Pioneers in Portugal

How do you conceptualize distance?

When you picture a far away land does your mind's eye traverse over land and sea like some bird on the wing?

Do you see the rolling hills below you as the foliage changes from trees to mountains, to water to bushes, to fields of corn to anything the mind can fantasize?

Do you drag along the street-view of your mind from point A to point B?

Does a virtual version of yourself count its large strides over all terrain, trying hard not to lose track of the number?

Well, I do none of those things.

I have a very difficult time conceptualizing distances in fact. I know the distance from Holland to Canada is very far only because I cannot go home on weekends. However I might feel the same separation if I was merely a province away.

Thus when my mother arrived in my small town of Middelburg on a late night train, that distance was suddenly diminished to near nonexistence. It felt perfectly natural, although different, to be waiting there at the train for her arrival and to walk with her back the short distance on those now-familiar cobblestone streets to my house. It was just a new city and she was coming for a visit.

So when she left? I felt like I should be going with her. It felt normal for her to be there with me, but it felt outlandish to not get to see the rest of my family as well since they were clearly not far away! If you had pulled me aside and told me there was an ocean between me and home at that moment I might very well have scoffed in your face.

But allow me to back track a moment since I have skipped the most thrilling ventures of our time together.

My mom arrived in my town of Middelburg and was able to see pretty well all of my town and the beach-town I work in, in a day. When time is short, a small town comes as an unforeseen benefit!

In that time I was able to show her around my workplace, introduce her to all my invertebrates that I have been collecting in my own makeshift aquarium, and bike with her around the beautiful canals of Middelburg and Vlissingen.

Since we captured Holland in a nutshell we naturally decided to take off after that; quite literally take off.

We flew to Porto, Portugal and found our small airbnb room with open windows right over the crowded streets of the city. It was an absolutely beautiful city!

And thank goodness for that because otherwise I am not sure the hundreds of stairs would have been worth it! However the gorgeous river straddled from hilltop to hilltop by tremendous bridges and rimmed on both sides with market streets and the best Port Wineries made the stairs a little more bearable to say the least.

After spending a couple days in Porto, which included a very exciting game of Portugal's Premier League football (that's soccer for all you North Americans), a classic Portuguese 4-meat sandwich (the Francesinha), and a wine tour in utter contrast to those back home, we hopped on a train and found our way to Lisbon.

We were not disappointed; nor did we lack in orange shingled roofs any step of the way.

Our stay in Lisbon was festooned with outstanding views of boat races on the river and castle walls surveying the far reaches to the ocean. It was garnished with sunsets glistening off the cluttered chaos of orange roofs and by the brilliantly blinding colours of a palace that looked as though it had stepped out of disneyland. It was characterized by moments of breathlessness when wind snatched the very oxygen from your lungs and used it to power massive waves into the jagged rocks below; almost invisible beneath the foaming and roiling remains of previous waves before them. It unfolded as a constant narrative from mom's Portugal guidebook, which, despite how much I may have huffed and hawed, I loved. Every fact and story and monument and name that I won't remember wove together to form a seamless shrine that has encapsulated the entire trip in my mind.

Don't tell her this, but when I travel alone or with others I am now often the one stopping to read an inscription or sign. At times I even try to Google the meaning or purpose of something I have seen! Shocking! Naturally I wouldn't want her to know I am starting to take after her in this way, so I smothered my interest in layers of sarcastic laughter.

But in retrospect, I must admit, I loved it. I must have been raised to love learning or something ridiculous like that!

All in all, it was an absolutely fabulous time. Together we wandered the stunning gardens in Sintra, and climbed to the top of the Castle of the Moors and stood incredulous before brilliant Pena Palace. We biked and coasted miles along the shoreline and basked in the blue skies and sunlight on the beaches at Caiscais. We went to impressive monastery after monastery and saw the peaks of what were likely countless other monasteries or churches in every direction. We walked over multi-level bridges and even managed to avoid being hit by any trams or streetcars! We climbed up and down more stairs than exist in the entirety of Holland and walked an average of over 20,000 steps a day. We tried some good local food and drinks and choked down some less-than-sublime ones as well.

Most importantly, we did it all together.

I was so blessed to have the opportunity to experience such adventures and such a unique taste of culture with my mom. Could not have asked for a better travel buddy, even when she only confused waiters more by trying to speak Spanish!

Suffice to say, I was disappointed when she had to leave, but I was not sad. I was not sad because I do not feel that she, and the majority of you, are a full ocean away. No, to me you are just over the rise of a hill I cannot yet see. If I were in dire need I know my mom would be here lickety-split. I don't need my family to all come visit me because I am not really that far. Not in my mind and not in my heart.

I will be back with them sooner than I can even fathom, and for me, that is enough to put my heart at peace.

So as I round the corner of the first half of my journey here I can say I am still glad to be here. I am excited for all the adventures and opportunities still before me. Yet I am also excited at the prospect of home and seeing friends and family again. I am excited for Christmas, because as we enter November of course we all know it is Christmas music time, and Christmas to me is a time to be surrounded by family.

Ultimately I am excited by each and every day that I am able to wake up and stand up on my own two feet, breathing in and out and experiencing the world in all of its vast arrays of tastes sounds smells and sights. I am blessed to have had so many of those days already, and I hope I will have many more to come with all the people that I love.

I hope you will too.

LOL - lots of love

Briar

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