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Santo Varão

Yesterday, I had hired a car to drive to the next house in Santo Varão. This was my first time driving stick shift on the right hand side of the road, and in Portugal of all places! (I had been warned in Porto that Portuguese drivers are like the Italians, only much worse.) Santo Varão is a tiny village about 1 1/2 hours south of Porto, so small that the house didn't have a number, just a road. And did I get lost? Of course.

It is true that one person, if brave enough, can open up an experience for everyone else. A few songs into tonight's show and I noticed a couple dancing at the back of the room. For one thing, I didn't realize my music was the sort of music you could, or would want to, dance to. But then. oh my, after the whole room erupted with shouts for an encore and with the help of that one brave soul (who I later discovered was Paulo) everyone started dancing furiously! This was a house concert first for me and I could barely finish the song because I was laughing so much.

Today was Mother's Day in Portugal so Raquel had invited me to her Mother-in-law's house with the family for lunch, in the beautiful old farmhouse in the middle of the village. And although I got lost (again) within the Portuguese table chit-chat, the family were so kind and spoke English as much as they could. This is not the stuff of holiday brochures for sure.

01 May 2011

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