Rainy days

Another weekend is here and the possibility of waking up a bit later than 7:15 just makes me smile. But what doesn't make me smile is the rain. Is not heavy rain that makes imposible you to leave home, is just that annoying light rain that spoils one riding day makes you think about alternative plans, which are not always bad at all.

Yesterday I met two riders at the sk8park. More than 10 years olders than me but still keeping it real and riding like they were 20; one applause was deserved and I honestly hope to follow the same track and still be on my bike by that time. I definitely should bet again with my mom about that hehe...

Finnaly I had the chance to buy the so wanted Reflex digital camera. With a fairly big ammount of luck, I went to the shop to check them out yesterday and they were on a big sale, just one day of the whole year. So, now I'm the proud owner of a Nikon D5000 and I hope new photos will start to pop out to the blog.

Thanks to the advice of my flatmate Hanna, I guess today is a good day to go to Utrecht Central Museum and check exhibitions. My Nikon is coming with me to the city center.

This gentleman is singing about rain dogs:

My new house

It wasn't a good day today: the third day in a row sanding and getting blue dust all over me, my city bike got stolen and started to rain, but at least I have a new room and I finally left the squat. My own space, confortable, a real bed, a pillow and people to talk with...now it's getting better. And the flatmates seem really cool, I had a small chat today with them, hope we'll keep having these chats from now on.

Sabina, cool workmate, is leaving tomorrow so I guess finally there will be beers with the collegues, let's see. Oh, and these people eat a bit weird at lunch...bread and nutella? that's breakfast or tea for me.

Homage to Catalonia is amazing and I read something really funny today: Jesuits are like the night, they always come back.

Primavera started today, and The Fall is playing in Barcelona right now, so here's a sample of one of the most amazing groups ever:

blue

Not that I'm feeling blue because of the new job, actually I really enjoyed the first day at work. It's just because I got completely covered in blue because of the roofmate dust that was spreaded all over myself! I spent the whole day sanding a prototype.

The studio is nice, the workmates are really nice and cool, the boss didn't speak to us at all (weird, I was thinking that he would speak to us on the first day, at least somekind of welcome briefing) and the projects on the company look really interesting. Guess I'll do a bit of everything though.

My credit card doesn't work in the supermarkets and cashmachines are terribly hard to find around.

This song was a must today on my ears:

last day of holidays

Today is my last day of holidays. For the first time in my life, I'll be working the whole summer long without any interruption, and that's not cool. I'll miss those bored days where the heat is too much to do anything, where you go to the beach on your A/C less car with your friends and windows fully opened. Those days that we are supposed to ride the whole afternoon but we don't do anything at all, just lay back and chat, and the riding is delayed for the evening. Those days where you can sleep until 2pm but the heat makes you wake up at 9am. and the best of all: summer travels! that's the worse, not be able to travel around during the summer. I wish I could have another gimme shelter tour, but it's impossible this year. not good!

well, I'll have other stuff to do. like go to work! weekends will taste like honey...

Now I have to go to the city center, eat dinner and then Liars gig

Liars warm up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-r8HWri41s

feeling dutch

Yesterday I bought two bikes: one for the work and one for the city. they are really dutch, grandmother style as I was told by the man at the shop, back-pedal brake, really confortable. I spent two hours cycling around the city just for the fun of cycling and looking around, it was funny.

Feeling like living on a bubble, need to meet new people and talk to new people. Guess today I'll go to the sk8park to see if I can have new friends.

By the way, my room looks like a bike shop.

For the mixed emotions:

Rotterdam and a Zundapp in Utrecht

Second day in The Netherlands and second city to visit.
I went to Rotterdam to check out a room and the city. As I went a bit late due to some problems with the card, buying ticket trains and bla bla bla, the first thing that I saw in Rotterdam was the room. A bit of a dogdy street, so many chavs walking around, but the room was nice as well as the house, 2min away from the central station and a nice terrace for sunbathing (so far the weather has been amazing).

After the room I went to take a walk around Rotterdam: tall buildings, berlin-style city, canals everywhere, bridges, a big port (that I actually didn't see), amazing architecture, i guess i could easily live there. I had noodles for lunch (yummmi), bought a new shirt and now i can eat cereals at the room that I'm living in because I bought two tupperwares and two spoons (6€ everything ouchhh).

But well, I decided to stay in Utrecht for the next two months. I'll live in a cool house in the south of the city, with nice people and a biiiiiig room! Will only be temporary for two months, just to give a chance to Utrecht and check if I really want to live here or should i move to Rotterdam.

Oh, by the way, I saw one Fundador Zundapp (typical portuguese motorcycle) in Utrecht, was very well restored and looked amazing.

Walking around listening to mogwai is great:

day one

I'm already here!
First stop is Utrecht. I'm living in a room with absolutely nothing, no bulbs, no dishes, no forks, no glasses, only a fridge and internet.has a big window to the street, improvised curtains and it's on the ground floor.

Utrecht is bigger than I thought, I walked a lot this afternoon and I was getting nowhere, so I decided to catch the train.

First impressions of Holland: Green, flat, bikes (loads of bikes), water, modern and rural, cows, sheeps, tall and pale people, quiet trains, weird language.

tune:

Leaving here

Ok, first post of the blog...1,2,3 testing testing...ok the sound seems fine.

Well, after one week of delay, tomorrow is the D-Day. Two weeks at home have been great, but now is time to do something better than sit around all day and ride bikes (which, honestly, is the best thing to do in life).

Flight TP0668 towards Amsterdam departs at 6:05am from Oporto, and then, a big new adventure. First stop: Utrecht, then we'll see!

Missing Barcelona already...


soundtrack: