A Simple Little Side Trip

Well, something had to go wrong! It was all just too perfect. ..😳

As I go back to Australia soon, and I’ve now finished school, I thought it would be a great idea to travel a bit before I leave. The day started in a very relaxed manner. I heard Gonzalo come home at about 5.30am and I was excited to get going, so I made a leisurely breakfast, and wandered out into the street to await the taxi. Number one pleasant surprise was that my taxi not only turned up exactly on time but my driver was the wonderful, always cheerful, handsome Juan!!!

Number two surprise was that as I only had hand luggage, I breezed through customs etc and even had time for a coffee.

I had a Window seat, Dutch man beside me who couldn’t speak English (so no talking-yay) and the flight took off in time. We landed in Madrid 20 minutes early, I wandered to the gate and boarded the next flight. No time though in between flights Elizabeth to try that pumpkin spiced latte, but I did get a photo 😂Perfect!😀

I was too scared to think this could continue but I was busy congratulating myself anyway and feeling really chuffed that Mercury is not in retrograde this time ! But Uh oh..

The next flight had me sitting beside a very sweet Spanish girl who buried her head in a book and didn’t surface till the end. Bonus! Thought I’d hit the jackpot again… However, this is where things took a turn for the worse. A Spanish man of rather large proportions sitting beside her kept clearing his throat in the most disgusting way. He did fall asleep when we took off though and I could almost hear a collective sigh from those surrounding. It was interrupted by his extremely loud snoring and gasping for air every now and again. He had food stains on the front of his shirt and I’m sure he hadn’t washed his hair in the recent past. That ‘unwashed man’ smell began to permeate the air and I was so grateful to have the young Spanish beauty as a buffer. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Soon sleep apnoea man was snoring from both ends, leaving us almost dry retching, wondering what he ate for dinner last night😳 oh my Lordy lord!

When we landed he heaved himself out of his seat, somehow managed to tuck his filthy shirt into his pants and let out a really “oh I’m so refreshed” yawn. Sheesh!

So then I got my Portuguese SIM card and had to work out how to get a train ticket- everything was in Portuguese! Enter Emanuel, a very helpful security guy. He did it all for me and even explained which platform I needed and how to change lines etc.

Three trains later, I arrived at my destination, Portugal’s ‘venice’. My AirB&B host George, had been messaging me non stop with directions and questions about what time I was arriving. Of course I had no idea. I was busy trying to work out where I was, where I had come from and where I was going. Turned out he had a burst water pipe which had flooded the kitchen, so he had to find me somewhere else to stay! Shit! I was exhausted. I followed his directions to the river, crossed the bridge and waited for him …. and waited some more. I took a lovely photo of some old people.

And played with Snapchat…

And came across this…Then I got a message that his daughter had a doctor’s appointment and his wife couldn’t take her. I dragged my exhausted arse upstairs and ate McDonalds while I waited some more.

Eventually, George turned up and walked me to my ‘new’ place. It’s a palace in a really posh building..way too posh for me. I’m rattling around in a New York style apartment with a spectacular view of the cemetery, but George reassured me that ‘we don’t worry about that’.

I’m now sitting on the new sofa that was delivered this morning, disappearing into the squishy cushions, wine in one hand and chocolate beside me. The weirdest thing is that I’m watching Australian TV shows!!!(with Portuguese sub titles).

Wonder what tomorrow will bring😳