Coimbra, Figueira da Foz, Montemor o Velho, Tomar, Condeixa, Penela, Alhada & Buarcos (Centro Region, Portugal) – Home is where the heart is, but where the F**k is it?
Well, two weeks later, still in the search of a place to call home, we go to the Centro region of Portugal, to yet again, look for a place to call home! We’ve been here before and we check in at the Jantesta Guesthouse, just outside the lovely city of Coimbra. The place is OK if you have a car but otherwise not very handy. By this time we are starting to freak out as we need to find a place to start our paperwork for the residency process. We also need to open a bank account, get a tax file number and all the other regular things to do when moving to a new country. Yeah, done it all before, but still... We jump on the internet and find what seems to be a nice little house in a place called Casal do Mato, in Alhadas, just outside the coastal city of Figueira da Foz. We call and book a visit and we kind of think we can be happy in the little house. We need to think about it, so we take a day off to visit another place on top of my list, the beautiful city of Tomar and its Convento do Cristo and castle, what a fabulous place. We also take the time to revisit beautiful Coimbra and explore the food scene, masterfully balancing sightseeing with house hunting, immigration appointments, banks, etc
Finally we decide to take the little house in Figueira as there are very few options of fully furnished places on offer for annual rent. As summer approaches all the rentals become weekly wherever there is a beach nearby. So, we move to our little village called “Casal do Mato”, loosely translated a “bush couple”, which is kind of appropriate, really. After that we start cleaning and organising as well as exploring the pleasant, if a bit too windy, town of Figueira da Foz. We also take some time getting to know the surrounding areas, We make friends with the two only other people apparently under 75yo in the village, two nice ladies, who used to be married. Yes, we are the new kids in the village. We go out to the casino, the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula and we check out the local markets and fairs and, obviously, hit the food scene with a bang! We eat “bacalhau” (codfish) in every possible, imaginable way, all kinds of pork, rice and seafood, and of course, we want fries with that!
We are really impressed with the fresh produce around, really amazing stuff, so time to start cooking again. There is a huge variety of supermarkets for such a small town and we get to know each of them intimately, the best for wine, the best bread, the best for cheese, anyway, you get the idea. We also think it is awesome as everyday but Sunday, the baker parks her van on every corner and beeps to let everyone know that “your fresh bread is here”. Every day, punctually at 10am, or 10.30am, sometimes at 10.45am, 11am, but who cares, a myriad of fresh bread is delivered. We also after a couple of weeks get a knock on the door and see an old lady we’ve seen around and she asks me if I would like some eggs, lettuce, kale and zucchini, yes, please! So, she brings them over, from her garden and we give her a little box of chocolates. She asks us if we have children? Why not, any problem??? And I said no, it was an option etc and she asked us if we were here to stay or just on holidays, we get lots of hugs and kisses before she left, it was great to feel welcome.
There was a major setback as we could not manage to bring our dogs over, one of them was above the weight limit and we didn’t have the heart so separate them. They have been adopted by the friends who were looking after them and are very happy. We are kind of still dealing with it after so much investment both emotional and financial but we have to accept there was nothing else we could do to make it happen.
Our best friend Katia, from Brazil comes to visit and we do a crazy amazing road trip covering 26 cities in 7 days (in the Centro – Porto, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Maiorca, Buarcos, Montemor o Velho, Coimbra, Leiria, Batalha, Alcobaca, Fatima, Tomar, Obidos, Castelo Branco, in the Alentejo- Evora, Evoramonte, Estremoz, Elvas, Alter do Chao, Rodao, and in the North – Monsanto, Sortelha, Guarda, Sabugal, Amarante, Celerico de Baixo, Mondim de Basto and Guimaraes). We took her on an emotional journey back to where her family came from (Mondim de Basto). We wre alos very lucky to be able to go with her to Festival de Tabuleiros whoch only happens in Tomar every 4 years - absolutely amazing (look it up...)
We also eventually get our annual residency cards, a car and a bank account, so it definitely starts to feel like home. The summer has been lovely and there are all kinds of parties happening everywhere. We are still trying to getting used to how late everything begins in Portugal, everybody is partying on till morning while we both are struggling to keep our eyes open at 11.30. And so we settle in to our new place, new country, new life, we’ll talk more soon as we have been busy planning some exciting trips, cheers.
