Places

Three weeks that felt like three years. Tokyo is a city designed for obsessives — every neighborhood a different city, every street something to notice. I ate ramen for breakfast four times. I visited every bookshop I could find. I watched the city from a hill in Yanaka and felt very small in the best possible way.

A city that rewards slowness. I spent most of my time walking, getting lost, and sitting in tascas I found by accident. The light in Lisbon is unlike anywhere else — golden and slightly melancholy, which suits the fado perfectly. I'd move there tomorrow if I could.

Overwhelming in the best sense — art, food, history, noise, and incredible kindness from everyone I met. The Museo Tamayo, the Mercado de Jamaica, tacos at 11pm on a Tuesday. A city I think about more than almost any other.

Felt immediately like somewhere I understood. The bookshops (so many bookshops), the steaks, the long dinners that start at midnight. Buenos Aires has a slightly melancholy grandeur — beautiful buildings showing their age, a city that remembers being the most important city in the world.