So, let's talk about Lisbon.

After our Spain trip, we had to return here to wrap up a few things, and get our stuff out of storage. Because our life was total chaos, we actually did surprisingly little touristy stuff while "living" here - I think we went out a day or two at most. But coming back gives me a complicated feeling. This place put me through hell, so part of me wants to never see it again. Ella was of the opinion if we lived here, we might as well see the city. I knew she was right, and I'd regret it if I didn't see anything - Lisbon isn't a big tourist destination for nothing, after all.

And we can start by introducing maybe the most touristy area, the Alfama district where we used to live. As I overheard from a tour guide once, its name is actually Arabic, which means "hot spring". (I looked as hard as I could, but the last hot spring here closed in the 70s - too bad). But I can believe it. Lisbon is a hilly city overall, but this district and the surrounding ones are particularly so. According to one random person the internet (so you know it's reliable), there is still hot water underground, but isn't commercially viable to extract. I would say, you don't have enough Taiwanese or Japanese living here then. Tell them there's natural hot spring water below their feet, you'll have a bathhouse open in no time. Alfama is the oldest part of the city, and Lisbon itself is one of the oldest cities in the world. So there is no sort of rhyme or reason to the roads, because they were probably laid out long before the USA even existed. They wander wherever they want, and are small even by European standards. Most of the "big" roads are one-way out of necessity, and probably 80% of the "roads" are narrow alleys that even a bike barely fits in. The rest of Lisbon isn't really like this. As my understanding, Lisbon had a big earthquake about 200 years ago, which pretty much wiped out the city - except Alfama. Hooray! Lisbon still gets earthquakes now and then, but nothing serious. Plus, building codes have made just a little bit of progress. I guess this narrow maze of alleys and unique look are why it's popular with tourists. The streets are cobblestone, so when we lived here, we would regularly hear the click-click of rolling suitcases down the street.

But you know I gotta talk about transport - our place was about 5 minutes walk to the old train station called Santa Apolonia - kind of like Hua Lamphong for my Thai folks. It's still used a lot, and you can get pretty much anywhere in Portugal within a few hours. For trains to Spain and beyond, you need to go two stops up the track to the shiny new station, literally 5 minutes. Santa Apolonia is also the terminal for a metro line, and in general, it's fast to get around the city. Many of the interesting spots are on this (blue) line or the green line, which is an easy transfer. Actually all the metro stops are quite close, sometimes only a few hundred meters. So we've actually been doing a lot of walking, because some of the other cool hangout areas are only about 20 minutes away.

Speaking of hills, the other method of transport in Alfama is the tram system. I really like these, as they haven't changed in a hundred years - kind of like the ding dings in Hong Kong. Locals use them probably just as much as tourists, cause when they go by you can see a very bored salaryman playing on his phone, while all you see next to the back window is a sea of cameras. They are pretty iconic, being made of wood, and zipping through the small alleys. They've become sort of the symbol of the city, and they're commonly featured on T-shirts, mugs, etc.. They're actually a lot of fun to ride, banking back and forth, rising up and down, sort of like a budget roller coaster. Still, I think Lisbon is pretty blessed for transit. The downtown core is quite compact, so often times it's faster to walk than to use the metro.

When we arrived, it was pretty late (or dinner time, if you ask the locals). We just ate dinner and went to bed, and planned on going out the next day. But actually, Ella wasn't feeling well, and we were tired from traveling all over, so we stayed in the next day too. And the following day we got our stuff from storage and did a bunch of errands, basically "closing out" our life there. Now that that was all done, it happened to be the first weekend of the month, which is when a lot of tourist places in Lisbon have free hours. We sat down to plan out a strategy in order to see the most free things we could, so here's what we came up with. I'll keep it down to just a picture or two each, but there are a lot more on Facebook.

Medeiros and Almeida Museum: Basically a Victorian (but not because I don't know enough about Portuguese history) era home that some rich doctor lived in. He must have been lonely, because this place was huge, the size of a museum itself. This was surprisingly cool, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Everything was very beautiful, and there was even a room indoors with a fountain and Italian marble statues. Also a very amazing collection of clocks, because why not. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. 10/10

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum: This is apparently a quite prestigious art museum, closed for renovation. However they moved a lot of things into a temporary gallery that opened just after we left, so that was fortunate timing. Also I think a rich guy's private collection, I saw some art done by several of the Ninja Turtles. It was only a small collection, but overall kind of nice. They also had a modern art exhibit which was so weird and creepy I didn't want to take a single photo. Basically, it was architecture where parts of it had been cut away to reveal like, muscle fibers or organs underneath. I'll put a photo of the most tame part, as the rest was just gross. The classical art, 7/10. Modern art stuff, 0/10.

The Pepper Palace: A mix of a lot of soso things with some really impressive things. I didn't dislike it, it did have some really cool photo ops. The rest of the museum was kind of soso. They had a lot of peacocks in the yard, and a 50 cent coffee, which was pretty great. 6/10.

Lisbon Military Museum: We actually lived around the corner from this place, but, you know, life, chaos. An old barracks, I was surprised to find out there is still a military presence there, so some parts are off limits. It started out kind of interesting, with a bunch if cannons. But then for some reason, the upstairs is like a French palace. Ella remarked that this place actually was more pretty than the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris, which is more of a dig at how underwhelming we found that place compared to here. Still, it was surprisingly cool, and they had some really impressive things there. 9/10

Prazeres Cemetery: Perhaps an unconventional pick, but sort of nice. Ella really likes churchy architecture, a cemetery is full of little examples of it. These are more like small tombs (mausoleums?) than grave stones, so it was interesting to see the different styles. But it didn't really do it for me, the only thing I appreciated was benches of cats and the great view of the Lisbon bridge. 3/10

Basilica of Estrela: Of course there's a church. Being a basilica, it was very impressive. Still, there wasn't much to do except to take a few photos and say "Yep, there it is." If we hadn't just come off of seeing some of the most beautiful churches in the world in Granada, I'd be more impressed. Still nice though. 5/10

The Geographic Society of Lisbon: Online I saw some amazing photos showing "mappy" things, which I couldn't pass up. We got some bad news when arriving though, as the door guy said they are closed for renovation. However, there is a library that is open to the public, and we could visit that if we came back after lunch. I was a little disappointed, but no problem, the library will have some interesting stuff. So we killed time by going to the world's largest Zara, while I inspected the quality of their sofas. Going back, the librarian was pretty much the nicest person in the world. She said they had a few things in the library, but the really cool stuff is in the museum. She said that she would call her colleague and see if she couldn't get us into the museum anyway. We insisted that we didn't want to trouble them, but she insisted right back. A few minutes later, she had us moving through the back hallways of this ancient building, to see some amazing globes and maps. 10/10

The Lisbon Cathedral: Another €5 cathedral, that according to websites should be free on that day, but for some reason wasn't. Ella went, and thought it was pretty good. Later she said you can just tell them you want to go in and pray, and they'll let you in for free - although that doesn't give you access to the museum parts. Based on her attitude, I'll say 6/10.

The Church of St. Dominic: Maybe the oldest looking church I've ever been to, at over 1000 years old. It almost looks like it was carved out of a cave, I suspect from the many centuries of wear and tear. It actually burned down, collapsed, and who knows what else. I really liked it here just because it looked so different from the other glitzy churches we've seen. Plus it was right in the city center. As far as churches go, it's a winner. 8/10

Dr. Anastacio Gonclaves House: What is it with doctors having really nice houses that are now museums? As far as I can tell, he was a doctor in the Ph.D way and not the medicine way, as he was an artist/architect that decorated a lot of this house himself. Overall just a nice old house that is more family sized. The lower levels were a lot of cramped hallways and small rooms, which made the large open studio on the top floor more amazing. The museum workers were EXTREMELY nice here, and had so much enthusiasm to explain everything and anything. One even asked us to come outside to the street so she could point out other buildings he designed. Normally 6/10, but the staff made it 8/10

Well, that just about covers it! The last night we got to spend some time with friends who used to live across the street from us. They made our crazy stay in Lisbon much more special, and honestly leaving them will be the hardest part. But with some wine down by the river and a few beers, it was a perfect way to end our time there, and our travels for now. I'm not really sure where we'll end up next, although Bangkok is certainly at the top of the list for now. It would be nice to get back to some place to stability after all of this, and Bangkok is as close as anything Ella and I have to home. Until then, bye Lisbon, bye Europe. We'll be back, but next time just as tourists.

I'm a big fan of Granada. It's probably my favorite Spanish city only behind Madrid, but that's because I'm pretty biased towards metros. It's a very walkable town, full of small alleys not unlike Tangier. Unlike Tangier they follow a mostly grid pattern, and are more lively, as the bars and restaurants expand their seating to cover as much as they can. There's actually a lot of Arab influence in Granada, with a sizable Muslim population and lots of the same kind of food we saw in Morocco (for 4x the price).

I think what really won me over about Granada is that they do tapas the way I thought all of Spain did - when you buy a drink, you get a snack. What I didn't expect is that the snack was massive. Like, we would buy a beer and get a whole charcuterie board to go along with it. I don't know how they make money, because a drink is between €2 and €3. It's like this town is encouraging you to get drunk, because 2 tapas are pretty much a meal for us. It's not just cold cuts and bread either, we got tapas of chicken curry, paella, mashed potatoes, tortillas (the Spanish egg kind), you name it. We'd also get some supermarket fruit or salad to have some semblance of nutrition, but along with a free breakfast from the hotel, our daily expenses were surprisingly low.

We spent 4 nights in Granada. Which I think was just about the right amount, because on our last day we didn't really have anything to do. We got to see an art museum of course, and a lovely garden. However the big tourist site in Granada is the Alhambra. It's a fort/palace from when the Moors controlled Spain, and is an extremely popular place to visit. Actually, it's the number one tourist attraction in all of Spain. However since we decided to go to Granada about 48 hours prior, we had no chance in hell to get these tickets that sell out months in advance. From the office they're €20, but of course scalpers have them for €50. 20 is already a lot in my opinion, but hey, maybe it's worth paying the extortionate price? So I watched a tour online to see. And a after watching a few videos, I came back with a strong "meh".

I mean, I can't say for sure, but I don't see what the fuss was about. It reminded me of a lot of palaces we saw in India and Morocco, and the fort part looked exactly like the one in Malaga. There were a handful of rooms that made me think "Actually I wouldn't mind seeing that." And later I learned about half of them were on the palace grounds, where you didn't need a ticket to visit. So I feel we got to see the highlights, as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't mind trying another "proper" visit someday, but I'm not in a rush.

But I think I know why Ella wanted to visit Granada, because it has so many churches and catholic-related art. We probably went to a dozen churches, and even I have to admit, they were pretty beautiful. I even got talked into paying €7 to visit the Granada Cathedral, and kind of wow. Other than The Vatican, I think this is the most impressive church that I've seen. But another church I was really impressed with was a random one we found while walking around, called the Parish of Mary Magdalene - very unassuming on the outside, but very beautiful on the inside. We had to check their schedule and catch the end of a mass, because they only open during services. I'll attach photos of that, and some of the monasteries we went to - although I sat out for a few while Ella got to explore by herself. I joined her to see Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, and yeah... I gotta admit, the chapel looks pretty amazing. It also is no longer an active church, so it was interesting to get to go up near the altar and look around. Actually, this seems like a good place to dump all the church photos, because some are very wow.

However, Granada wasn't all churches and copious amounts of wine. Sort of like how we were visiting Bali during an earthquake, we just so happened to be somewhere that became the center of intentional news. If you missed it, all of Spain and Portugal had a blackout, and it really was a blackout. Like, everything was out - no streetlights, no ATMs, even metros and trains stopped where they were. It happened just around lunch time, and of course everyone assumed it was some small glitch in this part of Granada. There was no internet, or even cell service, so all day we had no idea this affected the whole country. Eventually the news spread via word of mouth that this is actually a big deal. This was a little concerning, because suddenly you couldn't pay for anything by card. We hadn't visited the ATM in a while, and we didn't have much cash or know how long this would last. We took stock what we had and went to a store to buy a bunch of cheap bread and stuff, so at least we'd have something to eat for a few days. We managed to go early enough that the grocery still had their generator running, but only for the registers - that means it was a fire sale to empty out the refrigerated food before it spoiled. We scarfed down some bread along with a massive piece of brie cheese, putting us into a food coma. Ice cream shops also were selling everything for a steal, except for one very smart gelato shop that invested in a generator. We walked around town, and it had a good vibe to it - cops and volunteers were directing traffic when necessary, everyone was out on their balconies or in parks, and lots of people busted out the instruments. It's weird to think about, but the city sort of came more "alive".

With lights in the whole country out, I realized that this is actually a pretty amazing chance to go stargazing in the evening. There were a lot of buildings around us though, so we wanted to go to the park about 5 minutes away. That was an interesting experience. There was no moon, so it really was completely dark. It's sort of post-apocalyptic kind of mood to be going around a large city with no lights on. People were using their phone flashlight to navigate, and even more interesting, everyone started making noise to announce their presence. But once we got to the park we looked up, we saw more stars than I had seen in years. And we passed by that one gelato shop, with a line snaking out the door - generator still going strong, itself a bright star itself in a sea of darkness.

So in summary, Granada: beautiful art, cheap drinks, complimentary food, walkable city layout. A pretty great combination to me, and I'd love to come back, Alhambra or not. I'll finish with a lot more photos, because I really like it here.

Malaga... I like repeatedly saying that name, gradually becoming more unhinged each time: Malaaagaaa... MaaAaAalaarrrggghhaAAaa!!!

Ella LOVES this.

While I had heard of Malaga before, I certainly didn't know anything about it. We were kind of forced to stop here, because Tarifa is a small town without many connections to anywhere - and Malaga is the nearest big city. So I thought hey, let's spend at least a day there, and see what's around? On the bus I did some research - did you know Malaga is the capital of the Costa Del Sol region, which is a real thing and not something Final Fantasy 7 invented? Sadly no ferries to Junon were available, but there certainly were tourists and things to do. We quickly saw our one night wasn't going to cut it, and in the end we wound up staying for three. We knew Malaga was kind of a special place once we got to our hostel - in the distance we saw a cat on a windowsill, and wondered if it was some kind of art or a real cat. As we got closer, it gave a big meow, jumped down, and aggressively demanded pets. After a few minutes of running back and forth between us, its human opened the window and called him back inside. Off he went with a spring in his step, and our magical encounter was over. If we just turned around and went back to the station, Ella would rate this city 10/10 based solely on that. Yes we saw hundreds of cats in Tangier, but this was a "petty and meowy" cat. So we knew then we had to extend our visit to a few days at least.

Now with more time in Malaga, something on the list was to go out and see the beach. It had been a while since either of us had been at a proper beach (the Tangier ferry terminal doesn't count), so we weren't going to miss this opportunity. I'd say it was just okay. The sand is a bit rough, but you could certainly have a good time there - plenty of people were. I'm pretty spoiled though, because it's rare that any beach comes close to Thailand's. But I still like Malaga a lot more than Seville, as it's impeccably maintained and easy to navigate. I think it's a better looking city, and there's also a lot more energy, with countless bars and restaurants overflowing their tables into the alleys. They also like street art, and of course, so many churches. Maybe more churches per capita than any place we've been yet, Ella and I saw probably a dozen. I'll put a bunch at the end, but don't ask me where they're from - there's practically a church on every corner. But I gotta admit, they're pretty pretty. The cathedral costs 10 euros to go in, which I thought was a bit overpriced. Ella wanted to see it though, and she went in herself while I had a beer in the park. I'll let you ask her how it was, but the impression I got was more or less "Very pretty, but Seville's is better."

Actually funny story - while I was in the park, this group of British retirees sat next to me, so we had a chat. While we were talking, two people approached and tried to hand me a flower, saying "Free free!". Because I figured this may be a scam, and I am jaded and dead inside, I refused. But her partner had better luck convincing the retiree group before I could warn otherwise. Then they went into a spiel about how this flower is a symbol of etc etc, and asked for a donation to their whatever. Now I know why scammers do what they do, because amazingly it worked on the retiree group. One of them actually got their wallet and pulled out 10 euros - an already ridiculous amount for some little flowers. But as he was holding the wallet, the scammer saw a 20 euro note poking out, and fast as lightning, quickly snatched it, and holding it in front of the group saying "This, this!". Well, I give them credit for their bravery, but I think most wouldn't take kindly to a stranger pulling things out of their wallet. I kept an eye on everyone's bags while a big argument ensured, and then the retiree group forcefully returned the flowers. I can't say I'm surprised, but I think this is my golden rule of travel - if anyone approaches you to offer something, just refuse - it will never be a good deal for you.

I think there are two other spots in Malaga worth mentioning though, the first being the Malaga museum. I guess there isn't too much to say, but it has a lot of nice art in a building which is basically a royal palace. It was not crowded at all, and I think the building was at least as pretty as the art. Actually I find that I like Spanish art, or at least Andalusian art, more than others. Still, good museum. As discussed many times, I am not much of an art guy, although I do think it's worth the time to visit art museums. First, I came all this way, and these things are famous, so why not? And more importantly, Ella loves art, so I'm happy to see her happy. Still, I do get arted out, so I started a new game where I look at the paintings and think "How could I meme these later?" While I have a few, I'm quite proud of the one I'll include below. Ella absolutely adored this museum. I think she'd put it up there among her favorites in the world, and I'd say it's a contender. I liked the one in Seville more, but it is absolutely worth the €1.50 entrance fee, for the building at least.

 

The other site of note in Malaga is the Alcazaba, a fort built by the Muslims when they controlled Spain, and for €3 it is also probably worth it. We got there before it opened, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. It's similar to the castle in Tarifa, but more "fortish", with lots of defensive structures. It's also very well maintained and quite pretty, and has a lot of cool photo opportunities - or to reenact the beginning of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. By the time we left there were several school groups coming in, which I'm very glad we avoided.

So yeah, Malaga, good surprise! It may seem like not so much happened, but I  really liked it here. We spent a lot of time just visiting churches, drinking wine in the park, and eating many delicious pastries. It was a nice time-out from the hectic pace we were on, for the two of us to talk and figure out what should be the next step of our lives. But for now we're continuing the journey to our original destination, Granada.