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This is the first plane I've taken after the September 11 attacks. At the airport, honestly, I didn't find this great deployment of security forces. All the operations took place in the usual times and with the usual checks! I was expecting more thorough, more detailed and serious checks! Despite everything, I admit I was a bit afraid, now and then I cast a quick glance at the faces of the other passengers to scan for any suspicious face, but the initial racing heart soon turns into a quiet nap!

20. 12. 2001 Canedo (PORTUGAL)

At the "Sà Carneiro" Airport in Oporto, while I wait for my suitcase to arrive, I hear someone calling me. It was Bruno Melo, now working there as an architect since they're building a second wing of the airport. He had heard I was coming and gave me this nice surprise... We chatted a bit and had a drink waiting for Pedro in an airport bar. After dropping my suitcase at my friend's house we immediately head for the house of Florido, the father, who lives in Canedo, in a remote and cold countryside, for a typical Portuguese lunch.

22. 12. 2001 Maia (PORTUGAL)

With Pedro I went to Jorge's house where the two are working hard on recording their first album. They asked me to collaborate; basically I should write a part in Italian and rap it to include it on their CD. We'll see! [Pedro Daniel Aguiar Lopes from Oporto, Portugal]: Hey Mark, we're having the same problems as last year... We don't have exciting things to do in the evening. I hope you won't get bored, try to understand that I'm not a good "night guide!" Pedro worrying about whether I'm enjoying myself or not, but he doesn't understand that I come here above all to spend some time with him, my great friend; even just chatting is pleasant for me!

23. 12. 2001 Oporto (PORTUGAL)

Around two in the morning I went with Veronica (Pedro's sister) and Rui (her boyfriend) to a nightclub on the Riberinha, there were lots of snobbish people and so far so good... but they were all thirty-somethings! What a bore! But I meet an interesting girl named Sara with whom I spend the whole evening/night chatting. Around 4.30 they decide to change nightclub but Sara invites me to have a drink at her house. She's a very sensitive girl and she starts telling me her whole life... Around 7.30 Veronica and Rui come to pick me up but she insists that I stay longer.... An hour later Kiko arrives half-drunk, stays a bit and then leaves... In the end, it was around 14.30 when Pedro comes to collect me. I was completely exhausted, I hadn't slept in two days in the true sense of the word... Lunch at home and I go to sleep, waking up during the night of the following day...

I get up and we start recording the first of my songs, I noticed it's much harder than I expected! We worked for almost three and a half hours and didn't even finish one track.

24. 12. 2001 Lavra (PORTUGAL)

Merry Christmas! This Christmas was different from the last two. It went by like any other day of the year, maybe because there were few of us, maybe because the more time passes the less the holidays enthuse me, maybe because they don't set off fireworks here, I don't know, I only know that it was an ordinary day! Around 19:00 we went to have something to eat at McDonald's, how sad! We were the only ones there... Of course, eating just before the big Christmas dinner... At midnight anyway the sweet Veronica comes dressed as "Mother Christmas" and brings lots of gifts for everyone! They were so sweet. Everyone gave me a little something! Around half past one, tired, I go to bed when Veronica comes to call me, she needs a hand opening a jar of hot dogs...

And so there we are, at two in the morning, after the Christmas dinner, still sitting at the table dealing with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise...

26. 12. 2001 Lavra (PORTUGAL)

[Sara Filipa Losa De Oliveira Romao De Castro from Oporto, Portugal]: Falei com Deus e ele disse-me que choven no dia que nasceste, mas nao era chuva, era o ceu a chorar por ter perdido a sua estrela mais linda! Tonight Pedro and I talked until 3.30, an open-hearted chat on both sides! How I wish both he and Ofelia lived in Italy... 28. 12. 2001 Lavra (PORTUGAL) Today, after lunch, the nice Rui and Veronica left for the Serra da Estrela, where they'll spend New Year's Eve and from there set off again for Alentejo, where they live, in the south of Portugal. But no problem, the house has already filled up again with the arrival of Eduarda (Pedro's girlfriend) and her sister Maria Joao. Walking in the centre of Oporto I noticed that a characteristic of this nation is in a sense its being cosmopolitan thanks to its former colonies.

You see lots of people with almond-shaped eyes (maybe those from the island of Macau), black people (Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau) and mixed-race people (Brazil, Guyana)! And of course, besides their own traditions, they also export their products and so you see lots of Chinese restaurants, tropical fruit, African vegetables etc.

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