Nazare, Portugal; Wimpy French fries, Barking dogs and Hurricane-Force Wind

Follow-up; Flixbus has an odd way of doing business. We arrived at the bus depot and found our numbered sign. There’s no office or employees anywhere. It reminds me of Uber. I think it may be run by AI. When the bus showed up, I was relieved to see we had a human driver. He held a scanner and everyone lined up to have their phone QR code scanned. But, you see, I had a question. My receipt showed I’d paid for two seats but had only been assigned one seat, so unless I was going to sit on Joe’s lap for two hours, I needed to ask my question. The driver’s response was comical. Even though the bus was sold out, he shrugged and said it would be fine. Get on the bus. We did and managed to find two seats together. The bottom line is that no one is willing to pay the extra two bucks to reserve a seat, so it really is like musical chairs. Nice bus though and only had one stop.

Nazare is a wild and volatile place in the winter/spring! The weather seems to change every five minutes. This morning it’s been alternating between blue skies and rain. When we arrived yesterday the wind was so strong we were having a hard time not getting knocked off our feet. We retreated from the main ocean-front road to a side street with a little better luck.

Hunger drove us back out again to a nearby restaurant. I ordered garlic shrimp. Joe got a burger and wimpy Portuguese fries. Off to the grocery store to stock up on the basics like eggs and coffee. We retreated to our beautiful apartment and took a nap. Finally, we headed back out again to find dinner. We stumbled upon an Irish Pub… perfect! Beer, wine, and fish and chips with the added bonus of a live band. Believe me, we slept well last night.

On a funny side note; the Portuguese really do make floppy French fries. At the Irish Pub I asked if I could have the fries extra-crispy. I even mimicked a crunchy sound. The sweet young waiter made the same crunching sound as he pretended to bite into something. My high hopes were dashed when he proudly delivered an extra portion of wimpy fries! He asked if that’s what I wanted. I shook my head no and smiled. In the meantime I looked up ‘crispy’ on my translator app. I told him my mistake and we all had a good laugh, but we still paid for the extra fries.

We’re now officially on Portuguese time. We went to bed after midnight and got up late. After eggs and ham, we set off to discover what Nazare had to offer on a Sunday afternoon. First stop—a couple of espressos at a beach bar. Then wandering until we got thirsty and needed to sit for a few minutes. We lucked out and found a dumpy little local’s hang-out… a Cuban bar. We were customers number two and three. We got the window seat and watched the constant flow of geriatric men come in. They always shook every man’s hand and then settled at what became a thriving game of dominos or poker. When we left it was packed.

After that we set out to explore the back streets of Nazare. I found a store selling gorgeous thick cable-knit sweaters. That was tempting because it’s pretty dang cold here. I’ve mastered the art of layering. Actually, I learned that art pretty young from having been raised in Humbolt.

Looking out from our Airbnb patio reminds me of Ferndale in northern California. I’ve seen a lot from this patio: a goat herder, a big dog chained up to a lean-to shack, a little terrier who barks non-stop, and a really fat long-haired pony. This apartment is great for us, but it’s kinda weird. It has two bathrooms—two rooms where you can take a bath or shower, one of which has a toilet. I thought it had two toilet rooms… read the fine print. One toilet, two showers.

The sea is rough right now because of the series of storms coming through. It’s cold, extremely windy, and gorgeous. We stopped at the espresso beach bar to get a hamburger and fries. The burgers looked yummy this morning. I’m not sure what we ate, but I seriously doubt it had anything to do with hamburger. It was more like hamburger-flavored spam. It tasted okay but the texture was too weird for us. Hopefully we’ll have better luck for dinner.

Man it gets cold at night here! The wind howling off the ocean is breath-taking but not in a good way. I only have two pairs of pants and one of them is light-weight, therefore I’ve worn the jeans for a week. Fortunately baggy jeans are popular here. Last night we scurried into a local café. We were the only customers. After the usual long explanation that Joe wanted a dark beer and the usual result of them bringing us a light beer, we ordered a charcuterie board. The four employees and the owners watched soccer and yawned while we ate. I have to say it was cheap though. $2.75 for a glass of red wine and $2.00 for Joe’s stout. With the large board, two beers, and one wine, it came to $17.

This morning I stood in the sun on the huge patio and admired the sun on the mountain behind us. Before I went out, I slipped the cork into the sliding glass door track to prevent it from shutting behind me. Why? Because the really nice double-pane sliders have no handle on the outside and it locks automatically when you shut it… so obviously you have to make sure it does not shut while you’re on the outside. Obviously. Isn’t that how all sliding glass doors are designed? Life hack; when you travel, check the re-entry on sliders. This isn’t our first time coming across this.

Now I’m admiring my husband working out in the front room. He’s such a jock.