Episode 6: Vacation, Weather and More
We took our first vacation in Portugal recently, and recap where we went. Plus, we talk about the weather, regional differences we have observed, and we talk about trying to break the consumer mentality of "let's go to the mall and buy stuff."
Hello and welcome to another episode of As the Dinosons Turn and we have gotten back from our vacation and we're recording a little podcast here to I guess talk about our vacation and how it went. We went to did we go to the Algarve, I guess?
SPEAKER_01Yes, we did. We went to the Algarve.
SPEAKER_00So and then we went to Lisbon for a couple of days and then we came back home. I don't know. My impressions were I enjoyed the Algarve a lot more than I enjoyed Lisbon. Lisbon is someplace you have to go, and there wasn't anything wrong with it, I guess. It's more just I think we're more quieter beach people. We found a nice quiet spot next to a really nice beach.
SPEAKER_01So we stayed outside of Al Jazur, um, which is also not the height of Algarve either. So we weren't staying in a larger city. We actually stayed um in a nature reserve there that was not too far from the one of the best beaches in the world. Um and so that was a great time. Um, but it was definitely a strategic, like, let's go and get kind of a mountain, like a an escape. Like we live in the mountains, we want to get an escape that was um definitely more nature-centered, and so that's where we ended up. It was a great apartment.
SPEAKER_00It was.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we loved it. And the great thing was that because it's near the beach, you had the cool beach breeze, which was wonderful, and it went through the entire apartment. It was it was well oriented so that you could have that breeze taken advantage of from both sides of the apartment. So it was just nice and peaceful there, and I think that we could have stayed there the whole time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It was different. I think that's something if you even as a tourist, if you visit Portugal, I think there's regions to Portugal. You know, Lisbon is like the the big bus. I mean, Lisbon is really no different, I don't think, than a New York or a Los Angeles or insert any other big city in the world. Um, and you know, the finance hub and where you can find all sorts of stores and businesses and so forth, and then Porto and the area where we're around is it has its own vibe. And then where we were in the south, there in the Algarve, that has its own vibe too. It was different, not bad, it was just different from what we've seen thus far in the north.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, I think the the there are a few things. Like, so it it's definitely sandy soil, which is something that we don't care. It's all sand. Um, so it's very much more desert-like, and the um you know, the hills and things there are covered with things that are planted purposefully. So, I mean, there's some wild seagrass and all of those things, but generally it's like planting olives or some of those warmer weather crops, which olives grow here, but they only have one producing season in the north, whereas in the south they produce several times a year. Um, and so I think that makes a big difference. Um, but yeah, I think it would it reminded me more of like the hills outside of like San Diego, Southern California. Um, whereas where we are here, it feels much more um like Northern California, Oregon, Washington kind of place. So um, but there were several things. So where we live, almost no one wears shorts unless it's like a 33-degree day or above. Like the moment it hits 33, then shorts are acceptable. But no one wears shorts outside. We didn't see anything but shorts, um, unless somebody was wearing a work uniform. I also didn't see real shoes. I saw flip-flops everywhere, which is also not acceptable where we live. Flip-flops are not not good.
SPEAKER_00So I wear shorts every day. I've worn shorts pretty much every day since we moved here on March 15th. But uh the the actual, you know, the the locals who have lived here all their lives or whatever, they they don't wear shorts where we are unless it gets really hot.
SPEAKER_01Well the Jack won't even leave the house with shorts on because he says he feels like a schlub. So he brings he brings shorts for his gym class or those things, and I had to force him to bring shorts with. And he was glad he did, because everybody wore shorts, and he just had like he threw a fit though. He was not happy that day that I'm like, no, you're gonna wear your shorts, we're gonna go outside, this is what we're going to do. Um, and it took him a while to kind of warm up and not be a moody, angsty teenager for a while. He was not pleased that we were dragging him along for our excursion to the beach and for lunch. We're like, we'll just go do lunch first and then we'll see. It's not that far. Um, we literally were a kilometer away from the beach, so it was just really, really close. So that worked really well. Uh and it's a huge surfer area as well, so you saw a lot of surf shops and almost, including inside the inside the grocery store, there was a place where you could book your surf lessons. So I mean, um, but yeah, I think that they had a wider variety of um health foods. So that was the other thing. It was really would be really easy to be vegan and vegetarian there. Um, whereas you don't have as many vegan products here. Like that's harder to find, at least in our smaller town. If we go to Braga, that's not a big deal. Um, but yeah. We got green onions for the first time, which was fantastic because we've been here and we're like, there are no green onions, and like, well, everybody grows them. Like, well, what about those of us who don't grow them? We we can't get green onions, so I'm gonna start growing my own.
SPEAKER_00Um But the beet the beach there was really amazing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00And I don't know, I guess the the uh the vibe of the area was good. Um and then so we spent got there Friday night and left on Sunday or Monday. Monday and then went to Lisbon and Lisbon is fine to visit, but I don't think we would want to live in Lisbon unless unless work circumstances or something took us there. I think that our soul is more in a a quieter countryside sort of place.
SPEAKER_01Well, and you know, if you had told me three or four months ago that I'd be driving around Lisbon, I would have told you you were psychotic. It was crazy. I mean, it really was crazy, and so trying to find all of those locations and and go through all of the different streets, and and then of course there's the whole additional layer of Portuguese driving where there are no real lines on the road and you can park anywhere if you just decide you're going to. And it so it it was a lot. Um and we weren't staying in a place in Lisbon that was like well-oriented for us to just park a car and not go anywhere. So um knowing that we were going to have the dogs with us, I wanted to make sure we were near a park. So we stayed in the center of Lisbon in um near the larger park area there, and that was great for the dogs. Um, that was not great for the rest of the experience. Um, it definitely meant that you couldn't just go to a corner store because it was like an offset little neighborhood, um, and nothing was closed.
SPEAKER_00Nothing was within walking distance, and even even getting like DoorDash delivery of food was at times an adventure. It did work the last the last two times it worked, but there was the one time where we ordered something and they I don't know, they started driving our direction and then just stopped.
SPEAKER_01The police wouldn't let them through. They said the the road to your place is closed and the police won't let me come. And so they just cancelled our order, and it was like, okay, and then how do we get any food up here? Um but apparently they opened the road again later.
SPEAKER_00So But while we were in Lisbon, we drove to the mall and went to the Lego store, which was something that was on Tyler's list for for months and months and months, was the Lego store.
SPEAKER_01It feels terrible because it sounds like we only go to malls, which is not true. Um, but yes, we did have we had to go to this mall. It reminded me of like a maybe a scaled-down version of Mall of America, but it had a Lego store, and that was the thing we had to do when we were in Lisbon. We had done all kinds of other things the last time we were there, and so I didn't feel like we had to go and do all the touristy kinds of things that we had done before. Plus, on Monday, Jack leaves for his very first trip without the family. He's going with his class to Lisbon. So I was like, well, I'm not gonna make you do all of those things that you're gonna do either. So it was more of a let's make sure we get to the Lego store. Um, connecting with friends didn't happen. There were some schedule issues there, so we just decided to come home early.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we left uh well, about a day a day before we intended to, or half a day before. But we also, you and I went to an exhibit, an art exhibit that I know you were excited to go to, and it was interesting.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was one of those um 3D dimensional live, like you can be living in the art. I know that Van Gogh's gone worldwide. This was FridaCahlo, and so it was amazing. I was so excited. And as you know, I've talked about her art and all of these other things. I don't think Jason had any clue what he was getting into, um, particularly when we're talking about imagery and history and all these other things. So I'm educating him as we go through, and then he's learns a lot through the exhibit. But I was so excited to see it. That was a great thing. Um, but ironically, I thought, okay, the boys decided we cannot go and see Indiana Jones. We were gonna do that, right? But we can't because they haven't re-watched all of the movies ahead of time. They're like, let's just do that back in our hometown, Mom. It's like, okay, fine. So I was looking at alternative things that we could do in the afternoon when it was 20, 29, 30 degrees outside. So inside things with air conditioning. And I didn't want to go to the aquarium because that's where Jack's gonna go, I think on one of his very first, like maybe the first day of their trip. So, um, or the Bilem Tower or the you know, monastery, any of those things. Those are all things he's gonna have to do again with his class. Um, so I looked this up, I was like, this would be great. Um, they didn't have Van Gogh. Um, I couldn't find the Monet and clipped one because I thought Monet would be awesome too. Um, but they had Frida. And I was like, okay, so I showed everybody, I showed the pictures. I was like, what do you think? And what was the response I got?
SPEAKER_00They were interested.
SPEAKER_01They were interested. I thought, hot damn, cool. I bought tickets. Come to find out I had a major faux pas. Just because we said it looked interesting didn't mean that we thought you were gonna buy tickets and we were going to have to go. I was like, oh my holy hell. I tried so hard to like preemptively be like, is this something you would like to do? In large part because if you try and force Jack to do anything right now, wow, it's a whole moody thing that I don't want to get into. So I was like, okay, they both said this looks interesting. And I thought, okay, virtual reality, this would be great. But couldn't get them to leave the house. So I was like, okay, that's fine. You guys just stay here. And Tyler was on the fence and he decided he wanted to go as we were already entering for our time. I'm like, it's too late now. Like, if it's really good, I'll bring you tomorrow. But um, yeah, I think that we had a great time out. It was definitely more peaceful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was a good thing to do. And then I don't know, we decided to come back and and here we are again.
SPEAKER_01I know, like the beds in the second Airbnb were not as comfortable. Like the first Airbnb, everybody was like, oh, the pillows aren't great, but the second Airbnb, the beds were not comfortable. What I also love, um, beforewarned, that just because they say they have air conditioning in both of their ads, neither one of the places we stayed in had air conditioning. But the one by the beach had fans. In Lisbon there were not even any fans.
SPEAKER_00That's true.
SPEAKER_01So there was no air conditioning.
SPEAKER_00I think air conditioning I think it's a European thing, isn't it, that air conditioning is different in Europe than it I mean in the United States and most places nowadays we're used to central air. You flip a switch, the entire house is kept at what, if 72 degrees or whatever. And here it's what we have like in our place is not exactly a window unit, but it's kind of comparable to a window unit. And that you see that in lots of places, even in businesses, have the exact same sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know that even when when I was six and we moved to Colorado, having air conditioning in Colorado at that time was, you know, weird. But we moved from Oklahoma and Texas where you had air conditioning in part for humidity, you know, but we had I've never I don't remember I don't remember living without central air ever.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um and so that was a big thing. And and so like this has been, I think, the biggest adjustment. And it's not really for the cooling so much, it's for the humidity and the drying the air. Um, there have been a couple of days where a little bit cooler would be nice. Or going to sleep when it's cooler, that would be a little bit nice. But it's really built for that, like let's turn it on for an hour or two and then it goes to sleep and turns itself off. So no central air at the moment. Maybe when we buy um and get to that point, we can be there.
SPEAKER_00We should talk just briefly about the weather. I know the topic of this podcast was is our trip, but the weather, so I remember w on one of our first episodes that we recorded in mid to late May, we talked about oh, the weather never changes, it's always like 75 degrees every day. And then we went through uh two weeks, ten days or so where it rained non-stop. Maybe it was only seven days, and then it's been really, really hot, like unusually hot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there was a big heat wave that went through, and I think that's the other piece of it. So it's just a huge heat wave that's gone through. And then we had random storms that would break that up, and that was fine. But then we had like six days in a row where it was above 30 degrees, and that was that was really hard for everybody to do.
SPEAKER_00That would be somewhere in the mid to upper eighties Fahrenheit, and there were some days where it got to 95 Fahrenheit, which is for this part, I think in more inland it gets hotter. You Central Portugal as a nor as like a norm. Here, if you look at the weather averages, 74 or 75 is like the historical average high here. So 95 is out of the ordinary, but you know, now we're back home and it's about 78, I think, today. And if you look at the forecast now, it it's like this now, at least for the next seven days.
SPEAKER_01I I really do think that the weather is pretty perfect. I mean, sometimes I get a little sweaty because it's you know, I'm an American. Um, but I have to say I I'm very, very pleased about that. So it was actually cooler when we were in the Algarve. So there was a day where it was, I guess it was like 25 or 26. It wasn't that bad. Um, and that's that's where we were on the beach, but we went down to Sagradish, um, which is the lowest um like most southern part of continental Europe. And so we went to Sagadesh and went to the um military fort there and looked around and and that it was like 20 degrees, which was wonderful with sea breezes, and I was like, oh well, we can do this. I'm trying to convince him that we should be getting Airbnb type properties and in places like that. Like, oh, you know, Al Jazur, this is a great little place with a wonderful beach. We can buy something there, and then we could rent it out, and then we can use it when we want to. Hint hint, some property types of things, or I was like, Sagres would be a great place to stay. It just felt like really nice. And so I think we had fun there. Um it was just lots of beauty. I think that's the other thing. You're just like, oh gosh, it's so beautiful. When you think about a beach, there are these little enclaves where it's beautiful sandy beaches, but it's surrounded by these giant like cliffs and rocks, and it's like, wow, look at all of that, you know. I mean, it was just it's very cool.
SPEAKER_00I guess we totally forgot to even talk about what we did going to Sagrish and trying to find and we did find where you you had visited in 2004 and trying to get some pictures from that same spot and um seeing the fortress there. I don't know, that was just a that was an interesting thing to do.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, yeah, thanks for, you know, this was the one thing I wanted to do. The kids were not up for it. Um they they were pretty much out of it. I think that they have the right idea though. And I think that this is also a cultural shift, too, because when I think about going on vacation and I think about going to another city or another place, I always think here are the zillion lists of places that I want to go and see and do all these things. I didn't have that compulsion. I was like, there are two things I really want to do. I wanted to go to Sagrish, I wanted to go to the beach, and I knew we had to do Lego store that otherwise it was gonna drive me crazy because this has been months and months and months, right? But those are the only things that I really wanted to do or was worried about doing. Um, instead of having like a full itinerary, which was very nice.
SPEAKER_00You just go and you just be like I think that that's something that we're learning to do, isn't it? That I we keep saying we'll talk about our burnout sometime, and we will sometime, but I think that that's something that we're trying to learn to do is just be and experience things and not be so worried about having an agenda that has to be all the boxes have to be checked all the time. So go on vacation, but it doesn't have to be go, go, go, go, go. It's see this and see this. And I don't know, we're content a lot of times just to lay on the beach or even just sit at the sit in the Airbnb and just enjoy the sunshine.
SPEAKER_01Um that's not to say that I didn't spend hours and hours ahead of time looking at all the things that could be done in that area just in case. Right. It's so because I knew it could go either way. It's like, oh, what are we because there are times. What are we gonna do today? Is usually the number one question our youngest asks, what are we going to do today? And I have to say, like today, we're doing nothing. We're relaxing, I'm gonna go to the grocery store. We all have our Portuguese lessons today, all four of us. That's it. Um, and he was okay with that.
SPEAKER_00I think that they're getting better at that. I think that the how do I want to say this? The the everyday, you know, what are we doing today? A lot of times is let's go to the mall and buy stuff. Let's go to McDonald's and buy. I mean, McDonald's is not cheaper here in Portugal than in the United States. It's the same. It's the same.
SPEAKER_01Now they've got glass cups that are for sale. Like so we have we know we have to go because we accidentally, while we were cleaning out their mess in the back, threw out a bag that apparently also had glass cups in it. Um, so we're gonna have to do more of those. And so I know that's gonna come, but it you're right. It it usually is let's go and get this thing that I really want, or that you know, Tyler is a big collector, and so he stocks things online. He knows where these amiibos that he wants for his next. I don't even know that they anybody cares about amiibos anymore, but he's got them on his list, and there are these two that he wants, and he knows which places have them. And I said, Oh, you know, when we were looking at things to do, and I was looking at this Frida Kahlo, I was like, Oh, Monet and Clint, that's good. That's in um Guimarech. Like, so that's in Guimares, which is close. And he's like, that's where they have those two amiibos. Let's go there, Mom. We can stop at Fanak, and I thought, oh God.
SPEAKER_00But that's I think that's hard though to get over that consumer mentality that I think we've been fighting for. I don't know if fighting is the right word. It's just something that we're we're trying to just be. I mean, it's the consumer mentality, it's the go, go, go, work, work, work, don't come up for air. I think we're just we're trying to just be. As the dentist told you, be more Portuguese. You should I don't think we've told that story. I mean, how long is we're at twenty minutes. Maybe we should talk about the we should talk about the health system and our experiences with that in our next podcast.
SPEAKER_01I think we will. I have to say though, that this was definitely more a Portuguese vacation because I would ask I would ask parents, you know, that I've been kind of friendly with so what are you doing for vacation? Like, oh, we are going down in the garb. That's nice, go visit a beach. And I'm like, okay, so what are some of the things you do there? Like, we go to the beach.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01I was like, oh, huh, oh, okay. Yeah, I think that that was that was a so you don't go around and then try and kit every single place that could be a point of interest all along the coast of the Algarve. No, you know, like the like that's a a foreign concept. And then I also realized that we're talking six hours away. So it was a six-hour drive from where we are to where we were at the very tip, at the very edge of Portugal, right? Um so it's a six hour drive. Can we do this six hour drive anytime we want to? Sure. Do we have to pack in everything in the entire world that's gonna happen once because we might not get back there again? No. Um, and that was it, that's a big shift. I think that's the other thing. And you know, you save one thing for next time. Like it was like, oh, next time. But I also think that our kids are are not us. Like they that was e like they are much more happy to be like, yeah, like they loved the beach apartment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they did.
SPEAKER_01They thought that was fantastic. This beach apartment, and we're not too far from the beach, even though we had to force them to go. Jack loves the water apparently, but hates sand more than life itself, so he complains the whole time.
SPEAKER_00Until we got there though, and we're all so I think I think one more thing, real quick, before we wrap it up, is just the cultural comparisons of regions. So I think in the north, everybody's friendly, but it's much more formal. Like you said, people they dress in a certain way. Um you know, I've seen our neighbor go work in the field in, I don't know if they're dress pants, but it's more like dress pants and a button-down shirt.
SPEAKER_01And uh he's got a fetching green fedora now. I've impressed that. I was pretty impressed. He but he every day, that's just the way he dresses.
SPEAKER_00But everybody's nice. They speak to you everywhere, whether they know you or not. In the South, it was much more I felt like it was more informal. Not in a bad way, it was just a different way. People were more informal.
SPEAKER_01Oh, definitely. I mean, but it's a surfer hub, so it's like surfer culture. Like that was more predominant than Portuguese culture from what from what I could see. It was all surf culture. So it's Portuguese surf culture on top of that. And I don't know enough about US surf culture to be able to make a comparison there. What I can see is everybody's wearing shorts, t-shirts, bikini tops and shorts, flip-flops, sun covers everywhere. Like that's that's exactly what's happening. And you will only see that around town here when people like stop to buy ice on their way to the um river beach. But um, I'd say that I'd say he um one of the things I was noticing, and I was telling Jason I noticed is how all of the cars where we are are very well cared for and newer. Like everything is a newer car and it's got all-wheel drive and all these things. Whereas that was not the case in in the south. Like there were a lot of older cars, there are several that were pretty beat up, and that's not something you really see where where we haven't seen in our area. And I told Jason I said, I think it's because we live up in a mountain, and some of those would not get up the hill. So you have to actually you have to get a car more often. I don't know. Um, I would say also, um, again, more vegan vegetarian vegetarianism. There were a couple of vegan cafes, um, and even in these small little alcove towns. I thought that was really interesting, which is fantastic. Um, and you know, I thought that that that would be nice. It would be nice to have that kind of right where we are. But we can go to Braga. Um other things, again, the green onions is still standing out on my mind, which nobody probably thinks is a big deal, but for me that was a big deal. I got green onions.
SPEAKER_00I was weird, there's certain things. We had a hard time finding celery today, also. We did find it, but we had to search for it.
SPEAKER_01We did. We went to a second supermarket because I was making a I was like, why didn't I not have celery? And I was like, oh, well, probably because it's not a season for celery right now, and they get it shipped from other places, just like it's probably not green onion season, but in the south, maybe it's always green onion season. I don't know. It's crazy. I'd say that those are some of the things that we saw. Um also ice cream everywhere, of course, because it's warmer, it's beach type weather. Um, so I saw like that was a big important thing. But still like laid back, relaxed, slower pace. Um, there was a lot more honking though in the Algarf and in Lisbon than anything I'd ever seen here. Like people in town are just like, oh, Joe Blows up the road here, decided he's in much more so it was like road rage isn't a thing. It was just kind of like, ugh, you know, whereas that was not the case in the south or in Lisbon at all. Like people were really ready to use horns in different locations, which I was surprised by. Um also like we could speak English absolutely everywhere in the Algarve, and it was no big deal. Everybody spoke English, like I we were speaking Portuguese and they just speak English to us. At one point, um, somebody apologized for speaking English um because we were doing a very good job in Portuguese. It's just that he finds English easier. I was like, okay, you're Portuguese, but okay. Um so I think that those were definite things. I see why people would want to move to the Algarve for multiple reasons. It's very relaxing, it's beautiful, the beaches are fantastic, they're year-round kinds of things. We're not talking about warm water, it's cold water. You know, like so you have your um, you know, if you're hanging out on the beach, you're there to sun, basically, but otherwise you've got a dive suit and everything else that you're gonna be wearing because it's for serious water sport kind of thing. But I don't know, I see the appeal. I don't regret it though. I don't regret it. I was like, I like this, and I could see you coming down here and spending a month or a week, but it doesn't feel like home. That was my thought. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00No, this feels more like home, even though I think it's an as the dinosaurs turn sort of thing where we're doing it the hard way compared to what we maybe could have done.
SPEAKER_01Um What? Of course we are! That's the way we roll, dude.
SPEAKER_00I know. So, but no, I I This is great.
SPEAKER_01Pretty awesome. I'm I'm contented. I was ready to get back to the house for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted my own pillow. Um, but also the cat. We were just ready to be home because we weren't gonna do a zillion things in Lisbon, and by that time we were just tired. So we decided next time more time at the beach, two nights in Lisbon, and the dogs are gonna bark. So I guess that's the end.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I guess that's the end. Join us again next time.