Where are we now? 15-November

Travel comes with its triumphs and trials. Especially when you’re on the road as long as we have been. Odds are you’re going to have some ups and downs. Remember quarantine? As I write this, we mark a total of nine months of travel, having started this journey on 15-February on a flight to Buenos Aires. We’re spending this travel anniversary of 15-November in an apartment in Porto, Portugal, taking a two-week break after month of constant travel through Italy. We’re enjoying long-forgotten comforts of doing laundry, shopping for groceries, cooking meals, and just sitting on a couch in front of the television. You can’t believe what a relief it can be to not have to get out of bed before they stop serving breakfast in the hotel.

today, we went to the newly renovated and recently reopened Mercado do Bolhao and shopped for tonight’s dinner. Here’s the roast pork loin we got from the butcher surrounded by the squash and apples we bought in the open-air market. Enjoy the little things!

Porto is unbelievably charming, and everything we remember it being from our visit almost fifteen years ago. That in itself is a lot to take in. We are as different now as the city was then yet somehow still the same. It’s a perfect place to unwind, plan future travel, and deal with unfortunate events.

All sounds awfully foreboding, right? Winter is coming. The unfortunate event we’re dealing with now is that when we flew from Milan to Lisbon, only one of our bags made the plane. You pack for all eventualities and take everything you need for an entire year. Then in one day you find you have one pair of shoes left and only a suitcase full of dirty clothes. You really can’t imagine that empty feeling watching the baggage carousel go around and around knowing your bag isn’t going to magically appear. Yeah, that sucks.

It’s been more than a week. EasyJet customer service doesn’t exist. Their phone message actually says they cut all their customer service people and don’t actually have anyone to answer the phone. Really! We filled out an insurance claim. Someone might process it sometime. What can you do other than be unbelievably pissed off, yell at the wall to get it out, and move on. We still can’t quite believe our luggage is just gone forever.

Looking on the really, really, really bright side (no, there isn’t really one, just delusion to keep us sane), it couldn’t have happened at a better time than when we’re in one place and can deal with the situation without having to move every few days. Here’s another pretty picture of Porto.

We have another week here in Porto to see if our bag magically appears (we know it isn’t going to), replace some of the clothes and shoes we lost, including buying another bag (OMG). It is getting rainy here, so we also need to stay ahead of the weather. We’re looking at spending a week on the tiny subtropical island of Madeira. From what we’ve read, it sounds like a mini-Hawaii — mountains, black sand, marine life and tons of gardens. Then we’ll likely move on to southern Spain. We have an entire month of Italy to share, so we’ll work on some blog posts as well. Apologies for the gap in posts. It’s been a challenge lately, but we’re looking towards the sun. Best to you all and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. We’re certainly thankful to be here and still exploring.