Another Lisbon Weekend in a Row

A quick surf update first

Friday and Saturday I had cool sessions in small and manageable waves. Friday was really a lot of fun and I got a lot of waves. Saturday morning the waves were really small, but the sunrise and solitude made up for that. I’m planning to spend most of this ongoing week here at Costa da Caparica too. It looks like the conditions are going to be more favourable here than in Baleal. This doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned Baleal completely. Actually I might end up going there even this week, since my wetsuit is due to get back there soon too.

Another side of Lisbon

I stayed at a very different place in Lisbon this time. Something more bohemian and exciting than a regular campsite. The night here costs 25€ but it includes live music in the neighboring culture venue (more about that later). I had seen this place before in Park4Night, but last weekend I went for the campsite instead. I assumed this place might be full on weekends, but that wasn’t the case. The holiday season is slowly coming to an end I guess.

My spot for the night
Dourada grelhada (a grilled Gilt-head bream). I had this definite Portuguese classic for Saturday’s lunch.
Great live music and a fun night

The free live music at Fábrica Braço de Prata turned out to be really cool. Ana, whom I met the previous weekend came over and we had a really cool night. The music was good, but the atmosphere of the old big house was even better. It’s split into art galleries, libraries/used book shops and live music venues.

I’ve seen cool jam sessions before, but the one Saturday night was by far the coolest I’ve ever seen. For some parts of it there were nine people on stage singing or playing different instruments including a violin and a West African instrument called the kora. In spite of the amount of people and variation in instruments everything still managed to sound absolutely beautiful and harmonious. I haven’t enjoyed live music this much in a while.

Unfortunately I left my phone in Naranja and I have nothing to show you about the cool night. But I’m sure I’ll head back there another weekend at some point. Especially since I missed going through all the lovely old used books on the various bookshelves.

An outside chill area between the parking spot and the Fábrica.
Sunday – sights, good food and back to Caparica

On Sunday Ana took me for lunch to Moinho Dom Quixote a little above Cascais. She said she wanted to go there herself and that she’d love to show it to me too. The view from that place was really stunning and the food was tasty too. We also had a quick stop close to the restaurant at the western most spot of continental Europe: Cabo da Roca. A beautiful Sunday afternoon had apparently made others do the same and there were a lot of people there.

The view from the mill restaurant toward Guincho beach
A view north from Cabo da Roca
Cabo da Roca

I Got Fined – And a Move to Costa da Caparica

After my last post a lot has happened even if it’s just been two days. On Tuesday while working the police came for a visit and decided that my parking was actually camping. I’ve been struggling with surfing and now I’m back close to Lisbon in Costa da Caparica.

Wild camping is illegal in Portugal – Meeting nice cops

The GNR came for a visit assisted by the local police force. They basically raided the place with five or six cars and at least ten people. They fined everyone at the hippie park who had stuff outside of their vans or something else suggested that they’re not just parking. The spot is not a campsite and the laws in Portugal are quite clear about this. Apparently this is something that happens about once a year, so I knew it could happen. The fine is quite big (150€), but if you divide it with the over five weeks I’ve parked there (so far) it’s not that much.

While still working, I heard a knock on my window. I asked if they could wait for 15 minutes and they said that it wouldn’t be a problem. After I was done with work, I gave the young police officer my ID and told him that I’m aware I’m doing something that’s not ok and that I’m not going to complain or argue with them. This apparently was surprising to them and they started acting even friendlier after that.

I wanted to pay straight away, but that wasn’t possible. An older officer said that they will send the bill to my Finnish address. The young officer came to me later and whispered that most likely they will never send it abroad anyway. He also said that now that he has my phone number he’s going to give me a call if he’s on duty when the next raid happens. His colleague also asked me a lot of questions about my way of life and my work and we also talked a while about how nice and easy going the Portuguese are. This whole ordeal is the best proof of that actually.

Surfing struggles

I went surfing after the cops left, but the conditions were simply too rough. I got one wave and just got thrown around a lot otherwise and may have had the single worst wipeout ever while ambitiously trying to get a wave way too big for me. Luckily nothing happened, but for a while I had to go to the beach and just let my pulse come down.

The forecast showed pretty much the same at least until the weekend. So even though I just returned from Lisbon I decided to head back that way for some days. Unfortunately the conditions here today were not really better for me. But we’ll see how that develops.

Costa da Caparica

I decided to head to a new place about 15 km south of Lisbon called Costa da Caparica. A friend of mine suggested the place and it turned out to have a reasonably priced campsite a walking distance from the surf spots.

Naranja’s home for the next days

I’m probably staying here until Sunday and just enjoying this place and trying to surf. I went to have a quick look at the town center here and it looked really nice. I also went for a sunset beer to the beach. This really is a pretty place too.

Sun setting over the Atlantic
Sunset coloring the clouds

Lisbon Impressions – Walking and Eating Well

I had a fun but tiring day in downtown Lisbon on Saturday and saw a lot of pretty things. I also took a ferry across the river to Almada so some of the pictures below are not from Lisbon really. Some were taken from the different viewing points I visited in and there are also some snaps from impressive street art I encountered on my walk. I also had a lot of tasty food at Taberna da Rua das Flores and excellent craft beer at Dois Corvos.

  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image
  • Image gallery image

Since Lisbon basically is all hills my legs hurt pretty bad yesterday from Saturday’s walking (or climbing I should say). So I decided just to have a lazy day. I did go for a long swim in the campsite pool, but otherwise didn’t do much except for reading. Later though I went for a walk along the river and had excellent sushi for dinner with someone I met on Saturday.

I ended up staying another night at the campsite and I worked from there today. Now I’m back “home” in Baleal. Everyone here told me that I made a food choice going away for the weekend. The conditions for surfing have been horrible. After doing a quick grocery stop I went straight in for an evening surf. But I pretty much just got smashed around. Since I didn’t get hurt and I hurt no one else so I guess I achieved the minimum goal though.

Return of the Yellow Engine Light

This week sure has had some highs and lows already. The highs mainly from surfing and the frustrating lows from the engine light that lit up again… This is the story so far.

Running out of propane

Already a couple of weeks ago the first of the two propane bottles I have with me got empty. And no matter how I calculated, the other one wouldn’t be enough for the rest of the trip. So there was a need for a solution for this problem. “I did my own research” (that phrase has been spoiled by antivaxxers and other nuts) and decided that filling a Finnish bottle with LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) would be the easiest option. There are some things that you need to take into account. 1. Never ever overfill 2. Find a place that can fill Finnish bottles and 3. Leave some of the propane for the trip back.

The first rule is easy to follow. My bottles have a volume of 22 liters when completely empty. I decided that playing it safe and not going over 20 liters would be a good idea. The second rule was a bit more work, but Park4Night saved me again. There’s a place in Lourinhã, about half an hour from Baleal that can fill even Finnish bottles. So I took a drive there on Tuesday and everything went smoothly. Until I started Naranja at least, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

The third consideration is a bit more theoretical and may not be something that I should worry about. But the LNG apparently does not work very well in cold environments, so I’m going to try to save some of the propane for the last couple of days of my trip. Otherwise I may have a cold night ahead of me.

My old yellow friend “Check Engine” said hello again

As I started up Naranja in Lourinhã after filling up the empty gas bottle, my old friend from Riga reappeared: the yellow Check Engine light lit up again. The error message was the same as before (Secondary fan fault), I had a local repair shop check it. They didn’t have much time for me, but they said it most likely has something to do with a relay. I told them that this is what they presumed in Riga too. They pointed out a relay and said it wasn’t working properly. The shop didn’t have the exact same one, but they replaced it with what they called a temporary solution. They were right about that at least since it just barely got me back to Baleal and the light lit up again…

I got the new relay on Thursday and replaced it, but this is where I got active with my old friend Google. I found out that most likely the guys at the repair shop just wanted to get rid of me quickly, or they just had no idea. The relay I replaced is for the primary fan, not the secondary one. I checked the relay for the secondary fan, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. This is not a professional opinion, but what I read online is that this fault code is often caused by a broken wire somewhere (not necessarily even connected with the secondary fan). And apparently that’s not something easy to fix.

The fuse and relay box in the engine compartment. The big black one in the middle is for the secondary fan.

There are two things that give me comfort in this situation. First of all, the fan seems to be working normally. And even if it wasn’t that wouldn’t be a catastrophe. It only fires up when the engine temperature is high and the car is not moving. So avoiding idling especially when the engine and the temperature is hot should be enough. And of course paying attention to the heat gauge.

On Friday I took Naranja to a local repair shop in Baleal to clear the error code. As I said earlier, I’m not convinced the problem is really fixed, but I’m hoping I can keep the light away at least for some time. But honestly I’m getting mentally prepared for living with this until I get back home.

Surfing update

For the first time ever this past week I actually felt like I might be able to learn how to surf properly still. I went surfing five days out of the last seven and I’m really feeling I’m making a lot of progress too. Especially the last few days I went in the waves weren’t really big, but I took them anyway and didn’t worry too much about them closing out on me. It’s the practice that counts, not the perfect waves.

On Thursday I looked at both the surf forecast and the weather one and the wind seems to be getting really bad this weekend. Also, I’m really feeling the long sessions in water from the last days so I decided that this would be a good weekend for a visit to Lisbon.

Waves are too big for me in Baleal and the wind is really picking up too.
Straight from repair shop to Lisbon

I drove straight from the repair shop to a municipal campsite in Lisbon and booked two nights here and found a cool spot to park Naranja under the trees. This is by far the biggest campsite I’ve ever been to. I had a good sleep and now I’m getting ready to head for downtown for the day. Just waiting for the dryer to finish and then I’m jumping in the bus.

There’s a cool pool here too, but it was closed last night and this morning it hadn’t opened yet.

Back to Work and on the Board Again

As I hoped, writing about my misery was helpful. The fever’s gone and my head feels brighter again. Thursday and Friday I worked normally again. And the past three days I’ve been surfing too.

Back to full strength, physically and mentally

I’m feeling back to normal again. I don’t know for sure what that was about, but my best guess still is that it was somehow stomach related. I’ve had only a fever before when others who ate the same bad food have had more drastic symptoms. I don’t know for sure, but the main thing is that it’s gone now.

Also complaining and writing out things that have bothered me has helped a little. Already putting the stuff in words always helps a little. I still need to work on putting the ideas in to practice, but that’ll come along.

Good and bad news from the surf front

I’ll start with the bad ones. I noticed that my new wetsuit had a cut on the right thigh after getting out of the water some days ago. I remember having one bigger wipeout and the fins must have hit the thigh and made the cut. The cut isn’t big, but it would get bigger quickly if not repaired.

I took it back to the surf shop I bought it from to ask what can be done and they said that they’ll send it to O’Neill and let them decide if it’s a warranty case (not likely) or if they will just fix it and charge me. I’m glad I did take it to the store though. Had I repaired it myself or let someone else do it for me, the warranty would have been voided.

And then the good news. On Friday the online portal of the surf shop had a message from O’Neill telling me that since the suit is so new they will repair the cut without a cost. That’s what I call customer service! Not just from them though, since Surf 58 gave me a replacement wetsuit I can use it until I get my own back. It’s nothing fancy and new, but without it I’d be stranded (literally). I’ve now used it three times and it’s quite ok. But I really do appreciate my own more now… Getting mine back may take a couple of weeks, but at least I can keep surfing.

Saturday night sunset from the Baleal Island
A beautiful morning surf today

I have to tell you about this morning surf session. The waves were quite small and not easy to get, but sunrise surf is something I’ll try to do more often from now on. It was breathtakingly beautiful! First it was foggy, but then the sun came out and all the colors were so different all of a sudden. And most importantly, I was in the water with just two others, which made everything so much easier. I may be a little too polite/careful when I’m in the line-up with many others. This morning I didn’t have to worry about others at all.

I also managed to ride a couple right handers (waves breaking to the right which means I as a goofy have to make a back turn). I’ve been struggling with them a little bit more than lefts so far. I’ve had a couple sessions that have made me feel like I should quit trying even, but this morning everything feels as amazing as ever. There really are a lot of highs and lows in this sport, but I guess many other things have them too.

Being Sick Sucks – Ruminations of a Feverhead

I’m free, I think. I shut my eyes and think hard and deep about how free I am, but I can’t really understand what it means. All I know is I’m totally alone. All alone in an unfamiliar place, like some solitary explorer who’s lost his compass and his map. Is this what it means to be free? I don’t know, and I give up thinking about it.

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Fighting fever and my own melancholy

After a normal day of work yesterday I noticed that something was odd. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that it’s a rising fever I’m feeling. Joints and head aching, feeling a bit off and clumsy somehow. Judging by the delirious dreams last night I think the fever got pretty high (I don’t own a thermometer). I don’t know what’s causing it since I don’t have any respiratory symptoms. My stomach did feel a little weird yesterday, but that disappeared too. The fever still hasn’t, but it’s gotten much lower though.

I hate being sick generally and when I get sick while traveling alone it’s even worse. It’s not that I feel unable to get help or anything. I have neighbors willing to help me out and the healthcare here is quite ok and easy to get access to if needed. But it does make me feel somehow helpless and alone.

The quotation I started this post with is from the book I’m reading at the moment. It’s something that describes the things going through my head right now. It’s not desperation and it’s not something that makes me think about going home. I still think that this kind of living will most likely be part of my life in the future.

Good surf and nice days going to waste

What brings me down even more is seeing people walking to the beach with their boards and not being able to join them. Yesterday was still crazy windy and the surf was bad, but today seems to be better. And I’m stuck in bed… My neighbor has gone out twice with his board today already.

My hideout yesterday and today. Please note the lovely Moomin bed linen. A fun fact: Moomin characters are also mentioned in the book I’m reading.

I took a day off from work today and might do the same tomorrow too. I’m not very good at doing nothing and not even having work to make the time pass makes it even tougher to cope. Besides, I really like my job.

Disclaimer – I’m really not dying here

Please don’t worry too much about me after reading this overly dramatic post. I’m not feeling that bad. I just needed to vent my frustration and get these nasty thoughts out of my head. Sometimes it helps and I thought I’d give it a try.

There is something in the quotation I started the post with that’s not just my melancholy talking. I’ve felt that way sometimes even before the fever. And I’ve talked with and read about other people having the same thoughts. I realize that I need to connect with people a little bit more than just saying hi and changing occasional surf tips. In order to make this lifestyle work, I’ll need to learn this at some point. I know I will eventually, but I’d just rather learn it soon.

Cascais: Good Food and Interesting Encounters

I know I’ve been talking about sticking to one place in the past posts. But now I took off to Cascais, a small pretty town about 90 minutes from Baleal. I’ve been here a couple of times before and I’ve always enjoyed the place.

My parking spot
My breakfast view this morning
Interesting encounters

While Baleal is mainly just about surfing, this place has a lot more to offer. A lot of great restaurants, even some great vegan and vegetarian places that I’ve enjoyed a lot on my last trips here. There are surfing options here too but the parking situation has been pretty difficult at least for Guincho beach. I haven’t surfed here yet, but I’ve had two great days and a fun evening in the town yesterday.

Yesterday’s lunch at House of Wonders vegetarian restaurant

I bumped into some really interesting people yesterday. While having lunch, a Canadian woman Sophia, joined my table. She had accidentally taken the wrong train and ended up in Cascais. Sophia leads a nomadic lifestyle and has been living around the world for the past six years. She now works for a company in California and has pretty much the opposite working hours than I do: she starts at three and works until eleven.

I also enjoyed the company of a lovely Scottish couple who are here on holiday. They told me about their trip and I gave them a couple of good tips. Later I ended up going for drinks with a barmaid from a craft beer bar and her three local friends. Random encounters are so much fun.

Meeting a colleague

Today instead of a random encounter I had a planned meet-up. I met a colleague I’ve been working a lot with the past three years for the first time face to face. My company has several offices and he’s based in the Helsinki one. He told me last week that he’s coming to Lisbon with a friend for a week so we set up a meeting here in Cascais. We had good food at a Peruvian restaurant and walked around the city.

Today’s lunch: Ceviche in a Peruvian restaurant
Street art in Cascais
Boca do Inferno

Boca do Inferno (translates to Hell’s mouth) here in Cascais is a pretty impressive place. It’s a big hole in the cliffs that has an opening in the bottom for the waves. When the swell is big it acts almost like a geyser. But besides being an impressive sight there’s some cool history connected to it too.

A view to the “hell’s mouth”

A British occultist, mountaineer, painter (and many more things) Alistair Crowley staged his suicide here in 1930 only to appear at the opening of his own art exhibition in Berlin three weeks later. The guy really knew how to take his audience… Ozzy Osbourne made a song about him in the early eighties too: Mr Crowley.

Working from a Hippie Village

Three days into working again. After the shock of the first day it has now started to feel almost normal again. Just the surroundings are somewhat different than at home.

Brain softened by five weeks of holiday

Monday was a bit tough, I have to admit. The longer than usual summer holiday really did what it’s supposed to. I was absolutely out of the routine. On Monday it took me almost half a day to go through my emails and Teams messages (no, I don’t read them on my holiday). There were also some new things I needed to read about and plenty of curious colleagues who wanted to know where I was and how the trip has gone so far. After the first day things started feeling more normal again.

I’ve been working mainly from inside Naranja so far, but yesterday I moved out after lunch. I would have done it today too, but I ran out of time when I used my lunch break to do a supply run (fill and empty the water tanks). The temperature has been more or less bearable inside too so far.

The hippie park

This parking spot is really cool. At least I think it is. But as you may see from the comments from some other people, not everyone agrees with me. It can get loud here and it really isn’t very clean. But it’s a bit like a family here somehow and I feel very safe here. I haven’t been all too social here, but I’ve been making a few friends here.

The lines of vans and all sorts of vehicles. The beach is about 3 minutes walk ahead. Right now the waves are good again, so the spot is really full. My guess is that there are about 50 vehicles at the moment here.

Most of the people here are surfers of course. Some have real life jobs and are here just on holiday and some try to earn here a little. Lots of crafts are being sold and surf lessons offered. There are at least two tattoo artists here as well. And yes, I believe there might be a few guys who get a little income from selling weed too. More or less every time I walk to the beach, I smell it at some point on the way.

Interesting fact about Portugal is that they decriminalized the use of drugs more than twenty years ago, but selling them still is an offense. Depending on the interpretation of the results so far, it has been a big success or not one. It really seems that nowadays everyone has their own truth…

Vacation’s Over – Starting a “New Normalcy”

How’s my antsiness doing?

For starters a brief follow-up to the main theme of my last post. I’ve talked to a couple of people here about my feeling of urgency and antsiness. A neighbor I played backgammon with a couple of times told me that he’s seen a lot of the same with people who are new to living in a van. He thinks it’s part of the transition from being a tourist/traveler to becoming a “vanlifer”. I guess he knows what he’s talking about since he’s been living in his van for twelve years now.

That idea does make a lot of sense really. When you’re traveling for only a short/set period of time, you want to see and experience as much as possible. I have the traveling part of my trip behind me and now I’m trying to adjust my mindset to the living mode. Of course I won’t stop moving around completely and I will travel to Spain at some point. But I really want to stick to what I have here at the moment. This place is really special. Maybe I’ll tell you a little more about this hippie heaven I’m living in in my next post.

Testing the connectivity and setting up a workplace

I made a test call with Teams to a colleague with my company laptop. I was a bit concerned whether the roaming network I’m using here works well enough, but everything went just fine. In case some problems do show up later, I can always get a pre-paid card here as well, but I’m hoping that won’t be necessary.

Since there’s a two hour time difference to Finland I’m hoping I can get started here at 6.30. That would mean I can call it a day at 2.30 already. Normally I’ve been getting up around seven anyway, so it’s not that big of a rhythm change really.

I also tested how the display mount arm fits my outside table and that also looks promising. I was afraid the table surface may be too thin, but looks like it’s going to be fine. My plan is to start working inside the car and when/if it gets too warm, I’ll move outside and continue working from the table under the awning.

I also found out a big bonus today. My outside table fits just barely through the side door. Since the legs are individually adjustable, I can set the table as a standing workstation. The height is just a bit too low, but if needed I can find something to use as an extra elevation.

A possible setup for a standing workstation
A morning walk to the Baleal Island

Part of my morning routine here has been going to the beach and checking out the waves. (Also, there’s a clean public bathroom on the beach #bumlifehacks.) Today I extended the walk to the Baleal Island that stretches out as a peninsula between the two main surf beaches here. I have gone to the island for dinner a few times, but I never had a closer look. I walked around it and took some pictures for you to see.

The Baleal Island in the back and the land bridge to it
My primary surf spot (to the left of the image above)
The second surf spot on the other side of the land bridge
The tip of the Baleal Island looks pretty, but it’s fenced off
Oh yes, I’ve been surfing too

My new board has now been in the water for little over five hours. Yesterday the conditions weren’t much fun, but I went in anyway. Buying a surfboard and not using it for five days is tough and I just had to go.

Today was much better already. I started at the bigger beach and got a few good ones. Nothing really amazing, but I had a lot of fun. The board is working fine and it feels like the right size for me. I took a little break in the shade and then I moved over to the smaller beach. According to the forecast it should have gotten bigger there too by then. But there’s no trusting the forecast especially this exactly. I still had fun there, but it was more of a struggle to get the waves.

Fighting the Antsiness and Becoming a Surfer

A question to myself: Why am I always in a hurry to move on?

On the weekend I was planning to leave the by Tuesday. Just yesterday I still wrote that I would be going to Spain today. But here I am in Baleal still. Now I’m trying really hard not to run off from something that really is near perfection. This parking spot is free, I can get more water for free and also empty the gray and black water for free nearby. There are nice people around and I feel really good. And the waves aren’t any better anywhere at the moment. Sure, Spanish learning here doesn’t work any better than from home, but I should have enough time for that yet.

Yesterday I went out for dinner with the other Finn parking here who lives in her mobile home permanently. She gave me plenty of good advice about making “van life” easier. But most of all she’s made me question my urgency and the “ants in the pants” mentality that keeps me always looking for something else and not really appreciating what I have at the moment. Why is it that I have the urge to move away from a place I feel good at? Am I running away from something? I have no answers yet, but I’ll try to resist the urge and enjoy the things that I have right now. We’ll see where that gets me.

There’s actually no reason I couldn’t work from right here next week. There is some noise around, but it shouldn’t be a problem at least during my working hours (aiming for 6.30 AM to 2.30 PM).

I’m officially a surfer now

I bought my first own surf board yesterday. Even though I’m not any better at surfing because of that, it still makes me feel like a proper surfer somehow. I’m committed to it now more than I’ve been so far and somehow it feels like I’ve really done something more than just given a lot of money to the local surf shop (the website seems to be online almost as much as it’s offline). The board not the one I linked in yesterday’s post, but it’s the same size with different color scheme. Now only thing that’s missing are the waves… Sunday evening may be the earliest possibility.

My brand new, still unwaxed Torq 7’8