merry-go-round delight

Mushy travelers brain. For seven months all my friend has had to worry about is what to eat, where to sleep, what sights to see, where to travel to next. I have only been travelling for two months but I fear the condition is contagious. After a night of no sleep on the seedy overnight bus trip from Seville it appears as though the symptoms have intensified. Feeling like a space cadet myself I am finding nonsensical conversations we have quite fun. We get lost and then find ourselves in a church being led into the crypt by a little old nun. No idea what to expect we are faced with a cabinet filled with hundreds of tiny figurines. We find another old school tram, head the other direction and decide the best option is clearly to stop at a look out area and drink beer in the Lisbon sun. We wander through a flea market and have a burger and chips in a little café, again with an amazing view over the whitewash and orange-tiled houses and the water in the distance. Oh the sea.

So far the food is good…good until we try the local cuisine. I go for the grilled fish, which is served with a few boiled potatoes and salad and tastes pretty good if not a little plain. Claire orders the salted cod, a specialty. A specialty for your cat perhaps. But what Lisbon lacks in culinary delights it certainly makes up for in charm. The steep hills with old school trams running up and down all day; the craft markets and flea markets; its houses, its parks; and one the weekend streets crammed with little bars and people spilling out onto the pavers.

This merry-go-round…this mini-overseas adventure… it has suddenly picked up pace. A few nights here, a few nights there - a new town for but a night - a night time bus trip, another country - a plane flight, a new city. Round and round and round it goes and each circle is just as fun and colourful and exciting as the last. I do love a good merry-go-round.