Category: Uncategorized
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Leaving on a Jet Plane
This is the final blog post in this latest travel escapade as we begin the eighteen hour, ass-numbing series of connecting flights back to Chattanooga. Currently, we are sitting on a leg from Porto to Amsterdam dutifully lining our tray tables with KLM’s stingy allotment of South African wines and saying tchau to our last…
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Prós e Contras da Imigração
This one’s for you, Amy. It’s long, so that’s your fault too. Leaving your country for the unknown with little more than a taste for seafood and a tourist’s grasp of the language is an admittedly radical step at this stage of life, but it’s not something we’re doing in haste. Some of you know…
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The Way
I’d be remiss if I spent all this time on the Iberian peninsula and didn’t mention The Way. But first, let’s be absolutely clear that I am not referring to the similarly named, bible thumping, sexually manipulating, Christian cult from Ohio that admirably condones a two-drink minimum. No, in this context, I’m referring to the…
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Play a Trem Song*
If you are not a fan of traveling by foot, much of Europe is going to be inaccessible to you. Even with Uber and the fairly complete network of public transportation, entire neighborhoods of shops and cafes (and esteemed offices of the notary) can only be visited by a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys.…
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Makin’ Copies
For a country that seemingly has a bidet in every restroom, the Portuguese weirdly embrace the excess of the other kind of paperwork. We had to get some documents notarized yesterday to begin establishing ourselves here. I was a notary in Michigan, so I thought I could use the banter of a fellow professional (wink,…
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Ghosts in the Machine
If you are a subscriber, you may wish to view the most recent post, Ascension Tension, directly by clicking the link here. WordPress scraped off two videos when it created the email, so you are missing out. Well, maybe, maybe not.
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Ascension Tension
We took a day off from fact finding and due diligence-ing and went in for some old fashioned, Rick Steves sanctioned, sight seeing. Since Viana do Castelo offers any number of scenic hotspots, we just went ahead and started at the top. Literally. The Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an architecturally impressive…
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PSA of the Day!
It’s time for a quick note to my less tech-savvy readers (Yes, I’m talking to you Aunt Thelma, directly from the Interweb). The easiest way to receive my posts is to type your email in the subscribe box below. Once subscribed, you will get an email version of the new post within moments of me…
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Preach it, Brother!
If you spend any amount of screen time reading news feeds and your algorithms indicate a travel bias, you’ll likely come across clickbait articles dissecting the differences between American tourists and European ones. And although admittedly amusing in part, the sites like Buzzfeed probably do more to reinforce cultural stereotypes than an ICE recruitment interview.…
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Graceland
If you were to take the state of Tennessee, spin it clockwise 90 degrees and squint, you’re looking at the basic size, shape, and orientation of Portugal. That thought experiment also puts Memphis (and Graceland, “thank you, thank you very much”) in the northwest corner, right on the Atlantic. That’s precisely where we are looking…
The Hillbilly Viking 