Some days you just need to piddle. I am an expert piddler. Before you get concerned, let me define piddling. To piddle is to stay busy doing nothing in particular. You set about your day doing things that catch your interest, but that are not particularly useful or productive. Piddling is best done at a leisurely pace.

My husband and I took the metro to the stop near Parque Montiero do Mor. We had not been in this area of Lisbon so I studied the map before we set out. It is a large park and yet it was not visible. We found our way across a highway, and headed toward where I thought the park should be. When piddling one should not be stressed by one’s spouse repeatedly asking if you know where you are going. You can’t be lost when you are piddling.

The park appeared to be behind a large wall. It was a high stone wall, so we couldn’t know for sure. We followed the wall several blocks until we found gates, which were locked. We followed the wall a few more blocks until we came to the National Costume Museum which sits at the corner of the park.

The way into the park appeared to be through the museum. I never miss an opportunity to waste time in a museum. So we paid a lengthy visit, and I forgot about the park. We encountered clothing going back to the 16th century. One of my favorite ways to piddle is to ogle textiles. I have more fabrics in my basement than I will ever use…I love to buy and touch material. There was no touching allowed in this museum, but the quality of the needlework and the age of the fabrics fascinated me.

Best of all, they had shoes! I am a serious shoe girl. My Facebook friends have been subjected to an infinite number of shoe pictures. To see dainty and beautiful shoes in silk and brocade that were 500 years old almost sent me into nirvana. I oohed and ahhed and took lots of pictures.

We laughed and joked as I picked out suits for my husband. I told him that he should bring back the knee breeches and hosiery. Vests and ruffles and velvet…he probably wore it in the 1970’s anyway. In fact I have heard stories of purple velvet pants and baby blue leisure suits. We piddled away the morning trying to decide what century would be the most flattering for each of us, and reliving our fashion forward disasters.

We finally exited to the gardens only to find that a stroll would be more like mountain hiking. The plants grew in steep and deep ravines. This was our aimless and relaxing day so we stayed on trails along the edge of the park. Whatever required the least amount of steps got our foot traffic. There were little annoying bugs and the water features were stagnant. Everything could have used a trim so we moved on. I was not dressed for a full on back country hike (I exaggerate, but it was overgrown).

We climbed some stairs and came to the National Theatre Museum. It looked like a good place to aimlessly kill some time. Except the signage was all in Portuguese ( thank goodness for google translate). The actors were all Portuguese (what did we expect?). We saw costumes and puppets and ballerina outfits. We sat and watched early films. Most of the time we had no idea what we were looking at, but it was still fun piddling.

We somehow found our way out of the garden without having to backtrack and managed to find our way to the street. I made a stop at an Irish Catholic Church, St. Brigid’s. Why is there an Irish Church in Lisbon? My inquiring mind wanted to know. I didn’t accomplish anything other than seeing inside a lovely neighborhood parish. But spending time in a beautiful church is my favorite Portuguese piddling destination.

On the way home we exited the metro and strolled hand in hand, down the park in the middle of the wide Avenida de Liberdade. There were vendors lining the side walk. Yes! There is no better way to piddle than to peruse stalls in a street market. Ceramics, cork, antiques and souvenirs…I needed to see it all. And before I knew what happened, we had piddled the whole day away…. aimlessly ….unproductively……gloriously. Piddling at the park turned out to be just the right thing to help us recharge our travel batteries. You should try it sometime!