Yesterday afternoon, I returned home to the apartment that I have been living in since February last year. I will leave this temporary home in a week or so.
My twin sister and her boyfriend dropped me off, after having picked me up from the bus stop and I was delighted to find out that they had brought some nice home made soup, bread and appelflappen with them ( a dutch delicacy consisting of puff pastry filled with apple, raisins and cinnamon ).
We enjoyed the aforementioned with some herbal tea and had a nice chat and afterwards they headed home and left me to recover from my trip.
Last night, I went to bed, accompanied by the sound of screaming neighbors and this morning I woke up from the sound of the same screaming neighbors.
I then heard the other neighbor's barking dog doing his thing, as well as a power drill and other machinery used in construction work.
Apparently it was time for me to wake up.
Who needs an alarm clock if you have those noises to do the trick?
It's good to be back!
[ insert some sarcasm here ]
back in the town where I've spent almost a year now
and, in all honesty, it's even better
to know that the key to my future house, a stone building that is surrounded by a one hectare garden and a view
and away from the town ( but still nearby ), is already waiting for me.
In fact, I might cycle over there this afternoon or, at the latest, tomorrow.
I wrote the above, unaware of the fact that it would rain as much as it did today and that there will be two more days with loads of rain and wind.
As I am riding a bike and the land was already very humid, the one time I checked it out just before my trip to The Netherlands, almost 4 weeks ago, I will probably have to sit out the rain before I go there.
My hands are itching to get over there
and so are my legs ( that will have do the cycling for me ).
In the mean time, I am in the talks with a woman who will probably take over my apartment after I leave, as well as messaging back and forth with the owners of my future house. And, this afternoon, I also got a phone call from the guy who rented that house before me, to explain me about some things on the land, the solar system, generator and water system.
The place is off grid and there's some workarounds that I have to know about to actually get things to work ;<)
All in all, I am plenty busy, while, at the same time I am acclimatizing and processing 3 weeks of time spent in the country where I was born, raised and all that jazz.
There's so much I could write about but I am trying to slow down so, instead, I will leave you with a bunch of pictures of my flight from Amsterdam to Porto, 2 days ago, as well as from my morning in Coimbra, yesterday. Coimbra is the biggest and nearest city ( about 70 kms away from where I have been living in the last 5+ years ).
The weather wasn't great, but I loved to see an orange tree with actual oranges in it. Right after taking this picture I gave a poor Portuguese man a one euro coin and I asked him whether these hanging fruits were edible.
I believe he said they weren't.
The weather was kind of dreary, grey with light rain and I was sweating with my Winter clothes and backpack, but I loved the colors of the buildings, adding some positivity to this poorer part of the city.
The following picture was taken, earlier yesterday morning, from my hotel room window. It shows a tennis court that looks like a swimming pool, with the rio Mondego in the background.
and here's the swimming pool.
I really enjoyed the Portuguese coffee, even more after 3 weeks of Dutch coffee ( and about two weeks of drinking filter coffee at my mom's home ( sorry mom )
And here's a series of pictures taken from the bus window, on my way from Coimbra to Vendas de Galizes, a small village with a bus stop, where my twin sister and her boyfriend would pick me up to drive me home.
Even with this amount of rain ( appearing more dramatic as it blows off the roof of the bus ), I really appreciated the green and the curves of the landscape, so different from the 'flat earth' called The Netherlands
It was a breath of fresh air, after 3 weeks of city life and (semi)polluted air.
And as I am recounting this backwards anyway, let me leave you with a bunch of pictures taken from the plane, the first one being taken in Porto, just before landing.
I enjoyed a green tea with 2 stroopwafels ( a Dutch cookie with syrup, one that my home town Gouda is famous four ( aside from its cheese )
Once again, it's good to be back and also to be back on Hive.
Expect more stories from me on here, soon ;<)