After a lovely bus ride from Santiago south from northwestern Spain into northern Portugal, we arrived in Braga to meet our friends Emily Green-Cain and Van Cain. Our acquaintance goes back more than twenty years to our stay in Nashville TN (1996-2006) and participation in the First UU Church of Nashville. Our friendship grew as Emily’s son Matthew and our son Brendan were buddies from ages six – fourteen.
Emily & Van have made the big move, selling their house in Nashville to seek permanent resident status and make a new home in Braga. They absolutely love their new home and plan to be ex-pats for the foreseeable future. Beyond the obvious attractions of living in Europe, another motivation for the move involved Van’s health issues. A few years ago, on a trip to Scotland, they discovered that Van could eat without getting sick all the time, attributable to the very different quality and regulations regarding food in Europe.
Emily & Van chose Braga because they loved Portugal, but they did not want to live in the larger cities of Porto or Lisbon which are busier and far more touristy. They have bought a lovely home, right in the heart of Braga. Because they’re right in town, everything they need on a daily basis is easily in walking distance. And, as in most of Europe, public transportation makes it easy to get anyplace else. Buses can get them around town, and the trains make trips to Porto, Lisbon and other cities in Europe quite easy.
Van says there are exactly 75 American ex-pats in the whole region of Braga, including Van & Emily and another couple they introduced us to, Pamela & Howard. They too have recently retired, fallen in love with Braga, and made the move. We met with them a few times during our stay: to share coffee at the local bookstore, wine at an outdoor café, and a wonderful dinner at one of Van and Emily’s favorite restaurants.
We truly enjoyed our stay with Emily & Van in Braga. Although we’ve only been in contact a few times in the last 14 years, since we left Nashville, the visit was warm and comfortable. Van is really quite a good chef, and he provided lovely quiches and biscuits for our breakfasts. On most days we would walk the city to take in some site or activity. On one particularly rainy day, we stayed in, all four of us quietly reading our books, while Sara prepared a lovely stew. Not all friends would find this comfortable, but we thought it was great. We also talked books a good deal, since we are all avid readers, we talked politics, on which we tend to see things alike, and Sara and Evan learned a great deal about Portugal and Braga.
Quite often we ate out, finding good food that was remarkably inexpensive – and no one expects you to tip over here. They took us to two of their favorite restaurants, both family owned places with outstanding food – where the hosts treated Van and Emily as valued old friends. The popular wine in Braga is “vino verde,” which means a green or very young wine. We loved it as well. Emily & Van are working on learning the language, to speak and to read Portuguese. Apparently, it’s not an easy language, and it’s distinctly NOT to be confused with Spanish. The Portuguese have a different language and a distinct history from Spain. We learned that “thank you” in Portuguese is “obrigado” (if you’re a man) or “obrigada” (if you’re a woman.) Who knew??
Over coffee at the bookstore, Emily & Van also introduced us to a younger couple, Rita and Pedro, native Bragans. Rita & Pedro are travel entrepreneurs, organizing and conducting personalized trips, walking tours and hikes in the national parks. Look at KeenTours.com in Braga to find them online.
Seeing the sights: Braga itself is a fascinating town with a very long history. We visited the Roman ruins and the museum focused on the history of Braga as an important town in Roman times. Statues of Augustus Caesar are near the museum and elsewhere. The town features churches and buildings that go back to medieval times, including a bishop’s residence that looks like a town-center castle.
The next post continues our visit with Emily and Van. We all go to Porto for two days…….
