Train to Lisbon

(Linda having gone, we have no camera... so this is the only photo I have of me and Katie. It is called the sun fish...)

Katie and I got the train to Lisbon and the dynamics changed once again. In Lisbon, we ate a Casa do Alentejo, of course, and we sorted out her braid at the market, and wondered to a miradouro. We ate a massive Indian Curry and Katie talked about India, I felt like I had done a small trip in India with her, with Bollywood TV in the background.

We then took the train south (she had a flight from Faro). Her friend Jorge was staying with his grandfather and his great uncle for a while in Olhao, a town near Faro. The apartment was so charming because it was run by precedent and routine. Each item in the house had been carefully placed and all kitchen appliances had their little place, the cigarettes here, the can opener here. Jorge’s grandfather and his brother lived together here and ran a screw \ nail shop in the day time. Jorge was very hospitable and took us out for ice-creams the first night on the shore where all the young people of Olhao were chattering in bars. The next day we went to the big fish market, where Olhao people were working away slapping and cutting fish, and then to the boat to an Island (I forget the name) – where there was just a little row of houses, and just a perimeter of beach all the way around the island.

So then came the day when I had to say goodbye to Katie. I am sick of saying GOODBYE! It hurts so much. I had to leave early to get forms and things in order of the university meeting the next morning. The train pulled away from the station and off I went to Lisbon, leaving Kate for another few months. How odd to have this relationship where we are forever being put and pulled apart.