Back in town!!!

Brother of Artist
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I travelled back to Coimbra and got a shock in the difference in Life. Where last time it was touristy and ghost like now it is a party town. Well it was for the first few days. I arrived back just in time for fresher's week! Yay!!!! Good timing. Paula had moved to a sub-apartment near the University. And she gets free wireless broadband. Anyway, the square is only a few minutes away so this means that the noise is not far away either. Good cheer and friendly bottle breaking were abound.

Amid the screaming banshee wailing and drunken sailor yelling (no, no sailors were involved, just students) I started an old habit of painting again. It's a terrible affliction akin to bitng your nails or burping in public, but I hung around the seedy art sections of Coimbra trying to blend into the shadows. Eventually I worked up the courage to buy a brush. A size 4 with a flat head. I tried not too but I got hooked. I went back the next day and bought more brushes, a 3, 5, 7, 8 and then I risked it all and got paint!!!! Van Gogh Oil. Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue. Very wrong of me. And then the ultimate transgression......I bought canvas. Lots of canvas'. So far I've painted five pictures. None of them very good but Vincent didn't start painting until he was 27 so I believe I've got a year or so on him. Time to get good I suppose.

Students. Lots of students!

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Other then painting I've drunk a lot more then last time and visted a nearby town called Avieroa. A very pretty seaside town with a very religious (the country being very Catholic) but also beautiful Museum. I'll add some photos soon. But most towns are beautiful here. Everywhere we go seem to flaunt the calming yellow buildings with dark tan tiled roofs. A 17th centuary Spanish or Italian feel surrounds the architecture here. I'm probably wrong about that but as I said it's just a feeling.