Escape to Portugal

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Because we stayed so close to the airport, we "slept in" until 5:00 a.m.  We actually managed to get up and going fairly efficiently, considering the hour.  We were checked out and ready to go just a little past 6:00.  Unfortunately, the snow hadn't let up all night and there was a nice covering of the stuff all the way up to the airport.  I really wasn't too excited about sitting on a cold airplane with wet feet, so I went into the bathroom and snagged some of the extra garbage bags from the corner.  I tied them around my feet over my sneakers to prevent some of the water from getting in.  And to make a fashion statement, obviously.  Scott commented that it was an improvement over my normal attire, although the other people we passed by didn't quite seem to have the same opinion.

Regardless of their fashion, the bags served their purpose and my feet were only slightly damp by the time  arrived at the terminal.  As I peeled the bags off, Scott did some reconnaissance to see where we needed to go to get our tickets.  We'd already checked in and were only bringing carry-on baggage, but we would still have to wait in line because we don't have a printer at home to print the tickets.  I'm actually almost tempted to buy a printer just to avoid the hassle of waiting in line at airports!  It would totally be worth it.  Especially because just as we got into the hideously long line, we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker saying that it was the last call for our flight!  Granted, it was an international flight so we probably should have arrived more than an hour before boarding, but last call at 6:20?!

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There was no way we were going to get to the front of the line anytime soon, so Scott left the line to go ask for help at the ticket counter.  Luckily, the staff are apparently used to lots of traveler arriving late and having similar panic situations.  In fact, there was a special check-in line designed especially for those travelers.  We rushed to join that line, willing it to move quickly as we heard the repeated "last call" for our flight.  As soon as the agent gave us our tickets, we ran to security and were once again faced with a mile-long line.  This time, there wasn't any "fast-track" service, so we just had to grit our teeth and hope we made it.  As we stood in line we started to organize the things that needed to be taken out or put in bags (electronics and liquids).  As we did, Scott reaching into the bottom of his bag and realized that he had forgotten to take out his multi-tool before packing for the trip!  For those of you unacquainted, a multi-tool is basically just a bunch of knives and other sharp objects all tacked together.  Not such a good thing to try to bring into an airport, especially if you're planning on getting anywhere fast.

I know that some airports have last minute mail services near security, so I was hoping that we might just be able to mail it home.  I did a quick scan, but didn't see anything in the vicinity.  We showed it to the guard in the corner of the room.  He let us keep it for the moment, but warned us that it probably wasn't going to be able to go much further.  When we got to the x-ray, Scott showed it to the security agent to see what options he might have.  He didn't have any, so was forced to hand it over before going through the machine.  But at least we got to leave our shoes on!

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We got through security by about 7:10, which is the time that our tickets said that the gate was closing.  Hoping that my watch was a little fast, we ran as fast as we could to our gate.  We were welcomed by a massive gathering of about 100 other people who probably had also made a mad dash to the gate after hearing the "last call."  Apparently those calls they'd been giving out for the past half hour had merely been a suggestion, because the door to the waiting area for the gate hadn't even been opened yet.  So glad we nearly ran down an old crippled lady in our quest to get there on time.  It actually turned out pretty well that we were at the back of the line, because the waiting area was no more than a covered area right next to the runway--not the most comfortable place to stand around and wait when it's snowing.  Because of our tardiness, we were some of the last people ushered in and only had to endure it for about 15 minutes.

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Not to say that I was too excited about those 15 minutes, either, but I suppose I'm glad it wasn't any longer. When we finally did make it to the airplane (around 8:00, 20 minutes after the scheduled departure time), we looked at our tickets to see that we would be seated towards the back of the plane.  And by "towards the back" I mean "the absolute last row right next to the bathrooms."  And of course we were in the window and middle seat.  I'm usually pretty OK with small places, but the one exception to that is on airplanes, where I always insist on being in the aisle.  I usually manage to reserve one but if not, the plane often has extra seats that I can move to once we're in the air.  Not today.  At least the person sitting next to me was very respectful and even offered to let me use the armrest!  Now that is chivalry at 30,000 feet!

Luckily for our seatmate, he got to have the armrest and even a little bit extra butt room, because I leaned over and slept on Scott's shoulder for nearly the whole trip.  Except for the last half hour or so, during which time I decided to try a new game on my iPod called "Temple Run."  It is the most addictive game ever; you've been warned!  It was a little difficult to catch on to the rules (because reading the instructions would have been too easy), and of course just as I figured it out was when the captain made the landing announcement and we had to power down all electronics.

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The landing was much more efficient than boarding and take-off, and we headed right inside to customs.  Usually, being the foreigner means longer lines and more questioning at the border, but this time it was actually an advantage being a non-EU citizen!  There was one line for EU and UK passport holders, and one line for "everyone else."  Luckily for us, it was only us and one other couple that qualified as "everyone else," so we got right to the front of the line.  The lady barely even looked at our passport before stamping it and waving us through.  I was so excited to have my first European stamp in this passport!  I am a little disappointed that all the European stamps are now basically the same since becoming part of the EU but, oh well.  I'll continue collecting anyway.

After getting through the border, we headed straight out to the transportation area.  I hadn't really researched the best way to get to our hotel, but I did know that it was supposed to be fairly close to a metro stop.  We decided to find a map and try to find our way to the nearest metro, hoping that there wouldn't be too many busy roads to cross to get there.  Luckily for us, it turns out they had just built a new metro stop right inside the airport!  Plus, the tickets were electronic so we could buy a reusable card that could be used all on modes of transportation during our entire stay.  We did have a little trouble buying the ticket from the electronic kiosk, until we discovered that there was a button to translate everything into English.  Amazing how much easier that made things!

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The airport was at the far north of the city, while our hotel was at the southernmost end.  We also had to transfer lines once, so it took us about 45 minutes to get to our stop.  Luckily, we got to have our pick of seats since we had gotten on at the first stop of the line.  We got off at metro Baixa-Chiado (easy to remember, since the name of our hotel was "Borges Chiado").  After going up what seemed an infinite number of floors--thank goodness for escalators--we finally emerged into a large, bustling square.  The directions I had gotten to our hotel weren't very specific, so we walked around to the other side of the exit to see if we could find a map with a more precise location.  Unfortunately, the dispaly that we had believed to be a map was empty.  So, like the confused tourists that we are, we just looked around like deer in the headlights.  This actually turned out to be quite a good strategy, as it turned out that our hotel was just across the square!

It was just a few minutes until noon, so we figured that it would be the perfect time to check in and start exploring.  Of course, the first thing on our mind was lunch.  Being the "economical" travelers that we are, we hadn't eaten breakfast because it wasn't free at the hotel, and there also weren't any snack provided on the airplane.  There was quite a crowd in the lobby, so we ended up waiting about 15 minutes before we managed to grab anyone's attention.  When we finally did, we were told that check-in time actually wasn't until 1:00 p.m., so we would have to do something else until that time.  They did let us leave our bags in a locked closet so that we didn't have to much to carry, at least.  

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We decided to use the time to go out in search of something to quench our appetites.  There were a few cafes right next to the hotel, but we wanted to be a bit more adventurous so we headed up the big hill to our right and down a small cobblestone street on our first Portuguese adventure.  There were quite a few tourists at the plaza from where we'd come, but as we moved further down the narrow street, we noticed a change in the ambiance.  There were decidedly fewer foreigner accents, and many more "regular" people just going about their daily activities.  We walked past a small restaurant with all sorts of fresh fish on display in the window.  Scott was a little unsure at first, but we took a quick glance at the menu and, with our elementary grasp of Portuguese combined with some educated guessing, we surmised that there were at least a few non-fish options and that the prices were fairly reasonable.

We ventured inside and used hand gestures to indicate that we wanted a table for two.  That was our first indication that this was going to be a good meal--no one spoke English! We muddled through the menu for a few minutes before the waiter realized our difficulties and brought us an international menu.  He tried to speak to us in German, but when that didn't work out, he reverted back to handle signals.  Apparently, we don't look very American, because this was only the first of many instances in which someone would first attempt to speak to us in German.  Maybe I should have chosen a different language in high school!

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Although some of the translations on the English menu were a bit strange, we cross-referenced between the Portuguese and Spanish translations to get the best idea of what it was we were ordering.  Scott ending up getting a meat platter with pork and liver, while I got a traditional Portuguese dish made with corvina.  I wasn't really sure what that was, but I knew I wanted something Portuguese and the waiter assured me that that was a good choice.  Good thing I was really hungry, because corvina is apparently a giant fish (the best translation in English is "seabass," although I don't think it's exactly the same).  The dish I got was a stew of sorts made of potatoes and vegetables in a tomato sauce, with a huge slab of this giant fish plunked right on top.  It was served in something similar to a casserole dish, with a bowl on the side to dish the portions into.  I was told that it was a single-serving portion, but I'm pretty sure that this "single" they're talking about is a 300-pound Portuguese fisherman.  Normally, Scott helps me finish any extra portions of food that I can't get to, but he is really anti-fish.  He did brave one (very tiny) bite, declared it "very fishy," and refused to look at it anymore.  I'm proud to say that I ate the whole thing but two potatoes all by myself!  I'd forgotten my camera at the hotel, but this picture from another website gives you an idea of what the dish was.  Just multiply that by about 6 servings.  Yum!

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After lunch, we waddled back to our hotel to check in.  The receptionists were much more attentive this time, and we were sent up to our room in no time.  We were on the third floor, and after walking down what seemed like endless corridors, we found our room towards the back of the hotel.  Apparently, the hotel was made by combining four or five different buildings all into one giant one, so some of the halls were somewhat labyrinthine.  We did eventually find our room, though, and were pleasantly surprised to see a large window that could let in the warm sunshine.  Upon opening it, we realized that we had a wonderful view of... the wall of the other side of the building.  This ended up working to our advantage, though, because the outside rooms all faced right onto the busy street and were quite noisy at all hours of the night.  While we didn't get our beautiful view, we did get quite a bit of sunshine and definitely appreciated the peace and quiet at night.  We unpacked our stuff and relaxed for a few minutes before heading out into the "warm" weather (50° F!) to explore our surroundings.

Half Term Travels

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So after about three days in "sunny" England, I decided that was just about enough of that and it was time to start looking for a more temperate climate.  Luckily, Scott's school was letting out for half term during the second week of February, so I didn't have to wait long.  The only problem was that there are so many awesome places to visit so nearby, we didn't know how to narrow it down!  Scott graciously let me have the honors of finding the ideal location, so the first thing I did was sign up for as many discount travel sites as possible.  This only served to magnify the conundrum, as I was now receiving almost hourly updates on the new *amazing* deals to some exotic location, but only if I bought the tickets right now!  So, I did the most logical thing in this situation: I randomly clicked on a link to see where it would take me.

This particular link took me a to a deal with for a week in Portugal.  I didn't know much of Portugal and never really had too much of an interest to learn more, but the price was good (and the weather was forecast to be pretty nice), so I asked Scott what he thought about going.  To my surprise, he was very enthusiastic; apparently, he had always wanted to go to there!  So, I booked the deal and got to daydreaming about the nice, warm weather.

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Because we got the tickets for such a good price, they departure flight was from a different airport than the return flight.  The return flight came in to Gatwick, one of the two major London airports, so I wasn't too worried about finding transportation from there.  The outgoing flight, however, left from "Luton Airport," which neither Scott nor I had ever heard of.  Luckily, we found a company that runs shuttles from Cambridge to all the London area airports.  At £15 per person for the ride, I thought the fare was a bit steep, but Scott told me that the U.K. is known for having expensive transportation because it is not run or subsidized by the government as it is most countries.  This has been somewhat of an adjustment from me, coming from Chile where I could travel halfway across the country for $30, moving to the U.K. where that money might get me as far as London (if I can find a discount fare).

Our flight to Lisbon was schedule to leave Luton at 7:40 on Monday morning., so to avoid the hassle of getting lost and possibly missing the infrequent early morning buses from our house, we booked a room at the airport hotel.  The website said it was only a ten minute walk away from the terminals, so we could get some extra sleep and just head over by foot in the morning.  Theoretically, this was a good plan.  We relaxed and got some household chores done on Sunday, and went into Cambridge around 5:00 to catch the shuttle.  We found the bus stop easily enough, but had some trouble finding the right bus to get on.  We tried to ask one of the bus drivers, but she looked confused and told us "that bus doesn't usually leave from here," and suggested we go to the main terminal.  We were fairly certain that our tickets were for the stop that we were at, so we went to look at the route map just to make sure.  Sure enough, Luton was on the list.  We figured that maybe the driver was new to this route or something, so we went to ask another driver.

He too gave us an odd look and told us that we should probably go to the other terminal.  Confused, we pulled out the electronic text message we had received as out ticket and showed it to him.  After wading through the garbled mess that occurs when you use a standard phone to receive smartphone messages, he finally found the actual message, and a light bulb went on in his head.  "Oh," he said, "you're going to Luton!" Scott and I looked at each other, befuddled--isn't that what we'd been saying all along?!  We expressed this to the driver, who told us that we had been asking for London!  Apparently, Luton should be pronounced with a long "u" sound, whereas we had been using a short "u" sound.  This, combined with our highly exotic American accents, produced some confusion. 

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With the help of the second driver, we eventually figured things out.  He helped us decipher the text message tickets and told us that we had actually purchased a later trip, scheduled to leave at 8:30 p.m.  It was only just 6:00 at the time, and we really weren't looking forward to waiting outside in the cold for another two and a half hours.  Luckily, the driver was very accommodating, and agreed to let us on to his earlier shuttle.  We were especially grateful for his generosity when we looked out the window ten minutes later and saw that it had begun to snow significantly!  By the time we got near the airport about an hour later, there was a good couple inches of snow on the ground.  Turns out, a ten minute walk seems significantly longer when you're wearing "breathable" sneakers.  It also didn't help that we started out on the other side of the road and walked halfway to the hotel before we realized we wouldn't be able to cross the street and had to backtrack back to the airport again.

But we finally made it to the hotel and got checked it.   We were very grateful for the fact that each room had its own heater, and took full advantage.  We settled into the room, got out of our wet clothes, and just huddled up next to the heater for a while.  Eventually, hunger won out so we went to the lobby restaurant to grab a quick dinner.  Scott had an authentic English pie and I had some (probably also English) fish.  We also shared some cider (yes, we're lightweights and can only handle one pint between the two of us).  We then headed up to our room to get some rest and hope that the snow would let up before our flight the next morning.