Portugal is a bit overlooked due to its larger more dominant
neighbor Spain. The people here are very proud of their
illustrious past and are benefiting from membership in the European
Union as the infrastructure of the country improves, etc. Lisbon
is a hard city to describe. Somehow it is very European but at
the same time doesn't feel like London, Paris, etc. Our first day
here Osa wandered into some clothes store I have never heard of but
somehow she knew they sometimes had "great clothes". (I'm not
sure where it is but there is clearly a global network of clothes
shoppers that every woman I know is a member of.) Anyway, so I'm
killing time wandering among racks of women's clothes wishing the store
had the decency to place a "husband" chair somewhere when I notice a
whole section of the first floor made of glass. When I say
"floor" I mean it. The thing you walk on was clear glass and
underneath it was an excavation site with no plaque or labels to
explain anything. Nobody even bothered to look down until they
saw me doing it and then acted like there was nothing to see. I
had to ask a security guard what it was. Turns out there are
Roman ruins of a salting house where they preserved fish under the
store. That seems to be typical here. If you throw a rock
in a random direction you will probably hit something of historical
significance .
Lisbon did not leave us with any strong and memorable impressions other
than a somewhat dour group of people ( I had to think really hard to
come up with an appropriate word!). Perhaps it is a lingering regret of
what once used to be a significant nation......
previous travel blog entry
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