THEN OLHÃO FOUND US...

... and we weren't even looking! Hank and Carina's story of how they came to love and live in Olhão

Welcome to our monthly column celebrating Olhão. After exploring Portugal top to bottom from Braga to Tavira enjoying so many coastal and inland locations in our RV, we decided Olhão was the place to buy our home to celebrate our “golden years”. Olhão was not on our radar at first. In fact, the discovery of Eastern Algarve was a pleasant surprise with the scale of development so much less than areas to the west. A chance winter rental introduced us to Olhão, a place we quickly found attractive for many reasons.

“Walkability” is, above all, a main highlight and each month I will introduce you to places only steps away from our front door.

Questions, Comments or Suggestions for new columns? Email us at hankryan2003@yahoo.com

We hope you will enjoy our column!

FLAT N’ HAPPY… (***)

This month, our aim is to explore why we value “walkability” so much here in Olhão. Besides our home location here allowing easy strolling access to three large supermarkets plus the Olhão Mercado, we love the fact that most of Olhão is without hills to climb up and down. No doubt the steep streets in places like Lisbon or nearby Tavira can be fun to explore. However, by mostly sticking to the “flats” here in Olhão we hope this low impact exercise routine will keep us walking longer as we navigate our “golden years” here in Portugal. There are two other elements worth noting that make walking here such a joy.

We feel safe here. Throughout Portugal, crossing streets where the striped “zebra” markers exists (think of the Beatles “Abbey Road” album cover), means drivers must be aware and stop to allow pedestrians safe passage from one side to the other. These “zebra crossings” exist in many countries around the world with varying levels of effectiveness. On a recent trip to Asia, we found these markings to be almost completely ignored making crossing busy streets a real challenge.

Our experience here in Olhão is that almost all drivers are very respectful. Rarely do we find ourselves being challenged. In fact, often we need to disguise our intentions to cross so drivers don’t need to stop short when it is just as easy for us to wait for them to clear the intersection before we begin to cross. This second element may seem mundane, but something that is sorely lacking in the US, my home country, makes all the difference here. Clean accessible and free to use bathrooms are easy to find, whether in public buildings like the Mercado or in large local markets. That often turns what would be a short journey into extended walks feeling comfortable along the way.

A THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE ENDEAVOR!

Here’s how this goes; I appear at your local business here in Olhão every month delivering a smile and your copy of the Eastern Algarve

Magazine. More often then not, you smile back with a friendly thank you. It seems like, and I hope I’m right, that you agree I’m showing up offering a pretty darn good monthly (163 issues and counting!), a collection of art and photos and stories about cool places and people here in the eastern Algarve including Olhão.

I have shared well over a thousand of these quick exchanges over the past fourteen months and as my monthly delivery routine appears to be welcomed with your smiles, that suggests I’m exactly where I should be doing what I should do!

To increase that sense of feeling more at home here, getting to know others and especially locals is important. There is no magic wand to make that happen quickly, especially when the language challenge limits conversations. I hope contributing with our column each month for the past year featuring Olhão makes for a positive step forward. It is often challenging to figure out what to write about each month, but it is always big fun for me, as a small business person in my earlier life, to be able to highlight how individuals here strike out to make their own dreams come true.

The photos of Domino’s, Cafe Luna (with their Saturday afternoon live music offerings), and (just opened), Chez Henriette are just a few examples of how Olhão individuals put everything on the line to open and operate their small businesses.

So this month’s column is simply to say thank you to our valued readers. I hope the months to come offer new opportunities to create stories you’ll enjoy. If we miss the mark, I know the rest of the publication will easily make up the difference.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!

For our full introduction, see our first column online in the December 2021 issue. ( https://www.eastalgarvemag.com/ )

Fine Print – We choose to focus on businesses here in Olhão where we have actually been customers first. Any future advertising from these businesses that supports Eastern Algarve Magazine is purely coincidental :-) (***), I could not resist using my altered version of the “Flat and Happy” title I saw on a recent post by Expats Everywhere. Search on YouTube for their excellent videos that cover the challenges and benefits here in Portugal for visitors and those looking to re-locate.