TRAVEL

Why I Want To Visit Portugal Again So Badly

I’m planning a trip despite my chronic pain

I’ve had a passion for Portugal ever since I visited for a training camp with my college rowing team fifteen years ago.

It’s a country of white houses with pink tiled roofs, sloping vineyards, mountains, and steep river valleys — at least from the tiny slice I’ve seen in the far northeast corner of Portugal, just a few miles from the border with Spain.

As a disabled person, I don’t get to travel. My headaches have been so bad lately I can’t see straight, especially when I leave the house even for an hour.

But I’m desperate to go back to Portugal. It’s probably a pipe dream, but I’m planning to go with my mom in the spring of 2024.

Here are six reasons why I want to revisit the country so badly.

1. Stuck in My Head

All these years, the word has rung in my head — Portugal, Portugal. I’ve written stories about the country and talked about my experiences there again and again. It’s time to go back and scratch that itch.

When I got the opportunity to go to Portugal, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. I was extremely homesick in Scotland, where I was attending grad school, and had wanted to go back to the United States for the two weeks of spring break. But my dad convinced me to go.

“How often do you get the chance to go to Portugal?” he said.

I’m so glad I did. During my one week of rowing there, I became obsessed with the place. On the far edge of the Iberian peninsula, it felt exotic, a place I’d read about in history books but never imagined I’d visit.

2. Holding Hope Through Pain

The idea of traveling to Portugal gets my heart pumping whenever I think of it. It’s a goal to hold my attention day after day, something to look forward to, to help me hold hope through pain.

I’ve had headaches every day for the past nine years. The pain is a misery, and it’s been even worse the last few months. I have a pretty bleak diagnosis (I might have these headaches for life). The identity of Wanderer/Traveler has been stripped away from me.

But I’m sick of life passing me by.

When I think of Portugal — downloading ebooks, researching itineraries, bombarding my mom’s Facebook page with Portugal pictures, learning Portuguese words — it excites me.

I jump out of bed thinking of Portugal, and I love that.

3. Wanting More Than A Glimpse

As I rode on the bus with my teammates from our little rowing village back to Porto, where we’d catch our flight, I caught tantalizing glimpses of diverse landscapes — river valleys, vineyards, forests, deserts, mountains, ancient olive trees.

Sadly, I didn’t get to stop and explore. I want to go see more of Portugal and go beyond that tiny slice.

This time, I’d like to see the south of Portugal, particularly the area around Lisbon. From what I’ve read, the landscape there is a bit different from what I saw in the north.

And I want to see the ocean! I’ll stand on some rocky promontory staring out across the Atlantic, with nothing between me and North America but the waves.

4. Beautiful Architecture

Just like the landscape, I only got a taste of Portugal’s beautiful architecture. Some of it, like Moorish castles built in the 8th and 9th centuries, I whipped by on the bus in the dead of night.

Portugal has a style of architecture that you don’t see anywhere else in Europe, called Manueline. It’s tall and grand like Gothic architecture but with the addition of nautical elements — shells, ships, sea gods, anchors, ropes — carved right into the stone.

I want to stroll around, soak in the glory of the historic buildings, and take photos, which is one of my favorite hobbies.

5. Revisiting History

The first time I was in Portugal, I was so frustrated that I knew next to nothing about its history. I passed plaques in Portuguese that I could tell were talking about kings, but I had never heard of them and didn’t know their stories.

I couldn’t stand my ignorance because I love European history — I majored in it! I want to go back to Portugal now that I’m learning more about its past. This time I’ll bring guidebooks like I’ve done in Europe before so I can fully enjoy what I’m looking at.

Portugal has a fascinating history. It was occupied by the Celts, Romans, and Visigoths, then conquered by the Moors. After holding off the Spanish who wanted to gobble up the kingdom and make it their own land, the Portuguese ruled the high seas in the Golden Age of Exploration — and sadly established the trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought them great riches.

Much later, Portugal was ruled by a fascist government longer than any other country in the 20th century. I’m still learning more.

6. Sharing It With My Mom

It was fun to visit Portugal with my rowing teammates, but it would be much more special to go with my mom. She and I have been to Europe together three times — once to England, twice to Scotland.

I want to share the beauty and culture of Portugal with her. By her own admission, Portugal isn’t a country she would have chosen to visit (just like I wouldn’t have chosen to visit it before I did and became obsessed).

But she’s been enchanted by the photos of Portugal I’ve shown her and says there are so many places to choose from that would be wonderful to see.

I hope fervently that I’ll be healthy enough to go to Portugal at some point because I really want my mom and I to make fabulous memories together.

Above all, revisiting Portugal is a way for me to reclaim a piece of who I was before my chronic pain. It’s a way to move forward and live my life the way I want to live it.

After living in both England and Scotland, I haven’t been back to Europe since 2009. I never thought I’d go that long between refreshing my eternal need for the old continent.

It’s time to head back. It’s time to go to Portugal again.