Nice to see the old town again. (And the New Town too, of course.) I admit, April is not the best time to visit, but it was still colder than I expected. The haggis, however, was just as tasty as i remembered. I will miss it.
Monthly Archives: April 2002
The Royal Tenenbaums
Occasionally Hollywood puts out a really good black comedy. Like this one. It made a nice respite from European culture when we saw it in a shopping mall in Lisbon.
Portugal
We spent most of our time in Lisbon, which was fabulous. Just really pleasant and scenic, with its harbour and the amazing Cristo Rey statue overlooking all. (I’d like to see the much larger one in Brazil someday.)
The Portuguese seem to like eating in quantity, which means they’re all right by me. The language was difficult though – to my ears it sounded like broken Spanish with a French accent. Of course, the deficiency lies in my ears rather than the language, but I still never quite got the hang of it.
Morocco
This was a somewhat challenging place to backpack around. Lots to see, but dealing with the locals was sometimes trying. Like everywhere, most people are basically nice and well-intentioned, but the cultural and language gaps are wide. At least I got to use my rudimentary French. I think Fes was the most pleasant town, while at the other extreme was the rather nasty Tangier.
Gibraltar
It’s a great big rock off the corner of Spain with monkeys on it, with an incongruous little pseudo-English town at the foot of it.