Good Morning Loves,
I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Ours was one for the books! The weather has finally hit the 80s and wowowowow did we have fun this week.
Besties Crystal and Teague came to visit from Atlanta so we needed to blow it out and convince them to move to Portugal. I don’t know if we succeeded, but we had fun trying.
Since we had our oldest friends here (they’re not old, but our friendship goes way back), I thought this would be the perfect time to preview the tour. We gathered some folks that I knew would give their brutally honest opinions on the tour and off we went. Suffice to say, we had run the route, written the script, coordinated with our food vendors, and timed every stop to the minute prior to the tour.
How did it go? I have to say, it went very well, especially for our first go. For some reason we seemed to be way ahead of schedule, and one guest was late and had to catch up to the group. Other than those two challenges, which we welcomed in order to tweak the tour to make it the best it can be, we were pleased with the outcome.
Our friends shared ideas that will put extra shine on the tours and they thought of things we hadn’t. Things like not letting everyone loose at the waffle truck before wrapping up the tour - although Eric did tell everyone how much we appreciated them joining us and I had a couple of tears of gratitude for everyone who was so kind to spend their busy lives with us for an afternoon.
That same night of the tour Eric and I organized a night of Food and Fado with our Facebook group to show Crystal and Teague some truly local culture. We’ve lived here for six months and still haven’t experienced Portugal’s official music and songs of saudade.
Saudade: an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone.
It’s an emotion that is completely embraced by the Portuguese and with our dear friends here for a few days, and then leaving us, I understood the meaning.
Crystal, Teague, Eric and I ate, drank, slurped oysters by the ocean and experienced saudade en masse. I hope they loved our seaside city and will consider returning to make it their home some day.
In the meantime, the empire building continues. Sunday we gathered our dear tour hosts to run the route together for the first time. Ana and Dario shared their stories and tips about Setúbal that will delight our future guests. When I spoke about the waffle truck, Dario referred to it as the Waffle House, which tickled Eric and I to no end. I told Dario to use that during the tour - the guests will adore it. After running the route, we hopped into a Bolt and met Crystal and Teague for one last evening of food and fun. I know they will enjoy the rest of their trip around Portugal. Safe travels, my sweet friends.
Eric has agreed to become the CIO for Taste Fully Tours. After Uncle Sammie’s folded, we were both crushed, but this is another, more fun opportunity to build something special together again. His attention to detail is the perfect foil for my big picture ideas. Thanks, Honey. I appreciate you so much. And remember, there are no dishes to wash on tours.
This morning was spent with my wonderful friend, Paula, Director of Promotions and Communications for Visit Setúbal. She has become my guardian angel and biggest supporter of Taste Fully Tours. Today, we tried to figure out why I am not being approved for a RNAAT number - this is the registration with Turismo de Portugal that will allow me to legitimately work with the municipalities. Apparently I put my name on the application when all names should read Taste Fully Tours. They don’t care about Patti Davis. It’s all about the company.
I’m learning so much. I have to remind myself how far I’ve come since I had a dream of starting walking food tours here in Portugal. What a gift this journey has been.
Can’t wait to see where it takes us.
Hug each other tightly and call your lawmakers. I try not to read the news, but man oh man, it looks like it so crazy in the states. Remember - YOU are enough.
I love you,
P
I had to revisit this post (stemming from the Dec 4th post about saudade) that I recall reading, but not commenting on and then had to look up the word and how to pronounce it :). Finding this: https://medium.com/@studio_saudade/when-i-first-read-what-the-portuguese-expression-saudade-meant-i-cried-really-hard-536a5f2551c6# and love the sentiment of "the love that remains". I can feel the saudade in the posts about the decision to move back to the States and very likely the same feelings will be had for the amazing experiences you had while living abroad, so many journeys and paths taken! Cheers honey!