Nothing Like A Road Trip

I’m a fan. Obviously. I often wonder if being in Nebraska in my young days of driving had anything to do with my love of it. Way back when, in those early days of driving, the car and the country roads were the destinations and not only for good but I always felt a certain feeling of freedom in a moving vehicle on an open road. So, with little surprise our three day road trip excursions in Portugal were so very special. Open road, in a sweet ride, in a foreign country with my exterior heartbeat aka; my son, winding us through the beautiful southern most region of Portugal. You tell me.

The Algarve

Historically this part of Portugal was quite the deal. Arrivals of Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, North African Moors and Christian Reconquistas would definately add a richness in all manners of speaking for this area and Portugal as a whole. The Five centuries of Moorish influence left significance in the architecture the 15th century is when Henry the Navigator led sea explorations. Those would lead to what is known as the Age of Discovery, launching the beginning of Portugal’s colonial empire which of course led to vast wealth and also dark stains upon its history. Fascinating for people who love history.

The Algarve was, in more modern times, a 300 day a year sunshine region of fishing villages dotting the coastline. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that tourism discovered the area and I am sure there are plenty old timers there that have quite the stories of the then and now transformation the region underwent. It takes about seeing only a handful of pictures of the regions beaches, rock formations, cliffs, caves and other amazing nature occurrences of the region to get why when the word got out, it got out. I was glad we were there in April as I can only imagine the packed in like the sardines the area boasts that summer brings. We could tell by the sizes of the car rental lots, the biggest I have ever seen, that clearly the demand for car rentals is greater than we could have imagined.

Faro

So on April 23rd after saying goodbye to our new friend Pedro in Pinhao we boarded the train back to Porto where we would then catch another train to Faro. It was a long train travel day but that was okay too. We were able to rest while watching the country of Portugal outside our windows. By the time we arrived in Faro though it was late, nearing 10:00 p.m and we were pretty hungry and hoped we could find food before kitchen’s would close. Right off the train we spotted a restaurant across the street we could return to after dumping our bags into our new Algarve home base. While waiting on our Bolt driver (Portugal’s favored Uber competitor) we were approached by an over inebriated fellow trying to engage us in the most unusual conversation about rising from ashes. This was not the asking us for money encounter we perhaps were assuming which quickly led to both relief and more uncertainty as his rants demonstrated a tad of the unhinged. He first asked us if we knew English making us wonder if he needed that in his life just then but upon answering yes we were then questioned on the matter of rising from ashes. This was one of those encounters that offers a plethora of thoughts and emotions so scrambled you can’t react purely off of only one. I was divided between being concerned and wildly amused. I was a bit worried for him and wanted to laugh. Ethan mostly had his radar engaged in a way that made him wonder if this guy was going to be a problem and possibly wondering if martial arts or marine Ethan may have to engage. That was not near the case but I too was listening to my instincts that said “unpredictable”. We sort of engaged him in his topic of choice as interesting as the story of the Phoenix is but his concern and asking us where we are in the cycle, and there also may have been a mention of Russia which threw us off any track we were trying to enter. He never said specifically what he was talking about and he was far from “bringing us up to speed” on the background of why he was as obsessed as the Mad Hatter on if rising from ashes is an end or a beginning. Also interesting was asking us if we knew English assuming he was from an English speaking country but he wasn’t. He didn’t seem Portuguese but he definitely had an accent of some sort beyond drunkenness. He quickly either got bored of us or felt certain vibes and off he went, again similarly, as the Mad Hatter. We both were like “what the??” as we both sighed with relief the awkwardness had departed when two minutes later he walked by us yelling, “Who is going to solve this!!??” And that, cracked us up and it became a new phrase we pulled out for the next day or more. I am glad I am writing about this so that I can bring back the manner in which this guy asked, “who is going to solve this?” Touche' my friend. I couldn’t help but wonder that if sober this guy might have been super entertaining to talk with.

After a grateful short ride to our new digs, we ditched our stuff and headed back out to our driver to return us to the restaurant we saw. It was packed so we waited a short time for a table but quickly a couple of bar stools opened up and we grabbed those but that is not to say that we both weren’t grabbed by something first. This place was surreal considering where we were at. At first I was thinking I was in some tiny town southwest USA, perhaps New Mexico or Arizona yet hang on, perhaps I am in any biker bar type place off some random highway, USA, or wait, are we in Tennessee? There were Euro vibes but everything within the place was so USA. Clearly the owner is very involved with motorcycles, Jack Daniels and Route 66. I thought to myself, if my former husband Geoff were to have ever owned a bar it may have looked like this although the biker stuff and the southwest mofiff would have been replaced by the main theme of Jack Daniels. It was odd and awesome. We had the greatest steak for only 12 euros and the standing pie carousal that I sat next to made me order pie. Again, so USA. We went back to our base to wind down a very long day and we were excited by the little fact that our suite was called “Be Wild”. We couldn’t wait to get a car in the a.m. and hit the wild countryside of the Algarve.

Regina Would Be Proud

I would be remiss somehow to not revisit our encounter with Regina, our salty/ sweet bartender at the bar in Chicago’s airport. You can read about our fun experience there while awaiting our next flight in the blog, Come Fly With Me, from 4/16 so for those who read it already I will not repeat. This is rather an update regarding our dialogue with Regina which most consisted of being sweetly bullied about our not renting a car.

Ethan was the first to say, “Regina would be so proud” as we walked that day to the car of what would become our private tour to Sintra. I laughed and yes, she would be proud we buckled to her way of thinking would have been her angle. Oh Regina, such a character and a character like a Mom who’s voice gets in your head. So while getting a car to the Sixt car rental we once again lamented, Regina would be so proud. Another vacation phrase born. Honestly, us renting a car here was well pre discussed as it seemed the perfect region to see more in a quicker way. That theory was correct too by the size of the rental car lots which clearly are not needed for locals. Faro has an airport too so it all made sense that we were in a wildly popular destination yet not feeling the heaviness of too many travelers. I am sorry Regina that my choice to not stress out over European large city driving with literally zero parking seems a dumb choice to you but I will stick to it. I hate the thought of having to focus with every brain cell to just park somewhere all the while missing the sights out the side windows. I love to drive but I know when I would rather not have the wheel.

Our experience at the car rental place was some of the most fun. Our customer service man, Elio, couldn’t have honed into Ethan and I any more quickly as it seemed at once that we were all laughing, sharing similar type sense of humor, appreciating one another, discussing opinions about things, observations and more all while he was doing his work of finalizing getting us a car. I could tell we were getting notice within the entire space and it felt so good to be part of that type of random high energy. I was so pumped from the experience it just got us on the road feeling like we were on high octane. I have become Intagram friends with Elio and should I ever return there I would hope to visit with him again. With the kind of level of service and human skills he has he could do anything. He loved that Ethan and I were traveling together and now that I have seen some of his posts on IG I see the travels of he and his Mother, he gets it. Elio was also the wise person who told us to make sure to visit Sagres. I was like hey if Elio says so, I say so. Through Elio’s posts too, I also learned of a massive bike rally he posted a video of; the 41st Rally Motard de Faro Parade which gave more insight to the restaurant we ate at the night before. I suspect that the owner may be part of the official Faro Moto Club.

Lagos

Our first stop was to Lagos. Lagos was at one time the capital of the Algarve (1576-1757) but ruined by an earthquake and a tsunami they moved the capital to Faro. Lagos with it’s iconic sea caves, rock formations, beautiful beaches, surfing and dolphin watching makes it a target for luxury property developers and the target has been hit. It is probably similar to what Cabo San Lucas could be compared to if anyone saw Cabo 30 years ago. Very tourist oriented, lots of restaurant and popping night life it an “it place” and it is gorgeous. My tastes personally don’t flex towards the luxury resort scene but I have been fortunate to have experienced them. Lagos is also the first place to have an open market selling African slaves in Europe (1444) after countless colonization expeditions. I wanted to do the walking tour that routes through significant historical spots relating to this dark history but due to a late start we did not do it. It gave me a lot of pause to think about how hundreds of years later the locale of this place is now considered a grand European beach luxury location and I wonder how many ponder it’s earlier history. Every place touched by man has it’s dark past though doesn’t it? It was crazy to think of it though as an origin spot of such a dark stain of history in so many places. Lagos wasn’t for me but I loved seeing the beauty of it’s natural offerings.

I will leave here for now. I will resume our Algarve region journey further in my next week writing as there are so many special memories and photos to share. In the meantime I cannot help but feel so incredibly grateful to have taken this trip and others who helped make it possible like my Boss who employs me and my family who stood in for Dad. It is still so weird that Dad is in my day to day life now and it is I who asks for help with Dad when not that long ago I was far away from Dad and most likely would not have been asked to help regarding Dad just due to distance. The flow of life is ever so interesting, never knowing what is around the next bend.

Until next time my friends, I wish you an cup full of curiosity and courage rimmed with love.

L