Bunking in Coimbra

 I'll get caught up on the Portugal trip - both this one and the previous one, for that matter - down the road, although it might not happen until fall. I don't know why I'm posting this picture, but for some reason I found it interesting. This was the bed of  the Airbnb where I stayed in Coimbra. The woman I rented it from was, I think, the kindest person I've ever dealt with in my Airbnb experience. Of course, she was actually the only one that I've ever met in person. She went out of her way to meet me, get me settled, and spent a goodly amount of time waling me through the town on a map, including pointing out restaurants and shops. It was greatly appreciated. The space was very tiny, even by European standards. And at a certain point it reminded me of one of a pied-a-terre that you'd see referenced in a Milan Kundera novel, one of those little apartments whose soul purpose is to service affairs. Mainly, the space is a bed, with enough of a kitchen to make a post-coital cup of tea. Obviously, it made me feel quite sophisticated. Of course, it also gets out the question of how much space we actually need. Americans, as part of our slavish devotion to our own mythology, own way too much, which, obviously, comes to own you. I think if I were younger, and thus out and about more, that would just be about enough space for me.