Tag: peniche

Going through old notes and unfortunately, I didn’t write much in Portugal and Spain – too busy surfing and dancing / sweating my ass off I guess. Posting what I did write and adding a little extra flavor to some of the things I remembered that are sticking out to me.

Portugal

• I remember when I found out my Dad went to Florida as a kid. As a kid who never traveled anywhere, I was infatuated and asked him a million questions about what it was like. His answer: “the orange juice there was really good.” Well after traveling through Spain and Portugal, I can fully attest that Florida orange juice has nothing on the stuff over here. If Florida is weed, this Europe shit is heroine.
• Pace of life is significantly slower over here. Reminds me of Hawaii, but it’s a different vibe. Hawaii has a really cool Aloha and Mahalo culture. Yet at times in Oahu (not as much on other islands), it feels quite commercialized. Parallel example: that natural Christmas spirit in cities during month of December is there, but is often ruined by all the stores trying to sell you stuff in that “culture.” I don’t get any of that here in Portugal, or particularly so far in Lagos.
• Had a date spot to be used as THE metric for all other date spots. Pizza, wine, picnic style, and the cliffs of the Algarve for sunset. Simplistic and magical.
• Lisbon is very similar to San Francisco. On the coast? Check. Big red bridge? Check. Hills all over the city that make your knees want to collapse and you to utilize that red bridge for an unintended purpose? Check. Jokes aside – both great cities, good food, entertaining people, fun place.
• Ok, after a couple of weeks on the coast, I’ve decided there is a good chance I move to a spot like Peniche, Ericeira, or Nazare and live out the rest of my days on a shack on the beach. I’ll catch/eat raw fish and surf my days away. What more does one need? Life as a recipe can be quite simple: just add water. Also special shoutout to the Peniche Surfing Lodge and the squad. Y’all are fucking awesome – Catcha on another wave, another day.
• Ended my time in Portugal at Porto, which is extremely underrated. Could be the port wine talking. Dang, that stuff is just like me: strong and sweet.

Spain

• Time to brush up on that good ol High School Spanish classes: “Como estas?”, “tengo hambre”, and “donde esta la biblioteca?”
  • I’m both equally shocked and impressed with how little and yet how much I retained from those classes. There’s times where I felt like I was “transactional/conversational” ready and other times I ended up ordering the completely wrong meal. A lot of “Que?” And “Como?” popping up after I randomly put together a completely incoherent sentence structure.
  • Twas fun getting to know the differences between what I was taught and how people actually converse. Example: instead of saying “yo quiero ….” for ordering, I ended up saying “Me pones … por favor”
• I have a friend back in the US who, whenever he does cheers, touches his glass to the table – I thought he created that and I started doing it because I thought it was cool…only to find out that all of Spain (and probably a lot of other countries) do this. Not so original now, hey Beane. No apoya no folla…
• Highlights include strolling through the plazas of Madrid, marveling at the works of Picasso / Salvador Dali, catching a football game in Sevilla, walking the beaches of Cadiz, admiring the alcazar/aqueduct of Segovia, drinking horchata in Valencia, and skating/dancing through Barcelona. All in +40 degree (+100 F) weather…
• If you visit 1 city in Spain, make it Barcelona. Hundreds of cities later and it’s still my favorite in the whole world. The food (would be tough to be vegetarian here…), the architecture (Gaudi is a God), the skating scene (never a good day unless someone is bleeding), the beach (someone say volleyball, Maverick?), the clubs (time to go out when other cities fall asleep), the people, and the smell…ok, we can skip that last one. But everything else about this place is perfect and thought through. Even the grid patterns of the streets were designed for airflow/circulation and visibility…This place has got it all.
• Special shoutout to my friend Sara who played tour guide for me around Madrid, Felix who I traveled with around Portugal / Spain (and who somehow never failed to create his own pub crawl with +20 people. Where were our special club promoter drink discounts?), Catherine who showed me all the best traditional Spanish dishes in Sevilla, and all the other friends I made along the way.
• Sitting in a cafe in Thailand and thinking back to my time in Spain, I’m still amazed at the kindness people will show you when you are traveling. Millions of examples are floating to my mind but one is sticking out for me right now – my first day in Spain. My flight from Scotland to Madrid had just landed (really late at night) and I was trying to take public transport from the airport to city center, when all of a sudden, the train stopped running and we were all told to get off at the train stop and take another method of transportation into the city. Murphy’s Law kicks in and of course my cell phone service decided to not work. Right when I’m starting to think I’ll be stranded, this couple I had talked briefly to on the train mentioned that they were going into the city and asked if I wanted to jump in their Uber. They then refused to let me pay for anything and told me to go out and buy myself a drink. People amaze me. Just when you think you’re better off living on a beach by yourself, you realize that we are all humans and most people are good people. If somehow you see this – thanks again for the ride Gary / Karley, and I hope your honeymoon was amazing 🙂