When we packed up our 2 1/2 pallets of things we wanted to ship to our new home. U-pack We ship quoted 4-6 weeks delivery in Portugal. Now after a month in our new country, we find that the pallets are still in South Carolina waiting to be loaded onto a ship.
We are continuing to go out shopping nearly every day, either for food or items for the apartment, but we are taking some time out to visit friends and see a bit of our new city. I love architecture so my camera roll fills quickly on our jaunts around town…
…not to mention my need to photograph all the pretty tiles that cover the buildings.
One of the many reasons I wanted to make this lifestyle change was to be able to spend more of my time on my artwork. One of the first things I did when we arrived was look up art galleries for openings we could attend. The first gallery that caught my attention was an artist collective that was having an opening that weekend.
I was a little nervous to attend since we don’t speak more than a couple of words of Portuguese. I took a deep breath and attended anyway. As I suspected, most everyone was speaking Portuguese. I did catch one conversation and when it reached a lull, I piped in “I’m afraid I was eavesdropping - I heard you speaking English - I just moved here and I don’t speak any Portuguese” It turned out the woman I had eavesdropped on was the artist’s daughter. After a brief conversation she insisted that we meet her mother, Maria Manuela Silva, who’s art, sculpture - watercolors - photography, was surrounding us. Maria (pictured below with my husband) is a warm, lovely woman who introduced us to several of her friends in attendance who could speak at least some English. In addition to the artwork on display, Maria had invited a vocalist to preform, named Aswin Barros (below in black and white) and he did an excellent medley of what he called “spiritual music”.
For a large city, Porto feels like a small town. Later that night Aswin and his crew, arrived at the same resturant where my husband and I were having dinner, 5.5 kilometers from the gallery where we met. Two days later, I ran into him on the street around the corner from our apartment. Since the day of the opening both Aswin and Maria have become good friends.
A week or two after we met, Aswin invited us to another event he was in. This time a combination of art and fashion where he would be acting as a model. Images of the paintings were printed onto fabric, fashioned into clothing and then were modeled runway style during the exhibit of the art. That is where I learned to be careful about what is being served… I poured a standard glass of what I assumed was red wine, only to discover when I took my first sip - it was PORT! For those who aren’t familiar, Port is a fortified wine, somewhat closer to hard liquor in alcohol content and usually served in very small glasses (it’s also very tasty and somewhat sweet - my preference is a 10 year tawny)
Since arriving in Portugal we have become far more social. Back in Southern California our friends were spread all over. Our Son lived an hour away, my best friend was 30 minutes by freeway (without traffic) getting together with friends needed to be planned a week or more in advance. I suppose it also helps that most of the friends we are making here are also retired.
I have joined a very active expat community and my husband belongs to a different one. Between the 2 groups we attend “meet-ups” 4-5 times a month, and could attend 4-5 times a week easily if we wished. As one of the organizers said “If you are bored in Porto, it’s your own fault” in addition to the 2 art events I mentioned we’ve attended 2 concerts, a cider tasting, an opera, 5 more gallery exhibit openings, the grand opening of a Mexican resturant, and had coffee, lunch or happy hour get togethers with friends both old (from previous trips) and new.
Glendora, where we lived, was about a hour drive from downtown Los Angeles, 45 min from Hollywood, even the nearest resturant was a 5 minute drive or 20 min walk. Here so much is in walking distance. After the Opera, it took less than 15 minutes to walk back to our apartment.
I will admit I’m not thrilled with carrying my big bags of groceries home and up the stairs and one day I did complain that after I go to the butcher, the bakery and the grocery store I don’t have any energy left to cook. Not to mention having to go to the laundromat or figure out how to vote in this so important election. Oh, and then there was the surprise I felt when I saw the pork being delivered to the butcher (the image may be triggering to those of us who are used to our meat being parceled and cello wrapped).
All that considered, I delight in the lifestyle. Things are slower in a good way. I love that we are beginning to be recognized as part of the neighborhood. Just the other day, one of our neighborhood butchers waved to me, he was spending his break in the corner park as we were walking the dogs.
Having dogs is a great ice breaker - everyone loves to stop and give them a cuddle. Walking them gets us out into the city every day. We have a small park at the end of the street and a larger one about 15 minutes away.
Our Son was able to visit us in July - he works remotely for his company in Los Angeles and we were able to see him for at least part of every day he was in town. He introduced us to some brew pubs and helped deliver our TV stand (another thing that is challenging when you don’t have a car) we were able to celebrate his 34th birthday and watch the opening of the Olympics while he was here. We had 2 actual chairs + our folding chairs, now we could entertain! No, that wasn’t his real birthday cake, my husband has a quirky sense of humor.
Every great adventure contains at least a couple of hiccups… I’ll tell you about those in the next post.