I got the green light, I got a little fight I'm gonna turn this thing around

welcome to Portugal.

i wasn't feeling super well as i flew out of Dublin. the altitude messed with my sinuses and i had a headache when we touched down in Porto. i was alone in a country where i didn't speak or read the language, and it was about 9pm.

what really turned my mood around was the temperature. i walked outside to wait for the metro, and it was warm. Ireland had been warming up at that point, but this was a mildness that i hadn't really felt since last summer. i rolled away across the grass...

i ran into some other Champlainers who had met two German dudes named Michael and Phillip, and while i remember some Jaggermister here and some beer there, that evening is a bit of a blur otherwise.

the next day i found some food and went exploring.

Porto is built on the side of a big hill. at the bottom of the hill is the river. across the river is a hillside covered in red terra-cotta roofs displaying the names of the different port wine cellars. Offley, Dow's Sanderman's, Croft, Kopke, the list goes on and on.

i went to Croft and drank free port while walking around the wine cellars which are shown below.

after plenty of port i went looking for something that i was told not to miss.

up on top of the hill, tucked away, is a little unassuming storefront. what is inside was breathtaking.

it has been called the most beautiful bookstore in the world, and is said to have inspired some of the magical imagery from the Harry Potter books.

it really was an amazing place. very quite yet creaky, with every little surface covered in carved patterns or gold plated stuff.

there was a cool old cart that sat in tracks in the wooden floor. they were still using the cart to bring new books from the front door to the back and throughout the shop, even though it was probably over 100 years old.

Porto was very nice, and the people there were also very friendly. i think that it took me by surprise. i hadn't expected to find what i did. the city gets its name from being one of the biggest ports in Portugal. because of its position on the sea it was developed quite a bit.......hundreds of years ago, but it also has a lot of cool little things like different food from around europe, and neat clues of its history in trading and exploration.

next was Lisbon. i got to Lisbon, again at night, and didn't really want to stay too long. this may have had something to do with the fact that there was a massive political protest complete with riot control, big fires, i heard one small explosion (like in a garbage can), and so much smashed glass on the ground that you would have wanted more than flip flops, to say the least.

Lisbon had come highly praised and recommended, and what i DID see the next morning was very nice, but i wanted some beach, and some sun, and some more beach. so i continued.

Lisbon at night.

Albuferia and the Algarve Coast

these guys were the first thing i ran into in Albuferia.

they were sick, but i just want to confirm. that man IS in fact playing both a rain stick AND flute. they are strapped together. also....really good rainstick player. didn't see that coming.

the southern coast of Portugal is one of the most beautiful place i've ever been. i have a ton of pictures, but they are all the same kind of.

this one is a good representation of how simple it was and how uncrowded it was when i was there.

i guess what i walked away thinking was, Portugal isn't as flashy as many European countries, and it's having a rough time right now politically, economically, and socially, but it really is a great place with great people. the roughness grows on you quickly if you get into it and are open to something different.

what i liked most was the simplicity of day to day flow, or the vibe i was getting from people about not taking life too seriously. it was a nice way to start spring break off slowly.

be happy.

i sure am

there's no use knowin' which way the wind is blowin'

during the week before spring break my friend Claire from Burlington and Champlain came to visit!

the Friday she flew into Dublin i was away for the first part of day on field trip to the historic Newgrange and Hill of Tara!

but! as soon as i got back, we headed out on what was to become a truly amazing adventure.

you see, Claire and i already knew what the plan was. the adventure was already in place and had been for weeks. so we grabbed a train to Belfast.

on the train we met Scott. Scott is worth mentioning because he was very funny.

he was a 9 year old that loved Justin Bieber, football, dancing, American words and accents, and not listening to his father. we really enjoyed playing the ,we call it "this", game with him.

once we got all settled in Belfast we grabbed some food. by this i mean the best meal of my life.

i'm not even joking a little bit.

the next morning we had some more traveling to do. we were headed to the Giants Causeway.

i had already been to the causeway with Champlain a few weeks earlier, but it was just as good the second time around if not better. there were far fewer crowds and for a bit we had the whole place to ourselves.

with our brightly colored rain jackets we couldn't help pretending that we were in a patagonia magazine.

made it to causeway:check

Andy's boots are dry and working in the picture above: check

Claire's boots are dry and working in the picture above: half check

having the place to ourselves allowed for some really cool photos of us perched up on the rocks without other people crowded around.

most people after seeing the causeway would get back in the car or bus and head home, or onto the next stop, maybe the castle down the road. we kept walking. see the mountain and cliffs in the picture above? yeah, well we went there.

carved into the side of the cliff wall are switchbacked paths that lead to two sets of steep steps.

climb up those and you get a view like the one below.

the picture below is actually a shot from across the cove. if you look close you can see the tent (it's blue) in the upper left hand side of the cliff. that was our campsite for the night on the northern coast of Ireland, less than a half mile to the Giants Causeway.

not camping in a bull field: check

nothing blown off into the sea: check

comfortable nights sleep: half check

strawberries: check

it was a cold night, but we woke up to a tolerable morning. after packing up our stuff we headed back down to the Causeway.

i don't often walk away from something amazed that it just happened. this for me was a really cool experience, and i'm really glad that it worked out.

also, in Portrush we got beer in one of the coolest pubs i've ever seen.

best meal ever: check

coolest location ever camped: check

awesome breakfast at the Giants Causeway: check

rain jackets:check

good trip?

good trip.

be happy

Andy

as we rode out to fennario

i am tired.

the last few weeks have been a blur, an amazing blur, but a blur.

i have a few major posts in the works, as drafts, but i want to share some stuff now. i'm realizing that huge long posts aren't necessarily the way to go because i never seem to have the time to sit down and finish them.

so for now i'm going to give you some of my favorite photos from the last 5 weeks or so with captions. sort of a highlight reel.

a few weeks ago we went to play some Gaelic Games at a local Dublin GAA club.

the first game we learned was Hurling. the fastest game on grass!!

here i am leaping into the air, the ash hurley in my hand, ready to wack the crap out of that little ball once i get my hand on it.

this game was SUPER fun, very fast pace, and high intensity. sort of like lacrosse in that you pass it back and forth, and juggle it on the end of the blade, sort of like frisbee in that you can't run more than three steps with the ball in your hand, sort of like baseball, and field hockey, and football, and yeah... it's cool.

later on we learned how to play Gaelic Football. this was sort of like soccer in the layout and the overall flow, but you could carry the ball if you kept dribbling and kick passing it back to yourself. again very quick and..well, crazed since non of knew what we were really doing.

a week later (last night we went to a real GAA double header in the huge Croke Park, a stadium used only for Gaelic sports. in Hurling Dublin came back at the last second to tie it up versus Kilkenny. we watched some of that game from the 4th or 5th row back. some of us watched the second part of that game in the upper tier because it started pouring and even hailing at times. the players never stopped. this is because they are the most badass athletes ever.

during extra time in the football match Dublin tied it up again, and then with one last push scored in the final seconds of the game to go on to win 16-13. reaction below.