Where is "Old Town"?
Apparently 11 years ago last week I was in Lisbon, Portugal for a long weekend with my friend Joel. I say "apparently" because if you’d asked me on Wednesday, "when did you go to Lisbon," I would have shrugged, which is, yes, patently absurd. One of the things about my life in The Netherlands was that I seized and relished opportunities to be somewhere that felt very different for two to three nights. I was generally unhappy where I was, and my professional situation there, and sought novelty, somatic comforts, and opportunity in varying proportions. Joel is a fantastic travel companion because he's game for most things, and we happen to eat and rest on pretty much the same schedule. Sure, we’ll browse through a museum, but neither of us wants to pass up a chance to sit and chat over coffee. One time we were in Belgium and met up with his brother’s friend’s friend’s ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend, and her brother and his girlfriend. It made sense at the time and was very pleasant! Another time, we both happened to be in Manhattan for a weekend and had drinks with his childhood babysitter, then crashed a theater festival’s wrap party.
Lisbon was a fun, last-minute, destination because we didn't really know what to expect, and had no particular aims while there other than bopping around. Also, a roundtrip Easyjet ticket from Amsterdam was $150. We still talk about it as a trip where we were never hungry: we felt like we ate constantly, even when we were nearly full, because everything was so attractive and delicious. Joel has a book coming out soon about black holes, which bear some parallels to our consumptive habits in Portugal, though I don’t think a black hole can appreciate olives or pastéis de nata I don’t know. I haven’t read his book yet.
I learned that the anniversary of the Lisbon trip is this week because an Instagram memory popped up, a sparse post with a square image and a filter. No geotag. (Was that possible then? I think so, because remember when you used to be able to get a map of your Instagram posts? Who will bring me an oral history of Instgram's user experience?) The post is a photo of unremarkable strawberries, nestled in a basket. The caption mentioned that they were from a market in Old Town. Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of a neighborhood called Old Town that I had been in, well, ever. I looked at the Wikipedia disambiguation entry for the phrase, and didn't land on any place obvious. The best guess I had was Osnabrück in Germany, but that didn't quite seem right for my mental calendar, because that was a more summery visit. Similar thing for Stockholm's Old Town. 2012 was a year where I committed to myself to not fly back to the US between January and December. In 2010 and 2011 I'd flown back and forth pretty regularly, even for three day stays like for weddings. That was wearing on me in every sense, sometimes it felt like on a cellular level, and I just thought to myself that I should spend my vacation days in Europe, where I lived and had delicious unfettered access with high-speed rail and adequate budget flights from second-tier airports like Eindhoven and Weeze. I knew that I wasn't likely to get another chance at that anytime soon.
Every so often, somebody is planning a trip to Lisbon, and I’ll share with them the Google Map I painstakingly made in the days leading up to my trip with Joel: where to drink coffee, where to consider a day beach trip. Joel reminded me today that we bought the strawberries, not because either of us is a habitual fruit eater, but because our bodies were crying out for something other than wine, fish, cheese, or sausage.
Happy strawberry season, wherever you are.
March! April! May! What was I up to!?
Reading: I read the graphic memoir Dancing at the Pity Party which is a fun journey of grief surrounding a parent's death. Someone mentioned the classic travelogue that is Blue Highways and I've been savoring it (and renewing it from the library.) Eater ran a set of fun articles about mall food. Eric Smith's YA romcom With Or Without You comes out in a few months, and I got a sneak peek via NetGalley. (Philly Easter eggs come by the dozen in the book.) A longform article I saved to share with y'all is "Bad Tape" which is a RIDE of storytelling. Dril is just a guy named Paul. Valle, Arizona is a "the dark side of the American Dream."
Eating: We revisited Scanicchio's for a feast. I finally picked up a hoagie from Mi-Pal's Deli and that might become a more regular treat. I was lucky enough to celebrate two fun birthdays at Alpen Rose. Old friends and I had brunch at K'Far, which is worth a stop. Craig Laban recommended DJ Kitchen, so Ryan T. Barlow and I ate dumplings there. And we introduced friends and their toddler to Victor Cafe.
Beating: Action Cookbook led me to listen to Jim White, who scratches a very particular sonic itch for me. Kelsey started organizing "music night" at our house: a few of us pick songs and play/sing through them together, each according to his ability. I made two road trip playlists, one inspired by 70s Los Angeles and one inspired by New Orleans. Speaking of New Orleans, Tom Caruana Remix Projects released a pair of Wu-Tang/New Orleans mashup albums. On TikTok, Kelsey found a playlist of songs that make people "really fucking happy" and it's mostly good. Royal Wood caught my ear on Mountain Stage. My Canadian Internet friend Chris Morris interviewed Royal once, and when I mentioned my newfound interest, Chris also recommended Danny Michel.
Deleting: I scrubbed my oven in March. That’s a satisfying but disgusting task. I’m sure if I did it more often, it’d be better and yet. In May, we did a big purge of dry goods: pre-pandemic lentils emerged.
Retreating: In March, I revisited the ex-golfcourse that is Tall Pines State Preserve in NJ. With Kelsey's folks, we had a lovely, long, late spring hike through Warwick County Park. A note informs me we went to Rancocas State Park; I don't remember it! On a road trip, we attempted to find the Seneca Trail and failed. April was busy with a trip to the Grand Canyon that was nearly flawless for six households in three cars, a day in New York City to cowork and have margaritas with dear college friends, a weekend in Corning, and a cabin stay outside State College. The latter let us explore Bald Eagle State Forest and Woodward Cave. Kelsey & I hiked the Mount Misery trail in Valley Forge National Historic Park in May and also camped for two nights outside Jim Thorpe with our friend Nikki, where we engaged in one illegal hike!
Meeting: My episode on Rotten Treasure talking about The Land Before Time III is out for your enjoyment. I told a story at the PWP Video Mission Slam about my career transition and cake. And I recorded an episode of Cookbook Obscura that comes out in July,
Time to shop for a new laptop,
Neil