Replies

If you liked it so much why come back?

I’m heading out to SE Thailand, Malaysia and Lake Toba later this year. Planning on basing in one country and travelling around in retirement. It might take me a decade to travel thru all the islands in Thailand. No complaint.

Lisbon is great. Portugal has great food (although like with anyplace, you are likely to get tired of the cuisine after a while if that’s all you eat). Very interesting mix of old and new—many buildings built in the 17th and 18th century with absolutely derelict units next to newly modernized living places and businesses), great weather, history and culture. We visited Coimbra—Portugal’s university town—right during graduation, which was quite the party.

Travelling to not yet fully modernized places in Europe can be quite interesting. For example, the best restaurant I ever ate at was in May 2019 at an absolute hole in the wall kind of place in Lvov, Ukraine. To find it, you had to find a totally unmarked building apparently occupied by another business, walk down an unmarked set of stairs, through a dark hallway, until you stumbled on it’s entrance. Very simple, yet absolutely fantastic, Galician food, made apparently by someone’s grandma. Dirt cheap. We went back several times during our stay.

Looking it up just now, it seems like it has since gone substantially downhill. But I will never forget it.
https://tomato.ua/en/lviv/restaurants/trapeznayaidey

In May 2019, before the second Russian invasion, Lvov had a real “wild west” air about it. And it was far and away the cheapest place I have ever been to in Europe (with Portugal being in 2nd place).

https://tomato.ua/en/lviv/restaurants/trapeznayaidey