50 km by bike

From Caldas da Rainha to Óbidos a ride with scenic views that made me forget that I have 99 pages to write until I finish my thesis and reminded me that I have to buy myself a bike (# 36 on my list).

Sergio, a rider habitué, kindly organized the whole thing: a train ride to Caldas da Rainha, from where we parted to São Martinho do Porto (Portugal’s tinny tiny version of Rio de Janeiro) and stopped to go fossil hunting; then all up hill (very painful) following an amazing downhill (very pleasant) until Foz do Arelho; a small inconvenient detour of 5 riders, Pedro and myself included; a smooth ride around the Óbidos lagoon discussing my near future; to finish off, some more ups and downs until Óbidos. 

 

 

Óbidos has this annual International Chocolate Festival and Sunday was the last day. So you can imagine families hurdling themselves into a small medieval village and not mind paying 7€ for an entrance.

After going for a drink and relaxing a bit from the trip, we let the festival close down and everyone leave and that’s when we decided to go have a sneak peak at what had been the chocolate fever festival. We got so lucky: since the vendors were closing down and beginning to pack up, we decided to start asking for free samples and they started offering us all the chocolate we wanted! Soooo gooood!!

And what did I learn from all of this?

One: I need to exercise more.

Two: always visit a chocolate festival right after it closes!! 

PS: Thank you Sergio for sharing your photos :)

In the mail

I was in debt with postcrossing. Today I finally sent out the 5 cards: Finland, Spain, Vietnam, USA and Russia. Since we are commemorating the 100 years of the republic revolution, all the cards were replicas of vintage cards from the beginning of the 20th century. Considering that a great number of the population at this time was illiterate, the republicans used image based propaganda to spread the news about republican ideas and how the revolution was carried out. I really enjoy sending out these type of cards rather than boring scenery and views of Lisbon. I just hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I do.

I must belong somewhere

Today I feel like this

targeted post II

now I really really miss you...

targeted post

To whom it may concern: right now, I really miss you and your very complicated vision of life's simplest things (like sleeping in on a rainy day!!)

15 more items and I finish my list!!
I am reconsidering parachuting...
This weekend I'm heading north.
To do list:
- go to the seamstress for the dress fitting
- make another video of my grandfather
- plan the roadtrip with my sisters
- bring some old photos back home to scan
- start my quilt
- have a nice weekend with the family
- forget all my troubles

here

Lisboa Restaurant Week

Yesterday was Wednesday. We had a nice Wednesday evening, finally.

It’s Lisboa Restaurant Week again and this time we reserved table at Suite, a baroque-chic styled restaurant inside Lisbon’s casino.

Restaurant Week is simple: eat out at fancy restaurants for 20€. The restaurants that join the event, propose a complete menu were you choose one starter, one main dish and one desert. The beautiful thing about Suite is that their menu isn’t divided into starters, main dish and dessert. On a regular basis,  you can choose randomly from a list of dishes and try out five, nine, twenty, or all, depending on your appetite (and bugget) because the dishes are “snack size”. So, the nice thing about Suite is that this concept was kept during the event. Here's our delicious seven dish menu. Highly recommended... during Restaurant Week!!

I went out today after lunch in a t-shirt, Spring is almost here.