Lisbon at the blue hour

The city was awake before I was. Somewhere under the porticoes, cups met saucers and shutters rolled upward with the clatter of a day beginning.

I had made a plan, naturally. Then the first side street offered a fruit stall, an old paper shop, and a patch of morning light so good that the plan was quietly retired.

The pleasure of looking slowly

Travel gets better when the checklist loosens its grip. I stopped for a coffee taken standing up, watched bicycles thread through the square, and followed a woman carrying an unreasonable number of flowers.

“The best parts of a place rarely announce themselves.”

By lunch, my pockets held a paper receipt, two market cherries, and the name of a cheese I could not pronounce. A perfectly successful morning.

Notes to bring home

• Go out before breakfast at least once.
• Always ask the market vendor what they would choose.
• Leave enough room in the bag for something impractical.

And when you think you have seen the whole street, turn around. Cities are generous like that.