This is a true travel blog post. It is about what happened, where we were, how it made us feel. But it is not your average adventure story, it is about the reality of being a nomadic family living life with no address.
Af Cecilie Felumb Conrad | January 19, 2020
I like to organize my thoughts, to make lists, short reflections, write down memories, organize photos, meditate.
When I write the travel blog about our nomadic journey, I have found, writing about weeks separately is the best way to set a frame for the stories. It is consistent, it is simple, it is strict, and it can be done every Sunday.
Well. At least I can pretend it is Sunday, when I write down the stories and share the experiences. Very often it is not.
The experiences are so many, and so different, most often the weeks are a blur and a chaos of different directions, different elements, different levels of life unfolding and presenting themselves to us.
This week 3 of 2020 is an extreme example of such diversity. And I shall just share it as is. Sometimes I am not sure, it makes sense. Sometimes I want to write better travelblog, sometimes I have a lot of doubt.
I have to breathe deeply and stay tuned with my own truth and give in to what is actually possible. I write a few hours every week, and it has to be enough, as life itself needs my attention, and living it is more important than writing about it.
For this reason I ask you all to come back to me with some sort of response: What elements of this is making sense to you, what do you need more of, how can I help? Does it already have an impact, sometimes I feel doubt, and need some motivation.
This said, lets go look at week 3.
The first day of the week was the last full day in Denmark. We had been sick with the flu ever since we arrived to our home country on the 4th of January. The context is, my father died on new years eve, and we had to fly to Denmark. We wanted to condole everyone, hug my siblings and extended family, and I wanted to go and just sit for a while in the home of my parents, to just let go and be still with the fact, they are now both gone. My mother died in April.
Life wanted it differently.
When we came to Denmark we were still in the state of chock, hearts beating heavily and with all of the sorrow. And as we settled in, so did the flu. So, we did none of the planned stuff. We more or less just stayed in our friends home, taking turns in being the most sick person among the five of us.
The monday of week 3 was not much better. But we packed up, got ourselves ready for the funeral and the traveling, and had a goodbye dinner with our friends. I wrote the speech, a hard one to write.
So, Tuesday, we had the funeral of my father. A heavy one. I am not sure, how I can reach out with this. Burying our loved ones is a heavy burden of life, and letting go all together is meaningful and beautiful. Often we call the ritual “the last goodbye”, but actually it is not. We all know this.
I said it in my speech to my father, and I can say it again here. When someone makes the transition to the next level, leaving this life and the rest of us behind, we let go so many times. As I said, we lost my mother in April, so I know. I am in the process. And I know, we will say goodbye to my father in many details of the life we will live. He is in my language, the little things I say, and the outbursts when i stumble my toes, he is with us when we watch the Tour de France or sharpen our knives, and we will be sad for some time, then slowly it will change to sweet memories and gratefulness.
What can I say? In reality, I am sure, there is a life outside this life. I will not even call it an afterlife. I am sure, there is a Higher Purpose, a Deep Meaningfulness, a Big Plan, and that we all need to stay tuned, stay connected to our souls, as they are forever connected to God. In this way, I know all is good, even when we loose someone. Yet, I am human in an human life with human emotions, and letting go of my parents have been a tough one. I felt squeezed, crushed, falling apart, I felt not me, I felt numb, silent, and lost all of my initiative, all of my energy and most of myself. It did not help to have the flu and to be in Denmark.
After the funeral we did a walk around the whole group of people, saying our goodbyes, as we were flying out only a few hours later. Another level of goodby, a lot of love felt, a lot of connection, a lot of meaningfulness.
And then the traveling. My family has become a SuperPower Traveling family, we can do almost everything. But I must say: This was a tough one. With disorganzed luggage, as we had to pack in wierd bags when we left Portugal, and with a big bag of vegan glutenfree organic food for the journey, we set out on a 12 hours quest to get back to the house at the Algarve coast. We sat in the metro, we handled the situation in the airport, where the dog had gained a bit of weight and that caused a lot of trouble. We were told by the staff, we were very kind and patient people, and we did not feel so. We just solved every little detail needed and got everyone, including the dog on the plane. The poor little girl cried all the way, as she had to go to cargo and we cried … and we slept, ate some sandwiches, read our books. The plane was one hour late, and we were already tired.
Landing in Lissboa, we still had 4,5 hours of travel in front of us. We had flown out of Faro, but there were no direct flights to Faro on the day of the funeral. So we rented a car in Lissboa airport and drove to Faro, after waiting af full HOUR for our dog. Oh, the systems! We could hear her cry behind a door, and the staff had to wait for the right person to open the door. My frustration level was at the edge of starting a war against people with rules!
Anyway. We rented a car, found a gas-station to buy water and chips as we were out of food and it was late in the evening. And we drove for 3 hours south. Moved everything and everyone into our own van in Faro airport, handed back the rented car and drove another 45 minutes to our rented house in Porches, Algarve. Arriving at 1:30 in the night I told the children: “there is no such thing as hunger or thirst. The only thing that excist rigth now is bed”.
A very long day had come to its final scene. In bed I read my book for an hour just to calm down my mind, and sometime after 3 i fell asleep.
I must say: This was a wild day! Truly. It makes me proud, my children could handle it. One of the reasons, we set out on this journey was to learn, life is much more possible and available, than you would think. To learn, we can do so much more, than we thing, that we dont need the routines and the comfort, that we can handle much more, than we think we can. This day was clear proof. We did it. Noone cried, except for at the funeral. Noone got real angry with anyone. Everyone arrived safely, and everyone slept well that night.
So, we woke up i Portugal. Dear friends of ours had planned a week with us, and as such they had been waiting 3 days, while we were in Denmark. It was healing to wake up in a house with true likeminded wonderful friends in it.
Everyone of my family were extremely tired, of course. Yet we did manage to go for little walks to the ocean, have long and great conversations, drink lots of coffee, play with the children.
Only slowly do we recover, but we truly felt it from the first moment of the first day back in our own life: Sitting in the sun with friends, doing our normal routine things, having clear conversations with likeminded people, going for small walks, cooking meals and doing little bits of yoga, all of this heals little by little. And we did come back to ourselves. With babysteps.
We ran down to the ocean to see the sunrise, all of us together. Is it crazy? It was crazy beautiful, it was a little moment for all of us to share. The coastline of western algarve is truly beautiful, the light of the sun has healing powers, and it was just a great way to start the day.
In the afternoon we drove out to see the sunset by the natural ach, a wonderful spot, almost magical. The sun set in clouds in the most beautiful way, and we truly enjoyed the beautiful spot.
And then we met new friends. It is funny how something can feel like magic and at the same time feel completely right and normal. By now, we have experienced this so many times, this double emotion: “How can this be?!” Combined with “Of course this had to happen”.
A woman came up to us and asked in Danish if we were Danish, as she had seen our lisence plate. Sure we were. That could have been it, but it was so much more.
This family is full time traveling in a van with a pop top just like ours, and they are homeschooling their children and working while traveling. Just like us. And as it often is, we had so much in common, so much to talk about, so after an hour in the increasing cold (the sun had set), we invited them back home to the house to have dinner and play games.
We are all truly grateful to have met each other, so much to share, so much to learn, so much to enjoy together. It truly is possible to make friends almost instantly.
More will follow about this “coincidence” and this family, follow the links to these two other stories.
Traveling in reality (will be published shortly)
This was our final day with the family from Denmark. A beautiful day. We went out to the arch again, as the landscape is amazing. Brought lunch and went for a walk, where we found the new friends hideout and spend a few hours at a small secret beach, dipping our legs in the waves, talking, enjoying the sun, climbing the cliffs, finding treasures, building sand constructions, talking some more.
The healing powers of the ocean combined with the sun and the amazing people was great and slowly I began to feel solid ground under my soul. If that makes sense?
This was a day of change. In the morning we walked to the ocean with our Danish homeschooling friends, enjoyed the sunrise – a double one because of beautifully arranged clouds. When we walked back, we met the goats, who for the first time had the newborns with us. The contrast of the old fashioned and real element of the man and his goats and the huge hotels behind was an interesting one. We talked a bit of poor Portuguese to thank him, and walked back to say goodbye as our friends was flying out.
Later on the same day, grandparents arrived and the scene was different. We took them to the monistary, a farm and shop and restaurant build in an old monistary, where we buy the most wonderful produce, and the restaurant makes great organic glutenfree vegan food, just the kind we love. It was good to see my husbands parents again, and lovely to start the week with them with cake.
On the Sunday, we took his parents to see the arch, and then drove to the beautiful little town called Alvor to go for a walk and have a break at a cafe. It was a true and lovely day out, we saw the fishing culture, the wetland, the portuguese sunday life, the birds and the sunset. The beauty of this day was outstanding, truly.
Even though everyone was tired, like – sometimes we just burn so much energy, in the end it is hard to keep moving. But we do have the ability to enjoy none the less, to stay present and take in what is around us.
The life at the cafe is always interesting to study. How people enjoy themselves and also are self aware. How the football at the screen is important to some of the guests and has no meaning to others.
How young children run and play, and elderly women sit and talk, how life of the staff unfolds and how the mix is a great example of the social nature of the human kind. I really love afternoons at cafes, especially on Sundays. There is a beautiful vibe to it, a peace and a slow happiness, just sitting there is like candy to my brain, to my excistence.
And when I walk outside to take pictures of the sunset and talk on the phone with my eldest daugther, the day just becomes more beautiful. How lucky can we be, to be alive in this life?
A week in 2 countries. A week with 2 sets of guests. A week with a funeral. A week with new friends. A week with extreme beauty and extreme tiredness. A crazy week, you could say. But also a beautiful week, a week where we stayed present, openhearted and openminded. And grateful.
Thank you for reading the blog. I write to share our experiences and perspective, and would love to hear yours. Please comment in whatever way feels right to you: Facebook-comment, personal e-mail, text-message, whatever you like. It brings a lot of joy in the bus, when we hear from readers. Thank you and may the sun shine on your path.
Hacks on Happiness – 2020 week 4