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Published: January 17th 2014
It was a reunion of the crazy fuckers.
Flashback: We had all met in Switzerland when I was an even crazier (than present day Josh) 20 turning 21 year old and had taken a trip to Europe with $1000 I had saved for a month traveling. I traveled to Amsterdam first. There I blasted through most of my $$ there. Then, realizing there had to be more to Europe I took a train to Switzerland before going to Italy and finally flying from France.
Since my father had gone to medical school in Switzerland my aunty gave me the contact of his best friend from the university. His friend had a son and his son had many funny friends. We all loved surfing and partying so we took a trip to Biarritz, France; the capital of euro-surfing.
Facebook: several years later I get a friend request. "Hey, long time", he says?... "Who the fuck...?", I am thinking... Then I remember. It's Marco. One of my best friends from the gang of Swiss guys. We keep in touch.
Flashforward to present day: I'm a free bird in Paris and message Marco. He says jump on a plane come to
April 25th Bridge
April 25th was the day I started my world travels. Haha. And I was there in Portugal on the 2 month anniversary of my travelingthe ocean and lets surf again. So there we have it.
July 2013 in
Lisbon.
SURFTRAVEL TIP #6 : live with the locals and like a local whenever possible.
Portugal. It was a major empire of the old days. I had forgotten about its majesty as many of the world is guilty of as well. It was (and is) full of royals and brave men that sailed the seas in search of treasure, new horizons and future. They founded one of the most popular countries of the world today: Brazil. Its only downfall is that it doesn't believe in itself as I do. As a country it has an inferiority complex. In all the traveling I did in those 7 months, Portugal is the most underrated. Of all the European countries I visited this Portugal ties as my favorite with Ireland.
I landed and it was time to live. Marco picked me up at Lisbon International and we went back to the flat he had rented. It was overlooking a famous old street right in the center of the old part of the city. Time to sit on the lanai and catch up. He told
me about his job and how he hated working at the bank and how now it was time to change life and party and live. It was so refreshing to be with a friend who was thinking like me.
The energy in the town was amazing. That night we partied in a world class environment. The next day we drove 20 minutes and had some of the most perfect reef breaks in Europe at our fingertips. Marco had been traveling there several times, as had Manu my other buddy from younger days. Manu came into the airport and the reunion was on! We drank port together. We surfed secret spots together. We traveled south where it was warmer. Castles and white sand surf coves were scattered along the way. The climate was Mediterranean; almost akin to California. The air was warm and the ocean was cold.
No matter. We had boards, we had beer (we had moments in the sun)...We had joy we had fun we had moments in the sun! I felt like I was with my best friends in the world...For that time they were. We drove back up to the capital city of Lisbon before
they flew home. The days and nights were long and hot. One night we went out and I would meet a woman of my dreams. Two worlds collided at a bodega. With Portuguese live music and Caipirinhas. My terrible Spanish came in handy to put the mack on a Brasilera (Brazilian girl).
You'll just have to wait til a later blog to hear that development. The days in Portugal were waning and I was preparing to go where no person in my family had gone: Africa. My Swiss friends were back to their jobs and I was back on the surf and soulsearch.
I was stepping off the European continent into an even older world that my mother had warned me against. It was new adventures as I got further and further from my homeland and deeper into the continental heat.
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