Despite its stellar start, the week ended in a nosedive. I couldn’t keep my head above water; it felt like everything at work was a battle. The icing on the cake (that we are not indulging in this Lent) was when my train was canceled this morning. I pieced together a route that took me two hours to get to work. However, the weather was extremely mild today, and the sun was out for the first time all week, so I made the most of my long walk this morning.
To top it all off, I have a cold coming on. I think my body knows it’s allowed to slow down starting now.
The best part of my day was when I put my out of office on and packed up for the week. Gone fishin’! To Portugal.
The first question I get when I tell the Germans I’m going to Portugal: “Isn’t it cold?” Followed quickly with “Are you going alone?”
And then I think about my friends with busy lives on the East Coast who are getting hammered by snowstorms, and I think they’d scoff at those questions. (the answers, by the way are: it might be, and yes).
I’m starting to learn that Germans are very pessimistic about anything weather-related, and most want to go to a tropical island for vacation.
Why Portugal? Why now? Are questions I do have the answers to.
When I looked at my year, I knew February would be grey, cold and tough. It always is. I also mapped out 4 to 6 week time periods to work hard at work and at the gym, and then planned my vacations around those times. This is the first time I’ve done something like that and I really enjoyed having this light at the end of the tunnel. And now I feel like I’ve earned it.
As for Portugal, it was never on the top of my list. But the more I heard about it, the more it intrigued me. I was looking at beach destinations that were close by, but wouldn’t be super cold. The southern coast of Portugal is similar in latitude to the Greek Isles, and it’s only a two hour flight to Lisbon.
This article in the New York Times was published when I was mulling over thoughts about Portugal. I considered it serendipitous. It also made me more intrigued with this country that seems to be relatively untouched by tourism.
The more research I did, the more it sounded exactly like a place I wanted to go to; almost a throwback to the way Europe used to be. And the descriptions of the sunsets over the old buildings sounds breathtaking.
Naively, I also thought Portugal was just like Spain. But the more I read about it, the more it seems like it’s very different, with its own culture and food. I can’t wait to experience both!
So, although it might be mild, and even though I’m going alone, I hope it will be fun and fulfilling. But most of all, I hope it will be a respite that feeds my soul.