Leonard and Steve

We got to talking when Leonard (left, Frankfurt) took a picture of me taking a picture of something. I have done this myself and appreciate the meta-genre.

He shows it to me. It's a good photo taken on a quality compact Ricoh camera and I ask him to email it. I pull out my notebook to write down my address, and the generation gap opens wide.

"Whoa, I love this! A pen and a real piece of paper," he says.

"Yeah, yeah. Old school. Let me ask you something. Do you guys know how to tell time on a clock with hands?"

Leonard: "What do you mean with hands?"

Steve (right, Tel Aviv): "It takes me a minute, but yeah, I think so." Leonard still looks confused.

The pals met in Amsterdam and are now traveling through Portugal together. This gladdens me. Porto will be their next stop.

"Some people say it's even more beautiful than Lisbon," says the German.

I advise them to visit Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro River, to get the best shots of Porto's waterfront, much as you need to stand in Kowloon to capture Hong Kong. "I don't know about more beautiful. It's gonna be a close contest."

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Diary

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