The Next Trip: Portugal (and a little bit of Dublin)

It's been nearly a year since I've posted.  All that means is that I haven't left the country.  It's probably been the longest that's been the case in 20 years.  So it was about time.   As I write this, I am in a lounge in the Dublin airport on our way to Lisbon, Portugal.  I'm traveling this time with Ann, an old MIT friend.   You'll see a picture of her eventually.

This is a particularly wild trip.  We'll be spending 3-4 days in LIsbon and 3-4 days in Porto with a day in Sintra, a small suburb of Lisbon known for its castles.   While everything in terms of transportation and hotels is already organized, what we will see is still up in the air.  I'm looking forward to the food.  This is my first time to Portugal and I don't have a grasp on what's good there.

I had a seven-hour layover in Dublin but between jet lag and whatnot, it was at the edge of going out into town.  There was a little bit of a snafu, too -- if you end up in the departure gates, you can't leave after that.  So Ann was already there so she couldn't go out.  That just left us with the lounge to kill time.  For me, that's fine since I have 22 hours and a night in Dublin on the way back.

I'll also try to resurrect my Instagram account (@nitinkasturi) for this trip.  It was actually hacked since my last trip but I got it fixed... I think.  I'm trying something new for this trip.  I didn't bring my DSLR camera; instead, I'm going to just try using my Google Pixel phone only.  It'll be nice to travel without being encumbered with a lot of things.  We're also staying at AirBNB places, so we'll have access to washers and dryers.  

Another two hours to kill now before our flight.  It'll be nice and warm in Lisbon, so I'm looking forward to that.  More later from Portugal!