Welcome to my space. Here I'm allowing myself to whisper and ramble and scream out loud. If you're here to listen, welcome.
“…The sheer excitement of time spent together that made this weekend so wonderful, and Cincy was just the lucky pick that offered us a wonderful backdrop.”
The most magical part of traveling is experiencing the geography and culture of a place far different from that of your own home. In the attempt to capture this magic, we rented a really fancy car (for extra aesthetic) and drove up the Portuguese coast along the ocean. Big happenings.
Eating like this made the 3-course meal customary at American restaurants feel silly and wasteful. Not only because I was eating so much, but I was eating so much of the same thing. Why have one massive dish of pasta when you can sample tuna bitoque, croquettes, and bacalhau all in one night? Don’t know, couldn’t tell you.
Café lined streets like Paris, piazzas like those in Florence, a street trolley, and winding, steep streets like San Francisco. But when you take a historical step back to realize that Lisbon preceded all of these metropolises by a solid portion you start to surmise that perhaps all of these great cities took their cues from Lisbon to begin with.
Apparently, there’s no greater mirror to peer into than the honest opinions of those you spend the most time with. Life for me has at times been a hell storm because of how narrowly I defined and then meticulously followed the scheme for my success. The right college, the right relationship, the right job – all defined within an inch of their lives.
Even so, it’s not so much a dissatisfaction with the present as incredible anticipation for the future. Walking up that escalator the wrong way for the last three years has to be worth something, like a little agency to step off every once in a while, or at least some better calves. I think the Nadia coming up soon is nipping at the heels of the woman Giovanni writes about, though. Indeed, I’m about to turn myself into myself.
Philadephia itself is great too, though. I love it for its history and architecture and atmosphere - like a more rugged version of my beloved D.C. - but I love it most for its hot pastrami sandwiches down on 4th street.
