Old Europe

Sometimes I pretend I'm a photographer. I go around getting excited about light and finding random things beautiful. Pretend jobs are fun like that. And I really think the sun is brighter here in Portugal. Is that possible? It shines every day and turns everything it touches beautiful. Really.

Coimbra (smallish city in central Portugal) is a pretty good representation of my idealized Europe. It has the narrow streets and the cobblestone and the churches and the cafes, but it's not all overdone and touristy like so many quaint European cities are. Maybe it's because I arrived in the evening, with the sky glowing and the moon just out, and wandered aimlessly for a while. The old stone buildings look really nice in that kind of light and the streets were full of people. Outdoor cafes and people calling down from balconies to people on the streets. It's just so charming.

There are big open squares here and old stately buildings, slightly obscured by tangles of wires (bus, train, electric, I dunno). And it's just a little bit gritty. The streets are so narrow and winding that some feel more like dark alleys and you wonder who might be lurking around the corner. The buildings are old and a lot aren't in great shape. They look old, but in a Clint Eastwood kind of way: They're experienced; they have character. It's just perfect.

My first full day in Coimbra started out cold and cloudy, but with this fog that made everything look like an impressionist painting. There were people pushing old rickety carts of fruit through the streets to sell outside. How can you not be a sucker for shit like that? And then the sun came out.

Coimbra is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe--it dates back to the twelfth century I think and, in addition to being a university, is also a tourist attraction that you can pay to visit. "Fuck that," I thought, "I've seen European universities--I even worked in one." Then I remembered that the university where I worked is all of about twenty years old and decided this one might be worth shelling out a few euros for. And it was. There's this preserved fifteenth century library with Oriental rugs and beautiful wood furniture and old books stacked up to the ceiling. I've gotten nothing done in some pretty nice libraries in my time, but nothing like this. (I bet it doesn't have wireless, though.) And the university used to have a prison, so that university-related convicts didn't have to live with the common criminals.

And I saw more fado, in a dark smoky bar where old guys were passing guitars around and taking beer breaks. And I had dinner outside in the most tucked-away square ever. And when I left it was on a train, not a bus. Perfect.