A Simple Story

I recently got back from Portugal, where I went for spring break. We spent a couple of days in Lisbon then rented a car and visited some smaller towns (Sintra, Cascais, Setúbal, Tomar, Coimbra), and were in Porto the rest of the time.

Some of the architecture and the Moorish-inspired mosaic walls were very pretty. Unfortunately the non-historical parts of country seem to be in some state of disrepair. There was graffiti everywhere in the cities and apparently no effort to clean it up.

As for the food, Portuguese cuisine is known for bacalhau = salted cod. I was salted cod-ed out by the second day. I also learned the hard way to not order the açorda = mushy bread.


On a brighter note, we went on a hike in Peneda-Gerês National Park which was beautiful. The person at the tourism office recommended that we go on this "moderate" 10km (6mi) trail, the Trilho dos Currais. It turned out to also have a 3000ft elevation gain on rugged terrain. Got to the top and rewarded myself with a pack of Haribo gummy bears, canceling out whatever number of calories I might have burned.


Before Portugal, I unexpectedly had to go to Hong Kong for a week. I had to fly back from Hong Kong to Vancouver to New York to Boston then to Madrid to Lisbon all in 40 hours. The tally of airports that I have flown/will fly to/from/through in 2010, up until September:

HKG-JFK-BOS-JFK-HKG-YVR-JFK-BOS-MAD-LIS-LHR-BOS-JFK-YVR-JFK-BOS-JFK-YVR-JFK-BOS-JFK-YYZ-GLA-OSL-BER-HKG

A lot for me, considering what I do doesn't involve much (or any) traveling. The lesson from this list clearly is to live in a major city with direct flights going to it.

On the knitting front, I'm currently working on a pair of socks (pattern: Rockyview Socks) for my grandma. She wanted something green so I got BMFA sock yarn in a colorway called County Clare (which I would love to visit one day). The yarn is self-striping, and this particular skein curiously is giving me radioactive green stripes.


Also finally blocked a shawl (pattern: Dane Shaw) that I had finished weeks ago. I knitted this in Malabrigo Sock in the Archangel colorway, the yarn is soft and the colors are gorgeous.


For now I'm back at school in Boston, with only a month to go before my final set of exams (ever! not counting the bar exam) so must buckle down. I'll be going on a hike in Mount Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire next week, maybe after that I'll be able to post some Quatchi-in-the-woods pics :)