Currently sat in a coffee shop in Faro, I thought whilst I'd do a quick second entry into my blog whilst I dig into my French Toast (I'm all Pastel-de-Nata'd-Out!).
I can now tick Portugal off my list of countries I've visited, I'm quite surprised I haven't visited sooner. I'm not sure why, but I think visiting somewhere you know not only offers you comfortability but also a sense of safety and familiarity. There's nothing worse than spending your hard earned cash on visiting a country, and coming back thinking how horrible it was, that the people were rude, and everything felt like a chore, and nobody was helpful.
If you've been to the Algarve, you'll know this does not apply there.
When I arrived, I got picked up in a van to take me to the car rental alongside another Brit who'd just come from Mallorca. I was disgustingly hungover and socialising was not my priority, but we did. The one thing I remember about our short conversation was "It's the locals that are amazing, they are so welcoming and kind. You'll see".
If you're British and reading this, and you were raised in the countryside, you will be familiar with this norm: where you walk past a stranger and you acknowledge them and say "good morning" or whatever applies to that time of day. Thinking about it is feels quite nostalgic, I loved that community vibe, it's a sign of friendliness and warmth but you do that in London however and it's a sign of being criminally insane. In Portugal, every single person I met on my trip smiled at me, waved their hand when given way to cross the road, customer service was friendly and never felt like it had an ulterior motive. Everyone I met, was kind and kindness goes a long way. In fact it made my trip.
One morning, I woke up to get to see the sunrise and do some skipping to start my skipping section off on this blog. A number of people, average age 50+ walked past me and saw me and my drone, and not one person moaned about me using it. They smiled, watched a little bit, gave me some space but I did not encounter a single Karen.
After a while skipping my lateral-collateral ligament was really aching, and I had a slight limping gait so decided to stop to prevent further injury. I also needed to eat, and I wanted to get a good breakfast so when googling best places, one jumped out that people had wrote about called 'Brunch In Rio' in Ferragudo - a picturesque fisherman village with a central river near Portimão. So I drove there early as my phone was going to die (I forgot to bring the usual amount of cables on this trip, and forgot to charge it overnight but thought I could juice it up there). I arrived at around 08:45 but the place would not be open until 10:30am so I chose to chill in the car for a while.
"How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time"
-Morgan Freeman.
A little time after I arrived, a guy turned up and opened the café doors to set up for the day, but around 90 minutes early! As a well known 'fifty-niner' in my own work establishment, I thought he's got commitment! he's likely the owner. I thought maybe he'll let me charge my phone... albeit 90 minutes before he needs to offer any customer service, right now this is 'his time'.
He greeted me immediately with a big smile, a welcome come-in gesture and said no problem whilst taking my phone from my hand and plugging it in. I was really surprised, people in London and many other countries would have treated this request like it was way above and beyond their capability of helping out and for sure would make you know about it!
I went back to my car and reclined my seat back to take a little nap, 5 minutes later he came back out and walked up to my car and said "I know we are not open until 10:30am but do you want a coffee, I'd say come sit down but people will think we are open so I can bring it to your car if you like?". I thought wow, that is so kind. I never asked for one, he just offered. That level of kindness, It's so free and goes such a long way it really sticks.
As I chilled in the car drinking this coffee, I observed him take out the heavy tables and chairs on his own, also with a limp but I noticed how he just got on with it. I watched other people walk by and shout 'Bom Dia!' to him as he waved at them. One tall slim lady with a large set of ginger curls walked into the fruit and veg shop next door, she had this tiny Norfolk Terrier like dog off the lead which hopped along behind her. The dog stayed outside sniffing the pavement, and I watched it go up and down the street leaving it's owner indoors, I worried briefly for it's safety before a bunch of ginger curls re-emerged from the doorway looking up and down the street, a brief whistle and he hopped back to her.
Another lady turned up with a plastic bag of Portuguese rolls and some utensils. She went into the building adjacent to the café which this man was still setting up tables for outside and came back with a huge bowl of eggs. As the day moved on, more and more people emerged, every time with each person saying "Bom Día!" to one another and having a laugh, smiling at each other, it was so relaxed and peaceful. It was so nice and after people watching for a few minutes I dozed off in my car waking up perfectly timed at 10:25am.
I went in and I was sat down at a table by the man who greeted me at first. Being from a medical background I noticed he was limping and offered my knowledge as I wanted to return the favour of kindness. He had a knee operation a few years ago and had not played football for a few years whilst recovering until the night before, a quick kick around with friends resulted in a knee injury on the other side.
We were talking about it, and he pointed out that I also had hurt my knee. He then he goes and offers me the anti-inflammatory herbal gel he's been using, a combination of Cannabis, Honey, Arnica Oil and other extracts which helped my knee a lot. As I sat down to tuck into one of the best breakfasts ever; the Acai bowl and Bruschetta with the most perfectly poached eggs I started to reflect on my morning.
As someone who is compassionate and kind to others, I find that it is are rarely reciprocated in a world of unjust. People don't say please, or thank you. People don't let others out or in first, I find that people get burnt so easily these days they refrain from wearing their hearts on their sleeves ever again and so you end up with a generation of people that have become naturally defensive, selfish and suspicious by default.
I fully understand why, because what I have learnt is that know that no matter how much you love someone, they can sometimes be the person to hurt you the most; no matter how much you trust someone, they can sometimes deal you the ultimate betrayal and no matter how much you believe in someone, they can still be the most deceitful. Over time, it chips away at your own goodness and you become conditioned to expect bad behaviour, and so you protect yourself by changing your own principles of morality, especially to strangers.
But the people in met in Portugal deeply re-installed some faith I have in humanity, and remembered that there are an abundance of people who do acts of good, without needing a reason to, and one of those people is Fabio: someone I'll remember for just being kind and offering a smile, a charger, a coffee and some pain relief without any other reason than to just be kind.
Thank you.
(Fabio, on the right)
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