A week in PT...

(written on Dec 12th)
9 days in Portugal (yep, definitely stayed home!!) were brilliant for the usual reasons...people... food... weather! Where else in Europe can you enjoy 15'C this time of year?!?!?!?!!? AH!

This was good to realise I am definitely back in immigration mode, and that trips to Portugal now work as holidays from my Madrid home. So, small details become important again...
... always stopping in the first portuguese service station, to have a coffee (not dirty water in big buckets...) and check out the latest "pink magazines" (Maria, TV7Dias, Gente, etc);
... enduring a Marginal road traffic jam, with a stupid smile in my face, just because of the view and smell of the sea;
... taking time to re-discuss feminism and the role of women in the XXI century with my sisters… or actually listening to their monologue;
… playing with my nieces and nephews… simply that… (and now even talking through MSN!!);
… nearly being stopped in yet another police traffic control operation (was the second car to be allowed to move through… pffiiuuuu…)
(... )

On a more serious note, these dips back “home” are also indirectly showing me the true strength of the friendships I have in Portugal, through the powerful test of distance. Although not always, most of the time I have been very positively surprised :)

Time to think, time to plan… So, I have officially declared 2006 as a travelling year! Here is my tentative travel schedule until Sep’06!
. Jan’06 – Rome – meeting Friends and fulfilling a promise of returning to that fantastic city;
. Feb’06 – Holland – AI reunion!!!! Getting together with my family 01-02;
. May’06 – Egypt (or Morocco in June!) – need to visit a new country every year, so it is definitely time meet friends either in one of these… or both!
. Oct’06 – India (wedding in Delhi + Hymalaias=2,5 to 3 weeks!) – yet another wedding followed or anticipated by 2 weeks chilling out up north in the Himalayas… Wanna join?

And in between, if the opportunity arises, I might be tempted to visit… YOU! ;)
Carpe Diem!