A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Yes, I stole the title from Ernest Hemingway, but unlike his short story, this will not be a depressing entry. I think of his short story whenever I go into a café overseas that is bright and welcoming. We found just such a café in Valpo called the Marco Polo. The first time we went in there it was drizzling outside so it was nice to be someplace warm and dry. Other people were eating these round doughnut-like things called picarones. After the huge sandwiches they gave us, we couldn't eat another bite, so we had to come back to the Marco Polo our last day in Valpo to try the picarones. They turned out to be hollow rings drizzled in caramel. Actually not the tastiest thing I've tried here, but we had the same waiter in the same clean, well-lighted place, so it was like being part of the city for a short time.