Travel

Let’s inspire not impress each other

February 18. Jack’s first adventure.
Today Jack got out early, while I was still dreaming of rosabuds and guirlandes on the wall of a monch's refectory, of tulips and waterpipes, of drowsy days spent under semispherical
pink umbrellas, of the Lisbon elevator that takes you up to the sky for only 2€ and the tram that takes you down for ...
February 17. Meat and Metaphores.
I want to find my way into the cave underneath us, explore the big hollow caverns that lie below the fundament of our civilization. I want to descend as far as I can, and breath the stale air of the dark grotto that is filled with highly inflammable gasses. The weight of our civilization compresses ...
February 16. Jack enters.
I decided to split up. One part of me is sitting in the sun being wonderfully happy, living up to his dreams to his heart's content, he produces reflections like sunrays on the surface of a still mountain like, and he produces the illusion that those reflections will last at least a few centuries. The ...
February 15. Belém.
That professor of mine might be infected too. He could be part of the complot. He accepted my PhD-thesis just because he felt sorry or something. Otherwise what would it mean? I am not used to squeeze meaning out of that. The complot thought could be interesting: just imagine the whole world working together diligently ...
February 14.
It is sunny outside but I write inside. Had a great lunch that filled my belly like it hasn't been filled for weeks. All the chemicals that will be involved in the digestion, plus the cafeine intake that I'm used to after a meal make me write like a fertile hen. It's a typical working ...
February 13. Fumar mata.
Fumar mata. That's what it says on Portuguese cigarette boxes. Zé forgot his pipe. Friday the thirteenth was just a lucky day like every other day. I had to take my vaccination and it all worked out fine. In Barrio Alto I walked up to a private hospital where they sent me to the health ...
February 12. Sintra.
Sintra. A wonderful, sunny day. Portugal has been a monarchy but the coward royals went off to Brazil during the Napoleontic invasions. In Sintra, you can visit one of their flamboyant castles. It's very beautiful as you can see on the pictures. The opulence of the crown was paid for by the poverty of the ...
February 11. To whom it may concern.
For writing perhaps you need loneliness. Loneliness for breakfast, loneliness for lunch and loneliness for dinner. But that will never be enough. You'll need to sleep with her, caress her cheeks, she'll have to be the muse in all of your dreams. And what is it you can write then? A really-real account of that ...
February 10. Pasteleria and abstractions.
There are very good Pasteleria's in Lisbon, and the coffee is very cheap. I can work fast without caring too much about quality, about what the reader might think. I can't put the bricks of words together when I know what the building must look like. I can't guarantee you the building isn't going to ...