Happiness Is Just Around The Bend

Growing up in a small town as a child, I never really thought too much about where the vegetables at the supermarket came from. Even though I had spent parts of my holidays in the Norwegian mountains and at the seaside, harvesting my own food was limited to picking berries from bushes and going fishing with my dad. Throughout the years, I’ve become more and ore aware of the means of production, turned vegetarian and tried to keep myself informed, in order to make the right choices with regard to what I consume. Still, I was lacking a direct connection between what I was consuming and how it was produced. So when I got the opportunity to join a friend at his family’s country house, I was over the moon. Thanks to the attached farm and vineyard I got to really get an inside perspective on organic farming and even got to help out when oniony were picked and bundled. Helping out on a family farm is a rewarding experience, bringing you closer to the people in the country you...

When I added Évora to my Iberian itinerary, I didn’t have many expectations.  I heard it was a lovely town, but my main goal was to see the Capela dos Ossos, the bone chapel.  Anything else would be a fringe benefit. Sometimes, going into a place without expectations is best — because I was absolutely bowled over by the beauty of Évora! The first thing you notice in Évora is the Moorish influence — the streets are filled with short whitewashed buildings with mustard-yellow trim.  You see this style throughout the old part of the city. The street signs add to the decor nicely: Like many small towns in Europe, the town square is the center of activity.  Évora’s Plaça de Giraldo doesn’t disappoint — it’s the kind of square where you could sit for hours. It reminded me more of Italy than anywhere else in Portugal — you can have an Italian-style plaza experience, down to the well-groomed people sitting at the cafes, without needing to...

Interested? PIN NOW, read later! I just spent a summer visiting the Azores Islands, a far-off autonomous archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, where life is simple and the living is easy. While technically part of Portugal, these islands are starkly different from continental Europe and relatively unknown within the travel community. Scattered across the Atlantic, the Azores have been isolated from the world (and each other) for centuries, which has led to each island developing its own unique culture among its beautiful natural surroundings. So where are the Azores? And how did I hear about them? The nine islands are divided into three separate groups. The eastern islands are  Sao Miguel  and Santa Maria ; the central group consists of Terceira , Graciosa , Sao Jorge , Pico, and Faial ; and the western islands of Flores and Corvo  are the most remote of the islands. My father was born on Terceira, the third largest island of the Azores, and my grandparents, and their grandparent...