If you've been here before, you'll notice things look a bit different! I rebuilt the whole design from scratch — cleaner layout, better typography and a proper dark mode. I did the same for my personal site last week and it was about time the blog got the same treatment.

The old design had been running for almost ten years on Skeleton CSS with a dark mode toggle bolted on and a lot of custom CSS piled up over the years. It worked, but it was getting messy and hard to maintain.

The site was already on Astro, so the heavy lifting was really just the design layer: I replaced all the old CSS with Tailwind CSS v3 and a proper light/dark colour token system, so switching themes is now just a single class on the html element with no annoying flash on load.

The content stays the same though — hope you enjoy the new look!

As I mentioned in my last post, a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the Valencian city of Alicante. One of the most interesting experiences during this trip was spending a day on Tabarca Island, located just an hour's ferry ride from Alicante (the journey can tak only 20 minutes from the town of Santa Pola).

The island is tiny but incredibly beautiful. It has been declared a marine reserve due to its diverse aquatic life and is surrounded by stunning, crystal-clear blue waters. One of the activities I enjoyed during this visit was walking from the port through the small town to the end of the main street, which leads to "Porta de la Trancada" (Trancada Gate).

There, I stored my clothes, put on my goggles, and easily spent an hour exploring the various fish species that can be observed, as well as swimming to the "Ilot de la Cantera" (Quarry Islet) where, at that moment, there was absolutely no one else around. I have a beautiful memory of being in this amazing place, enveloped by total peace.

Later in the day, I wandered through the town, crisscrossing its narrow streets until I stumbled upon a truly authentic restaurant. There, I enjoyed the 'Menu del Día,' which included a fresh salad, crispy fried sardines and shrimp, followed by an authentic Valencian paella. The meal was so satisfying, it kept me full for the rest of the day!

Frankly, I'm very eager to return there someday.

The Castle of Santa Bárbara in Alicante is a historic fortress located on Mount Benacantil, a hill overlooking the city and the Mediterranean Sea. Today, it is one of Alicante’s most prominent landmarks and a popular tourist destination.

A couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to visit this interesting place. There are different ways to reach the castle, including taking an elevator, but I decided to walk all the way up. I passed through the beautiful ancient neighborhood of Santa Cruz, with its picturesque houses, then crossed the Parc de l'Ereta, and finally reached the castle. This huge complex is quite fascinating, offering plenty of information about its origins, significance, and successive renovations, destruction, and restoration. I spent a couple of hours exploring the castle, and it was totally worth it.

A couple of days ago when I was coming back from work and I was arriving to the picturesque city where I live, I started to think: What would happen if I told one of the AI tools to paint this place using the impressionist technique, and then told it to describe it? Well here is the result of this experiment:

"In an impressionist painting of the Swiss town of Morges, we are transported to a tranquil and picturesque scene next to the pier of Lake Geneva. The essence of the Impressionist style is to capture the fleeting moment, the play of light and color, and the atmospheric ambiance. In this particular painting, the artist has masterfully conveyed these elements.

The canvas is alive with vibrant, dappled colors that dance across the scene. The shimmering waters of Lake Geneva, in soft shades of blues and greens, extend toward the horizon, creating a reflective surface that mirrors the world above. The surface of the lake is beautifully textured with strokes of various shades, conveying the rippling movement of the water..."

This is just an excerpt, because then the machine started to describe parts of Morges that are not in the painting, but still this visual and textual test was quite interesting.

This morning when the sleepy town of Cubelles was starting to come to life and I went for walk in the fresh morning, I was lucky enough to experience this amazing view, while the first rays of sunlight started to pierce through the thin veil of clouds, creating the very interesting picture you can see above.

Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the refugee crisis generated by tis war has been a major humanitarian challenge. Eurostats keep track on the data of people granted temporary protection across the Union. The latest data published by the agency shows that Germany has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than any other European Union country except Poland.

As of March 2023, there are over 1 million Ukrainian refugees in Germany. The majority of refugees are women and children, as Ukrainian men are banned from leaving the country based on the mobilization law in place.

Compared with the population of each EU member, the highest numbers of total registered refugees per thousand people in March 2023 were observed in Czechia (30.9%), Estonia (27.8%), Poland (25.9%), Lithuania (24.2%) and Bulgaria (22.5%).

You can find more information about this data on the Eurostat website.

These days I had the opportunity to visit the city of Cubelles, a catalan tourist town near Barcelona. I was very lucky to find an apartment very close to the beach and I have spent almost every day enjoying the sea, constantly refreshing myself.

But every time I watch the news I realize that I was lucky to spend my days there during the heat wave that is hitting Europe. There are roaring fires in many places in southern Europe, and on the other hand places where the summer is not particularly strong like the UK are experiencing record temperatures.

No comments. The Climate Change problem is already here :/

It has been 9 days since the beginning of the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian nation, which unfortunately has been catastrophic for this country. More than 1 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Poland and several Ukrainian cities have been heavily bombed.

At least all western countries have condemned in unison this unprovoked invasion and have uniformly applied sanctions against the Russian regime. Hopefully they will make it economically impossible to sustain this senseless war.

Slava Ukraini

Last night when I passed near the rathaus in Basel I found that a Ukrainian flag had been placed on the flagpole of this emblematic landmark. There was also a group of young people gathered in the square with peace signs and notices imploring an end to the unprovoked invasion of this European country. Sending my love and best wishes to all my ukranian friends.

An invasion is defined as 'an instance of invading a country or region with an armed force.' Ukraine has been an indendent country since the signing of the Belovezh Accords in 1991, that dissolved the Soviet Union. The news about the that the Russian president has recognised the independence of two Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine, that call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and the subsequent incurssion of his military forces on this region of Ukraine, fits the definition of an invasion.

Diplomacy is always the preferred option to avoid a military conflict, but I feel bad for my Ukranian friends, because it seems that the conflict is already there :/, and the world should act accordingly.

The official FX Data from the bank of england site, shows the changes related to the whole Brexit process. Yesterday it was reported that MPs have voted overwhelmingly to hold Theresa May to her commitment to give them a vote on delaying Brexit if her withdrawal agreement fails to win a majority within the next two weeks.. It's interesting how everytime Brexit seems to be further away ... the better the British currency performs.

Today I was coming back from a quick bike sprint to the store to leave some PET bottles and buy a couple of things. When I was about to enter the key to open the garage door, I obseverved this nice nail moving slowly around the edge. Its shell was beautiful so I thought it was worth it to get the phone and shot a picture,

I didn't update this blog in the last week because we went with my GF to Tenerife and I decided to leave this computer back home to unplug for a while. We had a really amazing time in the biggest canary Island: The weather was warm but not scorching hot, the landscapes are really nice and quite different across the island, the seafood was so fresh and delicious and finally the people were extremely friendly. It was just great.

So of the highlights of the trip were (besides the stunning Teide you see in the picture above):

1- The nice town of La Otorava:

2- The picturesque town of San Andres where we stayed, and the nearby "Playa de las Teresitas":

3- Walking around in Santa Cruz:

4- The old town of Garachico and its natural rock swimming pools:

My old LAMP hosting is about to expire and I’m using that account only to host a travel blog of my career break two years ago called breaksian. This weekend I migrated the contents to a node platform and I took the opportunity to review and publish a post about a week I spend in Ko Lanta, Thailand. Quite an special place.