Bored with Enjoyment

Bored with enjoyment. Sounds crazy doesn't it? It might sound impossible and you might not want to hear that, "Mr. 'I'm taking a year off from work to travel around the world to visit places most of us only dream of someday visiting' is bored," but he has been lately. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I'm bored, but it's probably a combination of: emotional letdown following a heartbreaking ending to an exciting Baltimore Orioles baseball season, fatigue from 8 months on the road, relatively average sightseeing over the past few weeks, and a bit of that 'final week on a continent malaise' that occurs when looking forward to my next continent.

When I last left you, I was in Lisbon enjoying a night of Fado music with my friend Mary. Awesome evening of entertainment. The following day, I hopped on a bus to Obidos and somehow ended up in Egypt. Not really of course, but within the town's castle walls and cobblestone streets there was an exhibit about Abu Simbel, complete with a replica of the facade that greets you as you enter the real thing in Egypt (which only 2 short months ago I was fortunate enough to visit). Made me chuckle. I go from country to country to see new and exciting sights, and the big thing in town is something that blew me away 2 months ago. It was the first stop in Portugal that left me with a sense of deja vu, but it wouldn't be the last.

I next traveled to Porto, where the most exciting part of my stop there was a shave and a haircut. I've never had a shave at the barber, but this felt like the place to do it. As I walked along the streets, there were a handful of barber shops, and I chose one with a couple of little old men that didn't know a lick of English. I felt as though I was back in the 70's. All of their equipment and the clothing they wore couldn't have been purchased later than that decade. But aside from losing half of my sideburns because of the language barrier, it was a positively unique and memorable experience. Can't say I feel the need to have a straight razor eliminate the whiskers from my face ever again, but at least those 45 minutes were a bit of an escape from the monotony of wandering around another city. I don't want to sell Porto short because it does have a colorful waterfront, tons of places to taste the delicious red and white port wine (never knew the white version existed), and a dish called Franceschina (which I'll explain later), but that dish and the haircut were the highlights of my visit there.

Deja vu part deux occurred when I visited Lagos, or should I say Great Ocean Road minor. It was kind of a poor man's GOR. Same type of sandstone cliffs overlooking turquoise waters, just of a lesser magnitude than its' big brother in the southern hemisphere. It was definitely beautiful and what made it more tourist friendly than the GOR is that it had one town center with the handful of beaches around the cliff area linked by a pedestrian friendly walking trail. No car was needed to explore the rather extensive coastline. Definitely is a place worthy of a vacation.

Now you may read all of that and think, "How can he be bored with all of those activities?" I'll answer it like this. If you ate your favorite food everyday and only your favorite food for the better part of 6 straight weeks, wouldn't all of you eventually be bored with eating and grow slightly tired of something which you otherwise love? Of course you would. Well, my travels through Europe fit that description. I also think that if every backpacker took a look in the mirror and was honest with themselves, almost all of them would admit they have felt this way from time to time during their adventures.

Traveling can be a strange dichotomy at times. The mind may fuel the thought that one is obligated to hop on a bus and go somewhere new for a few days simply because one has the time, money, and because sightseeing options have been exhausted at the current location. But the body doesn't always agree with this philosophy. Personally, I know that if I let my body win these battles, months and years from now I will regret not having gone to destinations like Obidos, Porto, and Lagos. So I go, enjoy the sense of adventure in going somewhere new, knowing full well I'm probably going to be filling my days with activities quite similar to those of previous stops.

So, I knowingly place myself in these types of travel situations and am accepting of the fact that there might be periods of boredom, because ultimately, I would much rather be bored with enjoyment than bored at work. I just think it's important for everyone to know, that you can still be bored even when seeing and doing so many 'once in a lifetime' experiences.

Since I have left Europe I have now started on a 3 week adventure in the Galapagos Islands, to be followed by Machu Picchu, Easter Island, and Antarctica. Quite a few high value, unique stops left on my trip before heading home around Christmas. I'm really looking forward to my time in South America and will hopefully be overwhelmed with enjoyment over the last 2 months of my travels.

FLIPPIN' RIDICULOUS

I promised in my last post I would write some things in future blog posts that seemed flippin' ridiculous to me. Future posts will hopefully have more pics tied in with flippin' ridiculous stories, but for this post, I will once and for all chronicle the long sad tale of woe about my ATM card. May this be the last ever story you read about this tiny piece of plastic.

For those new readers to my blog, let me catch you up. Started my trip in Australia with an ATM card which had a crack on the magnetic strip. Wouldn't work. $100 FedEx fee later and 1 month later, I had my parents send me a new card to a friend's house in New Zealand. Worked for about a month before an ATM machine in a seedy Malaysian bus station permanently swallowed it. 6 weeks of cash advances on my credit card with ridiculous interest rates ensued, and after another $100 shipping fee, I received my next card at a hostel in Cape Town, South Africa just in time for my 4 month African adventure. After weeks of unsuccessfully trying to withdraw money from ATM machines in various countries, my bank tells me that my card won't work in Africa, Jordan, and Turkey because of 'security concerns.' Fan-flippin-tastic. Had my parents then Western Union about $4000 USD while I was in Tanzania. Silly me to think I would actually get that money in USD. Instead, I got about 6.5 MILLION Tanzanian Schillings. Great for buying the country of Tanzania. Terrible for losing out on exchange rates there and in each of the countries that followed. My new card then did its' damndest to not work in Greece, but I guess 1 bank had sympathy for me, so I was finally able to get local currency. My card worked there, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Hungary, but then decided it didn't want to work in Portugal. Every flippin' ATM machine in Portugal is tied to the same system, so if my card won't work at 1 bank, it won't work at any of them. I totally get if the bank doesn't want my card to work in 3rd world countries. I don't like it, but I get it. But Portugal isn't 3rd world last I checked. Sooo, I decided to do a cash advance and get out a bunch of Euros that I would use for the rest of Portugal and then exchange the rest at the various airports in South America, because as I rightly predicted, MY FLIPPIN' CARD DOESN'T WORK IN SOUTH AMERICA EITHER. Or at the very least, it doesn't work in Ecuador, but I refuse to even try and use it in other countries. That card will not cause me anymore anguish on this trip. I refuse to waste any more time sticking that card in machines, punching in the PIN, telling it how much money I want, only to ultimately be told to contact my bank with apologies on how sorry this bank is not to be able to give me money. So, more cash advances on the credit card along with terrible exchange rates in the city of Quito, have drained even more cash from the 'ol bank account. I'm fed up with my card, my bank, crappy exchange rates, exorbitant cash advance interest charges, and new card international shipping fees. Many of you know I like to speak in hyperbole, but it's no exaggeration when I tell you I could have financed an additional 1-2 weeks of travel were it not for those aforementioned rates and fees. FLIPPIN' RIDICULOUS. Abso-FLIPPIN-lutely RIDICULOUS.

How about some pictures from the rest of my time in Portugal:

Obidos

Porto

Lagos

Dogfish Head Soup

Clams with Pork

Bream

Port wine with chocolate

Franceschina (above and below): It is a sandwich  that means 'little Frenchie' which supposedly was created by a man as an homage to his girlfriend. It has 3 slices of bread with ham, sausage, steak, and cheese. On top is an egg and the whole thing is wrapped in a thin lasagna like noodle, smothered in cheese, and sits in a spicy tomato sauce. If I had a girlfriend, and this was the sandwich I created for her, she probably would dump me. It contains components from chicken, pig , and cow. If I called a girlfriend any one of those farm animal names, the writing would be on the wall.

Melon with Cheese

Fried baby squid with salad and chips