Adjustments

Oh, why do I dislike change? That sounds ironic since the essence of our life style at the moment is moving around. Nothing feels too permanent, and we are frequently wondering what it will be like to actually settle down and become a part of the community for decades. Is that kind of life for us? Or are we going to be craving to move every three four years? Lots of questions on our minds these days, lots of them need to be figured out very soon as our time in England will be coming to an end in a year and a half.
I drifted a bit from the topic of my post though. I just wanted to make a note here why I have not been writing for so long…Besides being busy with holidays and everything else that is part of our everyday life, the biggest culprit for me was adjusting to our new iMac! Back in November we had to buy a new computer as our old one literally caught on fire inside. I was just done with weird random shutting down of that computer, so we decided to invest into a fancy new computer…
It’s been over two months now…and I am not in love with it. I am still adjusting. Yes, using internet is easy and stuff, but there are so many small tricky things that Windows had right and Apple doesn’t offer. I work a lot with pictures, but I hate iPhoto as it doesn’t organize my pictures the way that I organize them. “Print Select” should be a standard feature…but no, Apple doesn’t do that. if you have something on a website you want printed out, you have to copy and paste it in Word first and then print. ANNOYING since I print out a lot of emails/confirmations/travel stuff.
Finally, and this is the biggest adjustment, I cannot find anything even remotely similar to Windows Live Writer—a free blogging software program that I use to write my blogs. Blogspot itself is a very inconvenient way to write blog posts as it takes forever to upload pictures. But WLW is fantastic! There is nothing as great, even if I have to pay for it, that can substitute it with…for now. So I am writing this blog post on our laptop, and thankfully, we have figured out how to access all the pictures that are on our Apple computer from my laptop…it just takes a bit longer. Now I can, hopefully, get back to journaling our lives.

Today is a slow day and I had to stay home as maintenance people had to come redo our shower door and laundry room ceiling and lamp as shower has been having issues with leaking water for over a year. Fun stuff.
Lyana.

Pinewood Derby

Pinewood Derby is a very American thing. I remember hearing this phrase "Pinewood Derby" when I first came to the states and not having a clue what it meant. Not until a couple of years ago, I actually figured out what it really meant-haha. You make a wooden car, paint it and decorate it however you want, making sure that it weighs less than what's allowed, install wheels and let it race with other cars. It's fun! 

Alex participates in Cub Scouts on base, and this January Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts organized an annual Pinewood Derby competition. Robert helped the kids to work on their cars. Mark and Katya were allowed to participate as well. Mark made a yellow Carrot car, Katya made an owl and Alex made a speed car in his favorite color, purple.

Surprise, surprise! Robert also made a car that he was very proud of (it WAS very creative), but it was not allowed to race since it was made by a grown up... The leaders decided to incorporate it into the Pinewood Derby display anyway. Can you see on the left a toothbrush-car? Fun!

Here are all four of our cars in starting position. I had no idea they get this fancy track installed, get the finish line hooked up to the computer and all that stuff. 

Here is a short video to show you how it's done. Alex's car actually did well in this one. 

Overall, all the kids had fun. It was my first time watching and I was surprised by how long it took for everyone to get the race completed. 

Lyana.

Portugal-Lisbon’s Surprises

The day before we left on our trip, Alex told us that we HAD to go see Belem tower near Lisbon. This kid…He knows more about geography and famous places than we do, seriously. So we told him we’d try to go see it and take a picture for him. He told us that the tower was built in the middle of the river, but after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the river was redirected and the tower ended up near the shore. But indeed, the tower was built on a tiny island next to river shore from the very beginning.

We got to Belem shortly before five. The tower was closing so we had no opportunity to see it inside, but we did take lots of pictures.

We didn’t have much time before dark, so we asked one of the locals how to find Belem Pastries shop. The night before I saw a facebook post by one of our friends who was travelling in Lisbon that same weekend. She posted a picture of delicious Belem pastries, and I knew we had to get them! Walking from the tower to the shop was a bit of a journey as we constantly thought we were going in the wrong direction. The area around the tower is not really “historic”, but the views from by the river were still pretty.

And finally, when we started getting closer to places like this, we knew we were on the right track.

Finally! We found the blue sign of the shop “Belem Pastries”. The shop is behind Robert on this picture. It is very old and very famous. It sells a great variety of sweet and savory pastries. And they are very affordable! The most traditional pastry is a custard kind with flaky shell. They are delish! We bought a few of those and a variety of other sweet kinds plus a whole bunch of savory ones for a quick dinner and couldn’t believe how inexpensive everything turned out. The same stuff would have cost twice as much in the UK.

After the shop, we headed home where we ate more pastries-haha.

The next morning, we packed our bags, ate a late breakfast, took a bunch of pictures by the sea and said goodbye to our fancy hotel.

Robert’s eyes are bluer than mine or something, but he has a much harder time looking up for pictures in the sun.

We had a few hours to spare before the flight, so we drove to central Lisbon just to get a glimpse of the city. The airport was only 20 minutes drive from there, so we were not worried. But with finding parking (and having to make sure we didn’t park illegally) we had just an hour left to quickly walk around the center.

We mostly wanted to find these iconic Lisbon trams.

They are cool and everything…but then I remembered that for twelve years of my life I live in the city where this kind of trams were the norm (well, they were not as old-fashioned looking) and I used trams almost every day. So they are cute but nothing spectacular.

Well, one thing that is still cute and spectacular even after thirteen years is Robert. Thank you for a fantastic relaxing trip! Love you.

Lyana.

Portugal-The Edge Of Europe And Capucho Monastery

The following morning, we were greeted by sunny skies and beautiful views from our balcony. After stuffing ourselves with the delicious breakfast, we headed along the coast north of our hotel. Destination—Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe.

In the 16th century, there used to be a fortress over here, but nowadays, only a fully functioning lighthouses still operates on the cliff.

Situated at a latitude of 38º 47´ North and a longitude of 9º 30´ West Cabo da Roca attracts hundreds of visitors daily. In fact, when we pulled in to the parking lot, a busload of Asian tourists were heading for the viewing platform. It’s obviously a popular place to stop at on the way from Lisbon to Sintra via a scenic route.

We tried walking as far as we could to the cliff drop off.

…To take our traditional selfie. It was starting to sprinkle by then.

My sweet husband at the edge of the world (well, at the edge of Europe).

We didn’t spend more than 20 min at the lookout point as we had one place in mind that we wanted to visit. On the way out of the village we saw some food stands where the locals were selling some homemade food. We got some cookies (that were so delicious we had to stop by again at this same place at the end of the day) and these weird things that we were brave enough to try.

The old lady who sold them to me didn’t speak any English, but the people who were buying kilograms of this stuff from her did translate to me that this is barnacles. She had some raw ones and some cooked ones stored in a pot. I opted for the cooked ones-haha. They tasted very salty, and you don’t eat the hard “claw” part, just the “meat” inside. Weird stuff.

Oh yes, one of our favorites was next.

Convent of the Capuchos.

This old convent is located deep in the forest along the windy road that takes you from the coast to Sintra. This place is quite tiny but mysterious. The convent was founded in 1560 by Dom Alvaro de Castro, a state councilor to King Sebastiao, and was given to the Franciscan friars (I really like that word “friar”). This convent is also known as the Cork Convent because cork was extensively used for insulation and decoration of its tiny spaces.

This is one of the places where I recommend paying extra for an audioguide. We only paid for one handset (and not two) for a couple of reasons: a) we are cheap and b) I wanted to be able to listen to the narration with Robert’s cheek close to my cheek (you know, for all the cute reasons?). We had the place to ourselves as it was a bit of a rainy day in the middle of January (who goes to a Portuguese convent in the winter?). That gave us an incredible perspective on what kind of life those monks had in the tiny convent. Everything had its symbols, purpose and customs.

The gate to the convent.

A few last pictures outside before entering the sacred place. We were not allowed to take photographs because of the nature of the building.

The inside was so crammed! The rooms where the monks slept, read and prayed were tiny! You had to kneel down in order to enter the room. Only a few monks lived there at any specific time (eight, if I remember it right). One, apprentice monk, got to have the biggest room of them all with access to the exit door that led outside the convent as a reminder that he could leave any time he wanted if he didn’t think he was cut out for this life.

This is the outside of the convent.

We only learned all this interesting information because of the audio guide. Otherwise, this place could have been explored in 20 minutes.

We walked around going up and down the hill near the convent for a few more minutes after we finished listening to the audioguide. This forested area was very mysterious…

After the convent we turned back to the coast and drove up north once again to find a place recommended to us by our friends who live in the area (and were stationed with us in Japan). It was a seafood place with amazing views. Here is the restaurant on the right.

We didn’t realize that even in the wintertime this place would be busy (well, we should have considered that since it was Sunday lunchtime), but we managed to get a table, although not right next to the window. I had octopus and Robert had tuna—both were delicious but not amazing.

The views outside didn’t disappoint though.

After our very late lunch we drove back down to our fort-hotel and decided we should take a quick trip closer to Lisbon.

To Be Continued…

Lyana.

Portugal-Sintra: Quinta da Regaleira, Plus Guincho Beach.

We made it back down to the center of Sintra following the narrow roads and our photographic memory. We were on a quest to find Quinta da Regaleira, a place highly rated on Tripadvisor located on the edge of town. Driving to it, we really didn’t know exactly what to expect, and this turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

We were super lucky to find a place to park just yards from the entrance in a tiny parking lot. Our hope was to get a garden/house tour for a more informative visit, but we were not so lucky with timing and would have to wait for forty five minutes for the next tour (that would last an hour and a half). So we decided to explore on our own.

What is this place? Quinta da Regaleira was built in 1904-1910 when Portuguese monarchy was on the decline. It formerly belonged to Viscondess da Regaleira but then bought and enlarged by Antonio Monteiro who put in a ton of work in redesigning its territory. This was his favorite country estate, and we could see why.

Although I posted a picture of me next to the estate house above, that building was not the main attraction here. It’s the gardens with its numerous secret coves and tunnels, fountains and towers that attract visitors.

Some caves were completely dark! They were marked on our garden map and they were not off limits to regular people, but we had to use our cell phone flashlight to make it out there alive safely.

Other tunnels had an illuminated string that guided us through the dark passages.

One of the coolest places in the garden was this Unfinished Well. It was dug out but not filled with water or anything. Instead, it had a stairwell carved out to make it possible to walk up and down into tunnels and outside.

Robert’s training for his Snowdonia marathon by walking up the stairs.

Just simply cool. And unique.

We wondered around a few other beautiful spots.

Saw some pretty fountains, although some were dry.

Almost fell into the water that was knee deep high.

And asked some South Korean girls to take the picture of us together.

Otherwise, we were stuck with selfies.

And apparently Robert didn’t want to be stuck with me after all.

So…if you are ever in Portugal’s Sintra, this is a must see. A very different place and fun for all ages (except not for people who have come here with strollers). We did visit the house but it was not anything special to us as we couldn’t understand all the significant architectural nuances it presented…and we were getting hungry-hehe.

We drove back to our hotel, saw that the storm was coming, and ran over to the Guincho beach that was  next door to us.

It was a beautiful sight to see. Waves were wild, cold and threatening. So we didn’t try to go into the water or anything:), the kids would. We just took a long walk talking about where we want to live someday (I think we talk about it like once a week for sure).

The storm was definitely on its way.

That’s our hotel looking over the ocean.

We were grateful that we had such wonderful weather all day long, but we knew that rain and wind was in the forecast for the evening.

We had a couple of hours to spare between the beach and going to dinner (as the restaurant was not even opening till 1900!). It was great to just relax, eat our fresh fruit, watch TV and listen to the rainstorm. By the time we left the hotel, it was pitch dark, gusty windy and rainy, but we managed to find the place our friend recommended and were warmly welcomed there at exactly 7 o’clock. The place was empty on such a stormy night (it was just us and another party of three most of the time), but the food was fabulous—great steak with lots of mushrooms and salad. No pictures from dinner as sometimes you have to just turn off any electronics and enjoy life at its present moment.

Our great first full day in Portugal was over.

Portugal-Sintra: Moorish Castle and Pena Palace.

It’s important to find a balance when we travel. On one hand, this is the time we want to use to relax, but on the other hand, I can’t imagine ourselves going to a foreign new place and not do some sightseeing. For our Portugal trip, I kept the itinerary pretty open, as usual, but I knew we could go at a much faster pace. I was just excited to do it all with my Robert.

The drive to Sintra was easy and short. As we found our way into the historical center following the signs for Moorish Castle and Pena Palace, we started driving up the hill. A couple was walking in the direction where we were going. The guy noticed our car and waved his hand. We normally never stop for “hitchhikers”, but this time we thought there would be no harm. This couple asked if they could get a ride up the hill with us as it was a long walk, but they couldn’t find any buses going that direction yet. They looked nice, so we agreed. I will spare you any sort of suspense here—nothing weird happened! haha They were from Turkey, just travelling to see Pena Palace. The hill is a long but beautiful walk, so normally people take a bus or drive up here. I read a lot about this problem that people have when they come to Sintra—relying on the bus is not always the most practical thing. Just wanted to save this story for the record that we did give a ride to some strangers in Portugal.

We drove up the steep narrow road, started seeing lots of parking spots along the road. But we kept going and going until we got all the way to the entrance of the castle. Miraculously, because it was winter, there was a ton of parking left nearby. I read on Tripadvisor how difficult it is to find any sort of parking during the busy season.

We said good bye to the Turkish strangers, got our tickets for the Castle of the Moors, and tried to find out if we’d be able to do a zip line tour through the forest around the castle. People at the ticket office told us to go look at the castle first and that they would find out in the meantime if an 11 am tour would be happening (it was 10:45 by then or so).

The castle itself is a ruined castle, nothing fancy, but beautiful. It is OLD—built in the 8-9th century as a fort when Portugal was part of the Muslim Iberia. Only in the 12th century after the conquest of Lisbon, the castle surrendered to Christian forces. Later on, Ferdinand I, fortified the castle extensively, but through the centuries more and more people were abandoning the surroundings of the castle and moving down to the growing town of Sintra. Finally, in 1755, Lisbon earthquake shook a few things up affecting the stability of the castle. By the 19th century, the castle was in ruins, but Ferdinand the II worked hard on preserving the castle so we would be able to see it the way it is now.

This is just a small portion of the castle here, not very far from where I accidently bumped my fancy camera into the wall…with the lens uncovered.

We enjoyed walking around for a little bit, taking in the beautiful view of Sintra and the ocean.

From here, we could also see the Pena Palace-our next destination.

But first we needed to check with the ticket office about those zip line tours…oh yeah…well, the thing is that although they are supposed to happen every day, today (it was a Saturday) the people who do the tour simply didn’t show up. Yeah.  Sorry. Oh, what a relaxed mentality. We are not in Japan or Germany, that’s for sure.

We had to walk a very short time before finding Pena Palace gate entrance. Wait…no, TECHNICALLY we had to walk a very short time, but since it was just Robert and I, not really caring if we walk around, we, not intentionally, walking probably three times the distance of what it was supposed to be. Hahaha. It would have been a very funny video of us trying to figure out which way to go, then turn around, then walk through some random path through the forest, turn around again, trying to follow some random bus. Oh well! It was fun. And we found the entrance.

From the entrance, we had a choice of paying 3 euros (what?) to take a bus up to the palace itself or walk. Walk for merely 5 minutes! I am not really sure why people decide to take a bus up since it’s seriously such a short walk, albeit uphill.

Pena Palace is beautiful! It’s colorful and ornate and is so unique!

It was built during the 19th century under the direction of the famous Ferdinand II (well, he is famous in Portugal). King Ferdinand II acquired a monastery that was standing on this hill, remodeled the whole thing and added another modern wing to it. Therefore, the castle is painted into two colors-red and yellow (I just forgot which part is old which part is new…)

Freaky looking guy at the entrance though.

This is the courtyard.

Inside, the house was decorated in a typical style of the 19th century. It was amazing to see though some of the modern equipment especially in the bathroom—these toilets brought from England and a fancy shower that actually looked like a nifty invention.

All rooms were decorated in different themes or for different purposes. I just took pictures of my favorite objects.

Out of all the palaces I’ve seen in Europe, I found something that I LOVED it. There was this room with furniture done in this particular style. It was wooden but with this beautiful detailed carving that was very unique. We were told it was so fancy because it was brought from one of the Indian colonies.

And I loved this table! Not sure about the comfort level of the fake tablecloth though.

This is the game room/ballroom with a grand piano and a few couches and game tables.

The views of Sintra from the outside were also beautiful. Now we were even higher than the Castle of Moors.

As we walked around, sometimes we saw things that kids would have liked (like hiding there) and briefly wished they were with us. But those thoughts lasted only a second or two.

We know we could have spent another hour exploring the park surrounding the palace, but we were hoping to visit one more place before the day was over. So we headed back to our car and drove down to the center of Sintra.

Good night for now!

Lyana.