Lisboa

I heard a familiar sound last week that made me want to blog again- an oddly comforting noise- the echo of ink on paper shattering the silence of the immigration hall. A sacred aria, music to my ears: alas, a passport stamp.

Not that I’ve been counting, but after 518 days on my own side of the sea- a passport stamp was long overdue. With the cold blue leathery cover of the passport warming in my grip I stepped into the arrivals hall of the Lisbon airport with perma-grin.

Lisbon- I was going there for a meeting for work, but I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that I’ve been there once before: October 2004. One day off the Anastasis, looking for some solitude to begin to ponder what I might do with my post-ship life, I hopped a plane from Hamburg to Lisbon and took a little road trip down to the Algarve. I chose Lisbon back then because I needed a place to figure out my next steps and launch my new beginning- and it didn’t hurt that I had a friend there who offered me the use of their seaside villa. This time I didn’t choose Portugal, it had been chosen for me, but I couldn’t help but dwell on the fact that my thoughts had nearly come full circle. February 2007: what am I going to do with my life?

That same week in 2004, prior to walking down the Anastasis gangway for the last time, my friends had authored small slips of paper with all kinds of advice for my future: one little yellow slip I remember proposed the challenge “stay in one country for one whole year”. I stuck the paper in my journal and scoffed at even the notion- as the one thing contrary to the nature of wanderers is STAYING.

It may have taken 3 years and another 30,000 miles, but I did it. Isn’t that one of the funny things about life- those things you never think you’ll do- the things you swear you’d never do- somehow edge their way into your path.

So here I am again… nearly 3 years later, walking the hilly streets, lingering in the mosaic patterned plazas and staring at the blue skies and narrow buildings with their colorfully tiled facades. A wanderer back on the map. Next destination: TBD.