Vacations

My first vacations as an employed person are over. I was in Portugal for two weeks and returned yesterday to Cambridge.

During those two weeks I did more than two thousand kilometers by car in Portugal... this map shows the places where I've been.



So my itinerary was:

Porto -> Lisboa (stayed overnight) -> Alcácer do Sal (lunch) -> Sines (shopping and a swim in the ocean) -> Beach of "Ilha do Pessegueiro" (to remember my vacations as a kid) -> Vila Nova de Mil Fontes (for a swim and almost staying overnight) -> Sagres (to watch the lighthouse) -> Lagos (stayed overnight) -> Carvoeiro (lunch) -> Aljustrel (for almost 5 minutes) -> Beja (for shopping and wandering around) -> Évora (stayed overnight) -> Sesimbra (lunch) -> Lisboa (stayed overnight) -> Porto (to change luggage) -> Viana do Castelo (popular party - stayed for two nights) -> Braga (pick up my cousin) -> Porto (to change luggage again) -> Tomar (Music Festival "Bons Sons") -> Santa Cruz (stayed for three nights, beach, family, cards games, and general fun) -> Porto.

It was really nice to wander around without no specific destination, being able to change course whenever I wanted to. I shall do this again, maybe for a longer period. =)

Future posts might contain pictures! =)

There are things that never change...

In my last post here I wrote that I would finish changing my blog's template. But I haven't got back to it yet... and am feeling so lazy lately that I don't think I'll get back to it before September. Hope it doesn't hurt your eyes too much.

Life is going pretty well here in Cambridge. Until last week the weather was amazingly good, which made this city feel even better than it did before. The only downside of it were the colours of the city. The gardens and park didn't get enough water in July and are now a bit more yellow than they were. This made me realise how complicated it would be to have so many parks and gardens in Portugal. Here they don't have watering systems, the rain does the trick... Still I would love that Portugal had have a tenth of the green spaces that we have here. Maybe when I return. ;)

In the Summer the colour of the grass is not only that changes, but also the city crowd. The undergraduate students have returned to their home towns, but the city isn't empty at all. An uncountable number of tourists and "English courses" students have invaded the city and clutter all the streets and roads, specially in the centre. And in the evenings they fill up the parks... and make me think how nice it was to be a teenager. =)

Well now I have to go have dinner at the Jamie's Italian restaurant.... so maybe I'll write some more some other day.