Category: traveling

tupperware hunting

we started geocaching a few months ago, following tips by mundoo and vera. in shanghai there wasn’t much to hunt and besides, people are everywhere and they’re especially curious of us, the foreigners acting suspiciously…

in portugal though, there are tons of caches, hidden a bit everywhere, so there are really no excuses not to go find them. i especially enjoy the ones that take us to far away places, make us climb rocky hills or wander around in the middle of bushes that scratch our knees… or discover strange geological phenomena or some little known historical fact.

joão checks his gps coordinates sitting on an... angry turtle rock? — joão checks his gps coordinates sitting on a... turtle rock?

that way!br/no! down there! — "that way!" "no! down there!"

it’s fun, there are caches everywhere, and it makes another great excuse for a roadtrip! :) who knows what you’ll find?

just life traveling

could you act human? i got neighbors.

well, crazy july is behind us, all the pinkness of building a website for young teenage girls fading with it. i css’d while listening to hannah montana, the jonas brothers and taylor swift, corrupting whatever poor sense of musical taste i had before (and dragging down those around me too!). i saw twilight, and then read (practically devoured) the 4 books and a half that stephenie meyer wrote on the series – all in the same week. i’m up to speed on all the cute idols for <16, their schedules and mischiefs. for a whole month, i was a giddy teenager all over again, but i actually had a lot of fun doing the site, and the last 2 weeks were pretty intense. i wish i could slip into this sort of focused working mode more often.

the website is a sort of portal, so it required a big infrastructure: drupal was our “community plumbing” system of choice. drupal can be quite messy and scary, with its panoply of modules, options and versions and it took me some time (months, actually) to get used to it, to motivate myself to learn it. right now, i can say i got over most of my grudges with it… and i even like it, a little. that stuff might not be straightforward, but sure as hell is powerful and i will probably use it again someday, if another big project comes along. for the small stuff, wordpress has my undying loyalty.

on other news, our dealer found us a nice focus station wagon that we’ll officially purchase soon, as soon as we figure out insurances and other details. it’s pretty, and i’m already used to it since my family currently owns 2 of these. we weren’t pushing for a third one, but i think i’m secretly happy it turned out that way :)

it’s a nice car and though it is a little big for us, the size of the trunk comforts me, and i find myself making mental lists of the things we’ll be able to fit there. things like foldable bikes to use in the cities we’ll see, and ski/snowboard equipment. i’ve tried snowboarding once before, in a indoors place in shanghai and loved the feeling of it, so i’m looking forward for new tries (and falls). i think we’ll pick a nice country for that. :)

Post author By ana
Post date August 4, 2009
5 Comments on could you act human? i got neighbors.

in portugal photography traveling

s. leonardo da galafura

À proa dum navio de penedos,
A navegar num doce mar de mosto,
Capitão no seu posto
De comando,
S. Leonardo vai sulcando
As ondas
Da eternidade,
Sem pressa de chegar ao seu destino.
Ancorado e feliz no cais humano,
É num antecipado desengano
Que ruma em direcção ao cais divino.

Lá não terá socalcos
Nem vinhedos
Na menina dos olhos deslumbrados;
Doiros desaguados
Serão charcos de luz
Envelhecida;
Rasos, todos os montes
Deixarão prolongar os horizontes
Até onde se extinga a cor da vida.

Por isso, é devagar que se aproxima
Da bem-aventurança.
É lentamente que o rabelo avança
Debaixo dos seus pés de marinheiro.
E cada hora a mais que gasta no caminho
É um sorvo a mais de cheiro
A terra e a rosmaninho!

Miguel Torga

At the bow of a ship of cliffs,
Sailing in a sea of sweet wort,
Captain in his place
Of command,
S. Leonardo plows
The waves
Of eternity,
No hurry to get to his destination.
Anchored and happy at the human port,
It is in an early disillusion
That he sails towards the divine port.

There will not be terraces
Nor vineyards
In the girls’ dazzled eyes;
Rivers flowing
Will be ponds of light
Aged;
Shallow, all the mountains
Will let the horizons extend
Until where the color of life is extinguished.

Therefore, it slowly approaches
Bliss.
It is slowly that the boat moves
Under his sailor feet.
And every extra hour it spends on the way
It’s an extra sip of scent
Of earth and rosemary!

Miguel Torga

hard task for me, almost impossible to translate this poem of Torga, without using all the twists the portuguese language offers. it’s about a specific peek on a hill in the margins of the douro river, called s. leonardo, or, the ‘terrace of the douro’.

compulsory high school portuguese literature, the meaning of the poem is much better captured when you’re up there, surrounded with vineyards on hills that resemble waves. this is the landscape of the “alto douro vinhateiro”, the region where porto wine is produced.

a truly magic (non-planned) roadtrip stop :)

in portugal on the big screen traveling

montemor-o-velho, the castle

“onde nasceu fernão mendes pinto?
jorge de montemor onde nasceu?
a mesma terra o mesmo céu que eu pinto
castelo velho o que foi deles é meu”
– afonso duarte

“where was fernão mendes pinto born?
jorge de montemor, where was he born?
the same earth, the same sky that i paint
old castle what was theirs is mine”
– afonso duarte

last tuesday, driving slowly between figueira da foz and coimbra, we came across the castle of montemor-o-velho, proudly standing on top of a small hill. we had no big agenda for the day, other than picking up the cats at midnight in lisbon, so we stopped a while to explore.

the castle was first heard of in medieval times (before the country of portugal was born), and it was successively conquered by christians and arabs and even by napoleon troops. in 1910, it was declared national monument, along with “igreja de santa maria da alcáçova”, a church within the castle walls.

the views from up there are stunning, green fields all around the castle walls and many squares of rice plantations (and some storks too) due to the proximity of the mondego river.

while the castle walls and premises are in reasonably good shape (the paths are clean and the lawns are taken care of, there’s even a little café up there) you can’t really say the same about the church. the frescos and statues could really use a hand. what battles are they trying to tell us about?

other details seem to have stood the test of time a bit better: there are beautiful tiles decorating the walls, writings and a few gravestones on the church floor.

the entrance is free and on the day we were there, there was no soul on sight. a whole castle to yourself, how about that? :)

Post author By ana
Post date June 7, 2009
3 Comments on montemor-o-velho, the castle

in china traveling

bye-bye shanghai!

hello europe! :D