Day No. 44 - Feel Good - in Porto

Day No. 44 - In the meantime we are more than six weeks on tour. Although I have already finished my previous job at the end of June, I have only realized the beginning of the trip as the actual cut. But so far it was somehow still an extended vacation. 17 days was, I think, the longest time I've been on vacation at a stretch. Now we are even longer on the road than the summer vacations lasted during my school days. "Home is where you park it" - Of course we know this saying, but until now it was just a saying. In the meantime, however, it is a feeling, still somewhat foreign, but it feels real. - FEEL GOOD!

The day has us today with a conversation beGLÜCKt. Yesterday evening, an old, olive-colored Mercedes 310D, with Dutch license plate parked next to us. For me the original Sprinter at all. In this case also still pretty cool, with roof tent, etc. As it turned out, a family with two children.

Do you know such conversations, where you think afterwards that they simply took place at the right time, in the right place? This morning such a conversation arose between Ilona, her husband* and us. - Some would call this family dropouts, but in the course of the conversation I had more and more the feeling to meet beginners. - Beginners in their lives. - Nine months ago, the two made a decision to give up their sales job, their apartment, in fact everything, and instead pack their lives, including their children, into a van. A decision they obviously have not regretted. For a long time I have not met people who were so obviously happy.

I also found their children exciting. I always find it difficult to estimate how old children are. But I estimate the daughter at 5 and the boy at 7 years. Both seemed very open and also relaxed. The son already speaks a very good English. But not because he was taught it, but because he taught it himself. Learned in the truest sense. Here we did not meet any unworldly ecos, but personalities who were fully engaged in life. - For me this conversation was an enrichment. Only in the course of the conversation did I realize that our journey is still at the beginning. - I am curious to see where it will lead us.

*Unfortunately, I did not remember his name. I have as is known a bad name memory, in addition, I often do not remember names, because it is not always important to me to remember this name. What annoys me, however, is that I don't ask again if I notice in the course of a conversation that the person is noteworthy. I need to change that. - Got the start, his name is Jeroen.

Since the weather forecast has announced sun for today, we give Porto a second chance. And it really doesn't rain, it only fissels the whole day. Nevertheless, we enjoy our stroll through the city. Upstairs, downstairs it goes through narrow streets, past street art, beautiful and exciting houses. But like the day before, it scares me how much here simply decays.

For example, this beautiful birthplace of the novelist and later politician João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett. Just because of his name, the house would be worth protecting. - Not that I knew him, but I found this exciting quote from him:

"And I ask the political economists, the moralists, whether they have already calculated the number of persons who must be condemned to misery, disproportionate labor, demoralization, disgrace, shameful ignorance, invincible misery, and absolute want, in order to produce a rich man?"

The up and down through the city makes us hungry again. Today we stop at the Hungry Biker, at Rua das Taipas 68. Torgit is immediately enthusiastic when looking at the map, I'm more skeptical. At first glance I have the feeling a little too short. Then I simply order what scares me the least. A toast with tuna, capers, olives, nuts, yogurt, coconut and balsamic. - Sounds bad, right? As I said, this was the most normal thing I found, And then this, it was just awesome. Super delicious. Like everything we ate here. Very, very cool! go there, try it.

Strengthened accordingly, we let ourselves drift through the city, visit two churches, we save the library Lello after we see the queue. Sure, you could have ordered the tickets online in advance. And probably a visit would have been exciting, but although I loved reading Harry Potter, I find the hype around it is just annoying. It certainly wouldn't have been fun. We prefer to look a bit more at the elaborate tiles on the facades and have a glass of wine at Bacalhau, at Muro dos Bacalhoeiros 154, right on the Douro. Afterwards it goes for un's back to Hector and thus home.

PS: Until now, I thought I was writing this blog mainly for myself and that no one except my mother and aunt would read it, but I was all the more surprised when a "letter to the editor" - okay, it was an e-mail - arrived from the capital of Kazakhstan. Hector has actually reached Berta in Astana. The world has become a small place, and it's "only" 7,150 kilometers away, or just under 78 hours by car.

Insight of the day: It's not about getting out, it's about getting in.