twenty-four years

So, I'm twenty-four. And I just had three days off. To celebrate my birthday and to make up for the many weeks working without weekends. It was lovely and refreshing and I feel invigorated and positive and optimistic and capable once again. It was wonderful to not have to look at a computer screen for a few days, to enjoy the autumn sunshine and to discover yet another beautiful portuguese city. Braga is a stunning old city in the north of Portugal, full of churches and monuments and amazing little streets. We stayed in a wonderful hotel in an old building in the historic centre of the city. On the day of my birthday we spent an afternoon at the beach, looking out to the atlantic from the amazing coast of vila nova de gaia. Later we had picanha(brazilian steak) in a little restaurant in Porto. In Braga we ate in a great sushi restaurant where we had great sashimi. On Sunday we had breakfast in bed in Bracara Augusta and then spent some time shopping and walking around beautiful Braga. Sitting on the windowsill in the cool morning breeze, listening to the sound of church bells, overlooking the amazing architecture of Braga was all I needed.

So now I'm back to work. Listening to the Cardigans, a very "pop" band for me, but a band I've liked for a long time. I love the vocals in particular. And they can be very dark at times despite the bouncy music.

Having a few days off really made me reflect on how lucky I am to be in Portugal and how much I love it here. Despite working too much recently I am very happy and appreciative of living here. There are many, many things which I love about here and without doubt one of my favourite is the food. I feel like I have had the best food of my life in Portugal! Beef, chicken, veal, seabass, octopus, squid, goat, mackerel, cod, pork.... The list goes on; almost everything I have eaten and cooked in Portugal has been great. Food is generally excellent and the prices are exceptionally affordable. It's massively different from the UK, where I must say I have eaten the worst food of my life. And the good food I have eaten has been ridiculously overpriced. Chains. That is what is ruining the United Kingdom. Oh well.... There's not much I can do about it.

Food is just one of the things I love about Portugal. I was in Lisbon for my birthday last year and ate in Assuka, another amazing Japanese restaurant.... The many other aspects of living here which I love will follow in another post. Plans for the future include travelling to more places in Portugal; I've never been anywhere I haven't liked in this country. Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Faro and Braga are all beautiful. I almost forgot. I had a little escape last Sunday morning to see the Porto Orchestra play Rachmaninoff in the splendid Casa da Musica, the same place I saw PJ Harvey. Needless to say I was very, very impressed. Exceptional. And for 5 Euros, unbelievably good value. Children and adults, the old and the young were there and it struck me how wonderful it is to see people of all ages enjoy something so amazing. It's lovely. Culture should be accessible.

One of the things I love to do is read and learn about the experiences and opinions of foreigners living in Buenos Aires, where I lived for about a year and a half. A place I feel that I know well. I am glad that I didn't do the traditional Latin-American "gap-year". Nor did I take the easy(not that the lat am gap year isn't easy!) option of going on an erasmus scheme. Instead I took language courses and cello classes in buenos aires for a year, rented apartments and generally avoided foreigners. Stayed away from hostels and tourist traps. And feel like I gained more for it. A great blog I've come across is this one. A lot of what I love about Argentina, I have found in Portugal. But still, sometimes I miss all that which is Argentinian. For now I'm happy in Portugal. Much happier than I was last year in Belfast or the year before that in London.

Oh, silent night, there's a hole in the night.