Love? Really?

What is love? Baby, please hurt me.

I just had this very nice romance in Lisbon. I mean, I was totally crazy. Just believed so much that I had found the man of my dreams. He was everything I wanted, I told him. And I was happy from the first date, ready to move to Lisbon and give up my life for the man. I thought I could never find anyone as perfect and that all my life I had been looking for him. It was all the clichés coming true all at once, and I loved the man on the first night. We had champagne and late dinners and late mornings and hot sex. We went for long walks and held hands. I ate way too many carbs, and even had cake the last day. That is me being crazy, you should know.

Now, less than a week after I saw him, I don’t get it at all. It’s not that I don’t still think he’s a great guy. But I don’t see what was going on in my head. I am not in love. I am not willing to move to Lisbon because of a man. Of course not. I don’t even want to get married. Ever. How crazy was I back there? I am almost ashamed of my own behavior.

Maybe this is what a holiday romance is all about: The opportunity to live the fairy tale for a little while. Just to do it all in a short period of time because deep down in your unconscious mind you know it will end. And since the world tells you you should be looking for the man of your dreams, you are just willing to believe it for a second there. But really, I just wanted the share of romance this man was willing to give me for a couple of days. Just to stack up. Now I am content for a long time to come. 

So we both knew when he drove me to the airport: No, I was not to come back next week. It was fun, but now it is over. Please hurt me right back.

My fairy tale

I have been to fairytale world today. You know that place where all the castles are and all kings and queens and princesses and princes live. In Portuguese it is called Sintra. Here is my report from the land of the fairytale:

Princess I still live in the tower in the castle. She is now a tourist attraction, but since tourists prefer lifts to climbing, she cut her hair:

All the beautiful princesses that were so luckily transformed back from their bewitched swan bodies, discovered they liked swan life better after all and visited the evil witch again. They now fly freely and happily above the landscape, but the King II misses them so much he had them painted above his bed:

Prince XXI was kind of mad when all his sisters got more attention than him. He is now a pyromaniac. The castle guard therefore installed a fire hydrant so that the castle won’t burn while tourists are visiting:

Princess III is sick of Prince III. She secretly meets with the castle guard down these stairs, that are not open to tourists:

This is Princess IV’s kitchen. She dreams of a top class new Miele electrical stove, but the King IV says no, tourists don’t like to look at that and UNESCO won't like it either:

No one took care of the house when Princess II moved out and her mother died. Instead they just built large houses around it.The owner would like to tear it down, but UNESCO says no way:

Princess V loves ecological living and is a converted socialist. That is why she made her English gardens into a community garden, where every citizen can grow their own vegetables.

Queen I lives in the castle high up on the hill. You may think she is very happy with her view, but really she 
just hates having to walk the steep hill up to her house. Especially after her husband, the late King I, died, 
she just wishes she could live in a minimalist flat by the sea. But the people of the town think this is the best 
place to live for a queen:

Queen II just wishes her husband wasn’t so fond of diverse architecture. Like Queen I, she is more of a 
minimalist herself:

Princess VI taught her child how to read. The King I had her made into stone before she transformed more 
from the role of the beautiful doll:

See that man over there? He is trying to make himself into a frog so that someone will kiss him. But he keeps 
forgetting princesses don’t like frogs so much anymore:

This is my favorite Princess. She runs the small, antiquarian bookstore downtown. Please remember those 
are the best princesses of this world, and help her keep parts of the city from being made into car parks for 
tourists:

And I also found my very own Prince Charming in Portugal. But really, this is all you get of him. Because he 
does not belong to this fairy tale world. He belongs to the real world. And he only belongs to me <3