Family Pics

Ever since we moved over to Portugal I have wanted to get some family pictures of the three of us, to capture our time here.  In addition to Maritha being a saving grace as a friend, she also was a photographer back in Sweden as her full-time job.  Double bonus.  We set out last Monday night to take a few pictures of us along the main walk-away that we stroll multiple times a day and down at the beach, our home-away-from-home.  She did a great job of capturing some of our candid moments and Annabelle's vivacious personality.  It was very last minute so was not able to coordinate outfits, kept it very casual but got a few keepers that will forever remind us of our journey over here.

World Cup Watch Party

Let the World Cup madness begin!  In anticipation of the World Cup, Porto has been prepping stations  across the city for large watch parties, one of which is right down the street from us on the BEACH!  We saw them starting to put up stadium type seating and enclosing a large area off the beach a couple weeks ago and as the tournament approached we realized they were setting up for the World Cup.

We were excited to see what it was all about, so went down there with our friends, Maritha, Johan and Ture (Sweedish friends), last Friday night and had a blast!  All the World Cup games are being played on a huge screen, with multiple beer stations and good tunes during half-time. Overall it's an awesome arrangement and cannot wait to spend time down there during the tournament!  Let's go USA!

Matching family scarves.  While our loyalty is obviously for the USA, we felt like we had to embrace the culture and cheer for Portugal during their Germany match.  How better else to do it than wear matching scarves?  We fit right in!!

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

We were quickly reminded how differently the Portuguese culture operates upon our return as we sat at a restaurant for a good 20 minutes before ever being attended to.  I don't understand how they can think people would want to wait 20 minutes to even be greeted and handed the menu.  I guess I think if you are at a restaurant, you are either hungry or thirsty, so probably want to start with either somewhat soon.

Having Maritha to come back to made it so much better!  We spent the weekend as a family getting the house put back together, grocery store runs, and reminiscing on our time at home.  Come Monday I was dreading Andy going back to work, but thankfully had a friend to spend the day with.  Annabelle seems to enjoy hanging out with Toodles although they cannot speak to one another.  She still tries to hold his hand, give him hugs, scream her happy scream, anything to make him play with her.  He still isn't fond of her hugging and touching him, but keep telling him he will like it one day :)

Porto Public Transportation - Annabelle and I experienced our first Porto public transportation ride.  We needed to get to the supermarket in preparation for the Starr visit and Andy leaves for work so early I couldn't bear to wake Annabelle up, so decided that we would take the bus to the mall and get our groceries.  Thankfully Maritha decided to join us and she had done it previously so knew somewhat where we were going.  We picked one of the hottest days yet and after standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes in the hot sun, we boarded a jam packed bus with NO air conditioning.  I had Annabelle on my lap, sweating and thinking that I was going to pass out and no one would know what to do with me.  After almost an hour we made it to the mall, which is a whole 5 miles away and carried on with our day.  Not sure we will be doing it again, but glad we experienced it…I guess :)

Fish at the Grocery Store - the smell…the eels…the presence is just…well…barf.  Most days I walk down to a small local market about a mile away and the second I enter the doors, the smell of fish starts penetrating the air.  I think I'm more sensitive to it, but try to get in and out…quickly.  Some days they have some very interesting looking fish that I have no clue what they are or how you would even begin to cook it to eat it?  Guess people like it.

Now that the weather is getting warmer, the exposure on the beach is getting higher.  As in, very little to no coverings.  Girls, women and even older women all wear these bottoms that are basically just strings that go up their bottoms, but not like a normal thong.  Doesn't matter how small, large, fit, squishy, you wear them…and let it all hang out.  There have not been as many topless women on the beaches, although with the cruise ships coming in almost daily, there is more of a variety of nationalities here and have started to see more bronzing topless beauties.  Annabelle and I were playing on the beach the other day when this women came up in her workout clothes, sat down next to us and proceeded to take off her top, full show, then wrap this towel around her and hit the beach.  I couldn't help myself and was snapping away.  I'll spare you from the other photos I've taken along the way.

Waiting at the bus stop.  Annabelle loves planes, trains and automobiles, so it was a great time for her riding the buses!

 Yes, please read the bus line information in Portuguese...

The week of Annabelle and Ture.  She just wants him to scream and play along with her.  

The fish…

Take it off.

We have a friend…Hallelujah!

As many of you know our social circle over here is quite small…or non-existent.  For the past 9 months I have said all I wanted was to find another English mom that I could hang out with.  I have tried to make friends, walk around daily smiling and trying to make conversation, only to be left with someone who either doesn't speak English, doesn't want to smile back or flat out doesn't engage with me.  So the days can be very long and lonely with no one to talk to.  The nights and weekends we have adjusted to and learned to appreciate the time we are getting to just the 3 of us.  The days when Andy is at work, all I want is one day to have someone to meet at the park, go to lunch, or interact with to break up the long weeks.

Our complex has been under construction since we moved in last Fall, but they recently started doing work on the unit right next door, which makes for some loud jack-hammering and sounds ALL day long.  Furthermore makes for a loud house and short naps for Annabelle.  It had been a long day and I needed to get out of the house.  We normally go to the park in the mornings/early afternoons, and seldomly head down in the late afternoon, but Monday we needed to get out.  So we went down to the park and were playing when this nice woman started talking to me.  She had heard me talking to Annabelle in English and asked if I was living here.  We started talking and found ourselves in very similar situations.  Every question we asked one another we both would respond with the same thing and we clicked…I was like, "Oh my God, where have you been the past 10 months?"  So we exchanged phone numbers and have hung out A LOT since meeting.  She is an awesome Swedish gal, has a son Ture who is 3, Annabelle calls him Toodles because she cannot pronounce Ture and they are great.  It is amazing what it does to the weeks having someone who we can call to meet at the park, go to lunch or just walk and talk.  I feel so fortunate to have met her and find it so odd how much we have in common both from our lives back at home and our situations abroad.  I never thought my first and only friend would be from Sweden, but thankful that we have found someone over here…finally!!

Annabelle and Toodles. She loves to hug him and hold his hand and he's not into the affection yet.  We are working on personal spaces and not invading his constantly :)

Gouda Holland

Annabelle and I got to tag along with Andy to Gouda, Holland for a long weekend.  Andy needed to go there for work, yet again, so decided to take us along.  After his first trip to Gouda he raved about how much he thought I would like the city, so fortunately got to see it with my own eyes.

We flew into Amsterdam and had to take a train into Gouda.  When we were about 15 minutes outside of the city the train stopped and we sat on the tracks for awhile.  The conductor kept coming on the intercom, speaking in Dutch, notifying us of the issues.  After sitting for about 25 minutes we noticed people getting off the train and fortunately asked some young girls if they spoke English and what the deal was.  They had sent a new train because ours had broken down.  Glad we had NO clue what was being said the whole time we were on there.  

Other than our arrival and departure hiccups, we loved it!  It is such a quaint, picturesque city.  I think having already been to Amsterdam, a much larger scaled Gouda, made me appreciate the uniqueness of the city.  Canals wind themselves through the city that bikers rule and once again felt more at ease with the amount of people that spoke English and ability to get around.  Andy had to work during the days, so Annabelle and I spent our days exploring the town and snacking our way through…on cheese of course.  Gouda cheese represents about 60% of the Dutch cheese production and is pronounced "How-da"…FYI.

Their food was delicious and even got a true Mexican meal that included guac and a margarita.  A cuisine we cannot find anywhere in Porto!  We stayed right by the Market Square, the town's main attraction, so spent our days exploring the market, visiting the Waag House (where they would weigh the goods to levy taxes), Church of St. John (famous for its stained glass windows created in 1530), Stadhuis (oldest Gothic city hall in the Netherlands, built in 1450) and a little shopping of course.

We had a close call getting to the airport on time as Andy thought our flight left an hour later than it really did.  As we were awaiting our first train Andy realized that our flight in fact left in an two hours instead of three.  Thankfully after sprinting through the airport with a sleeping Annabelle in arms, our flight was delayed a few hours and we had plenty of time!!

And we are off…this girl loves to fly!  Glad someone does :)

Our day at the market.  Every Thursday from spring to summer, the square is filled with vendors selling a variety of goods, but the coolest thing was seeing the men actually sell the cheese.  The cheese is brought in weighed, tested for quality and then sold (as shown above).  The gentleman on the right got is cheese wheels loaded them up in his cart and rode away on his horse.

Beautiful gardens set between people's homes throughout the city.

Dinner out…can't seem to get a good pic of the 3 of us anymore…so this will do.

Hoppy Easter

Easter was definitely not the same for us this year being away from the family, but did our best to make the most of it and give Annabelle the Easter experience.  We had been talking about the Easter Bunny for a couple weeks prior, more as leverage for us to bribe AB to be a good girl, so she was excited when Easter morning came around.  Fortunately Easter is a BIG holiday over here, so the store decorations and city was preparing for the holiday way in advance, which allowed us to get in the spirit.

We had ourselves a little egg hunt, watched church online and had great day as our little family of 3 over here.  Here's to hoping we'll be back to celebrate with the big family next year.  Holidays are just not the same without everyone.

Northern Portugal

We took a day trip to the northern part of the country and got to see two beautiful cities and Spain all with in one day. The beauty of northern Portugal is it's a mountainous region filled with medieval castles, monuments, churches and every little town has its own story to tell.  Thankfully we were with the Pintos, who navigated us through the country seamlessly and showed us some incredible towns.  Our first stop was Minho, which is bordered by the Douro River in the south and divided from Spain by the Minho River in the north.  We visited a town that was bordered by brick walls but filled with narrow, cobblestone streets lined with shops selling linens, towels, pottery, kids clothes and a variety of Portuguese collectibles.  Within the town there was a magnificent church that was built in 1271.  Yes, 1271, that was so beautiful.  We dinned at a hillside restaurant overlooking the Minho River and Galicia, Spain.

Next stop was Caminha, which is located in the Viana do Castelo region, where we parked along the river in the city center to see the beautiful views.  The kids had fallen asleep so did not want to wake them and make it to the next stop peacefully.

We spent the back half of the afternoon and evening in Viana do Castelo which too was so beautiful.  Viana is located at the mouth of the Lima River, located between the ocean and the mountains.  Being seaside, the city holds so much history as a crucial point of departure during the Age of Discovery.  And yet today is a happening fishing port. Andy had been there before, as they have a plant in Viana, but were able to walk around the city and see one of the most magnificent churches I've ever seen live.  We hiked our way up this huge hill to Sanctuary of Santa Luiza which sits atop of the Santa Luiza hill and overlooks the city.  We loved seeing more of Portugal and so glad we made the trip!

 This was the walkway and driveway to get into the town that we spent the afternoon at.  The road is so narrow our car did not have a centimeter to spare on either side and thought for sure we would not make it through.

 One of the beautiful churches inside.

 Built in 1271.

 After lunch standing hilltop with Galicia, Spain in the background.

 Maria, AB and Afonzo.

There were these shrines all throughout the town and open for the weekend in preparation for Easter.  Typically they are closed, but they open them during Easter weekend as Easter is a very sacred holiday in Portugal.

 Viana do Castelo and Santa Luiza church.

 Looking down from the top of the church stairs.