Brno - Czech Republic

It was just over a year ago that me, J. and my sister made a trip to the south of the Czech Republic. It was December, we had just left our job and we were about to leave the country and move to Sweden. Our first stop was Brno, the second biggest city of the country. It is a beautiful city, with colourful buildings, gardens and the castle sitting on top of a hill, presenting us with a gorgeous view over the city. 

Foi há pouco mais de um ano que eu, o J. e a minha irmã fizemos uma viagem ao sul da República Checa. Era dezembro, tínhamos acabado de deixar nosso emprego e estávamos prestes a deixar o país para nos mudarmos para a Suécia. A primeira paragem foi Brno, a segunda maior cidade do país. É uma bela cidade, com edifícios coloridos, jardins e o castelo no topo de uma colina, que nos proporciona uma vista deslumbrante sobre a cidade.

The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul / A Catedral de São Pedro e São Paulo

Parnas fountain / Fonte Parnas

 Park Denisovy Sady / Parque Denisovy Sady

 Park with the castle on top of the hill / O parque com o castelo no topo da colina

 Castle gardens / Jardins do castelo

Špilberk Castle

 Castle's old pharmacy / A antiga farmácia do castelo

 Freedom square / Praça da Liberdade 

Modern art? / Arte moderna?

A pause for tea and cake / Uma pausa para beber chá e comer bolo

 The National Theatre / O Teatro Nacional

Christmas markets in Brno / Mercados de Natal em Brno 

Brno is definitely worth a visit, even if it is a day trip from Prague (2h by train). The architecture is beautiful and there is not a million tourists around, which gives the city a much more honest and real atmosphere. If you go, don't miss the cakes! A friendly advice!

Vale absolutamente a pena visitar, mesmo que seja só uma viagem de ida e volta de Praga (2h de comboio). A arquitetura é bonita e não há um milhão de turistas na rua, o que dá a cidade uma atmosfera mais honesta e real. Se forem não percam os bolos! Conselho de amiga!

Just another day

I started my day wallowing in the organic trash (just trash would be too normal, it had to be the most disgusting kind), I ended my school day alone in a classroom watching a movie about Ibrahimovic and I finished the day by eating an omelette that had been in the sink.

Who doesn't have weird days?

Now the explanation... 

Yesterday we were three for dinner and among all the happy chattering that doing the dishes involved we threw away the juicer filter. Unfortunately, we only noticed that AFTER I had gone out with the trash. The trash outside is locked, and I thought I had lost the filter forever. This morning, soon after I had found a website where to buy a new one I heard the recycling collection truck outside. I ran down hopping they would also have the key to the organic trash, which they did, and had to look among very disgusting bags of old food. Wonderful. All become worth it when I found the filter!

In the last class of today we were watching a Swedish documentary about Zlatan Ibrahimovic youth. Zlatan is the big football star of Sweden and it was quite interesting to see his other side and learn more about his background. I thought all were enjoying the movie, as people were laughing and making comments, but I was apparently wrong. After an hour the teacher said she didn't know the film was so long, so if we wanted to go home we were allowed but we could also stay and watch, if we didn't mind shutting off the computer at the end. There were 20 minutes left and I was curious about the rest, so I stayed. I was the only one. Wonderful. And weird.

We made Spanish omelette for dinner. That implies always turning the omelette into a plate and sliding it back to the pan. Always an adventure. Today, as it was the first time we did it in this flat, we forgot that we didn't have a big enough plate to turn it. Of course we noticed this when it was ready to turn. We tried to turn the omelette into another frying pan and we ended with 2/3 of it inside the sink. It looked so good anyway that we scraped it off the sink (which was clean!) and put it back in the pan. Wonderful.

But what kind of girl is this??? She dives in the trash and eats food out of the sink???

Well... not everyday...

My tropical Christmas

I spent Christmas in Lisbon and the temperatures were abnormally high for this time of the year. Or maybe is just me, used to live in Sweden and to spend Christmas in my hometown in the mountains, where is always freezing. Either way, the sun shined every day and the temperatures reached 17 ºC most days. I ran along the beach just wearing a t-shirt. I took walks in the old town and watched the sunset over the Tagus river. It was nice.

Passei o Natal em Lisboa e as temperaturas estavam anormalmente altas para esta época do ano. Ou então sou só eu, que estou habituada ao inverno sueco e a passar o Natal na minha cidade natal nas montanhas, onde está sempre um gelo. De qualquer forma, o sol brilhou todos os dias e as temperaturas atingiram 17 ºC na maioria dos dias. Corri ao longo da praia em t-shirt. Caminhei na parte antiga de Lisboa e vi o pôr-do-sol sobre o rio Tejo. Foi muito bom.

Pastéis de Nata

 Fresh oranges

 Jacob, the parrot-cat / Jacob, o papagio-gato

 A walk before Christmas dinner / Um passeio antes da ceia de Natal

 Merry Christmas

 Inside the Christmas tree / Dentro da árvore de Natal

Enjoying my family's company

Getting the best picture

My activities also included watching a football match in the stadium and a quick visit to my home town and my parents cat Mia.

As minhas actividades também incluiram um jogo de futebol no estádio e uma visita rápida à minha cidade Natal e à gata dos meus pais, a Mia. 

It was all very good and relaxing. I hope yours too.

Foi tudo bom e tranquilo. Espero que o vosso também. 

A year ago

I asked him...

... and he said yes.

2016

Much has been said about 2016. It's the terrible year, the one that took away so many famous souls, the one where things out of the ordinary happened. Bad and good. I'm pretty sure 2016 will be long remembered for all that.

That's no exception to me. 2016 will always be the year I was unemployed. I didn't expect it to be the whole year but so it became. I have to confess that it was a pretty good year to be unemployed, as I got to see history happening in several occasions and I had the time to actually follow the news properly. I saw the UK leaving the EU. I got up early and I saw Hilary Clinton loosing the election to Trump. I was shocked by all the bad things happening in Europe, Turkey, Syria and others. 

I saw Portugal winning the Euro 2016. I saw as much of the Rio Olympics as possible. I got up in the middle of the night and watched the Oscars live. I saw the Nobel prize gala dinner.

I also made friends from all over the world and I learned a new language. I proved to myself that I can do much more than I think and I regained some of the self-confidence I had previously lost. 

In 10 years abroad, 2016 was the year I travelled the least. In reality, because I still travelled as much in my dreams.

I lost my dearest grandfather. 

I got to understand how wonderful is the man who lives with me. Not that I had any doubt about that before.

I won a new home: Sweden.

2016 was made of ups and downs and so will be 2017. As all the other years were and will be. 

I don't really do resolutions but I do have three wishes for the coming year. 

I would like to be at least as happy as I was in 2016. 

I would like to get a job (preferably good).

I would like you all to have a great 2017, full of good moments, laughter and joy.

Cheers!