Tram 28 Traffic Jam

I stumbled back last night from another trip overseas with students, this time the spin through Spain and Portugal that was part of my Aesthetic Expression course.  It was an extraordinary adventure, and I'll have much more to say about it in the following weeks.  However, I'm both dramatically behind in grading and also insanely tired.  After stumbling off the bus last night I walked to my friend Craig's house for a Grey Cup party.  After a couple hours, two plates of poutine, and exactly one beer, I was having trouble forming logical sentences.  At one point I said something and realized that everyone was staring at me; at that point I just said, "look, I have no idea what I'm saying," and I tried to focus on the game (which, by the way, was really exciting, and no one but Andy Burkhardt could have predicted that the REDBLACKS were going to win).  Anyway, so I'm way too tired to do much serious blogging, so I'll just post a few pictures.  On the last day in Lisbon I bought Mike and Kelly and the students 24 hour Metro cards and set them loose on the famous Tram 28.  Everyone managed to maneuver around successfully; well, almost everyone.  At the far end of the line I hopped off to visit my favorite cemetery (more on that later), which left me, a couple hours later, the last one of the group out and about on the Metro.  I was having a great trip until I hit a big traffic jam.  A little mini-Cooper, which I think I could have put in my pocket and carried home, broke down, which threw everything into chaos.  Trams are great, but if something breaks down then it's not as if they can pull around the accident.  Eventually I just hopped out and walked down the hill, which was easy and a lovely adventure in its own right.

I volunteered to help push the car up on the sidewalk, but the driver was having none of it.  Not sure why.

And here's my 28 Tram car, with another tram slowly sliding past.  You can't see the other trams queued up in the back.

However, all things considered, there are a hell of a lot worse places to be stuck in a traffic jam.