Saturday, June 11, 2011

Citizens of the World

 



One way that you can tell that I'm a teacher is that I go through long periods of quiet on my afterschooling blog! Since my last blog entry, we visited Portugal, Regensburg, Germany, Colmar, France, and Mellau, Austria. Visiting other countries is a unique opportunity for employed expats with only one child, and we take advantage of this as frequently as possible.


When we visited Malta, we learned that JillyBoo needs down time, even on short vacations. Repeatedly dragging her through fields of megalithic ruins makes for a miserable trip for our entire family. For our Portugal trip, JillyBoo's daddy made a creative itinerary that satisfied both our need for some adventure and culture, and her need to have a homebase away from home.


We stayed in Afife, a small town north of Viana do Castelo in an apartment that we found on HomeAway. The bonus of setting up camp in an apartment, besides the price, is that you can purchase groceries and save on meals. Also, we like the fact that we don't have to schlep our bags around, taking a chance on losing our personal items to opportunistic locals.

 

Afife is not glamorous, not set up for tourists, and features miles of gorgeous beaches that are only lightly used in the spring. For us, it was paradise! We had unseasonably warm weather, and planned our week around alternate days of exploring and lazing about on the beach. Among the towns we visited were: Soajo, Guimares, and Viana do Castelo.



So what makes this trip afterschooling blog-worthy? The entire cultural experience! You might expect that a country that is part of the EU and is just south and west of Spain might seem more civilized. We were pleasantly surprised to find that on many times on the trip, we were the only light-haired people around for miles. For a little blondie, it was astonishing for JillyBoo to realize that, at times, she was very much the minority. And if those people weren't speaking German or English, what the heck language were they speaking?

Also, the food, so new, so salty, so much fish, such excellent bread and pastries. Bacalhau, a salty, dried cod laid out on palettes in the supermarkets, covered with flies, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, soft white cheeses and pesto slathered onto crusty Portugese bread, the food was divine.



Equally beautiful in form and fashion were the people. They were helpful, curious, helpful, did I say helpful? They accepted our Spanish when Portugese failed. They pointed us in the right direction when our GPS was less than directional. The talked to us at length about their country, their port wine, their food (again, did I mention the food?).



Any time we travel, we try to instill into our 5-year-old the idea that she is on a world journey, on a life journey. She is a citizen of the world, and as such needs to experience, respect, and learn from the people of these cultures. Luckily, JillyBoo likes to try new things...especially if they are covered in chocolate or take place at the beach!

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