Chefprefers BLOG

11/23/2023

Let’s wing it

The flight back to Sydney took about 14 hours to touch down. The plane was full and so I sat next to a young 19-year-old Canadian farmer from North of Edmonton. He was headed to Parkes NSW to work on an agriculture farm. It was his first visit to Aussie land. He appeared to be excited about the trip and something new. I felt the same when we first started our trip. Never been to Singapore, Istanbul, Brussels, Provence, Spain, Portugal or Morocco. I was excited about doing something new. Didn’t matter where we went, going down the main street or getting lost getting there. I’ve always had the exploring gene, wanting to know what’s around the corner. Even though nowadays I could predict what it’s going to be. There’s lots of information you can obtain before arriving, like Google’s “Street View” where and when, the internet is a wonderful tool although it takes away the impromptuness. Jennifer likes to plan and I like the surprise. (Meaning I don’t get involved with the planning only requesting what city to visit.)

Most of Jennifer’s planning was spot on, although there were some occasions we had to change. Some flights and trains were cancelled and some were missed. Having an issue with my sciatic nerve meant we needed to change the way we got around, but most of it was great. However, on one occasion, there was a “spare of the moment” thing.

On the intrepid trip, our tour leader suggested taking a boat ride on the Mondego River in Coimbra in our free time. She said to let her know if we needed assistance. There were 6 of us who wanted to go and when Jen looked online to book, the information wasn’t up to date, so South African Pieter mentioned “Let’s wing it” and show up and see if there was a boat. On the off chance, I texted our tour leader who was in her room to see if she could organise a tour and she responded by saying “Give me a minute”. She replied, “Meet her at the boat ramp at 1 pm”. So we did and found that she had organised a personnel tour for us. We ended up taking Miguel’s Viking-inspired barque tour. We experience something that the big boats don’t offer. Personalised history of the region and more.

Anyhow, it all seems a bit of a blur now after returning home. We managed to get around my sciatic pain by purchasing a pair of crutches although I wouldn’t recommend it. Perhaps we should have returned home after two days, but all that meant was to sit at home feeling sorry for myself for the next six weeks and I’m not sure which is worst. But let’s not feel sorry for me because we were about to embark on an around-the-world trip costing over $40,000, 10 weeks off work, lots of delicious meals, and great sites and company. Between us, we took 3170 photos and 120 videos. We got to catch up with family and friends as well as explore the plan. The big question is what were my highlights, they were;