A Caldeira in its Natural Environment
Join me on my 4 month journey in my ancestral homeland
I’ll admit right off the bat that half of the title is click-bait. I don’t actually have 99 problems. I do have some though. I have a feeling that so far my depiction of my travels in Portugal has been rather Utopian, as I have been portraying the many positives of my travels so far. Don’t…
18 days ago I stepped off of my flight, ready to be overwhelmed. New people, new smells, new sounds, etc. Everything would be new. I got through customs, and stepped outside into my new life for the next 4 months. I had tunnel vision almost immediately. Hundreds of people waited around the exit, hoping to…
Yes, I hitchhiked! That is not something I imagined myself saying even 2 months ago (I mean, it’s usually frowned on in the US). But, I hitchhiked. Five different times to be exact. Why did I have the crazy idea to hitchhike on my trip to the Azores? Guidebooks and internet research presented the Azores…
Pico is defined two different ways in the Azores. It is the name of the second largest of the islands. It is also the name of mountain located on that same island, the tallest mountain in all of Portugal; a stratovolcano that is 2351 meters (I know my readers are mostly American, but I’m trying…
“The true paradises are the paradises we have lost.” -Marcel Proust I found paradise this week! It just so happened that paradise coincided with a place some of my family once called home. When I tell people about my family background, and ask them if they’ve heard of the Azores, I am long used to…
Sitting on the banks of Rio Tejo (its labeled “Tagus” on every map, and yet neither of the countries that the river run through call it that) is an icon of Portugal. This icon is unchanging, having watched explorers return, bringing news of gold and spices in far off lands, and now oversees the numerous…
1 day. In 1 day a lot can happen. I hope nothing much happens in the next day, because that would just be a nuisance. My flight to Lisbon (via Dublin) leaves in 1 day. (FINALLY!) 18 hours. That’s how long I will be traveling before I get to Lisbon. 12 hours of flying. 6…