Trust in the City - Europe 2023

When we got here we headed to the nearest market for an American shopping spree. We filled a basket and another basket with stuff we needed. Pasta, three loaves of bread, fresh orange juice, cheeses, meats. Buying three loaves of bread is extra American. Bread is a daily consumable here.

Our Chillout Lisbon tour spent a lot of time emphasizing how people spend part of their life at home and part of their life in the street, particularly in the older neighborhoods. The longer we were here, the more we saw it too.

A young couple smoking on their front step in a narrow street, the door wide open to their kitchen. The community fountains in Alfaema (they’re still shut down post pandemic, but residents used together wash clothes, dishes, and chat). This community laundry 🧺 that Ginnie visited, seeing all men who were dipping in to handle their wash.

Your laundry is down a long hallway, the street. Your hangouts space is a street cafe down another long hallway, another street. Your pantry, just around the corner. Buy what you need for today.

On the Facebook groups that Ginnie has joined, we’ve also heard scary stories about those hallways. Hallways steep and cobbled, open to the sun, sometimes slick from the rain. One tourist taking a header in a scooter and winding up with two broken legs. Another one, his legs shot out from under on a rainy day leading to a bashed head. Trust in the city, but wear good shoes.