An Ocean-Gazing People. A Gentle Country. Portugal With Louise Ross
Sometimes we find home in a place where we don’t even speak the language. Louise Ross talks about discovering Portugal, a gentle country with ocean-gazing people, and recommends places to visit, as well as an attitude to self-reinvention. Louise Ross is the author of Women Who Walk and The Winding Road to Portugal. She’s an Australian currently living in Portugal where she explores the immigrant and expatriate journey through her writing and her podcast, Women Who Walk. Show notes * The similarities between Australia and Portugal as ‘ocean gazing’ cultures * Cultural differences between Portugal, Australia, and the US * Portuguese food and wine as an undiscovered gem * Historical, cultural, and religious places to visit in Portugal * Natural sites around Lisbon * Finding community as an expat * Making a space away from home feel like home * Movement and walking as a metaphor for reinvention * Recommended travel books about or set in Portugal You can find Louise Ross at LouiseRoss.com Transcript of the interview Jo: Louise Ross is the author of Women Who Walk and The Winding Road to Portugal. She’s an Australian currently living in Portugal where she explores the immigrant and expatriate journey through her writing and her podcast, Women Who Walk. Welcome, Louise. Louise: Thanks, Jo. It’s lovely to be here. A real honor to be on your podcast. Jo: Thanks for coming on. I’m excited to talk about Portugal. I love Portugal, and obviously, we’re still in the pandemic. What drew you to Portugal in the first place and why did you decide to stay? Louise: In 1994, my American ex-husband and I took a three-week road trip through Spain. When we arrived in Tarifa, which is the southernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula facing Morocco, we could see across the Strait of Gibraltar to Africa. And we looked at each other and we said, ‘Let’s go.’ We bought ferry tickets with the intention of spending a few days in Tangier. Now, this was back in the mid-’90s when Australians needed visas to go just about everywhere, which meant when we boarded the ferry, the border police looked at my passport and my single entry visa to Spain and said, ‘Sorry, but you can’t leave Spain unless you’re flying back to the U.S. from Morocco or unless you want to spend several days at the Spanish embassy in Tangier waiting for a re-entry visa to return to Spain.’ So, we drove over to the entry point to cross into Gibraltar instead and the same thing, because of my single entry visa we couldn’t cross that Spanish British border. For some reason, we decided to drive over to Portugal. Why we thought it would be any different crossing that border, I don’t know. But it was different because there was no border control, and so we cross with ease and we spent five days in the Algarve on the beach. It was such a memorable experience. I remember saying to myself, ‘I’ve got to come back and visit Lisbon sometime.’ Fast forward to 2010 and I’m in a workshop in Mexico in the Spanish colonial city of San Miguel de Allende with about a dozen participants. And one of those people was a woman from Portugal. We became great pals. Over the next couple of years, we visited each other from time to time. I was living in Colorado. When I visited her in Lisbon, her family and extended family were incredibly warm and welcoming. They introduced me to the food, the culture, the language, and the beautiful sights of this gentle country. On one of those visits, in fact, it was winter in Colorado, it was very mild here in Lisbon, it dawned on me that I could easily live here, I guess,