Farewell Portugal....I'll be back

Last days in Portugal

This blog is a couple of months late, but time seemed to fly by with so much activity when I returned to Ireland. 


Well, Espinho came alive in the last month of my adventure....what a difference. All the brightly coloured beach huts were assembled, the temporary beach cafes were up and running and the beach got busy (but mercifully not packed) and it turns out that their is LIFE in Espinho. Fantastic for the kids - they spend their time playing beach volleyball, surfing, body boarding or just diving into the waves. 

It was fun to people watch on the beach - so different from Ireland. Rows of oiled bodies lined up side by side on towels, glistening in the sun. The Portuguese definitely use their beaches. It is an all-day affair. Everyone uses windbreakers, beach umbrellas, etc. They set up for the day and they sleep, read, eat, play games, go to the water's edge to splash a bit of cold water on themselves every so often. Whole families (and generations) come and that's it for the day. 

I have discovered that I'm not particularly a 'beach' person in that regard. I love to go down and swim and dry off and repeat and possibly hang out for an hour or so but that's it. That's the great thing about living 5 minutes away, I can do that and it's no hassle. Borrowed a windbreaker and beach umbrella from Carolina and it was the business.

Visitor from Belgium

Great visit from Fio in June. Weather was glorious all five days (although extremely windy on the day she arrived - so I had to do some damage control on behalf of the Portuguese as we were blown about the place). Did lots of 'stuff' and she got a good overview of Porto, Espinho and even into rural Portugal to take part in a Hash.  

I had pooh poohed the Hash as being very low-key, usually 10kms with lots of stops and starts and generally fairly flat with a couple of small inclines.........no bother to you....hmmm....

Murphy's Law - on that day it just had to be the hash that was a) 14kms and b) ALL 7kms of the first half were up a bleeding mini mountain. Suffice to say I stayed well clear of her at the top, until she was fed and watered and ready for the photos! But it was a great day with a bar-b-que to finish by the beautiful river Douro, about an hour east of Porto.

What I'll miss about Portugal
The genuine warmth and helpfulness of the Portuguese people. I pretty much have only extremely positive experiences in terms of being taken care of. In fact there have been times I've been flabbergasted by how out of their way they go to help me. 

The weather (of course)....they've all been giving out about the 'wet' winter and how it took until mid-June to 'warm up properly'. But I have to say, because I really don't like hot sun, that it has been great. Extremely pleasant and made me think a lot about how I want to live in later years, especially during the Irish winters....watch this space.

Being right next door to the sea. The downside is that I couldn't swim a lot of the time of the sea was so rough but fantastic to just sit and watch the surfers and the waves doing their thing. I' swam like crazy in June as the lifeguards were there by the safe swimming area, but half the time I was the only one in the water - disconcerting.  I think that is has more to do with the water being quite cold (not quite as balls freezing as Connemara!) but it's amazing to see so many people on the beach and so few in the sea.

Porto - it's a cool city and easy to get around and it's been great being able to get to know it slowly and not as a tourist trying to cram it all into a few days. Sometimes if I had nothing to do I just went in and started wandering in a direction I didn't know and walked for ages just mooching around - still got lost all the time but the river was a great landmark to help you find your way. 






All the great people I met who were so good to me ... Jennifer/Fernando/Claudia/Maura/
Sara/Carolina...etc.   








I won't miss:

The dreariness of Espinho in the dead of the winter months.....lots of streets looking the same with their block apartments with no character. When I see the original houses (few and far between now) with tiles on the wall and basic but nice architecture, it's sad to see what they've done to the place. And lots of older people living here. Lots of kids too but you don't see them out and about as much in winter. It was the opposite towards the end of my stay. Everyone walking around in shorts, carrying surfboards, beach paraphernalia etc.

My neighbours.....the French woman next door with her screaming teenagers and the guy across the corridor with his 'hacking up' routine every morning and lest I forget - the bloody yap, yap, yapping dog somewhere in the neighbourhood.

The food. Sacrilegious to say that I know and it's definitely me, not Portugal. I'm the same everywhere. When you don't like fish and meat it's tough. I've decided that I would be perfectly suited to the Middle East....hummus, Baba ghannouj, pita, couscous, falafel......they're my foods but difficult to get everywhere.

The 'loudness' of the people. Even simple conversations in the street seem to rise to a crescendo most of the time. Either I'm getting old and can't tolerate it anymore or it's true....once when I told my students to keep the noise level down, that they were speaking too loudly and disturbing the class next door, one of them turned to me and said...'but teacher, we're Portuguese'. 

Festa de São João do Porto

This was the street party to end all street parties. It has become one of the most celebrated days in Porto in the last century and it starts early and goes on all night in the streets and neighbourhoods. It is part pagan, part Christian and people have no problem mixing the two. Saint John the Baptist is the saint in question and people go around bopping each other with small soft plastic hammers that emit a squeaky sound, eat barbecued sardines and meat, drink wine and release illuminated flame-propelled balloons. 

I was invited by Sara, to her extended family's dinner on the evening of the 23rd June. Nine people - four of whom spoke English and a really really warm and generous atmosphere. This was actually the first all-Portuguese (besides Carolina's) house I was in. Every other time it's been a mix of Irish/English/Portuguese. 

The culmination (for some) is the fireworks display over the river Douro, which was absolutely fantastic. I haven't seen such a display since the 4th July display last time I was in Boston, over the river Charles. That was it for me, I took the last train home at 1am and flopped into bed. But most people continued until 6am. 

Ireland 

I left Portugal on 5th July and I've spent the summer in Ireland, moving between Dublin and Connemara. As my house in Galway is rented out, I've stayed with my sister Mary in Dublin  in her gorgeous house for half of the time and in friend Jamie's beautiful cottage in Connemara for the other half - really thankful to both of them. 

It has made my time here extremely comfortable and relaxing. I picked up some work in Dublin for a month - young adults (mostly Brazilian)- a joy to teach and I had great fun with them. I know which direction I'm headed in when I return next year in terms of which age group I teach. 


The summer here has been amazing. Weather great, swimming all over Connemara and in Dublin....hiking....biking....I really got my blast of Ireland and it will sustain me over the next year. I always thought Ireland was great and has fabulous scenery, etc., but these couple of months have consolidated that view...we truly have an amazing country. I discovered places in Dublin that I had never been and became a tourist in my own city - check it out, you'll be surprised.

Next stop.....Spain

So....it's off to Santander on Sunday, ready for the next adventure. Really looking forward to it and to exploring that part of Spain, which I've been to a couple of times, so it not a complete unknown, as Portugal was.

Next post in a couple of months......Spain......wassup?!