"We’re given menus, but they’re in Portuguese. The waiter has a handful of English words and as best as..."/"Asbestos? They had asbestos?!"

Meade interrupts me in the middle of my reading of Nina's post about her trip to Cascais, Portugal, which you can get to from here if you take "two Madison buses, three separate flights, one Lisbon bus, and finally one Portuguese train."

"And so you look at something like the 17th century Brandenburg Gate and you think – oh my, how splendid."

"Until you think about who passed through its gates and why. And you can’t help but recall all things having to do with military strength and conquest. And how are you supposed to process it? Are you supposed to smile for the camera? Pose, and with a person making a Euro by imitating a German soldier? On this cold day there are several such 'soldiers' for you to choose from: from the wars of the past century, from the post war Soviet presence here – pick your poison. In the alternative you can stand next to a bear."

"I intend to keep things small. Really small. Thoughts and memories don't need closets. I shouldn't need closets."

Expansively contracting.

"I study Ed in his former girlfriend’s father’s shirt and an old hat he found on the roadside..."

"... From one angle he looks to me like a Sicilian padrone – a good soul, kind to animals and dragonflies..."

At the link, a pic of Ed with dragonflies and scavenged hat and much more, kayaking on the Wisconsin River.

"Interestingly, a lot of the harsh flavors came from ladybugs that were mashed up with the grapes."

A comment that freaked me out, on this post about whether or not boxed wine is good.

I got to that post via Instapundit, but I was also thinking about boxed wine today because Nina Camic just wrote about it.

Oddly, although I often run across insults against me that portray me as a consumer of boxed wine, the truth is, I've never purchased the stuff. I would, though. I understand why the technology is superior to bottles. Some people associate boxed wine with drinking a lot, but isn't the point that you drink less, because you don't have to try to use up a whole bottle before it goes bad?

Did you notice the solar solstice?

Nina sure did.

ADDED: "Solar solstice" is not the right expression, as everyone in the comments is beating me over the head about. I'm sorry! The whole summer is sorry!!!

Gender difference feels good in Paris.

Nina says:

[A]t least in Paris (in my opinion), women of all shapes and sizes and importantly, of all ages, seem to understand their beauty and valor, their unique beauty and their unique valor. They walk with pride (and so I, too, walk with pride). As if they know they’re being watched, admired, respected. For what they bring to the table.

Read the whole thing to get the hang of the argument, which is made impressionistically, with pictures interspersed. I especially like this one:

DSC03958_2, originally uploaded by Nina Camic.

You don't normally see faces all lined up nicely like that in real life. In movie posters you see it. To great excess. But try actually getting a candid shot of strangers lined up in an interesting environment. Not easy!

The Great Glen Way.

Nina's in Scotland, knocking herself out, hiking the Great Glen Way — with lots of photographs and narrow escapes.

Photos from Rome.

Very enticing. And more the next day. With plenty of ice cream, etc.

"On the side streets, I come across the occasional small hut selling the basics that I knew from childhood: sorrel for soup, flowers, pickles..."

"... and sauerkraut with grated carrot. And young beet leaves for spring borstch."

Nina travels 20 hours to weekend in Warsaw — attending a wedding — and has lots of pictures and inside insights.

"I look up, waiting for my friend, the one infused with love. There she is. See the tip of her blond head?"

"Oh, but wait, there’s another couple in love. Wow. It’s everywhere."

***

I love kissing in public. Come on, everyone! Do it today! Do it until somebody yells "Get a room!"

What's with Althouse?

She's not blogging, not much anyway. She's — what? — in Ohio for Spring Break? Who goes to Ohio for Spring Break.

Well, that picture is from last Tuesday, when I was meeting Nina for some laughing and serious talk at Barrique's Wine Cave on Monroe Street in Madison. Nina memorializes the confabulation at the end of this long post, thusly:

Tuesday – I paid the price for my protracted recline on the ER bed the previous day. I had classes and endless meetings and appointments to get through and it was a tight fit. Luckily the day ended with a glass of wine with my most happy friend. I suppose you don’t remember my suggestion that mental health requires putting in hours with happy people? I did that tonight.

I'm aiming to spill the happiness, my friends, so be happy here.

Squid ink bubbles?

I was with you up to the squid ink bubbles. Then I was kind of grossed out. Nice to see Boston again though, via photographs. I'm here in Madison, Wisconsin, eating Milk & Honey Granola. It's quite delicious. Chez Althouse, where we love Milk & Honey Granola, "It's quite delicious" is an oft-invoked allusion to a favorite movie...

Hunh. Well, uh. What is the, uh, "vromborova polevka"?

It's a potato soup. It's quite delicious.

Oh, well, that's great! I'll have that.

Vromborova polevka... that looks like something my linkee could easily translate without asking the waiter.

Anyway, as I often say, I'm here in Madison, Wisconsin. But spring break looms, and I will break out of Madison before long. Where am I going? You'll have to wait for the photographs, and I will let you guess. But it won't be Boston, and it won't be the Sahara Desert, and it won't be a forest in Poland, and it won't be India or Scotland or Montauk, Long Island. And there won't be any squid ink bubbles, I don't think.

Nina waits.

For all sorts of things.