Portugal Daily Life

Landing on the other side of the river, we plopped down the bags we came with mixed with the items we accumulated over the past months. Let the construction of furnishings commence! The bed was built, the sofa came up in pieces, and lots of flat-pack furniture was assembled. The living space was arranged and rearranged and it's debatable whether we found the ideal layout or fatigued in the process.

We spent roughly 189 days living in an apartment in the city center of Tavira. With everything packed up and and ready to move just outside the city center, we didn't have much in the fridge. Maybe the chef was feeling a bit spunky when he created this masterpiece. I just kinda feel like it was the perfect last meal.

When we arrived to the apartment in November 2024, we found one knife in the utensil drawer. We came to affectionately refer to it as The Portuguese Knife (A Faca Portuguesa).

It was a deeply dark rainy night, the town was deserted and all I could think of was: what have I done? We arrived the day before with two bewildered cats in tow and duffle bags stuffed with mostly warm weather clothing. We had at least 364 more days in this adventure.

This post is a bit of an everything bagel. Some may say it is a guide but it is way more messy than that, crumbs and seeds everywhere.

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?