Warm, warmer, the warmest

There is something magical about the winter, too!

The temperature in Finland this week is around minus 10 degrees celcius during daytime and -15 at nights. So it is no wonder I check the flights and weather forecasts  almost daily. It promised +16 degrees in Lisbon this morning!!!  If I wasn't actually madly in love with cold winters nothing could keep me from travelling to Portugal this week!
Not everyone likes this weather and I do know I belong to a small minority of winter lovers! 

I am keeping myself warm by looking at photos and cooking Portuguese soups! My absolute favourite is tomato soup with eggs - the first soup Amelia ever taught me to make. And like all the Portuguese recepies, it starts with taking two onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil.... These cold days are just perfect for soups!! After an hour of crosscountry skiing warm, tasty soup is heaven!  I have been so lucky that Amelia has been giving cooking lessons a few times here, at my B&B so I'm well prepered  for the winter!

I bring great olive oil, ABC- macaronies and chocolate powder (not to mention my favorite  wines)  every time I visit Portugal so I'm all set.  Well, almost, at least. 

Naturally I miss the sites, the climate, the friends, the early blooming flowers, the scents - who doesn't! That is why I have all these photos - to remind me what is waiting for me when I go back again!!! And believe me, it will not be long before I go:)

Saudade.... até logo Portugal

There is a Portuguese word SAUDADE which means longing, missing or yearning to or after something. In Finnish, which is my mother tongue, the word KAIHO means almost the same. These two are perfect words for the feeling I have today. On my last day here. Knowing that I'm leaving, not knowing when I'll return.  But at the same token having an underlying tone of hope, a solid knowledge that someday we will meet again. For without hope there is no 'saudade', without hope, there is only sadness of loosing something and never reaching it again. But trust me - I am coming back!!!

I have a friend who visited his ideal holiday location for the 30th time this year -the same island, the same hotel, the same floor.... I almost started to laugh and question his lack of adventure and was about to comment on how boring that sounded....  I didn't.
I realized that I have been going back to Portugal (read= Sintra) since 1988.....

I will always remember the first time I visited Sintra area. It was magic - just like going into a fairy tale!! I came from white, cold wintery Finland and arrived in green world  full of flowers, trees, friendly people (and  cold houses)! 30-years ago there were a lot less tourists, a lot more run down old houses, fewer hotels, fewer everything.... the houses were cold, even back then but the Sintra mountain, Pena  Palace,  the Moorish castle, they were there...
And they  have  held my heart ever since.