Reflections

The past couple of weeks, frankly, have been really challenging. They have been a blur of heat and crowds and picking up and moving airbnbs/hostels every 24 hours and doing it all over again, day after day. We moved around too much, in my opinion. But we made a choice to travel with a friend we met at the surf camp and while that was a fun experience, ultimately we learned that everyone travels differently. We left Milfontes and met up with Aymen in Lisbon for a night, explored Sintra for a day, then bolted up to Porto for several days. To be honest, all of it was a blur. We were on the go so much, trying to pack in every sight, every restaurant, soak up every bit of the cities we were in, that they all blend together now. While I love learning about history, marveling at architecture, interacting with other travelers and eating amazing food, I find that I feel overwhelmed and need

a reset after being in cities for too long. For some people, cities, with their vibrant energy, invigorates them. For Niko and I, we just feel depleted when we are in a city for too long. During it all, we found ourselves tired, cranky, and in desperate need of surfing. Niko's board, lugged around to every city we found ourselves in, was a constant reminder that we were not doing the very thing we set out to be doing during this trip: surfing. Although it wasn’t exactly what we bargained for, we did have some amazing experiences: listening to Fado in Lisbon, seeing the fairytale-esque town of Sintra, exploring the beauty of Porto, and wine tasting in the interior of the country.

But, as I mentioned a couple of posts back, in Santa Cruz, it's all about being pushed to feel something. For life to feel real, good or bad, overwhelmed or invigorated. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to even feel overwhelmed traveling in cities in the first place. I recognize the insane privilege I have to even say that. It is not lost on me, but I also feel that it is okay to admit that our trip hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows. I don't want there to be this illusion that because we are traveling everything is perfect and so fun and wow life is amazing all the time! In all reality, our trip thus far has been good in a lot of ways, and also hard in equal measure. All in all, it's been quite a bit more tame than we, and maybe others, had expected. And frankly, that's a little relieving. I don't want to have to live up to any expectations for this trip. Ultimately, I just want to not suck at surfing (at some point). That's all.

Back to now: From Porto, we rented a car to drive into northwestern Spain where we find ourselves now. We're staying at a little surf house in a town called

Carballo, 5 minutes walking from the nearest beach, Razo. We are now finally in a place where we both feel rejuvenated and refreshed. It feels like this is exactly how we imagined our trip would be from the start: staying within walking distance to the beach, surfing as much as possible, reading in between, cooking at home, and really just slowing down. The waves have been phenomenal here and I have been able to progress so much, which has been so exciting. We are here until the 5th which gives us a little time to slow down before we head to the next spot. Likely, we will stay in the area given how good the waves are and how good we feel here. It’s all just trial and error. We’ll get stressed and cranky and tired and overwhelmed again soon, I’m sure. But for now, we are beyond content, and that’s all we can ask for.