the stories that I'm telling.

Tag: Alte

  • #tbt – My friend Anne came to visit us in Portugal!

    #tbt – My friend Anne came to visit us in Portugal!

    One of the loveliest benefits of spending time in Portugal was the proximity to some of my fellow Canadian friends. One such friend, Anne, was working in London for the first half of 2015. Before she headed back to Canada, she took a quick jaunt to Alte, where we spent a few days enjoying the sunshine.

    Between her travels and my travels, Anne and I don’t get to see each other too often. And yet, we’ve been friends since we were 11, and that means that when do get together, it’s like we were never apart. I was acutely reminded of this when she came to visit us in Portugal. With Kevin laid up in bed, suffering through his recent implants surgery, Anne and I had plenty of time to explore Alte together. Activities included long walks, sitting in the sun, and drinking espressos, going for a trail run, and talking constantly.

    Despite being in pain and needing rest, Kevin was also generous enough to drive us for a wonderful sunset/dinner combination. Kevin is an outstanding host, who puts quite a bit of thought into showing guests the very best of the Algarve, so we were lucky that he got out of bed to entertain us. The next day we spent laying out on the beach with several of our Portuguese friends, which is a classic Algarve experience. In retrospect, it was asking way too much of Kevin to take us around like this. Never have I regretted so much my inability to drive standard/manual.

    In any case, Anne’s visit was a lot of fun. With Kevin’s injuries/dental work, our time in Portugal was a bizarre combination of amazing and stressful. It was so relaxing for me to have one of my oldest friends check in help me review all the things that were on my mind. Moral of the story? Never underestimate the the goodness your friends can bring to your own mental health. With this experience in mind, I was so stoked when Kevin’s best friend Mark came to visit a couple of months later – and for that, I actually did learn to drive standard. There’ll be much more on that adventure soon 🙂

    Anne and I were having too much fun to take many photos, but I’ve snagged a few of Anne’s from Facebook, which you can see below:

    Checking out the view of Alte, from above
    Enjoying breakfast in the sunshine, in Avo Olimpia’s backyard
    Getting water at the spring in Alte
    Hanging out by the stream in Alte
    Going for a trail run!
    Heading up the hill…
  • Visiting Sagres

    Visiting Sagres

    Throughout the duration of Tyler’s trip to Portugal, I was incredibly ill. I slept most of the time and felt terribly shivery and gross for most of the time that I wasn’t sleeping. As a result, I didn’t get out for too many excursions, and Tyler’s blog posts have covered the majority of his second week with us in Portugal, where we relaxed in the Algarve.

    There was one trip for which I did manage to drag myself out of bed: a day trip to the Fort at Sagres.

    Sagres is the most south-west point of Portugal, with a large landmass that juts out into the ocean. The Fort of Sagres occupies this space, a place connected to Portugal’s history of exploration. The Fort may or may not have been connected to the work for Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator:

    It is traditionally suggested that Henry gathered at his villa on the Sagres peninsula a school of navigators and map-makers. However modern historians hold this to be a misconception. He did employ some cartographers to chart the coast of Mauritania after the voyages he sent there, but there was no center of navigation science or observatory in the modern sense of the word, nor was there an organized navigational center.[7]

    Referring to Sagres, sixteenth century Portuguese mathematician and cosmographer, Pedro Nunes, remarked, “”from it our sailors went out well taught and provided with instruments and rules which all map makers and navigators should know.”[8]

    The view that Henry’s court rapidly grew into the technological base for exploration, with a naval arsenal and an observatory, etc., although repeated in popular culture, has never been established.[9][10][11] Henry did possess geographical curiosity, and employed cartographers. Jehuda Cresques, a noted cartographer, has been said to have accepted an invitation to come to Portugal to make maps for the infante. This last incident probably accounts for the legend of the School of Sagres, which is now discredited. (Wikipedia)

    The location was stunning. Walking along the cliffs, watching birds fly above the waves, and looking back at the rather flat, open space of the fort, it was a beautiful scene. As far as museums go, it was fairly unimpressive. Very little information was offered about what we were looking at, though Wikipedia has suggested that the Fort’s importance is up for debate, which may explain the lack of concrete information at the site.

    In either case, it was a lovely day, made even better by a really fantastic seafood lunch. We dined at A Sagres, the closest restaurant to the Fort. While those around us were eating spaghetti and other such nonsense, we requested the daily specials, and were treated to an amazing seafood stew and freshly caught fish.

    On the way home we took a scenic route along the coast. We stopped at a beautiful beach, and took a detour for a supposed ‘archaeological site of interest’ that was actually just a field.

    Check out our photos to enjoy the view:

    but first, we lunch. Clams to start!
    seafod stew!
    sea bream!
    deliciously fresh fish
    taking in the scene
    walking on a nearby beach as part of our scenic route home
    this was supposed to be a “point of interest”
    so we made it interesting!
  • A Trip to the Algarve – Kevin’s backyard

    A Trip to the Algarve – Kevin’s backyard

    The moment I told Kevin I’d booked my flight, he went into trip planning mode. Two weeks was a lot of time to fill, but it got booked up fairly quickly. We considered and rejected visiting the North & Porto (too far), some additional castles (I rolled my ankle), another historical town (Heather got sick), and a winery (we slept in). But still we ended up seeing a lot. A couple days sightseeing in Lisbon, a few days on the road being steeped in history, and finally a full week exploring the Algarve.

    2015-04-17 21.07.10
    🎶 “…One is a genius, the other’s insane” 🎶

    As Heather has recapped some of the Lisbon tour and the road trip, I’ll share a couple of our day trips exploring the Algarve.

    Avo Olimpia & Exploring Town

    Because Heather works remotely and at night (Australia hours) we usually get a pretty late start our day. We typically didn’t wake up, shower, have breakfast (a Canadian tradition apparently) and a cafe [Editor’s note, we now refer to ‘coffee’ in Portuguese, hence ‘cafe’], and head out until at least noon. Avo Olimpia, on the other hand, is much busier in the morning. Everyday when I would wander downstairs to scrounge up some breakfast around 10am, she would be well into her day – a trip to the market complete, laundry washed-dried-folded, and soap-opera watched. I’d get a “bon dia, bread’s on the table” and she’d be off yet again, now to the cafe with friends. She’s always on the move, and we rarely knew where to.

    One day I got the grand tour of the town and Kevin’s childhood playground. We walked to the pool, fed ducks in the creek, and saw the old-old church, the new-old church and pointed out every coffee place in town (there were many). There were some really cool sights too! Other than the history (“so the Romans built those walls”, “this buidling pre-dates Canada” etc.) my favourite sight was the giant Portuguese flag overlooking the entire town. Apparently during a previous World Cup (soccer…er I mean, football) some kids had scaled a nearby hill and painted a Portugese flag to cheer on their nation. This act of fan-dalism has since remained, and honestly looks pretty great!

    I thought Grimsby (pop 20,000) was a small town where everyone knows everyone, but Alte puts it to shame. Throughout the week of exploring we rarely walked down the street without stopping to chat with a neighbour, old friend, or relative because everyone knows each other. Case in point: Alte, it turns out, is so small you can accidently run into family. On one of our urban tours we stumbled upon Avo. We chatted for a bit with her friends (all in Portuguese so have no idea what was said, but assume my height and fair skin were questioned) but she was too busy for us (going dancing?) and we each continued on our separate ways.

    All in all I enjoyed seeing this small town.

    Avo Maria, The Farm, and the old House

    While we spent the week with Avo Olimpia, one of our day trips included a visit to see Avo Maria and some of the family farm land. If it was nice having fruit trees in the yard for fresh juice, then visiting Avo Maria was a delight. She has fruit trees as far you can see – grapefruits, oranges, lemons, limes, whatever – just sitting there ready to be picked! I got a tour of the farm (included more Kevin stories “used to climb this tree”, “had a tire swing here”) and we loaded up on fruit, all while dodging chickens underfoot.

    The most hilarious part of this day trip was meeting Daisy. Daisy is Avo Maria’s older but still very much active dog. She followed us around for the whole tour, chasing chickens and keeping us entertained. As we got back to the house though, she surprised all of us by hunting down and catching a pigeon out of mid-air before scampering off to finish her treat!

    The Beach

    One of my favourite Algarve day trips included visiting a beach hidden from the mainroads and mostly known to locals. Here we got to walk the beach for a little while with the sand, sun, and ocean breeze all to ourselves. Kevin knows about the place because he used to visit with his grandfather and fish for clams in the summer. We got a full theatrical explanation of how he would walk in neck deep water (“it was up to here!”) trying to keep up with his grandfather while fighting the ocean (“current was trying to suck me out the whole time!”) so they could eat fresh seafood for dinner. It was a neat story which gave a beautiful pit-stop all the more meaning.

    As were leaving the beach we noticed it had rained earlier (sidenote – apparently it rained so much during my visit I’m not allowed back, bad luck) and the dirt parking lot was now filled with mud. So while Heather rolled her eyes Kevin and I hooked up the camera and drove circles through the mud having a blast! Check it out:

    Doesn’t get any better than that.

  • A Trip to the Algarve – A Culinary Experience

    So…hey there. I’m Tyler, one of Heather’s (decidedly larger) little brothers. Last year when Heather was on her Asian tour I stopped by for a visit in Cambodia. And here’s the thing, if you ever get the chance to vacation with Heather and Kevin, take it! A trip with these two is truly a vacation experience. They find all the most interesting people, order the best food, plan the best day trips, and before you know it you’re staging ridiculous photo-ops in front of Ancient World Wonders.

    2014-08-23 01.22.36
    Angkor Watt with these two (and KP), a world away – nice hat Kevin

    So when I got the offer to come visit in Alte, I took it! And in April, I met Heather and Kevin in Lisbon, kicking off a two week adventure of history, roadtrips, and wine.

    And what a trip. These two know road-trips. In Cambodia it involved a motorcycle ride through the dusty backroads to Angkor Watt. For Portugal it was slightly more tame but just as scenic; stops in Sintra (possibly my favourite place on Earth), Piodao (an incredible mountain town lost in time) and Marvao (where I rolled my ankle, but still got to see a medieval style castle), driving over mountains and through clouds, with Kanye West on repeat for 2 days, before finally arriving in Alte.

    While the road-trip was great (and Heather can discuss more), spending a week in the Algarve with Kevin was the most uniquely relaxing time I’ve ever had. We explored the area (which I’ll talk more about later) learning a good deal about Alte, the Algarve, Kevin’s family, and in true European fashion, we ate some great food along the way!

    2015-04-15 17.14.18

    You may recall previous concerns about picky eating, and they’re fairly justified. I’ve never really been described as “vegetable friendly” or “likes to try new food”, nope, just pizza and peanut butter please and thank you! However, travelling with Heather and Kevin involves visiting some pretty great restaurants, as they take their reviewing pretty seriously, so we worked on expanding our horizons…or waistlines. Here are some the things I picked up along the way:

    1. Portuguese take their french fries seriously

    Spending the week in the Algarve we visited a few local, family owned restaurants. All the food is freshly caught or hunted and cooked, the wines are usually local, service is friendly (helps that Kevin knows everyone). One thing stood out – the fries are delicious. These aren’t you’re frozen then deepfried run-of-the-mill fries; no, every cook here has their own recipe and technique. At one meal we even ended up in a 30 minute discussion on the finer points of potato choice, oil temperature, and crispness. Lines were drawn. Sides were chosen. Accusations were flung. We all had some more wine. Very serious indeed.

    2. Always order the special

    We travelled out to the coast one morning (afternoon) to see Henry the Navigator’s navigation school, and stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant. The restaurant, being right across from the ocean, was of course a seafood restaurant and the special was whatever they caught that morning. I believe we had originally wanted goose barnacles (percebes), but the water had been choppy that morning so none were caught. So we made due with what was available.

    While people around us enjoyed chicken fingers and spaghetti (tourists!) we were treated to clams (in garlic & butter – awesome!), prawn stew, fresh fish (Dourada aka Sea Bream), and some wine. Everything was fantastic. The clams disappeared quickly, Kevin de-boned the fish for us, and even the prawns (despite looking gross) were delicious. We even ended up ordering dessert!

    We must have made a scene enjoying everything, enough so that eventually the owner took notice and paid us a visit. Evidently he was glad to see someone enjoying his food so much, and, when he found Kevin was from Alte, even had drink with us (his own medronho – Portuguese moonshine – cleared Heather’s migraine real quick), and let us know we were the “table of the day”! It was a pretty cool meal, and a great introduction to seafood.

    3. Crab is delicious…

    …but a lot of work. On one of our last Algarve meals we made a two-hour trek to yet another seafood place, right on the coast. It’s fairly popular among locals, so we were lucky to get in without a reservation, and it turned out to be another meal worth the adventure! We enjoyed clams again (I’m a lifetime fan now), and some shrimp (had to actually tear them apart ourselves – gross!) to start.

    For our main course, we actually got to pick which crab we wanted to eat (sort of morbid) and they served it fresh! [side note: up to this point Kevin had been telling me at every meal to use a fork & knife, not fingers, lest I embarrass him] I’d never had crab before, but got a quick run down: crack open the legs, pull out the meat, eat it quick before Kevin takes all the good parts! I was surprised at first because every other meal involved taking a lot more care, but eating crab was a messy, delicious, affair. At different points crab leg bits ended hitting Kevin in the face (he retaliated, and I got hit too), the table, the floor, a different table, and a window. Worth it.

    If fries weren’t available, chips were
    My hosts/tour guides/translators/co-conspirators
    Clams – an excuse to eat butter!
    Prawns – not just in District 9 anymore
    Freshly caught fish
    Visiting Henry the Navigator’s school after lunch
    Seagull flying over the sea
    Just the tip of Europe
    Sunset before dinner
    Picking out who we’ll eat..
    ..and served
    ready to eat. Note: this is pre-carnage, so we aren’t covered in crab bits.
  • Celebrating Carnival in the Algarve

    Celebrating Carnival in the Algarve

    Carnival is a fairly historied Catholic tradition (and probably goes back even further than that, really). I’m assuming most of y’all aren’t up to date on Catholic traditions, so here’s a quick refresher course, courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia:

    Carnival (see other spellings and names) is a festive season that occurs immediately before the Christian season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration and/or parade combining some elements of a circus, masks and public street party. People wear masks during many such celebrations, an overturning of life’s normal things. The celebrations have long been associated with heavy alcohol consumption.

    When we came to Portugal for a 2 week holiday last year, we were here for Carnival, so though this year’s festivities weren’t a surprise, they were definitely a delight.

    In Canada, I’m used to parades being a rather straightforward affair. The first float marks the beginning, and the last float marks the end. As with most things in Canada, it’s efficient. In the fun-and-fancy-free mild Portuguese weather, parades are a bit different. Instead of a straight-line-kind-of-parade, the Carnival parade is on loop!

    One of the most traditional Carnival parades is held each year in Alte. It’s definitely more old-fashioned than the parade in the neighbouring city of Loule, and it has more of a local/hometown feel to it. The floats line up, populated by people from Alte, and they’re observed by the townspeople from Alte and surrounding areas (including me and Kevin). Most people know each other, and everyone is drinking (float people and audience alike), so things get pretty fun pretty fast. For the first hour, Kevin knew and chatted with someone from every float.

    The floats aren’t that big, so there are always crowds of people walking with them. And instead of being sponsored by or representing companies, community groups, etc, they’re simply a creative theme. Often, the players on the float act out a type of narrative as well.

    One float’s theme was 101 Dalmatians. There was a “Cruella” driving the car, and a couple of henchmen who ran around picking up puppies and putting them in a big cage (who then escaped). The Braveheart float eventually staged a battle in the middle of the street, with various players storming their castle.

    Because the parade goes on and on, the floats end up evolving; acting a kind of performance art. It’s artistic and it’s very fun.

    I found some videos online taken at this year’s Alte Carnival. I played it for Kevin and his immediate reaction was “oh man, I know so many people in this … and everyone’s drunk”.

    I don’t think I’ve ever been to such a fun parade. You can check out more vidoes here, here, and here.

    We also went to the Carnival in Loule, and you can see photos of it below. Being in a city, it’s a much larger scale parade, with much fancier floats, often mocking various EU politicians. It’s neat, but doesn’t have the same spirit at the Carnival in Alte. Have a look below to see all the snapshots we captured!

    And leave a comment below: have you ever seen a parade like this one?

    Carnival in Alte
    Hippies!
    Here are cats!
    Braveheart!
    Robin Hood & his Merry Men
    me with Catia & Soledad, 2 of our friends from Alte (and 2 of Kevin’s childhood friends)
    Puppies!
    in my very own Carnival costume. (though I didn’t make it to the Carnival party because we went to dinner until 7am)
    Carnival in Loule
    Socrates at the Carnival in Loule
    Ladies at the Carnival in Loule
  • The market in Loule and the Festa Chocolat!

    The market in Loule and the Festa Chocolat!

    Both of Kevin’s grandmothers live in the Algarve, and that means double the fun for us.

    And the Portuguese are a people who love festivals, which means even more fun for all of us.

    Avo Maria lives in a mid-sized city called Loule. It’s hundreds of years old, and it has a strong Moorish history. That history is most obvious in the recently-renovated-but-very-old Market of Loule. It’s over 100 years old, and you can see lots more photos of it on this blog right here.

    We love a good “festa”, which is why we made sure to go to the Festa Chocolat (chocolate festival) with Avo Maria. As expected, all the temporary stands were packed with a variety of chocolately goodness. Cupcakes, cookies, chocolate candy, crepes; this festa had everything!

    We only took a few photos, but here they are. Nothing better than a quick afternoon jaunt to a chocolate festival at the market (followed by a trip to the cafe, obviously)!

     

    Me and Avo Maria, touching the ass of an ass!
    chocolate candies
    eating a crepe and getting icing sugar everywhere
  • Life with a garden in Alte

    Life with a garden in Alte

    The garden at Avo Olimpia’s house in Alte is not just for lemon trees and orange trees. It’s also a place for herbs and flowers.

    Many, many flowers. In particular, roses.

    When I was growing up, my grandparents had a truly incredible rose garden. I frequently remember walking through the garden with my grandparents, examining the roses, learning their names, and choosing favourites. I’d never expected to experience rose-induced nostalgia, but as winter ended and the roses began blooming in Alte, it hit me. And it kind of freaked me out, too. Kevin and I would walk through the garden, he’d pose question about a flower, and I’d know the answer. For a small amount of time, I felt the like the Jason Bourne of gardening. Totally weird, but also nice to be reminded that there is lasting evidence from that time in my life, beyond simple memories.

    Beyond roses, the gardens in Alte are filled with the types of flowers you typically only see in bouquets in Canada. The weather here is far more forgiving, which means that plants which die during the winter at home actually survive here. Not only do I get to see unique flowers, I also get to see flowers that are larger than I’ve ever seen before.

    Take a look below to see some shots Kevin has captured in the garden over the past couple of months. Beautiful colours, beautiful flowers, beautiful memories.

     

    All the fixings for homemade hot sauce.
    Kevin’s attempt at homemade hot sauce.
    me with a Pomegranate tree at Kevin’s Avo Maria’s house
  • Welcome to Portugal, where you can’t do things quickly, even if you try.

    Welcome to Portugal, where you can’t do things quickly, even if you try.

    At the beginning of 2015, I had 2 goals for this blog:

    1. Continue to write regularly

    2. Write more about my feelings and experiences, as opposed to a steady stream of I-went-here stories (though I do plan to continue those as well!)

    June is around the corner and I’ve published so few posts that I have an actual backlog list of 20 blog posts waiting to be written. They’re coming, I promise!

    Today I bring you a brief post about my personal state of mind and a rather funny realization that Kevin and I had today.

    You may have heard people joke about the slow pace of Europe, particularly southern Europe. Let me be the first to tell you, that shit is no joke.

    When you wake up to sunshine and birds singing and fresh orange juice from the backyard, work just doesn’t seem all that important. While I was in Cambodia, I worked non-stop. Don’t get me wrong, I took plenty of time for fun, but I didn’t have social ties or distractions, and so it was easy for me to throw myself head first into nonstop work. Without that, this blog probably wouldn’t even exist.

    In Portugal, there are many distractions. Both literal and mental. With a car and with Kevin’s familiarity with the Algarve, it’s all too easy to find things to do. And it’s hard to explain, but this place just feels relaxed. Life in the Algarve is just so damn pleasant, you never feel guilty for not “getting shit done”.

    On top of that, with Kevin’s dental disaster continuing on an open-ended schedule, we quickly learned to stop asking questions or talking about “what’s next”. It’s hard to plan the next adventure when you don’t even know when it can begin.

    This week has marked the first time since January that we’ve felt comfortable discussing that elusive “next”, possibly even laying down a timeline. We’re still in southern Europe, but these thoughts and possibilities kickstarted something in both of us.

    We’ve both spent the past 2 days working feverishly. It feels natural to fall back into a work-hard groove, getting lots of things done, and quickly.

    Which brings us to today. We had big plans: get up early-ish (11am, since we stay up till 4am while I work – more on that later!), go to the grocery store at the Algarve Shopping mall, come home, then head back to the mall to see a mid-afternoon screening of Mad Max. After all, it’s Tuesday. Indulging in Tuesday movie deals was a well-followed tradition for us in Toronto.

    So that was our plan. A bit more rushed than our typical schedule, but that’s no problem, right?

    Ha!

    Instead of a quick trip to the grocery store with Kevin’s grandmother, the three of us ended up checking out several shops throughout the mall, then having lunch, and then realizing,”shit, it’s 3pm, we’ll have to rush, but we can definitely make that film at 4:30 if we hustle”.

    Ha!

    We did the fastest grocery shopping we’ve ever done in Portugal. We thought that by rushing our shopping, we’d get in and out quickly, and home in time to go to the movies. Of course, we couldn’t have planned for this:

    – the grocery store was under construction and every single section had been moved somewhere new

    – at this grocery store, you have to weigh your produce at a special station before the checkout. Not only did we forget to weigh our watermelon, so did the two families in line ahead of us. And obviously it took them twice as long as us to resolve that issue.

    – for almost 10 minutes on our drive home, we were stuck behind a rather slow-moving tractor

    Ha!

    On the drive home, the realization hit me: we’re back in North American mode, but we’re still in Southern Europe.

    Even if we’re in the mood to really ‘get shit done’, we’ll drive ourselves mad if we don’t keep in mind that the Algarve is too relaxed to be compatible with our North American, do-things-fast mentality.

    Fingers crossed that this new surge of energy for working will keep me posting more regularly!

    And just for all that reading, here’s a series of photos us relaxing around Alte and of me making orange juice in true, laid-back, Algarvian fashion:

    oranges from one grandmother, grapefruits from another
    making orange juice in my PJs!
    the lemon tree before its trim
    orange trees in the backyard.
    picking oranges from the tree
    collecting oranges for juice!
    the formerly crazy lemon tree in the back yard
    oranges!
    view from our favourite cafe!
    snack time!
    reading by the fire, keeping warm in January.
    reading!
    pick-em-up-truck spotted in Alte!
    our juicer!
  • Welcome to Alte!

    Welcome to Alte!

    Kevin and I have been here in Portugal for awhile, so it’s about time that I let y’all know about exactly where it is we’re staying.

    Both of Kevin’s grandmothers live in the Algarve (southern region of Portugal), which is where they retired after years of working in Canada. I’ll write separate posts about each of them later, but suffice to say that they are two rather feisty, independent women. Kevin’s entire bloodline (pre-parents) come from the Algarve, all within a 30km radius. So the Algarve really is special to him and to his family.

    While one of his grandmothers lives in a mid-sized city, the one that we’re living with, Avo Olimpia, lives in a small town of about 1100 people. When Kevin was growing up, his grandmother would spend 6 months of the year living with his family in Toronto, and the other 6 months would be spent in Alte. As such, Kevin and his brother grew up spending every summer visiting his grandmother here. As much as Kevin is from Toronto, he’s also very much from this small Portuguese village. And it’s obvious every time that we go out, because he knows every. single. person. here.

    But let’s get back to Alte itself. This tiny little village is rather famous, so much so that it has its own Wikipedia article. It’s also extremely popular as a tourist destination, and I found the best Alte description on a website about tourist destinations in the Algarve:

    Considered by many as the most typical algarvean village, Alte is a small village of white-washed houses nestling amidst trees and mountains, the image of old Algarve. Situated in central Algarve, the village dates from Roman times and has a Moorish past that can be observed in the detail filigree chimneys that adorn the houses.

    In the centre of the village you will find the Church dating from the 13th century, the chapel houses some very special hand painted pieces dating from the 16th century. There is also an old water mill which also dates from the 13th century.

    The focal point of Alte are the two springs. Fonte Pequena and Fonte Grande (Small Spring and Big Spring). In the olden days the women of the village gathered at the springs to fill their pitchers and wash the laundry. Now, the springs are the ideal place to enjoy a relaxing picnic in the calm tranquillity of this village.

    My friend Anne recently visited us here, and she describes this place as a fairytale. It really does have everything: beautiful water features, a waterfall, super old/beautiful churches, cobblestone streets, the view of a town built into a hillside, and the most relaxing sounds. There’s hardly any traffic, so most of day all you hear are the stream flowing and the birds chirping. There’s an interesting array of stray cats (all fed by grandmothers) and other wildlife. In the stream behind the house you can see ducks, geese, fish, and turtles. And in a tree beside the Fonte Pecana you’ll find a couple of chickens and a rooster. There are also horses. Sometimes you see people riding them through the streets!

    Aside from the natural beauty of Alte, there’s the beauty of the community itself. When you go out here, it’s important to always says “good morning” (bom dia), “good afternoon” (boa tarde), or “good evening” (boa noite) to each person you encounter. Basic manners in a small town, I guess. And half the time, that person knows Kevin and/or his family, and will stop to chat. Kevin’s family is rather well-known here, and having spent his summers here, Kevin himself is rather well known. He actually has life-long friends here, which is pretty cool. You’re hard pressed to find someone who won’t describe knowing Kevin when he was just small child.

    I thought that growing up in Grimsby gave me a small town experience? Kevin’s life in Alte is actually as small town as it gets. And not in an unpleasant way. Yes, when you go for coffee or go to the pharmacy, everyone asks about Kevin or his teeth or his grandmother. Yes, people know things about you and talk about what you’re up to. But it’s because the people here are pleasant and nice. Because they’re invested in knowing each other. The people are relaxed and they’re interested in having a good time.

    Case in point? There are SO many events that happen in this small town, all of which involve lots of eating and drinking. In fact, the last festival I went to, we ran into some old family friends. What started as a lively conversation ended with shots of medronho (local fancy moonshine).

    Here’s a quick rundown of the some of the events we’ve been to here (pictures included below):

    – Festa do Chourica (Festival of Chorizo, a version of Portuguese sausage): This was a lively festival held beside the older, smaller church in Alte. We had bread, chourica, and beer. (Of course, we got less bread than the others, because the lady giving out he bread knows that Kevin and I aren’t big bread-eaters, because his grandmother told her). There was also an auction, where we ‘won’ a jar of honey.

    – Alte BTT: this is a bike race that kicks off the cultural week in Alte. It’s organized by a local bike club, and the starting line is right in front of Kevin’s grandmother’s house. We were able to get a great view from the balcony.

    – Semana Cultural – the cultural week included live music, a comedy night, public art, dancing, and an artisanal marketplace (with great desserts)

    – Folk Festival – This took place on the ending weekend of the cultural week. It was a huge event that began on the Friday, which was a holiday. The Fonte Grande was packed with tables and people who were enjoying food and beer while watching a typical folk dancing competition. The weather was beautiful, so we were able to get lots of great photos.

    Lots of photos below, enjoy!

    our first day in Alte! (back in January)
    our first day in Alte!
    reading by the fire, keeping warm in January.
    dinner time!
    the older of the two churches in Alte. This one dates back to the 15th century.
    trailers in Alte, just up the street from us
    public laundry area
    snack time!
    view of Alte from above
    me at the traditional games area in Alte (botchey ball, etc).
    nearby grasslands
    Kevin, on the first motorcycle he learned to ride (it’s seen better days)
    Kevin, stoking the fire.
    view from our favourite cafe!
    Clouds; a rarity in the summer!
    pick-em-up-truck spotted in Alte!
    reading!
    afternoon snack with Avo Olimpia
    almond trees in bloom!
    the festa chorica (chorizo festival), in front of the church
    garden slugs eating our cat food!
    ducks at the fonte pequena (small spring)
    collecting water
    orange trees in the backyard.
    birds nest, found in the backyard
    the formerly crazy lemon tree in the back yard
    Easter!
    Easter!
    on the bridge. Kevin’s gradmother’s house is to the left of me, further back, in this photo. The stream runs behind the house.
    Alte BTT Moutain bike race
    Kevin’s gradmother, off to enjoy the fun
    me at the cultural week kick-off in Alte!
    folklore festival in Alte
    lunch!
    entered a draw to win this chicken! we didn’t win 😦
    me at the Fonte Grande (big fountain), which fills up and acts as a swimming pool in the summer
    the crowd at the fonte grande for the folk music festival
    old people here are mountain goats!
    the fonte grande
    me on the bridge above the fonte grande (people swimming in the back!)
    a water mill beside the fonte pecana
    folk-sy decor throughout Alte for the cultural week wrap-up/folk festival
    it’s snail season!
    a horse and a baby horse!
    view from my yoga spot on the back patio
    view from the backyard
    the waterfall in Alte