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  "description": "On departures, arrivals that never happened, and second chances.",
  "path": "/porto/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-06T14:07:54.000Z",
  "site": "https://laiyin.org",
  "tags": [
    "long weekends",
    "Matosinhos",
    "roundabouts",
    "Balinese"
  ],
  "textContent": "By the time we moved to Porto,\nhe said, “This is great, we’re three hours closer to Biarritz.”\n\nBy the time we left Porto,\nour life was already split\nbetween long weekends in Biarritz,\nice skating and Disneyland in Paris.\n\nPorto was enigmatic.\nFresh seafood in Matosinhos.\nSome easy days.\nA life that functioned just enough.\n\nBy the time we left our home in Porto,\nI left him and Padme to close down the house.\n\nI drove to our first charging stop with my little one, Pheby,\ntwo Portuguese Water Dogs curled up on the car floor,\nmy first baby, Petra, with one of our cats contained on her lap.\n\nMy hips heavy behind the wheel,\nlike the bulging transport box pressing down,\non the tow bar behind the rear axle.\n\nMy eyes on the navigation screen,\nshushing my girls;\n\nit was pouring down in sheets,\nthe sky dark before sunset,\nthe highway wet and black.\n\nWe placed our stuff in storage,\nmy motorcycle with friends.\n\nBy the time he followed us in our small car,\nwith Padme sitting beside him and our other cat boxed on her lap,\nI called,\nsent them to McDonald’s to catch up with food.\n\nBy the time I got to the first Supercharger,\nthe complex was black.\nNo power.\nHotel and all.\nNo charging possible.\n\nI called him.\nHe baggsed a charger at Burger King in Fefe.\nI found him there, half an hour back the way we came.\n\nThe lights were on.\nCharging wasn’t.\n30 km range left.\nCharge enough to get us nowhere.\n\nI wasn’t enraged as I might have been.\nNow we were leaving.\nI had no commitment to making it work.\n\nThe house we left behind breathed water from every direction.\nMonths of him in the souterrain pumping\nsewage, groundwater, rainwater,\nwhile the landlord hid.\n\nNights without a husband.\nDays with a father.\n\nBy the time we left, I had no rage left for Portugal.\nThree moves in four years.\nBoxes. Storage.\nSilence after pitches.\nMoney late, or not at all.\n\nHim steadying what kept shifting.\nMe keeping the house moving.\nSchool. Dogs. Dinner. Bedtime.\n\nBy the time the charging grid came back online,\nby the time we arrived at our first rest stop outside of Burgos,\nthe sky turned from black to grey.\n\nWe got to sleep after the shops had opened in the morning.\nThe sky dark, the air heavy and wet,\nwe never saw the sun as we drove on after midday towards France.\n\nBy the time I collapsed onto the mattress at our Airbnb near the Atlantic,\nI had fought off a cough and cold for a week.\n\nI stayed in bed for three days\nsleeping in fragments,\nmanaging him and my daughters by text.\n\nHe brought me croissants buttery and crisp,\nMagret de Canard,\nserved in bed.\n\nAfter the third night,\nI drove 15 minutes in downpour\nto charge the car and shop for food.\n\nI even found some Haribo liquorice for him.\n\nBy the time I got back,\nI drove with a full charge and a smile.\n\nThe French know how to navigate roundabouts\nand didn’t cut me off.\n\nThe next morning we went on house viewings.\nRain alternating between hard and harder.\n\nThe first house spoke to me.\nOur bedroom would open like a hotel suite\nto the saltwater pool,\nthe garden.\n\nI stopped.\nI pointed.\nI said,\n“I want you to build us a Balinese outdoor bathroom here,\nwith a bathtub big enough for two.”\n\n* * *\n\n<a href=\"https://alfado.bandcamp.com/album/nasimiento\">Nasimiento by Al'Fado</a>",
  "title": "Porto",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-09T21:31:08.360Z"
}