Day 70
Location 15: Lisbon
Jan. 9, 2023
It's a little known fact that Lisbon is the sister city of San Fransisco. This relationship is consensual, as Lisbon just decided to build a copy of the Golden Gate Bridge. As far as simping for cities goes, this is pretty extreme. It's like if a city decided to randomly build a replica of that huge Jesus statue that stands 98ft tall in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Oh wait, Lisbon did that, too.
The national pastry of Portugal is the "pastel de nata", an egg custard topped with cinnamon. It's wildly delicious, extremely popular, and famously known to have originated at a small cafe in the nearby town of Belem. Naturally, I endured the long journey to the town, tracked down the cafe along the uneven cobblestone streets, and tasted the product of an 187-year-old recipe for myself. Immediately, I understood why so many people recommended making the journey to try this special spot. However, I couldn't understand why so many people were sitting in the Starbucks next door. They had traveled all this way and decided to give up just 10 steps from the most famous cafe in Portugal and instead settle for a Starbucks. I wanted to tell them "you're so close, keep going".
Here's a quick story about my freshman year in college. It was a snow day in the middle of winter and class was cancelled. My roommate and I, dressed in our snow gear, were on our way to the big hill where everyone was sledding and hanging out when we passed a shopping cart. In an instant I had a Jimmy-Neutron-like brain blast and could see a few hours into the future as we rode the cart down the snowy hill, like the intro to the first Jackass movie, and eventually winning over the hearts of all the students congregated together that fateful day. It took over an hour to make the usual 18 minute trek and required tons of effort to push a rusty four-wheeled vehicle(?) up a hill of snow. But it was all worth it to fulfill my vision. We'd be snow day legends and have fun doing it.
Finally we reached the promised land with our golden goose in the form of a stolen shopping cart that laid golden social-status eggs. As the plan's conceiver, I hopped in the cart while Terry began to push. A rush of excitement came over me as I could feel our moment was mere seconds away. Unlike in Jackass where the cart smoothly rolls down a paved hill, however, our cart didn't move at all because it has four wheels and not a smooth bottom like skis or a sled. In retrospect it was an idiotic plan that had no potential and we both should've realized that sooner. The brain blast was more of a brain fart and the golden goose was more like a rubber chicken they use for capture the flag in gym class.
Anyway, all that is to say on the way home from a bar I found a shopping cart and was pushing it around. And although it didn't quite make up for the embarrassing cart experience of my past, I had a lot of fun.
Left: Me pushing a rogue shopping cart and stumbling upon kids we later found out worked for Nancy Pelosi.
Right: Me with my old friend a few days later, right where I left him.