Exhausted in Lisbon

 I was just talking about my recent trip to Portugal, which was, as with all trips to Portugal, wonderful. Still, it was also an exhausting venture. I was hoping to discover many things in advance of next March's proposed student trip, but one of them, truthfully, was whether or not I could hold up under the physical strain. It wasn't that long ago that I had to be wheeled through the Istanbul airport in a wheelchair, and, beyond the humiliation of it (in my arrogant and foolish mind) there's also the question of whether or not I can carry out my responsibilities on the trip. So, with all that in mind, I definitely pushed myself on the trip, walking miles every day. It wasn't always graceful, and I was definitely in a bad way at the end of the day, but I did manage to push through. One day in particular I had visited two museums - the tile museum (more on that later) and the Fado museum - and I walked back to the city center from the latter. I was definitely dragging as I approached the tumult that is the center of Lisbon. When you walk through that area you inevitably get a lot of folks at the various restaurants trying to get you to drop in and grab something to eat and drink at their establishment; not in a bad way - Portugal is not India or Zanzibar - but mainly in a friendly fashion. Almost always I thank them for their kind offer and more along. However, at that particular moment I was definitely running on fumes, so I plopped down at a local place. Naturally, I was not disappointed.

A very Portuguese treat.

Also very Portuguese: the complimentary ginja as a thank you for stopping in. I'm sure my decrepit state didn't hurt.