I should think by now that I’ve seen most of the country after 1,5 years of van life in Portugal. Truth is, I might have seen 50% of it. The part of the Silver Coast above Nazaré was still on my list. The SIlver Coast runs from Porto in the North, down South to around Ericeira. This time I was driving from the freezing mountains to the Venice of Portugal: Aveiro. I’ve been to the real Venice during lockdown times, I was expecting a bit of romance. The fact that I had a temporary travel buddy in my van, was not the main reason for expecting that.
False start
I should have learned by now, to be careful with expectations. For example, we expected the trip to start 2 days earlier. An appointment with a garage in Portugal doesn’t really mean, that you actually have an appointment. The ordered parts were there, but they forgot to put the appointment in their agenda. 2 days after the van was fixed and ready to rock. We headed to the coast after some hiking days around Carregal do Sal.
What’s up for dinner
I’ve been roadtripping with this travel friend before, although I didn’t know this person that well. Just before the trip started I received a bit of a strange message by WhatsApp. It was a message that she really likes to ‘taste’ someone. It began with tasting all kinds of body parts with made it sound kind of a sexy message. Although it turned a bit weird when she started about connections of nice texture…she continued;
Preparing everything beforehand. Cutting through layers of scalp, until it reaches the skull and finally the brains. Detach organ by organ, and find out if the muscles are squishy when the body just recently died.
She mentioned that the human body is fascinating and that people don’t have enough empathy for it. She finds the hole idea above tempting.
I’ve been watching a lot of scary documentaries and movies. The message was not a joke and I wasn’t so sure about the intentions of this person. Was I getting a bit nervous? What did I have to expect? I talked with my other HIVE-buddy about it, maybe this was the feminine version of Hannibal Lector…
Scalpel
It got even funnier, when I started to talk about this subject during the start of our little roadtrip. She told me she loved Hannibal Lector and stuff like that. Was it karma for a joke I did in the past with someone else? (Pretending I was a potential serial killer, although that was during a weekend full of funny conversations) Or, was I ready to be cooked and tortured by a cannibal?
At some point we were making some pictures during sunset. My monkey side wanted to climb in some wooden poles and I knew beforehand, what was going to happen. A huge splinter got deep in my hand. I couldn't get it out and it was deep. Quite an irritating sting as well. My cannibalistic travel friend asked me, if I had something sharp. I realized I had a scalpel in my first aid kit. But was I really handing over a scalpel to this person, that I don’t really know? After all the ideas she shared and on a remote spot in the middle of nowhere? My expectations were disturbed. I was distracted by many things. But, I handed over the scalpel and let her slice through my hand deeply. I was questioning myself, if it turned me on. No, I just felt relieved that the annoying pain was gone….and that I was still alive :)
I thought about it, while driving through Aveiro. Funny that this vegan girl, likes cutting flesh and that kind of stuff. Maybe we can become meat lovers in the romantic Venice of Portugal…
Perfect campspot for some extra freaky vibes.
Expectations are there to be fucked
I looked in the App Park4Night to find a nice camper spot in or around Aveiro. The highest score was a spot next to the main railway station in town. We arrived in the late evening. It was supposed to be a spot especially for campers and with all facilities, except electricity. Well, it was created for campers, that was true. But, we never found toilets. The bus station was closed, the only option to do our shit was having a huge dump at the local supermarket. We also noticed a remarkable camper van, it was a huge old truck. Unloading a large number of gypsies, blankets, pot’s and pans etc. They started to take over the parking lot and making quite a mess. I would like to stay awake for a performance of the Gypsie Kings (whom I actually saw during a life performance last year), but it got a bit rowdy that night. The police chasing the gypsies and leaving one big mess behind. I woke up at night, because someone was trying out the doors of my van.
The next morning we woke up early and discovered that the bus stops were used as sleeping spots for homeless people. Tents, blankets, boxes, car chairs, shopping bags full of stuff. Walking to the historic city centre should take about 20 minutes...within 10 minutes we were there.
We found the canals, that should link this place to Venice. But, if you have ever been in Venice, this place would feel like melted ice. Not that it makes you feel hot, it didn’t spice me up at all. I think there was a part of the canal for about 50 meters, that might have some similarities with Venice viewed in a comic book after drinking too many bottles of Port. The Art Nouveau houses they talk about, can be counted on 1 hand. The construction work that was going on, could not save this town. There are actually 3 tiny canals, a few buildings that look okay, a lot of dirty smelly water (we saw garbage pushed into the canal from one of the restaurants), some TukTuk's and a lot of people trying to sell boat tickets.
The main attraction
The boat trip with a so called Moliceiro circulates for 45 minutes on these dirty waters. I can not imagine what there is actually so entertaining to see in those 45 minutes. We saw the whole historic city center in a 30 minute walk and left. A ‘romantic’ trip in these Gondola's with a huge roaring outboard motor, will cost you 13 hyperinflation euro’s. I didn’t ask if there were some Pastel de Nata’s included. One of the canals was meant to be colorful, with some ugly yellow & blue bright painted houses. First my eyes fooled me and I though they linked this canal to colorful Curaçao. But is seems that the combination of words ‘Aveiro no Coracão’ means ‘Aveiro in the Heart’.. Further on they tried to create a little romantic bridge over one of the ditches. But that dirty ditch bridge, totally missed the charm…on the ugliest part of the town centre. And the busy highway was just next to this little canal.
Muppets
As you might have noticed, we were not really impressed. Am I spoiled? Yes, for sure. After all the travels I’ve done so far. But, even a dino would try to crawl back in its fossil egg after their journey with a DeLorean to the era of toxic love canals in Aveiro.
There wasn’t much excitement while wandering around in this town, although the guy from the drawing on front of the gondola was getting pretty excited…Have a closer look at the clock and his face…the words under it mean: I will wait until 09:15. This was probably the only thing that made me smile here in ‘Vanish’. The charm is gone (if it was there eventually). Yes, I sound slightly negative sometimes. With a bit of sarcasm. People compare me with one of the two sarcastic grandpa’s from the Muppet Show (Statler & Waldorf) since my early twenties. I always seem to find another grumbling grandpa on my cosy balcony. Here in Portugal this balcony basher is
Tour de Pothole
What did we do, to save the day? We continued driving South along the Silver Coast. Up and down, deep holes…potholes. Yes, the way to quiet sandy beaches turned into a bumpy ride. Endless roads, sometimes taking a turn that lead to sleepy beach towns were sand took over town. Poles that were swallowed by Sandy…dunes. I saw that Vin Diesel was having a good time, putting his rubber (tires) in the dusty road.
Most of the roads were 6 km of the main 'Route de Pothole' before arriving at the beach. I wanted to see foxes and needed a hammock to chill. Surprisingly, a fox humped in front of my van with an injury. I jumped out to search for the fox and check if it needed help. I didn’t find the fox, but I bumped into a hammock made of a fishing net. Wow, am I really getting what I ask for today?? This is going to be fun 😊 I do have a history with hammocks. They always seem to break, when I am hanging in there. No surprise, that it did happen again today. Sometimes my expectation seem closer to reality :) I do realize by writing this doen, that not only hammocks break, when I touch them...
One of the beach towns we visited was Leirosa. I did not expect a town even more beyond expectations than Aveiro. This gloomy town is situated at the beach, but the only thing you taste here is industry. There is a huge pulp factory in this town. This was the only place on the coast today, were it was actually cloudy on a clear day.
Expect the unexpected
The trip ended after a few days of hiking and beach cruising in one of my favorite places; Baleal. The trip was full of expectations. Most of them turned out to be the opposite... Even my travel friend turned out to be the complete opposite of the relaxed chilled out version from last trip. I was maybe not in my chill mood, because of some stressful issues that had an impact on my smile. But I tried to make the best of it. At least now I know why I didn’t visit these places in the last 1,5 years in Portugal...it wasn't the warm vibe that I look out for. And this travel buddy will not be someone to share my balcony with during the next episode of the Muppet Show.
You might expect some nice inspiring posts in this Pinmapple community, full of cool adventures. I do like to tell about some sinister stories as well. Did you expect in the beginning of this post, that it was really about places visited on the Silver Coast? Or did it feel like becoming a new episode of the Jeffrey Dahmer series? Let’s see by the comments, how many people actually read this post :)