Saying Farewell to the farm, Reuniting with Jovan, and another Farewell to Portugal
Leaving the farm in Elvas was bittersweet. The last few days brought a comfortable rhythm, both in work and outside of it. Our work transitioned to simpler tasks of weeding and preparing the cobblestones for grout. We all felt more comfortable in the work we were doing by this point, making it easier to relax. A similar feeling grew outside of work as we spent many comfortable moments together with our usual board games, card games, and hanging out.
One of the nights, Miranda and Krister had a date night, leaving the four of us alone. Hannah made us chili and cornbread, and we talked and played board games for hours. Bonding moments like that became more meaningful in this last week, given our growing familiarity with one another. One of my favorite days was our pool day. We spent the morning completing our cobblestone work, and 4 hours flew by like 1 hour with how satisfying completing the work felt. We all listened to music together while working and enjoying one of our best spring days at the farm, mid 70s and sunny. After work, the 4 of us jumped in the freezing pool hand in hand to brace ourselves for the ice cold water. Cannonball contests, and made-up performances while jumping in the water brought me back to being a kid again at summer camp.
For dinner, we had one of the best meals yet - Jasper made chorizo and pork beans and rice with an incredible side salad, plus rosemary olive oil cake for dessert and Krister made his famous homemade vanilla ice cream. A morning spent getting my hands dirty working outside, followed by an afternoon of play in the sun, and an evening of food indulgences was truly the perfect day in my eyes. To top it all off, we were gifted our last day off of work the next day to enjoy the morning together :)
I sat in my mixed feelings this last early morning as I ate a leftover piece of rosemary olive oil cake under the fragrant Wisteria. I had come to find familiarity in my routines here, and I felt like the structure was really good for me. I had barely any time on my phone, so many laughs and time spent with others, working outside, and challenging myself in small new ways like living communally. It felt strange to know that I just shared the past 20 days with this group of people who all live separate lives outside of this experience, and we will all go back to new routines after this.
That growing comfortability made it feel less natural to leave, yet at the same time I was feeling ready to go. Despite the many great moments at the farm, I caught myself counting down at times until it was time to leave. It was strange because I really did enjoy the experience, however, any time spent away from normal comforts I think inevitably brings about some of these thoughts. As I reflected back to my first few days on the farm, I recalled my weariness over whether I was going to gain anything from this experience. I was proud remembering how those fears slowly fell away one by one; proud of myself for sticking through and giving the experience more time to breathe and settle into what it needed to be.
March 26 and 27 were two of our favorite days in Portugal. The evening of the 26th, my bus pulled into the station in Coimbra where Jovan was waiting for me. After what felt like so long apart, we were finally reunited for good! We were both buzzing with excitement - excitement to be together again, excitement to be in this new charming city Coimbra together, excitement to officially start our travels together. We walked through the streets of Coimbra and instantly fell in love with the city. It was the perfect size, with beautiful architecture built around nature, exuding old historic charm. We grabbed dinner and ate some local Portuguese favorite dishes while sharing stories and reflections of our previous 3 weeks.
March 27 brought about two causes for celebration - Jovan’s birthday and his quitting the job day! An added bonus, it was Friday :) so we had the weekend ahead of us to celebrate only one more week of work. We spent the morning walking all around Coimbra, marveling again at how beautiful we found the city. It helped that spring was in full bloom here, with purple wisteria and pink cherry blossom and judas trees sitting amongst all of the vibrant green flora. Before heading back for Jovan to start his workday, we sat outside an 800+ year old monastery turned cafe in the city center. As we drank our coffee and ate our pastries, Jovan thought about quitting in just two short hours and couldn’t stop smiling.
That night, we celebrated with a delicious dinner at a tapas restaurant and later shared a drink at a rooftop bar overlooking the river and city.
The rest of Portugal involved a lot of eating and walking. Some days, it felt like that’s all that we did. Got up in the morning, walked A LOT all around a new area, and ate breakfast and lunch. By the time lunch was over, it was usually time for us to head back and for Jovan to start his workday. We found that this time of waiting for work to finally be over felt like a countdown to our “real” travels. It’s hard to feel negatively when the only agenda item for the day is eat and explore a new area, yet this working from a different country in actuality has its difficulties. Beginning work at 2pm and ending at 11pm when it’s dark out makes for some late nights and no time to decompress after work. Although we enjoyed our mornings together, we had to be conscious of timing. Overall, with these constraints it of course didn’t yet feel like what we wanted from our travels. It’s a hard balance of feeling grateful for our opportunities and trying to live in the present, yet still counting down the days until we can have the adventure that we’re yearning for.
We took advantage of our ample free time on the weekends to take day trips. One of our favorites was to the city Tomar. The sun was shining and the streets charming and alive. The city is topped by an impressive castle, and we drove past it and through the countryside with our windows down blasting and singing along to Taylor Swift (Jovan’s dance moves to Ophelia are a work of art).
We still had some great morning adventures despite the weekday constraints. One morning, we woke up at 5:30 and took the bus to the coast to see the sunrise and go for a hike. Still dark out, the wind blew bitterly cold on our faces as we sat on a rock overlooking the water, wondering why we did this.
We realized the fog would take some time to burn off, so we started our hike and we were instantly reminded of SLO. We quickly realized exactly why we did this. The sun began to peak out and we hiked for miles along the rocky coast and wildflower filled paths.
We both shared this warm feeling of contentment and gratitude that comes from surrounding ourselves in nature. The last two miles of the hike were especially fun, as our new doggy friend Cabo walked alongside us :)
As our miles hiked grew, so did our appetites. It was nearing lunchtime and while we were growing hungry, we were full on appreciation. The smells of eucalyptus and pine trees surrounded us. The harsh wind from the morning grew quieter and turned into a light ocean breeze. The morning sun rays wrapped our surroundings in a hazy warm light. Our countdown mentality melted away as we felt fully present. Long hikes like this are usually reserved for weekends at home, yet here we were on a random weekday feeling the weight of this privilege.
After the morning we had, our pancakes with fruit and chicken sandwiches were quickly shoveled into our mouths. Stomachs full and bodies feeling tired from our early morning wake up and hike, we took a nap on the beach for an hour. Always thinking about food, we ready had a plan in place for round two of eating. Because we didn’t have much time before we needed to head back, we enjoyed our second lunch of the day at an Italian place.
Many notable mornings/afternoons were spent exploring our nearby surroundings. We felt the magic of the fairytale town Sintra, walked the same paths until they started to feel familiar in Coimbra, and consumed a few too many pastries and coffees. Time moved slow though with our finish line in sight and unobstructed travel dreams around the corner.
At last, it was time to pack up and head to Lisbon for one last night before traveling to the airport and boarding our flight to Morocco (it was much cheaper to fly to Nepal from Marrakesh than from Lisbon, so we chased these cheap flights and planned to spend a few days in Morocco.) Coming back to Lisbon after a month away allowed us to appreciate the city more deeply. After having explored other parts of the country, we saw Lisbon with a fresh perspective and truly appreciated our last remaining hours there. It felt like the right way to end our trip, as it began together in this city, finishing off with Jovan’s last day of work here.
We went out for a special meal to celebrate his last official day! What made the meal special was the restaurant concept brought to life by a Brazilian chef. The restaurant only seats 20 people, and the tables are communal so you can share the meal with others. Since we were the last reservation of the night, it was just us two and the chef. He cooked in front of us while we shared conversation, and a beautiful moment at the end of the night as he cooked a dessert for us from his hometown in Brazil. He shared how fulfilled it made him feel to share that part of his culture with us, and we were the very first guests to ever try that new menu item.
That sweet and connecting moment energized us. We carried this energy into the next day when it was time to head to the airport, hoping to have many moments like this along our travel journey. Now it has officially begun! Our new journey begins in Morocco for a few days, and then onto Nepal.
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