Europe for the summer

 

a narrow street of Caceres. 

When we arrived in Lisbon we had few plans but a place to stay for several days. We mainly just walked around near our place and ate some good food, including the bathed in garlic sauce steak topped with an egg at Portugalia. From there we took a bus to Elvas which is a perfect small little walled town in Portugal, just near the border with Spain. It was mostly quiet, a few tourists but not too many, and easy to walk the whole town in a day, but we split it up over several. One night I heard live music wafting to our open windows from what seemed to be the town plaza. So out we went to investigate. 

It turned out to be an international festival where we caught stage performances of dance and music from a couple countries before the mayor gave a lengthy speech. We arrived at 10 and it went until midnight. People here like to eat dinner very late, often 9 or 10 pm, so this wasn't as late as it seemed to me. Also despite being mid August, it was a strangely chilly night and I shivered in  my seat through the show. It was the coldest it would be for our entire trip. Despite the temps, I enjoy just this sort of spontaneous magic. 

From Elvas we took advantage of our very compact way of traveling to walk to the nearby train station for a 2 Euro ride over into Spain. This took us over to Badajoz, where we spent just one night and had a nice riverside dinner, before catching the train north to Caceres for a week. This is another walled city, this one quite a lot larger and grander than Elvas. and filled with many more tourists as well, especially by day. They even have a little Tuk Tuk tour called Tuk y Go that goes around town. At first I laughed at it, but by the end of the week I myself took a little ride. I would say it is really only worth it for those who would have trouble getting around. It's better to walk to things if you want to go inside. 

This whole week was amazingly hot, and the stone reflected the 95 plus degrees back at you during the day. But we got out often enough in the morning or evening and at night. It's a beautiful city. 

From here we took another train, this time to Madrid. Madrid is a very large city. Probably the largest the two of us have spent any amount of time in. And the place we found to stay was really lovely, right down on a street that is effectively New York's Broadway, and we had a rooftop balcony where I loved to stare down at the busy street at night. 

We visited the extensive Prado art museum, spent time wandering the gardens in the area, and walked the town at night. We took the time to eat some churros with chocolate sauce, the traditional way in Spain, at the traditional spot, San Gines. It's a restaurant over 100 years old that claims to have served nearly a billion of the sweet treat. Much like donuts it's considered a staple breakfast food, but it's an anytime treat. 

As we plotted our next move, we decided we'd take two weeks for more of a traditional vacation. Up until then, we had been more "living" in Europe. spending time in the apartments we found, reading, relaxing, and doing simpler things around town, mainly walking about. With a few of the big must see items scattered in. But this trip wasn't just a wind down from hiking the Appalachian Trail for five months, it was also our 25th anniversary. the "real one" from when we first started dating in high school. So we opted for a cheap flight to Crete Greece. We had been thinking of using trains to get to France and then eventually Barcelona, but this plan we scrapped as Greece was much cheaper, and we'd be able to rent a car and explore a new to us part of the country. A part we had long wished to visit for it's older than Greek civilization, the Minoans. 

So we booked tickets and took ourselves on a very long walk to the airport. We walked through the city some distance, had a lovely lunch at a restaurant which turned out to serve burgers, not the Pizza! that was advertised on the tables, but were good anyway. I love Europe most for it's outdoor dining along streets and courtyards. From there we took the metro to the closest stop to Parque Juan Carlos. This is a vast park, filled with large open spaces, sparsely planted trees along the many wide carriage lanes, and lots of small hidden surprises tucked inside. It was almost completely empty, feeling like the apocalypse on an odd weekday. Thankfully the heat had abated this day, and it was a bit overcast which really made a perfect day for us to take advantage of our distance hiking skills and still have plenty of time to take breaks and enjoy the park. Finally exiting through another quaint neighborhood, one we'd visit on our return. We managed to navigate the no man's land that was the outlying parking lots, and found ourselves at the terminal and ready for our adventure within an adventure.  

More on that next time! 

After Leaving the Appalacian Trail

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What to do with myself after admitting I was through with my thru was a wide open question.  But since we had the car in Maine we decided, for starters to explore a bit as we slowly returned homeward. We visited parks and lighthouses and Steven King's home. From there we wandered home. We visited an art museum, rode a carousel and explored some gardens. Visited one place that had become a Wildlife Refuge with a place called Salt Meadow House two women lived in, and Eleanor Roosevelt visited. There is still an old stone picnic table there where she is photographed sitting. Of course the refuge is named after a man. We briefly stopped over in Baltimore to see the city park there, and then went home. 

By then we still hadn't figured out what we were doing with the rest of our lives. Not only was our house rented until the end of summer 2023, but we were also both FIRE retired now. We could go back to work, but we didn't have to. Not having anywhere to be and no plans, we bought tickets to Portutal for 2 months. We would go live and travel there, and try to stay on our "retirement" budget, with a small boost to monthly housing thanks to what we cleared from renting our house. But before leaving we made a list of the things we wanted to while at home. 

This involved driving by the house a million times to check on it, and wandering bookstores and world market. We saw a few friends, family. Got our hiking stuff packed away and realized we both felt like we needed next to nothing to travel now. after 6 months of depending on a single change of clothes and little else, We can fit all the necessities in a single schoolbag. and a smaller day hiking pack we threw kindles for reading and other nonessentials. 

We found out last minute it was the last days of a nearby county fair, so we went. We even rode rides which I haven't done in a long time. It was a real boon because we thought we'd miss our local county fair being on trail. Then when we went to Maine we thought we'd finish Katadhin in time to do to a fair up there. Then when we quit early and came home, we found ourself missing that one, and much to early for my old hometown fair. So stumbling upon one we could go to felt like such luck!

After all was said and done, I felt ready for our flight. Although I was definitely feeling the common post trail depression, I planned to get in lots of walking and exercise, in Europe, and we were going to get rooms with kitchens so we could get back to cooking for ourselves. I hadn't really lost weight on trail. Only about 5lbs in the end though plenty of muscle gained. So I had quickly gained that back plus a little. Not feeling the best. The exntended heat in the US and the costliness of hotels really drove us to Europe. There were better short term housing options for less money, much more walkable. So at the begining of August, off we went. First to Lisbon. 

It's been nearly two months now and it's near time to head home. It's been wonderful here and we've seen so much and rested a lot. I will share more about that soon. Probably once I am back stateside. 

Still, we only have a tenative plan to get us to New Years and then I still don't know what we are doing. I am open to suggestions from practical life goals to more irresponsible travel and decision making avoidance. Please send. 

 

The First Half of 2022

Me on the AT

 It's hard to believe it's nearly September. This year has been filled with so much adventure and so much unknown. January began with two unusually hearty snows for us in Tennessee as we finished up house projects and moving everything to storage so our home could be rented while we hiked the Appalachian Trail. 

I enjoyed the snow, and also seeing our long project list get shorter and shorter. In the end we didn't get quite everything done, but enough to count. The joys of being a satisficer. we took the end of the month to take a trip to the Florida Keys to absorb some warmth and relaxation before hiking. 

February I headed out solo to hike the 4 day section of trail that had been intended for January's long weekends, the weekends the snow came. It felt really good to be out on my own, and and very achievable, even though I was carrying more weight than I would have with Jake with me, and too much food. We still laugh about the dried coconut that lasted for a month on trail... 

That weather was fine, despite it being early February, a gift. we took a week see my parents, my mom I hadn't seen since 2019, and to finish up every logistical thing we could think of before heading on to trail together. that same weekend, our house rented, perfect timing! but instead of the 12 month lease we hoped for, they wound up signing one for 18. So we are really going to have to figure out our lives as "homeless" well beyond the trail. 

From mid February to the end of June, we covered about 1050 miles. skipping 99 in Virginia we might make up in fall. It was wonderful. Everything I wanted from the experience, and not as physically hard as I had worried. I never had back pain (except from a hostel bed!) and though my leg muscles ached at night,  the more chronic pain in my ankle and knee and hands improved. I was taking 1-2 aleve most dayst. I did have problems with my petellar tendons and had to work through that, and I did develop some carpal tunnel numbness in one hand, which I could only partially resolve on trail, and still hasn't quite completely gone away. 

But in the end, even after fighting through the "Virginia Blues" and making it into the easy part of PA, I lost interest. just when my legs were at their best they had been. I think it was mainly the heat that got to me, and the mindset of needing to go go. I'm not a fast hiker, starting at 1 mph and eventually getting up to 2mph, I was disheartened everytime another thru hiker blew past me. I loved watching other hiker's journey on Instagram, but it was also hard to see my classmates start in April and catch up to me. It was hard to watch people I knew early on get so far ahead. It was also hard to watch people I liked, or felt were more my speed, leave trail. 

In the end, I could have my best day on trail and  still feel like a failure. I could push hard for 15 miles, which many others do 20 regurlarly and even 30 sometimes, and feel like I had no time in my day to enjoy anything. I had had so much euphoria with burgeoning spring, summer felt like too much. 

So we took a break from trail to do more fun car camping, and also went to tropical paradise in Aruba, and I loved it. When we got home we drove our car all the way to Maine to try and continue on up there, hopefully away from heat, but honestly, it was hot even there. and I had 1.5 great days but felt my mind turn off in the same way to all of this. The outdoors are the love of my life. I grew up wild a little like Huck Finn, and as an adult am a naturalist and hike nearly every weekend. So this was a weird and confusing feeling for me, but I had to admit that I had possibly gotten my fill. That I was actually content and ready to do something else. It still feels like failure. and it's still hard to read others comments about their own hikes. "I'm not a quiter" "I'm strong enough to keep going" as personal digs. It's kind of stupid I know. I never even cared about be a certified "thru hiker" as an acolade. But when you get 500 miles in it does sort of get into your mind. So quiting was hard but also right. I hope I get out there and do another 1000, or more. but not this year. 

So after all that we still had someone living in our house for another year! what to do with ourselves? We'll find out more about that next week.