1 - Ilha de la Tartaruga | The first visit, but not the last Before I dive into my experience on the island, I want to quickly share a few thoughts on Lisbon. It was my first time in Portugal, and going to Lisbon was a nice experience but nothing compared to what we had just experienced on the island. I liked the architecture and the colorful palette of the city, but the atmosphere was suffocating at times. Too many tourists, too many drug dealers stopping us to ask us if we wanted to buy drugs, too many meat/seafood restaurants… once again, big cities are too much for me. I’m glad we walked all around the city for the day, it gave me time to appreciate little aspects of this unique place, but I will not miss it. Now. On to my favorite moment of Portugal. The island. The bus ride from Lisbon to Mertola was actually beautiful! I loved seeing the countryside, it was very different from anything I had seen before. My favorite sight was the storks nests on top of every high polls in the countryside! I didn’t take any pictures or videos because we were on a moving bus so I couldn’t capture the beauty of it all, but just trust me: it was very special! There were hundreds of bird nests filled with beautiful baby storks!! It was between 7pm or 8pm, and [...]

2 - Alcoy | Not quite a walk in the park The second part of our adventure was definitely different. After the peace and joy of Portugal came the uncomfortable atmosphere of Spain… Flying over Alicante was a surprising sight of desertic lands, mountains, buildings and sea. I had not realized that it was so dry in this region. We landed safely after having surfed on the wind for a few minutes and met up with our Blabla car driver on a romantic location: the parking lot between Decathlon and McDonalds. With speed, we left the seaside for the mountains, and in a short hour we found ourselves in Alcoy. I was by then happy to arrive and to settle down a bit... I was tired. -- Also, I was bleeding! Yes, you guessed it: not pregnant! As soon as we left Portugal, BOOM, HELLO! I was after all not going to give birth in New Zealand! -- The shift between the warm open space of the island and the chilly confined atmosphere of this city was quite a shock and a harder transition than expected. I felt drained and out of place. However, I enjoyed the quiet evening we had with Julie, Nils' cousin. Eat. Sleep. Wake up. I'm tired. But let’s carry on with the day anyway! Nils and I took a morning stroll through the town to go to the local organic store to get [...]