I’ve not made any New Year’s Resolutions for 2016. It’s just not my thing. I’m 100% behind making plans, though, all year. It’s a more natural process than everyone crowding at a starting line of January 1 since it is not a competition, after all. It’s your plan: you can start, finish, change, or stop it at will.
As a relative newcomer to Porto and to Portugal, part of my life plan here is the same as it’s been everywhere I’ve lived: explore, photograph, learn, share.
In the two years plus a few months I’ve lived here, I’ve dedicated much time to exploring, learning, photographing, and sharing. But I knew from the start that an entire lifetime devoted to the city would still leave plenty to discover. Porto is an ancient city with deep secrets and layers of stories.
Since returning from the far side of Canada, I’ve been formulating winter plans to reach some corners of the city I have not yet covered, myself. One of them is climbing all 240 steps (6 floors) of the 18th century Baroque-style Clérigos Tower on a sunny day. I have umpteen photographs of this church and tower, but the queues have put me off going up there. There’s really no excuse in winter, it’s nowhere near as busy.
I’m not usually one to divulge plans, I typically just fulfill them and talk about them later. But these are very simple ones and I should be able to photograph them all by the end of winter:
- Palácio da Bolsa
- Porto’s medieval wall (what’s left of it, anyways)
- at least three more port wine lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia (one per winter month?)
- the Porto Botanical Garden
Not a full list by any means, but a good start!
December 11, 2015
Album: Portugal [Autumn 2015]
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