Holiday in Portugal - long way home

As pretty much every year, I went on summer holiday to Portugal, where part of my family is and my parents have a house.

Like most Luso-descendants, I have a great love for Portugal. I always look forward to spending some time in this beautiful country and discovering a bit more of my roots.

Unlike my parents, I have given up driving the 2000 km to get there already a few years ago and prefer to take the plane. It's far less tiring and less of a hassle.

There are, however, unforseen events, like the 1.5 hour delay I was announced when I checked in my luggage. Bummer.

It was a great occasion to start the Stillman & Birn sketchbook I got from Stephanie Bower, though. My goal was to fill it during my vacation, so with so much time on my hands, I started with scenes from the airport.

I don't know about other sketchers, but the first few drawings in a new sketchbook are usually a bit disappointing, so I'm only posting a small selection here.

Lines of people checking their phones before boarding the plane

I changed seats a couple of times, looking for something or someone interesting to sketch. I ended up sitting in front of an elderly French couple who were very conveniently distracted by their book and phone.

He had a very sketchable face

Below you can see their feet. I love making the occasional sketch of what I see when I look down.

Like my new trousers?

I used to prefer to sit by the window on the plane, but lately I have realised that the "sketchable view" is actually less interesting there. This time I was sitting by the alley, with a great view of a man playing Tetris. 

As I was sketching him, I kept looking at his game and feeling gradually nervous for him. He kept arriving perilously close to losing, but then always seemed to manage to get back at a safer level.

I was almost as engrossed in watching him play as I was in sketching him. I never thought it could be interesting to watch someone else play Tetris.

His Tetris skills were impressive

When I arrived in Lisbon, I had the luxury of finding my family waiting for me to take me to our second home. Here is a sketch of the back view of the house, the one in the patio.

The ghosts of laundries past

My mother chose to hang the laundry halfway through my sketch, which slightly annoying at first, but a happy accident in the end. Home sweet home indeed.