the detour card.

Páscoa no Algarve (Easter in the Algarve) is quite a bit different than in America. Sure, Lindt chocolate bunnies are found in the grocery stores but the Easter Bunny is not really that prominent here. What does stand out are the folares.

It has already been 5 months! Staying busy, this week has been about hiking trails, cats, bikes, and Jesus.

I have never given much thought about storks. I suppose like many other people, I conjure up an image of a lanky bird in flight with a bundle of joy in its its beak. Now I see storks on a regular basis -- their nests are enormous and their flight majestic to watch.

Our primary means of transportation has been a pé e de bicicleta. When we moved here, we thought the trains were more frequent but if you look at timetable, you'll see that there is often only one train every hour or two. What to do?

One of our favorite things to do is walk up Rua Dom Paio Peres Correia to see the cats that live in or near Jardim do Largo Doutora Jorge Correia.

Portugal really treats you as an adult by trusting you with rather large things. Road work with a big open trench? They put up a tiny barrier trust you not to fall in. There's a lesson to learn here - I pinky promise!

We just finished our 4th month in Portugal. We are now stuck here until we receive a residency permit. But what a place to be stuck -- never get tired of these views.

The Carnaval festivities in the east Algarve region started around February 28th with children's parades and continued until March 5th. We saw parades in Tavira, Loulé and Moncarapacho!!

We have been alternating between a few days of sunny weather and a few days of rainy weather. When it is sunny we do two things: laundry and exploring by bike or on foot.