Studying Portuguese

I had a lovely (and much needed) evening with friends tonight.  Over a couple of glasses of wine, I caught up with some dear friends, including my friend Laura, whom I traveled with in Portugal for my summer vacation.  You may recall various posts about her - including this one dedicated just to traveling with a fellow shutter bug.

Well, Laura and I got to talking about how great our vacation was and how, after the daily toil of our jobs, we really wanted another vacation.  Which, of course, made me start thinking even more about how great our last vacation was.  We traveled through Portugal, without a set itinerary, traveling wherever the road took us.  And we wound up in the great university town of Portugal - Coimbra - where we followed Rick Steves' recommendation to a underground fado club.  Which was perfect, except for the creepy man who wanted to um, let's just say, get to know Laura and I know better and who insisted on "translating" the fado songs for us.  Ya, thanks but no thanks.  But that's a whole 'nother story...

Coimbra was made for black and white pictures.  From our amazing hotel, pictured above, with film noir art deco decor inside, to the cobblestone streets, I just had to take photo after photo.  And it being Wednesday, I figured it was about time to pay homage to Coimbra for Black & White Wednesdays, hosted by the Long Road to China.  I can't imagine what it would be like to actually study in this place -- I can't imagine being anything than a history major here. Or maybe graphic design, with its vivid graffiti.

(Coimbra, Portugal, photographed June 2010)

The Writing is on the Wall

One thing that stands out in my memories of Portugal is the graffiti (especially in Lisboa and Porto).  Around every street corner there was another spray-painted image.  My friend Laura and I were intrigued by this street art.  Yes, although I don't want anyone to tag the side of my house, I think that sometimes graffiti can be quite beautiful or thought-provoking.  The strawberry above falls into the former category, but a lot of the graffiti that I saw in Portugal fell into the latter category, rife with political messages and expressing personal discontent.

(And sorry for the short message today.  I certainly fulfilled the "labor" part of labor day, meaning there's wasn't much time left over for posting.)

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)

Portugal Potpourri

Well, I'm back.  Sorry for the long absence from posting.  I was on my long anticipated vacation, driving around Portugal with my friend Laura, eating good food and drinking (many) bottles of vinho verde.  Don't worry, though, I have lots of new photos to make up for the time spent away. 

But, alas, I'm jet-lagged.  Barely too tired to transfer photos from my camera and definitely too tired to sort through the two memory cards worth of pictures to put together a cohesive themed post about any one of the towns Laura and I visited or things that we did.  So instead, you will just get this, a potpourri of pictures from the trip.  Hopefully they will get you excited to see some more. 

That is, once I've recovered from the jet-lag... (yawn).

(Portugal, photographed June 2010)