Beautiful Picture

This gorgeous picture taken from Sirigiya is from a photo blog I saw when I was looking for Lankan landscapes to paint.

Game of Thrones - Can hardly wait..

I finished reading the books months ago and loved them (except maybe all the Cersei viewpoints in 'A Feast For Crows'). I was surprised how many of the characters I managed to keep in my head, but I still missed a few connections here and there. Its only after you read all the blogs about the books that you discover some of these obscure things.

The HBO series was very well done I thought. Amazingly close to the books in many regards, now when I think of the characters I am imagining the TV series actors rather than my own little creations in my head. I remember thinking when I first saw Daenerys that the version I imagined was way better than that. Unfortunately I don't recall what she was like in my head at all now.

I don't know how I can wait for possibly years for the next book and even series 2 isn't due until April next year. I will probably have to re-read some of the older books. For now I'm resolved to re-watching series 1 and reading the production blogs for series 2. Yes, I know I am sad!

What it means to be a professional developer

I read this article "Keep Your Workbench Clean! Code Quality & The Professional Developer" today. It has some interesting concepts about what a professional developer should do. While there is nothing new or revolutionary about what it says - I mean we should be already doing this - but I liked the whole carpenter analogy.

Stop All The Clocks

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W. H. Auden

Portugal

I cant believe we've been back in Sydney for almost a year month now and I still havent written about our time in Portugal. Being the last country in our European summer 09 itinerary we arrived in Portugal with mixed emotions. It was sad to be almost at an end to our backpacking adventures and yet we were looking forward to seeing all our friends and family back in Sydney.

I've always wanted to visit Portugal and it didnt disappoint. Our first stop was in Lisboa the capital. We stayed at a fantastic hostel right in the heart of town. The hostel was only a few weeks old and everything was brand new. It had funky modern furniture, great dorms and everything was pretty high tech - with RFID chips as our room and locker keys and Macs available for internet browsing. We got to know the owners during the course of our stay who were 3 young entrepreneurs who really knew how a hostel should be.

It was also the hostel where we met some great fellow backpackers from all over the world and really bonded. There was the most unamerican-American Nick, who was over from Morocco as it was Ramadan there. Nick had a deal with the hostel owners and he cooked many fabulous meals for the residents in exchange for his board. He made a fantastic chicken curry on the first day which totally won me over. The only difference it had to my chicken curry was that it lacked a little heat but the flavours more than made up for it. On many nights we stayed in for dinner with many of the other residents to enjoy Nick's fabulous food over unlimited wine and beer and unforgettable company.

While Nick was busy in the kitchen we got to know a whole band of like minded and crazy people staying at the hostel. There were the two Finnish beauties - Saijja (pronounced Saya) and Lotta who became part of our air band with a couple of extremely friendly French guys (their names escape me). Then there were two more Fins - Artur and his friend who always wore a red hat and was known simple as the guy with the red hat. Nick's meal while tasting great took a very long time to arrive at the table so we had ample time to get to know these lovely folk.

Our time is Portugal and Lisboa in particular really stands out in my mind because of the great food we had. Portugeses food is rustic, simple and delicious. They use a lot of seafood in there diet which Pramod and I ofcourse love. I dont remember ever having a meal that I didnt like.



Coming from an ex-Protugese colony we also felt a subtle connection to the country as we recognised many common words in the two vocabularies and could see the Protugese influence in Sri Lankan food and architecture. Every Protugese person we met there was friendly and welcoming - I really would like to go back again and spend more time there. In Lisboa we went out with our new hostel buddies a quite few times so it didnt feel like we did a lot of touristy things. We did visit the castle overlooking the town, took a ferry across to the other side of the harbour and did a day trip up to Sintra. Somehow the place got under our skin so to speak.

After about a week in Lisboa we went up north to Porto and Braga which were quite different in character to the capital. Porto felt old and gritty especially around the old port. Braga was small, beautiful and cosmopolitan - the only thing I didnt like about it was a big Macdonalds they had allowed in the main historical square with the most out of this world fountain.

Then all too soon it was time to fly back to London to spend a few days there before heading home.

Granada

Granada was our final Spanish destination and turned out to be the most loved. By far the most beautiful of the Spanish cities we've visited, it has a great mix of old and new. Granada's Moorish past is ever present from the majestic Alhambra (the most visited monument in Spain) overlooking the city to Albayzin, a district full of narrow winding streets from its Medieval Moorish past. Even the offerings at the souvenir shops are more Arabic than Spanish.

We stayed at a great little hostel called 'Funky Backpackers' which felt more like someone's home rather than a hostel. In a way we were part of that family for those four days we stayed there as we got to know the family and became friends with many travellers who we met there. In Granada the siesta is more widely enforced than anywhere else we've been to in Spain and soon we got used to the essential afternoon nap as well. We did a free walking tour of Albayzin and Sacromonte and got to know many interesting things about Granada's past thanks to our crazy Aussie guide, Sol. We climbed to a lookout in Abayzin to watch the sunset hitting the Alhambra beautifully and ended the tour at a cave restaurant in Sacromonte for Sangria. Granada has a great Flamenco tradition especially in Sacromonte and as we walked back into town we could hear many cave houses and restaurants alive with its gipsy like songs and frenzied clapping.

The next day we had lunch at a fantastic restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet which had a mix of Lebanese and Moroccan cuisine. We stopped by for some Turkish apple tea on the way back and came back to the hostel for some essential rest at the hottest time of the day. The hostel had cheap dinners on some nights and we stayed in for dinner on several occasions to enjoy Paella and Spanish omelette thanks to Manuel.

On our last day we visited Alhambra with its many palaces, gardens, military compound and towers. That same night we went back to see a special Flamenco show that came highly recommended by all the locals we had met thus far. The Alhambra has a great open air theatre in one of its gardens where many artists have performed over the years and we felt very lucky to see something there. The show was a theatrical Flamenco dance show with a cast of about 25 to 30 with many dancers, singers and musicians. The costumes were dazzling and the skill of all the dancers were breathtaking. It was a fantastic experience to see Flamenco under the starry night with the Alhambra beautifully lit as its backdrop. The show and our time in Granada as a whole is something I will cherish forever and will not soon forget.

Madrid

Everyone whose been the Madrid has described it in very unflattering terms so I had low expectations of the place. However, I was pleasantly surprised to like the city in the end. We stayed in a huge hostel in Madrid and were unfortunate enough to stay in an eight bed dorm full of Italian boys who wondered in at all hours of the night and made a ruckuss each time. So suffice it to say we didnt get much sleep there.

We did a walking tour run by the tourist office of the old Madrid and learned much about the city. As there was only one other person on the tour (a lady called Helen from Perth) it was like having our own tour guide. We made friends with Helen and went for hot chocolate and churros(deep fried bread stick things) afterwards and she invited us to come and stay with her if we are ever in Perth. She also told us about her cousin who lives near the Spanish/Portuguese border and runs an organic farm that takes in WWOOFers. We had finally found a place to WWOOF but since we had booked the rest of our days in August we couldnt accept the offer. Afterwards Pramo got a hair cut at the oldest barber shop in Europe much to his delight as his hair was starting to look much like an afro and annoy him to no end.

We visited the Prado museum in Madrid with its sizeable collection of European Art. The museum was well organised and housed in a beautiful building so we really enjoyed our time there. Afterwards we went and chilled out at the Parque del Retiro (Park of the Retreat) for a while and watched people paddling about in the man made lake.

Coincidently one of the people we met in our hostel in Barcelona (Dhileep) also happen to stay at our Madrid hostel and we had the biggest shock to see him in the room next to us when we happen to go by. That night we spent walking around Madrid and showing him some of the places we've seen and visited so far.

Madrid is a big party city and people start the day very late with lunch at about 2-3pm and dinner at 9-10pm and then partying till the wee hours of the morning everyday of the week. Apparently some people try to live the Madridian party life and do a 9-5 job but end up burnt out very quickly. Our tour guide told us that there were more bars per capita than any other European city in Madrid and the young and old alike tend to bar hop with their friends all night long. So if you like to party head to Madrid!