A change of pace in Portugal...

Elliot finished his first stressful term of business school on Friday, March 25, and I returned from Copenhagen on the same day. On Saturday, we left Rotterdam for a short holiday to Portugal. After such a hard winter (with snow!) I was really looking forward to some high quality beach time...not to mention some fresh fish, sun, and a new culture!

We got ridiculously cheap flights in and out of Faro, a small city in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. We stayed at a very basic, but clean and adequate (and included breakfast!) hotel called Algarve Sol. We arrived pretty late in the evening, but managed to get a good feel of the small historic city center and some tasty food at Dos Irmãos, a great restaurant with a lovely patio out back. We also managed to book a train for the following morning to Lisboa, as well as another night at the hotel for our return journey.

Dos Irmaos cod and potatoes

After a quick breakfast we made our 9am train and in about 3 hours were in Lisbon. Smooth ride and only 20€! Great views of the sunny countryside and .50€ espresso in the dining car! Loving this country already.

Comboios de Portugal (the train)

Ten good reasons to become Danish...

With a fantastic group of 5 other UC Berkeley city planning grad students (and fellow graduates), I had an exciting week in Copenhagen. As a group we met folks from Gehl Architects, the City's Department of Traffic & Infrastructure, as well as the Department of Environmental Sustainability. It was super cool hearing about how the City works, especially how they actually get things done--they think of ways to improve their streets, canals, etc, and then they do it! If it works, they make it permanent and set up a system that will usher success. What a concept. Like trying out a 3-meter wide bike lane before putting in the cycle track; or benches that are perpendicular to the street, facing each other, so people can sit and enjoy each other's company instead of looking at the traffic. I'm not saying they get things done without conflict or resistance; but somehow, through consensus-building, impact analyses, research, and convincing powerpoint presentations, these people know how to make change. 

The Crew at Gehl Architects: Me, Matt, Erin, Erik, Jordan, Lisa

The Copenhagen raised 6' cycle track: heaven. 

View of the Stroget pedestrian street from Hay House

Although one week sounds like a good chunk of time to spend in one city, it still wasn't enough. In my small sample size of a week, I came up ten reasons to become Danish...

And now it's story time...

I know, I know. It's been for-EVER. Amazingly, when you don't have a job you become insanely busy! Life has been full of cooking, sewing, traveling, planing trips, café-ing with girlfriends, going on trips, exploring new cities, cycling, gym-ing, dealing with visa nightmares, hosting, party going, party making...and, yes, wedding planning. I won't bore with all the crazy stories, but I do have a few to share...