25th of April 1974

Yesterday was the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. For me it is one of the most important and meaningful public holidays of Portugal.

This was the second time I wasn't in Portugal in the 25th of April.

This year I was not only in The Netherlands but also in Luxembourg and even passed through Belgium. I went on a quick visit to the Luxembourg with some friends.

But I didn't forget what day it was so to make my own small celebration I listened to José Afonso, a Portuguese singer whose political songs were a way of fighting against the dictatorship that ended in the 25th of April of 1974.

As we say in Portugal "25th of April forever, fascism never more! Long live Liberty!".

As suggested in the comments box here is a link to some videos of José Afonso's songs.

Graffiti Tunel #1 - Lucky Luke

Here in Delft there's a place relatively close to the train station where people make graffiti in broad day light. I don't know what is the law here in The Netherlands but I don't think that it is allowed to do it anywhere, so I guess that in those specific walls it is not forbidden to do graffiti. And I find it perfectly logical. Those walls are just by the street and half of them covered by a train bridge, so otherwise they'd just be gray.

This way every week, mostly at weekends, there are people painting them with new graffiti. And since they are not breaking the law they have time to make some nice drawings. But since there aren't so many allowed places to graffiti most of the drawings don't stay for more than a week, being painted over by someone else some time after. Which is really nice, because this way the decoration of that tunnel is always changing!=)

And for someone like me who likes graffiti is really nice to pass and look at what's new!

Two weeks ago someone had painted this Lucky Luke:

And it seems that it wasn't someone too young, because Lucky Luke is smoking a cigarette instead of having a straw of some cereal in his mouth...

So you can expect to see some more graffiti in the future, if I see some nice drawings. =)

#Sorry for the quiet time! =) More posts to come in the next days (or weeks, who knows!). Wait to learn how I almost started an International conflict at United Nations office in Geneva!

Corpus Experience, Leiden

In the same day that we visited the Keukenhof Gardens we also went to visit the Corpus Experience. The Corpus Experience is a 5D (yeah, 5D, at least that's what they say) experience museum about the Human Body. In this museum we travel around different rooms that represent different parts of our body. During the journey there are some explanations about what we are seeing and how our body works.

The idea is really nice but I think that the final result is a bit disappointing, because most, if not all, of what I heard there I already new. It's probably a great place for children to visit, but they should have told us that before...

So even so that it's kind of nice to visit I won't recommend it to anyone that has studied natural sciences in the basic school.

So for me the most interesting thing in this museum is the building... which has a giant iron man sitting in/inside it. =P

Corpus Experience

A Visit to Keukenhof

When Mariana's cousin was here one of the places we visit was Keukenhof Gardens. As the name might suggest it's a great place to see flowers, and specially the famous Dutch tulips.

Here are some photos of this visit:

A philharmonic band! =) They played the "Pink Panther" Really nice!
no, not drunk... it's just my camera's fancy color options

hmmm, flowers...
Look at me, look at me!
Really nice colors!=) Tulips field

One more camera trick!;)
The Flintstones's car!

Touristing weekend

Last Thursday a cousin of Mariana arrived in Delft for a eight day visit. So, as good hosts that we are, we did a plan (well they did) to show her a bit of The Netherlands. Actually it was also meant for us to know a bit more about the country where we are living.

Since the prices of the museums and of the trains are quite expensive we rather leave some places to visit when people come by to visit us. Saving money and avoiding double or triple visits.

In the days she was here they visited The Hague, Amsterdam, Leiden and Antwerp. Since I am working full time I was only able to join in the weekend trips. Those were to Amsterdam (Yes, I still had (and have) things to see in Amsterdam) and Leiden.

It was a really nice weekend, a tiresome one, but a really fun and nice weekend.

The only not so good thing is that I should have taken some time to work on my report... but then again what is life without a bit of stress (for when the time comes...).

Next weekend I'm going to Geneva with Mariana, to visit José Melo, a friend of ours.

Before finishing this I would like to congratulate my friend Cláudio Alves for having finished his Master! Hip, Hip Hurray! =)

Oh My God, is that a Bear?

The other day I noticed that there was a bear ridding a scooter in Delft. I was a bit worried at first, but then I noticed that it was an employee of some food delivery service, so if he was hungry he would probably eat the order... I guess.






Anyway it's a nice looking helmet and I thought I should share it with you!

PS: It's rather amusing to imagine a friend of mine, Hugo, ridding his motorcycle and wearing that helmet... right Hugo?

Ridding Zee Bike

Introducing my bicycle! Clap your hands people!

I've been ridding it at least 40 minutes a day, so I better be slimmer when I get to Portugal... but maybe I should also stop eating chocolates... na, maybe not!

Anyway I'm really enjoying my bike, even with all the noises it makes!

Something in the air tonight

I've talked in a previous post about sound based memories, and tonight I experienced the smell based memories.

When i was cycling back to my place the night in Delft smelled like Spring. And so I spent most of the time sniffing the air and trying to get some memories out of this mixture of fauna, flora and city smells. I didn't get any specific memories but it filled my mind with thoughts of Portugal, and some warmer nights.

It's really nice the power of the human brain and it's capacity to remember stuff and make associations between such things as smells and sounds.

Anyway, the most important thing was that it made me feel good. Even though a little sadness crawled with this good feeling, but it was just "saudade" (a very meaningful Portuguese word for "missing" things), so I welcomed it also.

And here I am again, talking about memories... If I continue like this, my blog will have it's own pool of so much crying text... sorry folks!:P

Enough is Enough

I'm tired of this weather and of all the sandwiches that I eat here. Tomorrow I'm going back to Portugal!