powlow's stuff + things » walking

Vall de Núria

powlow — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:23:29 +0000

Aquest Diumenge vaig fer la caminada de Queralbs fins al Vall de Núria. El paisatge va ser molt impactant i vaig aprofitar per fer moltes fotos. Molt recomanable!

Mountain Biking

powlow — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:20:53 +0000

Got me a new bike last weekend and already went off to some mountains to test it out. Going back this weekend. Amazing! Did a little bit of a trail around the Montseny and discovered a site with a whole load of routes (CICLOIDE) so looking forward to going and trying some out. What is obvious is that both I and Cris are what you might call “city folk” and so we need to set out bread crumb trails or something like that to find our way back! Either that, or have a GPS like some people on their bikes…seems a bit excessive though…time will tell.

Occitania

powlow — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:48:17 +0000

This weekend I was in Occitania with Cris and, Dabintxi and Sofie. It was a really good idea and I definately had a good time. We stayed in a really amazing bed and breakfast in the country just outside a little village. The house was really cosy and we had breakfast on the table each morning with homemade jam, fresh bread and mandarines from the tree we could see through the window while having breakfast. The house was really big and we had it all to ourselves which was great. They also had some horses out back. Excellent place. It was actually really close to Barcelona witht the trip being about two and a half hours.

We spent the weekend visiting villages and sampling the eats and drinks of the area. We did a bit of walking and even ended up in a market on Sunday where I finally got myself a pipe. I got a small Ropp pipe from some fishermen types in the market and yesterday I got some Borkum Riff tobacco : Original and Cherry Cavendish. After a good clean out, I’ve been firing it up in the park near work. And then at home at the end of the day. Really good to just relax. Bring me my slippers!

What was obvious from the weekend was that I tend to get a bit “excited” behind the wheel and so I going to try and minimize car driving from now on! I’ll supply the car but some else will have to drive as of now. It’ll be better for everyine involved that way.

Anyways, excellent weekend and definately one to repeat.

Collecting Mushrooms

powlow — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:02:45 +0000

This weekend ended with going out and collecting mushrooms (a.k.a. bolets) in some woods not too far from Barcelona. It was actually quite a bit of fun and I’ll definately go and do it again sometime. Its not that easy if you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for and clearly you have to be quite careful as two similar looking mushrooms can have quite different effects on your body : one tasty the other toxic or deadly. Still, with a bit of practise you can definately learn and the hand picked ones are the tastiest of course. We did actually get some good ones but we’d mixed them up with some bad ones and so, to be on the safe side, we ended up not eating any of them. But we got some practise and next time we know what to look for. However, this is not something for the late riser as if you get there late there’s nothing left to pick!

After the picking session, we had lunch in a smallish village know for its mineral water. Great lunch with a few plates of the elusive mushrooms : tasty tasty lunch with some strong wine to wash it all down. Good relaxing day with some fresh mountain air. Always good to get away from the city for a bit.

Fim de Semana em Cap de Creus

powlow — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 14:15:04 +0000

Este fim de semana tive em Cap de Creus na Costa Brava Catalana. Grande sítio! É mesmo um espectâculo. Parece o fim do mundo e tems vistas de mar e de montanha : de um lado costa de rocha com caminhos e do outro montanhas com neve (nesta altura do ano). Foi altamente relax. Muito recomendado. Slideshow das fotos pra flipar!

New Job

powlow — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:40:21 +0000

I’ve been at my new job for a couple of weeks now and things seem good. This week, I’ve been on a new project (that makes two projects in a week and a half) and today was the demo. Its been pretty hectic this week but was cool to pull together with a bunch of strangers and come out with something we could be proud of and that apparently went down really well at the demo! Nice start to the new job really…I’m working three stops down the train line from home which means I can get to work really quick and can go home for lunch, which I did today and had some arroz a la cubana and watched some Futurama and so life is good.

I’m still dreaming of getting a bike, like I have been for ages, and there’s the exact bike I would get parked right outside my front door everyday! Its torture every morning I can tell you…one day. I’ve already got a helmet, since I’ve been riding around with Cris alot on her bike. I figured I’ll be getting one soon anyways, but its taking me longer than I thought. Next year I’m going to get on it hard as soon as things settle down a bit and I get into the flow of working and living again after the three months forced holiday a.k.a. Hernia Hols

Anyways, christmas is almost here and I’ll be in Lisbon from the 24th to the 26th and I’m already looking forward to dinner at home with my parents and hooking up with the pessoal!

Went for a little walk around Park Guell the other day and was good to see it all again after not having been for ages.