When you write about your travels, there seems to be two posts needed about any area - the larger picture, and the smaller. The larger sweeping picture is the recognisable postcard - the smaller stories are the postcards you forgot to buy or never get sent.

Such as, who wants to hear about being in a workshop for hours changing the oil and trying to figure out a problem with the carburetor?

Or who wants to hear about Paulo who worked in the wine industry and had lots of Douro wine to share, and the dinner he made us of fish and potatoes, and the black honey and goats cheese? The discussions about the food the Portuguese eat like lamprey and chickens neck and intestines?

Or Paulo's little Renault that we nearly were in an accident in as someone headed towards us the wrong way around a roundabout?

Or the stinking headache I had and the fight we had on the street because Jamie wanted lunch and I wanted to go back to Paulo's and sleep for the rest of the afternoon?

Or when I was sleeping and Jamie and Paulo sat up for hours drinking and talking about Land Rovers and the midnight visit from a guy with a replica camel trophy (one for @mrprofessor)?

Or the quick little visit to a beautiful little fishing town near to Porto where we realize what a great place it is to live? Or the little chapel by the sea that we didn't understand but must be amazing when the sea is raging?

Or the tiles on the wall that read 'the sea is my souls? Or Paulo's stories about bringing his daughters here as kids, cycling along the boardwalk? The places the tourists don't visit as much?

Or the small cafe we visit in an industrial estate with wonderful Portuguese food at affordable prices, and where we eat a kind of cold spiced French toast soaked in port wine that I never take a photo of?

Or the old guy that restored minis, that have the exact same carburetor as the Landie, that we visit and he tweaks ours because that's what he does for people?

Such small details on the unbought postcards. They have no cohesion or order, but they must go somewhere.

And these days I no longer know exactly where to put them on the block chain, with Pinmapple shut. Any ideas?

With Love,

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