Day 8. Alentejo – Portugal without haste

Cork oaks

After Lisbon, I decided to go south through the Alentejo. Portugal seemed very different to me here: spacious, calm, a little sleepy and very beautiful. The roads became freer, fields, small settlements and endless landscapes appeared around, which one wanted to look at not through glass, but somewhere from a terrace with a cup of coffee. It was the first time I saw a cork oak, and at that moment I regretted that I couldn't paint. There was a desire to draw an evergreen tree. Later I read that it grows in Europe and Africa, it can grow without watering.

I didn't overload this day's trip with the sights on purpose, I wanted to admire nature. Sometimes, during a trip, there comes a moment when you realize that what you most want is not to "see another place", but just to go and take your time.

Lonely tree on Ribeira de Odivelache

I stopped in a small town on the way, took a walk, had lunch, and got back in the car. And that's when I got the feeling of a real journey: when you no longer count the kilometers and don't think about how many points are left before the end of the day.