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weeknotes

weeknotes, 43/24

last few days in madrid! we did a tour of some bookshops i had bookmarked, and i got “the little prince” in chinese for myselfand the jolly postman in english, for little niece. it’ll take some years for her to be ready for that, but i don’t mind stocking children’s books for the years to come.

we fortified our bellies with cheesecake and the last churros and chocolate, watched the sun go down on the cerro del tio pio for the last time, and off we went to germany, ready to resume our yearly pilgrimage to bielefeld, that got broken with the pandemic.

it was a really nice time, like being back in a place that is so familiar to us, filled with friends and cozy corners. we had pickert again, walked in the forest to soak in all the autumn colors, and this year we even visited dr. oetker’s factory!!

the highlight of the visit is this pudding-making machine they have in the atrium, where you can make your own dessert. it’s brilliant, and the result is yummy too! on sunday, we said goodbye to germany and flew back to porto.

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in spain weeknotes

weeknotes 42/24

i confess i had no idea one could see so many famous works of art in madrid. the museums really are world class, with the kind of paintings everyone has seen on books at some point. picasso, dali, goya, caravaggio… it’s enough to give you stendhal syndrome :|

so our strategy has been to savor these in small bites after work, and not try to get to everything. we’ve seen bits of the reina sofia museum, the gallery of royal collections and the natural sciences museum, which is always a highlight. so many taxidermied birds and insects! :D and dinosaur bones!

we’ve also managed to rent some bikes and ride around the retiro park, to give the boy a rest from all the walking. he has been increasing his training to prepare for his next race and now has a case of shin splints… :/

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foooood in spain

weeknotes, 41/24

madriiiiid! we’re visiting the spanish capital for a few days, and i love that we managed to get here without taking a flight… although it did take the whole day between buses and trains. but we made it!

we’re doing a home swap and staying in a small apartment in the vallecas neighborhood, which feels very “multikulti” and reminds us a lot of our old neighborhood in berlin. it’s missing tempelhof, but it has a hill from which you can see the whole city!

so far, we’ve wandered the city’s avenues to try to get a feeling for it, and also visited the retiro park, which feels huge.

and of course, we’ve been using any opportunity we get to fill our bellies with churros and chocolate! :D

next week: museums and culture!

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weeknotes

weeknotes, 40/24

world postcard day week! the day passed without much of a hitch, just a lot of adrenaline, lots of chocolate cookies and many things to check on. i filmed my first reel on instagram, just a little video of of my bike ride to post postcards on all the old postboxes in town. it was quite a warm day, so not my brightest idea, but i survived!

and after all the excitement of the big day, we took off to sagres, for four days at the yearly birdwatching festival — something we look forward to all year. this year, we tried to enjoy other activities and workshops on topics we weren’t so familiar with. so we tried sea kayaking, field sketching, painting with pastels, identifying insects and moths, ringing birds and making maritime knots.

these were very full days, but also, a very much needed break, with amazing food, in a town that has become one of our favorite places in the country. on the last day, we had a walk with simon (a guide we met last year already) and saw lots of nice birds — including some wheatears, skylarks, red-billed choughs and some rareish eurasian dotterels, passing through on their way from siberia to africa. it was a beautiful way to wrap up the festival, and to decompress from a few (very long) months of work.

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one second everyday

september 2024 — 1 second everyday

friends, family, fairs and farturas!