Lisbon

The month in Portugal, was breathtaking, relaxing and claustrophobic in equal measure and I will write about it more briefly as I want to be reporting on our travels as they happen and am anxious to move on to Morocco (where we are currently).

It felt familiar but sad to be seeing the end of summer and finally feeling the cold more consistently, for really the first time on our trip.

This is the first month that I really start to feel a bit tired and life feels more like it might at home, with the same familiar patterns, even though they are not the patterns of home.

Our family dysfunction has become an accepted part of the trip, although that doesn’t stop Roger or me from totally losing our grip from time to time.

We read about the Tromp family from Australia who have gone missing and it is suggested that they have  a rare psychiatric condition known as folie à deux, a French term meaning “madness of two” which almost always occurs in close-knit families.

The syndrome can be shared by more than two people —folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs — which translates as “madness of many” and sufferers fall into a cycle of reinforcing each other’s delusions. I wonder if this might also be our diagnosis were we to see a professional!

The irony of Portugal is that we are followed by a strange fog for much of our trip.

Lisbon 20^th-25^th August

Arriving in Lisbon feels like coming back to a familiar place. The climate and the light feel similar to home and we get a ride to Bario Alto where we are staying, with a lovely taxi driver who gives us a history run-down as we drive. The airbnb that we are renting is quirky and central, on a street filled with cafes and Fado restaurants.

It is one of the homeliest places we have stayed and we are able to relax and catch up on school work and communication.

After the urgency of sightseeing in Rome and Venice, we are happy to see less and just wander the streets, which we do often during our five-day stay.

Lisbon is a wonderful city where I could happily live if need be (as long as it was in a historic apartment with a tile-covered exterior). The neighbourhood rituals of standing (there is no seating) in a narrow café that serves only small baked custard pies called Pasteis de Nata and espresso, reminds me of the rituals we have at home.

Lisbon has beautiful parks and squares and the buildings are mostly photo-worthy and there is always something happening just outside the door. We spend more than half a day riding the historic tram back and forth, thinking that it takes a circular route. Our first two trips are from our house about 1km in the wrong direction, where everyone is made to disembark, and back on another tram which ends where we first started. In the end we walk.