Travel Diary 06/22 Part Three

03.06.
17:02 Today there’s not much going on. After a late night I’ve had a late morning once again and it’s pretty much raining all day. I’ve also been editing my posts and trying to reach my family on video calls to film their reactions about my new haircut. They’ve had mixed feelings so far, most of them think I should grow my hair back again. Only my younger sister told me that she thought it looked cooler than she expected. Some of them asked me if I felt any different and to be 100% honest I don’t. I thought I would but I just don’t. I feel same as always. I hardly even notice that I made such a radical change, only when I see myself in the mirror or the wind is breezing through my head. The lack of a different feeling really showed me something very important. I previously said that I want to cut my hair off to not be defined by it. But my hair never defined me. I’m still the same underneath those thick strands of hair. I don’t feel any different and so far no one has treated me any different at all.

I went for breakfast before making my way to a postal service to send my hair for donation. At my train stop my ticket was empty and the machine to recharge it didn’t work. I entered the train anyway because usually nobody is checking the ticket and of course soon as I entered there was a guy checking. Luckily I wasn’t the only one with that problem and he said it was fine. As soon as I exited at my stop it started to rain heavily. So I just grabbed some breakfast and took a train back to Cascais, hoping the weather would be better there. It was and I went for the postal service and sent my little package. Then on my way to the beach the rain came again. I waited a little under a small roof before continuing to film at the same spot I was the day before with long hair. I wanted to make some transition videos for Social Media.
After that I went back to my hostel and continued calling my family who already got off work. It was a lot of fun filming their reactions. Later I will go for dinner with my friend.

20:00 I just arrived at Carcavelos Beach and this one is breathtaking. It might not seem that special at first sight but because it was windy and raining before there were some really big waves. There were a lot of surfers at the beach, I spotted them immediately and I absolutely love to watch surfers. When I stand here looking at them waiting for the perfect waves I feel like a drug addict. The salty breeze, the big waves and the stunning view feels like a drug. I’m literally soaking it all in like it were the air I needed to be alive. I love this feeling. Raindrops are starting to fall once again today but this makes the ocean even more exciting. I don’t know why but the big sea is just so impressive to me. Its darkness and not knowing what’s underneath the surface. I’m thinking about a youtube video I watched about the depth of the sea and what it is capable of. It can swallow huge ferries and aircrafts and the pressure at its deepest points is so immense that even machines can’t go down there without breaking. Nobody knows what type of animals live there and what treasures it truly holds. The ocean is the most attractive thing I’ve ever seen.

04.06.
13:10 Last night it was getting really late. After having dinner with my friend at a nice restaurant at the beach we went to a little fest, where they had some traditional food, a stage with a singer and some small amusment attractions. It was really nice and we stayed there till midnight, then chilled at the beach one more time before heading back home. On our way to the beach I had a nice encounter with a teenager. As we were walking past a small group of teenagers one of them suddenly yelled at me “I like your style”. That never happened to me when I had long hair.

Today I had a very late morning again and I definitely wanted to go swimming in the sea one time before getting a tattoo later. So I just put on my bikini and a dress and went to the beach. I was disappointed when I saw the yellow flag again, now already knowing its meaning. I knew today was my last chance to swim on this holiday so I talked to the life guards anyway but they just confirmed that I couldn’t go swimming here. So I asked them where I could and they said I might be luckier at Cascais, which is the last beach in that area. I didn’t bring anything other than my towel and Cascais was one train stop to go and I definitely did not want to go back to the hostel to grab my train ticket. So I just started walking to the next beach and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the green flag there. This beach was very small and had a lot of rocks at the shoreline so I talked to the lifefguard if it was ok for me to swim here and was very happy when he said yes. He even showed me the best spot to enter where there weren’t too many rocks and I could manage to get through.
Soon as I was in the water I felt amazing. I just love to swim in the sea. I had to watch out for the rocks a lot but once I was in the water there was nothing stopping me. When I was in far enough I laid on my back and let the ocean carry me. This is my favourite thing in the water. Just floating on the surface, closing my eyes and trusting the ocean to carry me safely anywhere.
After a little while I went back out, let the sun dry me (I didn’t even use my towel) and went back to the hostel for a shower. It really was a blessing to do all of that without any hair in the way. Now I will grab some breakfast and head to my tattoo appointment.

17:01 After pushing my tattoo appointment a little backwards I headed to Cascais once more to walk to a spot with some small cliffs. I underestimated the sun and definitely got sunburnt which I hope won’t be a problem for my tattoo. After enjoying a really great view at the cliffs I had a lunch snack at a Marine cafe with a view to the sea. Then I headed back to the train station to finally go for my tattoo. On my way to the station something funny happened. There are some small streets in Cascais with loads of restaurants and souvenir shop. When walking past a place with many restaurants one of the guys who trys to get you to eat at their restaurant looked at me and as I was walking past he said “Are you from the Netherlands?”. I said “No, from Austria”. And he took my hand in-between both his hands and said “You are very nice and you are always welcome at my restaurant”. I continued walking and said “Sorry, I just ate” and he said “Don’t say sorry, you did nothing wrong”. I smiled at him and said “Obrigado” which means “Thank you” in Portuguese and continued walking. I had a big smile on my way because I really appreciate nice encounters like this. It’s very rare for me as an Austrian to just meet friendly people on the street who say something honestly nice to you, something that’s not just a set phrase like “How are you”.

19:59 and I have one tattoo more on my body. It was the first time for me to get tattooed by a friend and it was a nice experience to be in an environment where I felt comfortable. We’re gonna head for dinner later.
There is something I noted on Instagram. Because I started my new site and posted a bit about travelling I checked out some other travel accounts and I realised that they all are very similar. They only show the good sites of travelling. The weather is always perfect, as are the views and it looks like they always have a blast. The pictures they share just seem perfect. Too perfect to be real. And I’m not saying that it’s never perfect, there definitely are a lot of places that look amazing, specially when travelling. But not ALL THE TIME. I just experienced myself the last two days had a lot of rain and I definitely want to share that as well. You cannot choose the weather or the perfect conditions. When I walked to places with good views I always see so many people posing for 100 photos to get the perfect shot. I like to have good photos too but not for every price. So to anyone who’s reading this: Please don’t get fooled by travel accounts – it’s not always what it looks like!

23:57 Once again my friend took me to a “festa” and we had a great dinner with her friends. Soon enough it was time for me to leave and saying goodbye was ok because we know we’ll always gonna see each other at some point. I feel like the older I get the more I can see which friends come and go and which ones are staying for life. And friendship to me doesn’t mean that you have to see each other all the time or talk on a weekly basis. We are all grown up and have our life. Friends are the ones who are there for you when you actually need them. I have a few friends that I only see about once a year or even less than that. But when we do meet up it’s always like no time passed. And then there are other “friends” who keep on asking when you’re gonna meet them and complain that you never have time. It feels like pressure to me and they are stressing me out. And the truth is the more they are asking to meet up the less I want to meet them. It starts to annoy me. But then again it’s harsh to tell some people straight up “Hey, I don’t want to be friends anymore”. I’m a confident person who tells people pretty much everything in their face and I am very honest. But there are those one or two people who are just too hard to tell the real honest truth. Because in the end they have been your friends at some point and you don’t want to hurt their feelings. So you try to never call or text them and hope at some point they would get the message but again there are those one or two who just don’t stop looking for contact. And slowly they are draining you. At some point I guess you have to be real honest if you want to look out for your mental health but for me there’s one other way. I plan to move to another country anyway and then I plan to not give them my number anymore. Seems like the easiest way. I know it might be cowardly but I just can’t tell them the truth.