.day 19.

I was missing my bike so much this morning. I ride my bike everyday at home - it's my transportation, my freedom and how I move energy. Then my landlord called this afternoon to tell me she had a bike for me to borrow. Bike dreams do come true! She dropped off the bike at 12:50pm with VERY flat tires. All the stores here are closed for lunch from 1-3pm so I had to wait 2 painstaking hours to get the tires pumped up. 3pm finally came and I headed out to my favorite spot, zooming (I mean it's a commuter bike with a basket...I'm not sure if it can zoom. ha ha!) past a group of very serious retired Brits dressed like they were on a guided safari adventure (this is a strange but common occurrence in my town), with a huge smile on my face. My 40 min walk to where the river meets the ocean is only a 10 minute ride so I looped back and decided to ride a bit more. I took the Ecovia - a bike path connecting the towns of the Algarve region for a little bit to see how the bike handled the muddy roads. Once I reached my planned turn around point I didn't want to turn around, I kept riding. I rode all the way to the next town over, Cabanas. It's a ghost town this time of year, most of the year. Some developers got too excited with hopes of a new surge in tourism to the Algarve region and slapped up complex after complex of cookie cutter condos with unnecessary barred windows. My new friend in town, she owns a used bookstore and gives me endless travel ideas/inspirations/temptations every time I visit her, told me that for the most part the stacks of condos stay empty except for a few families renting one for the Easter holiday. It's sad to see implusive/disconnected development in such a beautiful place. I kept on the bike path, I wanted to see the waterfront. I found Cabanas to have a nice little boardwalk. It's about 3 blocks long and has about 4 cafe/bars and a beautiful view of the docked fishing boats, a narrow sandy beach and a small marshy island.  Listen to this if you need to set the mood. The marshy coastline and fishing boats had such a strong New England vibe to them. I made me think of spring time on the coast, taking trips up to Portland, Maine to visit my friend, Abbi.



I think I could live so many places, I fall in love easily with landscapes. I love being surrounded by mountains so enormous if makes me feel dizzy, overwhelmed by the smells of sage and the warm desert hues, trips down winding muddy country roads, laying on the beach with towering dunes of Cape Cod or soaking up the salty air and relaxing cadence of the ocean lapping up on the beach. Maybe that's why it's so easy for me to move but there is something truly magical about New England, its can be wild or ridigly regal and sometimes both. I felt that same wild energy on the boardwalk of Cabanas as the sun was setting and the damp chill was setting in. I just wanted to sit at the cafe with a glass of wine and enjoy the view a little longer but I had to I forced myself to turn back before it was going to be dark. I'll be back.




What place(s) captivate you? What's your favorite view?

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In other events, I started reading Lily Stockman's blog again, she always inspires me. She doesn't post there anymore but reading her posts again feels like reading old letters from a friend. Today is the first FULL moon of 2016, full moon in leo. What a way to start the year! I am dreaming about taking a bus/ferry ride over to Morocco (it's only 5 hours away), one of the great suggestions from my bookstore friend. Speaking of books, I'm traveling to Faro 3x a week for my metalsmith class which means a lot of time on the train. I found A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley at the bookstore, a book I seen a few times but never picked up. I just started it, it's a story of a family farming in the Iowa which feels strange looking out the train window to see the ocean, salt marshes, and orchard after orchard of orange trees. I also just heard about this guy and his 100 days of self connection, such an interesting thought! I'm curious to watch more of his videos.