Greek cats

Greece is for sure not the only destination where we have been where there is an abundance of cats. Rome, Istanbul, and almost all cities in Morocco had their share of stray cats. But this was the first place we went to with two animal fanatic little ones.

In our first morning in Athens, it was clear that this was one of those cities where we could find a cat in each corner. At that first moment, I even started to take a photo of each cat saying I was making a collection of it. This soon showed to be a miscalculation as with each sighting of a fuzzy tail, I heard Pedro say “Mum mum, a cat for your collection, hurry, your phone!”. This demand would only subside after the necessary photo would be taken and recorded or the cat had disappeared. At the beginning this was fun and it was like our thing and we were both sad when a cat ran away before we could take a photo of it. But towards the end of the first day, specially when we were heading to dinner in Monasteriaki, and there was a cat every 3 steps, this became a too bif of a task! In addition to all of this, Inês a naturally obsessed one with all cats and dogs, tapped me  (and her dad) on the shoulder repeatedly and pointing to the cat she had seen only stopping when we had also acknowledged the presence of such cat (or dog) multiple times (no, one time would not be enough).

But this is the thing of travelling as a family. I had always found curious the number of stray cats in certain cities and always captured them in my travel photos, but things seem to gain another dimension with kids. A trivial curiosity became almost a quest and even when I  declared that the collection was now completed (already in Naxos, the Island), they were still pretty amazed and calling for all cats that we found. Here is only a part of our collection.

The first photo

I had never seen so many black cats. Superstitious people, beware

The ruins seemed to be one of the favourite spots. I guess one of the reasons was because people (and kids) were forbidden from such areas

One of the regulars near our hotel

More black cats

"Don't look at me like that, I own this chair!"

In Naxos, when everything (ourselves, the overall atmosphere and even the cats themselves) was a lot more relaxed, they got to pet a few of them! And even after one hit Ines on the hand as she was trying to reach him/her, she did not waiver in her efforts. For us, this even turned out to be a great way to entertain the kids, as one of our rooms had a balcony close to the street where a few cats would usually hang out so sometimes if we needed to entertain them a bit, they could stay in such balcony (yes, it was a safe one) and just look for them. The only “downside” from this was that whenever they saw one they kept calling us “Mum, Dad, come come, I can see one! Hurry hurry!”. Always the most exciting thing ever!

Something that ended happening quite often. All of us on the floor to pet the 🐈s (and me trying to capture the moment)

Almost without exception Pedro would pet the cat and then say "Oh, he is so cute!" 🥰

This would be the balcony from which they could look for the animals below - 2 to 5 minutes of relative peace 😅

A curious note to end this (already surprisingly long) post. Already at the island I noticed that one of the ears was damaged (cut on its tip) and thought (“Jesus, the street life for cats here must be harsh!”). But then I saw another one with exactly the same mark, and then another, and then noticed that the large majority of them had the same ear cut at the edge! Wondering about it, we asked in our hotel about this and got to know that this was done to mark all sterilized cats. An efficient, yet brutal way, of making such a distinction!

Most cats showed this cut in their right ear! Cruel or just practical?

The return

2019 was the year of the last post on this blog (and it was not even a complete post), of our last vacation abroad, and last year of being a family of 3. Since then, in addition to the pandemic that changed all of our lifes and halted travel for most of us, we have also had another big change in our lifes. To keep P (Pedro) company, Inês came to the scene to increase (exponentially) the level of chaos in our life, and travels! 😜

So now it is 2022, A&A are back at experiencing the world, now with the company of two little ones making things less spontaneous, maybe, but just as adventurous... And as I am now in a hotel in a new place, I thought of reviving this blog. With new posts, for sure different to the previous ones, maybe with some tales that only parents will get, but still a travel blog, our travel blog that has evolved with me, as I have moved from telling my stories, to telling the stories of A&A, and now the stories of A&A&P&I! 

As this has moved into a family travel blog, we will be adding some photos of the 4 of us, but as we have pledged to keep photos of our little ones out of the web, whenever they appear, their faces will not be identifiable.

So now, as for where we are! An enlarged family, with out-of-practice parents regarding this type of adventures, calls for a simplification of our plans. So we chose a place where I had been and was wishing to come back to, Andre has been wanting to meet, that was relatively hassle free and with great food that the kids would eat: GREECE!

So with Greece as our destination, 10 days to use, and 2 kids in tow, we could not do the hop-on hop-off kind of travel we were used to. So our main plan was a bit of Athens with an Island tour in between. Naxos seemed like a good option. Picturesque and family friendly! Perfect!

As I write this, our trip is in its 3rd day already and days have been filled with new experiences and it has been great so far and the following days, promise to continue this trend. But for more on this, follow the next posts! 😉

Beaches, mountains, and big colours

People call Cape Verde, soft Africa. A nice and easy introduction to the continent where the people are (or seem to be) genuinely nice and where it is still possible to find European like products (even if at an inflated price, sometimes). Most serious diseases for which one has to take a shot or take pills are absent or are very rare, also. All of this contributed to our choice of our first true holiday destination as a family of 3. 

Santiago, where the capital Praia is located, was our first destination and our first time (for all of us) in Sub Saharan Africa. One of the things that got me first, even from the plane, was how dry the island was. I had heard that the archipelago, as a whole, was very dry, but the extent of the dark brown that dotted the landscape was striking and somewhat unexpected for me. But as we started walking around the city, it was amazing to see the contrast of that with how colourful everything was! The buildings, the clothes, the stores and the children's play areas (okay this latter one is normal).

(The above was written in 2019, just after our trip to Cape Verde. However, the post was never concluded and never published. Time has always seemed to run away whenever I wanted to finish it. 

It is 2022 now. A pandemic has happened in the mean time halting all travel for a long time. A lot has happened and the vivid descriptions I try to include in these posts are no longer possible. But as I want to reboot the blog, I am publishing this post as is, dated when it was written, with only a little introduction and all the photos that were already uploaded. Hope you all still enjoy it.)

Finally, a new post, a new adventure!

After a gap of almost two years, we have finally booked our next "foreign" adventure!

In the mean time we moved back to Lisbon, became A&A&P and learned that new adventures can happen in our own houses, between nappies and dummies and sleepless nights! But, as the previous ones we knew, these new adventures brought a smile to our faces - okay, the sleepless nights were not always fun, but a mini-laugh/smile the next morning almost made us forget about those not so great moments!

So... New adventure! :) This is one that we were discussing for a long time, even as an option against others that we had (this was one of those times), so it is one that we are very excited about! At the end, we always thought that, for logistical reasons (all flights stopped in Lisbon), that it would be a nice trip to do once we moved back to Lisbon. And here we are, in Lisbon! P is now big enough and everything is stable enough for us to be able to plan something like this! In a nutshell, flights are booked, a hotel is booked and excitement levels are running high again!

As a teaser, I will just leave an image below (not mine, obviously):

(I'll add the link once the destination is revealed! 😉)