Portugal (and Paris)

I must say, this is the best view I’ve ever seen while writing my blog. I’m sitting on our little patio in Portugal in the middle of a beautiful vineyard. There are hills of rolling vines and an orange setting sun peaking through dark rolling clouds. There’s always a cool breeze in the morning and the evening, so I’m cozied up in an old sweater and sipping a glass of a local red wine. It’s quite heavenly!

This week was a whirlwind. I spent Monday and Tuesday deep cleaning my apartment in Italy and packing, then spent Wednesday relaxing a bit before a travel day Thursday. On Thursday morning, I woke up at 4:00 and closed up my apartment for the next few months then hauled my luggage across cobblestone streets on the 17-minute walk to the train station, where I caught a 5:00 train. My friend/classmate turned roommate/coworker, Sam, met me on the train and we headed to the airport.

We had a smooth first flight and a nice five-hour layover in Paris, so we caught the metro into the city and spent a quick hour and a half seeing some Olympic areas, checking out a couple book stands, and eating a little lunch at a Parisian café. French wine and a croque madame really hit the spot after months of being in Italy! We made it back to the airport with plenty of time to spare and spent the rest of our layover reading and stuffing our faces with macarons.

The second flight was… rough. I have never experienced such a shaky ascension and descension, but otherwise it was fine. We landed, let out a sigh of relief as we got our luggage, and had a happy little reunion with our friend Teresa, who picked us up and drove us from Lisbon to her family winery outside the city. I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire 50-minute drive. It is stunning. So much green, covering every hill and every valley. The sky was dark with storm clouds, but there were rays of sun peeking through making for the most insane sunset. We arrived at the winery and were taken to our workers’ house—it is so charming. It looks out at the pool we can use when we aren’t working, and past that over all the vineyards. We settled in and had a late dinner at 11:30, which is almost normal here, then quickly fell asleep after the long travel day.

At 1:30am we woke up to our house alarm blaring about an intruder, and we groggily shut it off, scared out of our wits but checking around the house and deciding a spider probably crawled over the sensor, then we went back to sleep.

The next morning, Sam and I woke up and walked around the vineyards a bit, then Teresa picked us up to take us into the city. We spent a few hours on the beach, swimming in the Atlantic and laying in the sand. Then we headed to the city and shopped around a little, walking through a few of the touristy sites as we did. We ate dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant, which nearly had Sam and I crying. It’s so nice having flavors that don’t come from tomato, garlic, and onion for the first time in so long! Ceviche, guacamole, birria quesadillas, fried shrimp tacos…even crickets. We finished dinner around 11—I don’t know the last time I left a restaurant feeling so full and so happy.

On the way home, we drove over a huge pothole on a country road, fully popping the tire, leaving us stranded in the middle of Portuguese farmlands in the cool of the evening with no sweatshirts and no water. But thankfully we had each other and insurance! We decided if we were stranded on a deserted island with two other people, we’d all choose each other because we had not stopped laughing that whole day and being stranded with a flat tire only made everything funnier. We had to wait for help for a little over two hours, but the time flew by despite us growing weary. At 2:30am, Sam and I walked through the front door and headed straight to the fridge to crack open two cold beers and sit in silence. Sleep found us fast that night too.

Yesterday we slept in, headed to the pool for a bit, spent the afternoon reading, then walked 5km to the nearest grocery store and back. Today we did the same thing minus the two-hour trip to the store. It’s been a relaxing weekend settling in before we start work tomorrow. We will be sampling grapes! I’m nervous to start, but I’m ready. It’s been a great week, and I’m excited to see what’s next.