One of the most surreal weekends of my life
Plus, diary of a person moving country (Part II) and our home for the next 2 years
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Hi! This is Leyla from A Day Well Spent, a newsletter about purposeful living.
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Diary of a person moving country - Part I
In my last post I mentioned I recently had an acute allergic reaction to something that did not agree with my skin from a day of grape and fig picking.
My face swelled to the point where I no longer recognised myself, a rash of bumps covered my arms, my ears practically self-combusted and angry eczema covered my hands and wrists.
It turns out it was an acute contact dermatitis reaction to plants and it was an emergency (according to the dermatologist). I’m currently on day 12 of a 15 day course of steroids to try and get it under wraps.
I will share about this more in a separate post (plants can be both healing and harmful - it’s all been quite fascinating!). But the short update for now is, whilst my skin isn’t yet fully back to normal, I am significantly improved.
And I thankfully improved quickly enough to attend Alma do Vinho wine and music festival last weekend, the jewel in the crown that is the annual calendar of my new home town in Portugal.
My parents, brother, husband, in-laws and aunt and uncle all travelled from the UK to help celebrate my 40th birthday with me, which fell last month.
But – it wasn’t just these guys who turned up.
Last weekend at the festival ended up being one of the most surreal weekends I have experienced.
Here’s the story.
Last September I visited the relatively unknown Alma do Vinho (‘Soul of Wine’) festival in Portugal for the first time, really quite by chance.
I happened to be in the area getting some admin done concerning The Land and the house build, saw it was on and thought I’d check it out. I had such a brilliant weekend that I decided to share a 1 minute video of it on my Instagram and TikTok.
The video ended up going viral on both and amassed over 13 million views.
But here’s where it gets crazy.
Because of that little video, this year literally thousands of people, from 50 countries across 5 continents travelled to Alenquer in Portugal to experience this wonderful celebration of wine, music and culture too. Prior to this year, the festival was almost exclusively attended by Portuguese people and mostly from the immediate surrounding areas.
B&Bs, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, shops, cafes in and around the town — all full with people from all corners of the globe, because of one little video I made.
Isn’t that just — barmy?!
Singapore, Kenya, Nigeria, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, USA, all over Europe. It felt like we all sort of knew each other, a bit? On some level? Like a big family?
My brother exchanged phone numbers with so many new friends. People kept adopting my parents! Someone wanted to get my Dad’s name tattooed on his arm!
People kept chanting (and I really do mean chanting in unison) ‘YOU’RE the reason we’re here!’ at me from across the festival, asking for a photo every few seconds and thanking me for posting the video in the first place because they were having such a blast.
What an utterly extraordinary and magical few days. Universe! For sure ✨
attended and shared her own thoughts in How one Instagram reel turned a local wine festival into an international phenomenon.How wild that this can be the power of social media, huh.
And because I know people are understandably curious: I was never asked by anyone to make the video and I have not received one cent for it. It was made out of a genuine love for what I experienced.
I guess “authentic” really does apply here.
I also live here now and it feels so nice to know I helped boost the local economy of my new home town in such a supernova way. I’ve had so many local businesses message me to thank me for causing them to sell out of whatever it is they sell!
BY THE WAY — an intensely gorgeous, fun and extremely special thing is already manifesting as we speak off the back of all of this good energy — currently in the works.
All I will say for now is: if you enjoy wine, stay tuned over the coming months..!
Now, back to the task at hand.
Which was sharing with you what relocating to another country and trying to settle in — when you don’t speak the language and you’re also (temporarily) on your own — actually looks like in the reality of the day-to-day.
The more interesting parts as well as the tediously mundane parts (of which there are many).
Whilst I took the summer off Substack, I was still writing in the form of keeping an old school diary. Because this seismic life shift feels like a moment worth documenting.
It’s these entries I began sharing with you in Diary of a person moving country - Part I.
Part II is this one and the final instalment, Part III will publish tomorrow morning. Then you’ll be all caught up on what I’ve been up to.
At which point I’ll be asking for your updates. Please get them ready — we’re overdue for a catch-up!
Diary of a person moving country - Part II
Sat 2nd August
Context: it’s the day after my 40th birthday and my last day in the UK
Woke 12:30, 9 hours of much needed sleep.
Had Turkish simit from the freezer with tahini — the freezer still needs to be emptied. Visited the amazing second hand bookshop in my local National Trust Morden Hall Park to donate books that are not coming to Portugal.
Visited the rose garden, the ancient mulberry tree, said goodbye to my foraging haunts, marvelled at the huge number of sloes on the blackthorn bushes – I think the most I’ve ever seen thanks to the unprecedented warm spring.
Realised this place, which has played such an important role in my life for a decade, will no longer be ‘my local park’.
Packed three suitcases to fly with us to Portugal, mostly containing dried organic pulses and grains – no food could go in the removal vans and I’m not leaving this good stuff behind.
Received an email from EasyJet that our flight tomorrow is overbooked. We bought a different flight with BA and received compensation from EasyJet, so we’re essentially travelling to Portugal for free. Which is great, because the flights were booked last minute and so were expensive.
Took a tour of the local shopping centre that I never go to. Stepped into Next, TKMaxx, New Look and immediately felt suffocated from the aroma of polyester, retail dust and plastic. Was reminded why I really, really don’t like shopping.
Fed my sourdough starter with teff flour.
Sun 3rd August
It’s my last breakfast in this house. I picked raspberries from the garden for the final time. The raspberries that have brought me untold abundance and joy. The raspberries that were once my ‘dream’ to have.
Topped up the container pond with water from the butt. Said goodbye to the neighbours.
The Uber driver taking us and all our luggage to the airport had the same surname as me, Kazim. He’s from Afghanistan. I quickly conclude this must be a fortuitous sign.
The first two cases we weighed were over the limit by a fair bit. I thought Matt had weighed them. The BA check-in guy said if the third one was too, he’d have to charge us.
It was way over.
‘That’s all done, have a good flight’, he said handing us our boarding passes. He didn’t charge us anything and I don’t know why.
We landed in Lisbon. All three bags came off the carousel. Matt ran off to buy a local SIM as we waited for an Uber. A girl came up to me and asked if I was on Instagram and made content about food and travel.
As is almost always the case when this happens, I assumed she had me confused with someone else. Especially because she wasn’t from the UK. She asked for a picture and later sent me a message saying thanks for chatting to her and her bf.
We arrived at our rental apartment in 27 minutes from the airport. It’s hot.
We ran to the Pingo Doce supermarket before it closed at 9pm. I pulled the two plates and cutlery I packed from my suitcase and we had a late dinner of tomatoes, bread and cheese.
I emptied my kefir grains into a jar I stuffed in my rucksack and fed it with milk. Face creams, body lotions, sourdough starter into the fridge. I inflate the blow up bed that was my hand luggage — it weighs exactly 10kg.
Cleaned the kitchen worktop. Ate a glorious peach.
Mon 4th August
Woke at 11am. I’m spending most of the time just walking from room to room retrieving various items; this place is so much bigger than our London house.