Just a little update for everyone concerning our whereabouts in light of the crazy state of the world right now.
The past week has been an emotional rollercoaster for us. With days ticking on our Vietnam visa, chaos unfolding in Europe and borders closing all around us, our plans changed so many times in the last few days that we could barely keep up.
The short story is that us and our bicycles are safely back in Lisbon. There is also a much longer story, but we don’t need to share the details of that now.
From bottom left, clockwise : our Hanoi based knight in shining armour and fairy godmother // bike dismantling // in an effort to keep the weight of our baggage down, the tyres don’t make the cut // more last minute baggage refinement // boxed up and ready to go 🙁
We never planned to be back in Europe so soon, but the 40 hours of travelling from Hanoi was a remarkably helpful period of time to start coming to terms with the abrupt end of our travels. As we landed, half of Lisbon was filled with sunshine, and the other half rain which was a very accurate reflection of our emotions.
From top left, clockwise: 40 hours of thinking time // family reunions in the time of corona… // fair Lisboa
Three days into 14 of self isolation, we are still enjoying the small things: baking bread, drinking water straight out of the tap, and finding a bag of our clothes from before we left filled with cosy socks and jumpers. We are heartbroken not to be able to catch up with friends and family properly, after not having seen everyone in so long, but at least we now have plenty of time on our hands for video calls and are even in the same time zone. Mostly…
From top left, clockwise till centre: simultaneously baking bread and stretching climbing shoes; daily Portuguese lessons with galão (although the teacher also needs some revision); pre-trip brewing experiment, yet to be tasted; sprouting beans is the closest thing we have to a garden; drinking water from the tap will never get old; cyclist’s feet return to a yoga mat.
We now appreciate more than ever the immense freedom we have had in the past 21 months, and are extremely grateful that we had the opportunity to cycle from Portugal to Vietnam in the first place… and that we were staying with an amazing couple in Hanoi who helped keep us sane through the chaos, that we had people to bale us out and buy a last minute flight back to Europe, that there is an empty apartment in Lisbon for us to stay in for the next 14 days and that Pedro’s family left it stuffed full of oats, veggies and birthday cake ingredients to keep us going for our period of quarantine.
It is utterly surreal, but the sun is shining, we have a good spot with a terrace and views over a very quiet Lisbon to reflect on our trip, we can finally get our blog up to date, rebuild our bikes and start dreaming of future projects and adventures … 😉
Looking forward to seeing you when we can, stay well & take care of each other,
Sarah and Pedro x
