Sipping a coffee in Lisbon
Back in the 1990s, when I started to first hop around Europe, and later the globe, and for a while afterwards, ‘travel’, when I considered it, meant to journey overland. Sure, I might fly somewhere first, but then it would be a journey from town to town, perhaps coming back where I started or, better yet, returning home from some other location, after having covered a significant overland distance.
Some things change more than others. Now, the overall plan is still reasonably similar, except that the connections from city to city are, more often than not, by plane, not by bus or train.
Now, when I can justify having to be somewhere distant, I try to fit in whatever I can along the way, while trying to keep the overall cost of travel down, often lower than a simple roundtrip to the intended destination would cost me, as more convoluted travel also allows for finding the cheapest options for individual legs, which might be served by some budget airline.
This time, Natalia had to be in Malaysia for a conference. The huge distance didn’t justify my buying an additional ticket at my own expense, but after I managed to arrange for a workshop, and funding, in Indonesia, while also then being able to participate in a meeting in Spain, made the trip, halfway around the world, worth it.
So, now, I’m sipping coffee, shortly after sunrise, on a little square in the north of Lisbon. I’ve got a few hours here after arriving from Brazil and before I am to get my connecting flight to Spain.
There, I’ve got a few days in Barcelona, before having to show up in a small town some two hours further north.
Then, followed by a short stay in Milan, and breakfast in Singapore, before a week in Kuala Lumpur, another week in Yogjakarta, this for the workshop, and a week in Bali, will see this trip end with a few days in Jakarta, before stopping over in Holland to see my mom on the way back.
You see, it’s a bit like how I traveled back in the 1990s, but on a different scale.
One thing that undeniably has changed, is the nature of the experience. Back then, travel to distant lands meant immersion, and being cut off from home.
Now, the exception is to not have a roaming SIM in your phone, while being confronted with the same ads, tropes, and products, literally wherever you find yourself.
Dispiriting.
It consequentially means that, for me, the joy of travel is in much smaller, perhaps almost inconsequential, experiences.
Like sipping a coffee on this little square, enjoying the newly risen sun, somewhere in the northern suburbs of Lisbon.