Abrogado Porto. Abrogado Lisboa.

A tale of two cites

We woke up early today, our last day in Porto. It is a beautiful city, with its old stone roads and stone stairs and fresh graffiti. Graffiti is everywhere in Europe. It is the people’s art in many ways. I am of two minds on graffiti, as it mars the natural beauty, but there is quite a lot of very vibrant and interesting graffiti. We wanted to get some steps in first thing, so we walked from the apartment to where we heard roosters. We did not see any roosters, but I did have chicken and waffles for breakfast with Mac and Cheese. In Porto.

It was a place called Swallow, if you ever visit. Our host was from Montreal, originally from Ottawa. Small world indeed. He said the whole town was cleaned up about 10 years ago with either election of a new mayor. Before there was lots of crime and open drug addiction (sound familiar?) I have yet to find out what the Policies were that led to the rehabilitation, but will keep looking.

Originally our plan was to take the train to Lisbon, but after 90 minutes of trying without success to book online, we ended up flying. Although it was a short flight, all the normal safety protocols were observed. When I say normal, I mean the idiosyncratic rules that each and every airport and country deems to be important.

Lisbon, or Lisboa as the natives call it, is very different than Porto. And both Lisbon and Porto are completely different than London, which is, of course, completely different than Vancouver.

First, different languages.

Second, different currencies and cultures.

Third, they all have Burger King and McDonalds, putting the lowest back in Lowest Common Denominator.

Other differences, Vancouver has more nail bars. And Asian restaurants. Lisbon has ceramics and fabric shops. London has pubs. Lisbon has British and Irish pubs.

London pubs close at midnight. Vancouver pubs close at either 12, 2 or 3. No one knows why. Something to do with Expo, Roger Gibson, No Fun City vs Anti-No Fun City.

We know that No Fun is Surrey’s Beatles, even though they now live in Vancouver, not Surrey. There is a Surrey in the UK. No one from Surrey has been to Portugal. Well, that is most obviously untrue. If Portugal had a Little League championship, Surrey, or Whalley, to be more precise would certainly be there, as they turn out some good baseball players in Surrey, er Whalley.

I will tell you all about my illustrious Little League career another time.

It is very sad.

Someone stole all the candy money, I was beaned in the forehead on day one of practice, my team won two games out of thirty over two years, and I sat on the bench.

There is more, but I must prepare for our trip to the beach at Caiscis tomorrow.

That is pronounced Cash-Kish, which is what drunk people all the world ask for, or offer, or pay for at the end of the night. A kish for cash.