We were up early this morning to orchestrate a very calculated train and bus schedule today. We had a quick breakfast in our hostel (once again forcing me to contemplate the mystery of why Cocoa Puffs actually taste good on vacation), then caught the 8:50am train back to Lisbon; then the 10am Metro train to Lisbon's bus station; then the 10:55am bus to Obidos. We had exactly five hours to see Obidos before catching the 6pm onward bus to Nazare on the ocean.

I'm not going to mince words here. Obidos is in the middle of freaking nowhere, and is only a real town in the sense that the locals show up to hawk overpriced tourist shit to visitors. You know this town if you've traveled enough; every restaurant has the same menu with the same pictures and prices, the food runs to cheap pizzas and burgers, each shop sells the same kitschy trinkets and T-shirts, prices are jacked 50-100% from elsewhere in the country, and tourists are carefully corralled into just a few streets to ensure they only see the Disney-fied version of the town. I was told we'd need four hours tops to see Obidos, but truly after two hours we were ready to move on. However, since the next bus wasn't until 6pm, we were committed for the afternoon.

Obidos is one of those towns that could be nearly perfect if it weren't given over 100% to tourism. Its Old Town is almost perfectly preserved, with its narrow cobblestoned pathways winding around bright white buildings accented with cheery yellows and blues. The views are stunning. It's a town with an almost intact ancient wall, built back in Roman and Visigoth times. The town itself is a UNESCO Heritage site, and an amazing, living museum- I wanted to come here to walk those ancient town walls, and see what I'd been told is a fabulous vista across Portugal's vineyards and hillsides.

We had lunch at a forgettable tavern which not only didn't sell wines by the glass (in PORTUGAL?? That's like not selling beer by the pint in the UK), but also featured a tree growing through the middle of the dining room. You can imagine how crapulent the pizza was, I needn't extrapolate. But after lunch, we set off for the wall walk. The walls are breathtaking, but the problem is that Obidos has put a Ye Olde Medieval Times theme on the town, and those beautiful walls were surrounded by shuttered cotton candy stands, shuttered jousting pits, shuttered kiddie tents....it was like trying to appreciate a museum amongst a boarded-up, creepy circus. I really expected Stephen King to show up and set a new horror novel there, complete with partially dismembered clown.

Obidos used to be surrounded by water, until the great 1755 earthquake left it landlocked. As a result, when you're up on those walls, the wind is shockingly powerful across the empty fields, and not just a bit scary. Being smaller than your average human, I was clinging to the wall (there was no barrier or handrail) to prevent myself from being blown off. I kept getting smashed against the interior wall, which I suppose beats the alternative, which was being blown off the side and smashed against the cobblestones. It certainly saved Matt from explaining how, on our twentieth wedding anniversary trip, I fell off a castle and broke.

I gave up trying to be a windsock, and we spent the remainder of the afternoon in a pastry shop drinking port and enjoying pastel de natas. At 5pm, we caught our bus to Nazare, a seaside town where we're basing ourselves for the next two nights. It's lovely to see the ocean, even if it is accompanied by a bitterly chilly wind. Nazare is famous for its seafood, and tonight I had the dish I was most looking forward to in Portugal: cataplana, or seafood stew in a pot. It's much like cioppino or bouillabaisse, and with a bottle of Portuguese wine, it was by far the best meal I've had since we arrived.

Tomorrow we explore the great cathedrals of Batalha and Alcobaca!