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I didn't want to be around people who thought the woods was a place to party, because outdoor rowdiness might not be frowned on in their neighborhood. It was the reason Sophia and I started back-packing in the first place, not to get away from people, but from noisy partiers.
Lisbon was airy and rich with the broadest streets I can remember anywhere. We visited a great many churches in both Spain and Portugal. What was of particular note was the gory crucifixion - sculpture and paintings on canvas, stucco and in glass everywhere. It seemed especially sadistic in these southern parts. Is it the worship of some ill-treated pretender to the throne, or is it - 'this is what will happen to you if your get out of line', as it has recently occurred to me ?
Both Spain and Portugal were dictatorships at the time - Franco and Salazar. However we would not have known it without someone telling us, except they were both countries, which perhaps by old-world family trademark were very poor. I would later see any number of times, one of Franco's grand daughters, who attended the Art Institute in San Francisco, where I also took some classes. She didn't seem to have any body guards which I expected.
Men couldn't get married due to the fascism of both the state and church, if they didn't have enough money. They had to wait for years. Women should not marry men too poor to take care of them and any children, and were not allowed to have sex before marriage. Bit of a sticky situation. One guy told me he used prostitutes. Seemed a cruel business.
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