Portugal Within

I was going to lie and write this as if I just left Portugal, but I have always been told that it's best to be truthful. Also, having time and reflecting on Portugal, I would say it was the catalyst for me to start expressing my inner self to the world. There were a lot of firsts in Portugal: traveling entirely by myself, being the person to go and talk to strangers, surfing, making a TikTok, freely dancing at a bar with no care, and many more little things. All of these firsts have impacted who I am today in a meaningful way, and I would not be able to reflect on how it has affected me if I did not write it from today's perspective. Procrastination may have been in my favor this time.

While I was in Portugal, I stayed in three main places: Porto, Lagos, and Algarve. In this entry, I will not tell you all the details about my itinerary; that's for a different blog. I want to recap the learnings and memories… So let's get started.

This photo was taken by my lower bunk mate on our way to watched my first sunset in Portugal. The pastries we bought were in the bag I am holding. I’m not the best person at holding the pastries, but they tasted very good even though they were a little smushed.

Let's start with my first destination, Porto. Porto is a place I would wholeheartedly come back to for the locals, scenery, and now the bars. When I went to Portugal, I was 21, but I did not drink. I wanted to wait to drink with my family for the first time. I picked wine with Mum, beer for Dad, a shot with Jadon, and everything else with the family. Not a lot of people get to do this, and it would be something special for me to do it with my family, which is why I abstained from drinking while in Portugal, back to it. When I arrived at my first hostel, I was overwhelmed; people were everywhere, and I felt like I did not fit in with the crowd. So, I started getting anxious, and then a girl in the bunk below me asked if I had dinner already. When I told her I had not, instead of making up an excuse to crawl back into my bunk, I decided to get some pastries and watch the sunset with her. It's amazing what that did for me. It broke me out of my shell, showing me that other people also want company, and if you say yes, you never know where that could take you. Her interaction allowed me to open up and reach a hand out to other dorm mates to see if they wanted to go for dinner or watch the sunset since most of us had things planned during the day.

I was only able to eat a third of the Francesinha. It is so dense and the gravy tastes like Heineken and I’m not the biggest fan of the skunked flavor.

During my stay, I also went on an e-bike tour and got a recommendation to go to this restaurant that serves Porto's famous dish, Francesinha, which the locals said is her favorite spot to get it. I went to this restaurant for lunch after the tour, and I saw that there was a line outside the door. Usually, I would ask someone to go and put our name down on the list, but since it was only me, I sucked it up and walked in and made a reservation for one. When I asked, she immediately sat me down at the counter right next to where they were cooking their famous Francesinha (traveling by myself allowed me to skip an hour and a half line! Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to share the food with someone). Another thing that changed for me in Porto was this Spanish mum. We were both in the front seat next to the driver, and she spoke no lick of English, and I had no idea of any Spanish, and we spent the whole time walking together during our stops and trying to talk together in broken English and Spanish. The way she offered her home to me when she learned that I was going to Spain after Portugal made me remember how nice and inviting people can be and not to let others put you down. Seeing how people on our tour looked at her not knowing English, but she kept a smile on her face the whole trip was amazing to me. When I have a bad interaction, it ruins the rest of the day for me and the location. I remember I had a really negative interaction with a group of girls in Lagos and a group of instructors in Algarve, but I tried to keep her smile in the back of my mind. I'm not saying that the negative interactions don't affect me because sometimes they still have a major effect on me, but I try to stay positive and see it as just a little thing.

Next up, Lagos, nothing was really here, so jump to Algarve.

Algarve is what made the biggest impact on me. Specifically, family dinner, TikTok, and dancing at the bar. Having family dinners allowed me to meet everyone at the surf camp and get to know people on a personal level. It also helped motivate me to do the remaining items: making a TikTok and dancing at the bar. While at the surf camp, I became friends with two Polish girls who loved making TikToks. During one of the dinners, they taught me a dance, and then I started to teach everyone else at the hostel and get them involved. By the end of the night, right before we went out, we got 3/4 of the hostel doing the dance, which was so fun. Doing the TikTok dance energized me, and I learned I feed off everyone's energy. If people are getting hyped, I start to get very energetic and bounce off the walls. It's not a bad thing when wanting to go out because I do not need any alcohol to get me dancing in the dance circle. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Below is the recording of the people who did not mind being in the video, and as you can tell, yep, I messed up. It's crazy how I taught everyone but forgot the dance once we started to record, but that's the fun of it, and we kept it as is. Now, let's talk about the bar.

These were the girls I spent most of the time dancing with at the bar and this picture was taken on our way back to the hostel.

Going to the bar and dancing with everyone at the hostel felt like a safe space I had never felt before. Since then, I have only ever been able to feel safe with a couple of my friends. I can say here that I am so glad there were no videos of that night because I can't dance. My hips don't move in a continuous motion, and I just look awkward. That's beside the point. Dancing at the little local bars allowed me to open up and dance a little in New Zealand, but it really allowed me to dance in Bali with my friends, in Vegas for my friend's birthday, and at a couple of clubs in ATL. Every time I dance like I did back in Portugal, I get so giddy and happy because it's like a burst of inner Shea exploding all at once. Once I get in this headspace, I can dance without a care in the world. It's the same feeling I get dancing in the rain and jumping into puddles. Something about it.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for my Portugal itinerary and what I would have changed and kept. Portugal will forever stay in my heart, and I hope one day to do it with a friend or two or even my mum and go around again doing things I could not get too and also to experience the bar and wine scene.

I have been trying for hours to try and get the video vertical, but due to formatting I was not about to, which is why it’s below .