Have T@b will travel: Making new friends!

Have I mentioned we are in the wilderness? OK, maybe I'm being a little extreme… Our closest neighbour is about a 5 minute walk away, and the closest village is about a 20 minute walk away. It really isn't a village though… Basically it is 3 private homes and one house with some table and chairs that you can stop at and have a beer or a coffee. The only way you know this is because there is a universal symbol throughout Portugal… maybe Europe? A small little picture of a martini. Which is strange right? A martini in the middle of some rural village… Should I expect to see the "Sex and City" gang hanging out?! Hee hee! That would be kind of cool! Anyways, getting off track… The next 2 towns are approximately a one hour and 15 minute walk away. Ok, maybe we are a little isolated, but we love it! So we were running low on cheese, cookies, bread, olives and wine. I know!! An extreme emergency! Call 911!! So we put on our walking shoes and headed to St. Antonio das Areias to replenish the cupboards! Being city folk from Canada we forgot there is this thing called "Siesta"! Basically we walked into a ghost town, except for the 2 older ladies chatting outside of the bull fighting coliseum, no, I'm not joking, and the 2 teenagers sucking face at the bus stop. Some things are the same no matter what country you are in! No not the bull ring… the kids making out! So to make a long story short we found a small food market run by the friendliest woman ever! She looked like Frenchy from "Grease", I think I'm aging myself! We bought the most delicious cheeses and packed up our IGA grocery bags from home, starting the long trek back. We took breaks along the way to share some apples with our new friends, and also stopped to play "we don't speak Portuguese" charades with the neighbours! A fun day had by all!!! By the way, Portuguese is HARD!! Like super hard! Kind of a mix between Spanish, Arabic, and French! Not easy! Wish us luck, I think we are going to need it!!

See the lady doing her laundry in the distance? It is quite a common sight. We are very spoiled back in North America with our fancy machines!

Another common sight. These spring fed pools are mostly for drinking water. Note the built in washing board on the left side. People still use these pools for laundry and dishes too!