Sintraductions

Well, here we finally are. Months of planning and thinking and researching and we made it. The journey was expectedly long but generally smooth, although my body is hell-bent on reminding me that I'm not in my 20s and the backache I developed from our flight to Paris is rough. Also, we were too late to give Buddy dramamine on our descent and poor guy puked a ton on the first flight. He recovered quickly, and we did not make that mistake on the Paris - Lisbon leg. But, 40-something year old backs and jetlag notwithstanding, Sintra has already charmed the pants off of all of us. Figuratively, mostly.

We were greeted with a driver at the airport and two members of Boundless Life at our apartment, with welcome goodies and info. The drive was terrifying, but the apartment is lovely, full of light, some storage, gorgeous details and the most incredible view of a valley park, all the way up into the mountains and castles. We had an hour or so before dark after we arrived and there was a little pop up market on the pedestrian pathway directly outside of our apartment, which we explored before finding a cute restaurant with the best sangria. At night the moorish castle is lit up at the very top of the mountain, and they still have Christmas lights up everywhere, and all we have to do is look out the floor-ceiling windows and juliet balcony. The best part of the apartment though is that we are directly above a gelateria/pastry shop. The friendliest older couple, Maria and Fernando, run the shop and we met them first thing this morning when we enjoyed savory crepes and pastries. The prices are great, the location better, the patio and little dining area full of tiles and moulding; we will be there often. 

Sintra the town is out of a storybook. Steep, stone walkways adorn soaring cliffsides of temperate rainforest and beautiful, ornate and colorful architecture. The sun was shining, it was mid 50s and super pleasant. We expect some rain tomorrow, so we headed to the grocery store which is always a fun adventure in a new country. The checkout worker didn't speak English and our Portuguese didn't help a whole lot either. But we stumbled through, stocked up on supplies, and spent the rest of the day exploring, hiking around, and eating. The higher up the mountain you go, the narrower and more like Greece the streets felt - every which way a new little alley/path to go up, and they become pedestrian-only quickly because they are so narrow. Buddy and Evie were super energized by it all (maybe partly because they had had much better nights sleep than Brian and I), and Buddy would just excitedly squeeze my hands and say Portuguese phrases over and over. "Muitas Coisas Boas!"

There is still a lot to get used to, like the washer dryer and the coffee maker and the bathroom with no toilet (we have two bathrooms, but one just has a shower and a sink). Another Boundless family lives above us, one with a toddler. This toddler had a hard time last night. Like, I thought maybe we lived below Lily from the show Barry (IYKYK). But it's hard to be a jetlagged toddler; the jetlag has been harder on us than on previous trips too. Many of the other families met each other already at brunch, but we have just been doing our own thing organizing and exploring today. Tomorrow we will meet everyone at the welcome ceremony, and the kids wills start school. We are all excited and a little nervous. We are still very much in the transition mode of this journey, and look forward to getting more settled and finding a routine. But, so far, é muito bom.