Just my luck - mor about Portugal!!

This trip has been full of randomness, in a really good way. First, when I arrived on the Thursday it happened to be the only night of the week that the bull fights are on. I am not a supporter but it is a very honoured Portuguese tradition that I wanted to experience. (I will describe it in detail in another blog for those who are interested). Secondly, on the day I went to tour one of the castles in the city, there happened to be an extreme bike competition that actually went through the castle grounds. They rode down the stairs and did jumps off one of the walls. It was pretty cool to see. Thirdly, despite having booked a bed in a 10-bed dorm at the hostel they said there was a problem so they put me in a 4-bed dorm but charged me the same price. Not bad. On top of that, they didn’t put anyone else in my room despite quite a few people being put in the other 10-bed dorm on the same floor. So I had a 4-bed room all to myself. Fourthly, my second last night Lisbon’s football (or soccer) team “Benfica” was named League Champions for 2010. I am not even sure how to explain the festivities of that night. People crowded the streets wearing the teams’ scarves and jerseys, there were people hanging out of their cars with flags and signs, floats, double-decker buses filled with people, etc. There were people honking and screaming and climbing street lights and statues everywhere. At some points the entire crowd of people, children, elderly, teens and adults, would all jump up and down, chanting. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what they were chanting but the words campeao and nos sumes were repeated a lot. With my French and English I was able to figure out that they were chanting “We are the Champions”. It was pretty clear. There was a semi-truck bed that had a DJ and lights and sparkles and people were going crazy. It even had a fireworks display. It was such an amazing thing to witness and to be in the middle of. There were hundreds of people filling the square where we were. It is indescribable and something I’ve never seen before and will never forget. And finally, despite the difficulties it caused, it is pretty cool that the Pope arrived in the city where I was and drove past where I was staying.
Overall an amazing (and much needed) trip!! Thanks, Omas and Bucky!!

Volcano and the Pope

It seems odd to have these two in the same sentence but they both caused major problems for my return from Portugal back to Paris. Luckily I was still able to catch my flight out of Lisbon but it was iffy for awhile there. As of Sunday all flights out of Lisbon were cancelled. So I started looking into other options. Basically at the time, my only option was to take a train to the French border then catch another train up to Paris. Might I just add that it was going to cost me 67 euros from Lisbon, all through Portugal and Spain to the French border. Then it was going to cost another 97 euros from the French border to Paris. I knew the French were greedy but really?? I can cross 2 other countries for 2/3 of the price to not even cross the whole of France. Anyways back to the travels themselves. So this 2hour train ride left Lisbon everyday at 4pm. I had to work on Wednesday so I was going to need to take the Monday train. Unfortunately it was already full as of Sunday morning (which actually ended up being a good thing). So I booked a ticket for the Tuesday train, which meant I was going to miss work on Wednesday. However, Tuesday morning, as of 8am, my flight was scheduled to go so I headed to the train station to try and return my train ticket. It took FOREVER for me to get there since with my luck, the Pope was arriving that day to give mass in the main square. Of course, most of the buses weren’t running in the area I needed to go and neither were the metro, thus I walked for almost 45 minutes to get to the train station. Luckily, when I got there I was able to return my ticket. As I was doing so, a lady at another window was looking to buy a train ticket to Paris. So instead of me being charged the 10% administration fee, I got a full 163,20 Euros refund. But they wouldn’t put the money back on my credit card, he just gave me cash, it was a little odd. However, I then had to walk another 45 minutes just to get back to the hostel. I then noticed that people were starting to line up along a street near the hostel. When I asked the guy at the hostel why, he said because the Pope was going to be driving down the road next to the hostel. Great, what did that mean for the buses? I.e. how do I get to the airport? Luckily I gave myself some extra time. I waited for 30 minutes for a bus. The cool thing though is that I got to see the Pope, well his Pope-mobile anyways, as there were a lot of people between me and him and he definitely didn’t go slowly at all. I feel bad for all those people who lined up for at least an hour because it literally took 3 seconds for him to pass by.
However, once at the airport things weren’t over yet. I got to check-in with an hour before it closed but hadn’t paid for my checked bag so I was checked-in but had to go to the ticket office to pay. Unfortunately the ticket office only had 2 windows open and was the same place where people were transferring their missed flights due to the volcano the previous day. Needless to say I waited for about 45 minutes then finally I went to the window (simply to ask if I was actually in the right place) and the lady saw the baggage voucher I had and since I was paying in cash she took me right away. Sweet!!! So I returned to the check-in desk, got my boarding pass, headed to the long line at security and finally made it to my gate as they were calling for final boarding. So in the end it all worked out. Plus, despite the ticket office telling people the flight was full I had an entire 3 seat row to myself!!! Another wild adventure!

orly airport - a little delayed but oh well!

So on my way to Portugal it was my first time at the Paris Orly airport. It is a nice airport and fairly well organized. However, there were a few things that surprised me. First, how quickly I was through security. It took litterally less than two mintues. Secondly, while I was sitting waiting to board the bus to get to the plane a blue army tank-like vehicle drove by. There was a solider standing up half out of the top part as well as a Gendarmerie (police) officer popping out of another area. They drove back past where I was a second time. Clearly not in attack mode but still fairly odd. Plus the blue makes them quite noticable so they def don't have the whole camoflauge thing going. The third thing I thought was interesting was the route the bus took. As it winded in and out of areas it was very clear that most people who work at airports don't work all that hard, at least here. We went past an area that had litterally 15 grounds crew guys sitting having a smoke and a coffee. We also drove past an area where they load the baggage onto the cars to take to the planes and both the guys were there standing beside the stopped converyor belt as well as a car loaded with bags ready to go. One of the guys was reading a newspaper while the other was on his phone. I am sure they work hard when they do work but in typical French fashion they don't seem to work all that often! lol

my first real travels for the year

So my trip to Portugal was much needed but it was off to a rough start. I had packed the night before and was all ready to go. All I had to do was get up, shower, get dressed and head out the door. That all seemed to go well despite it being 7am. I headed to Gare du Nord to catch the RER B to take it to the airport. i paid the 8euros for the special ticket to get me there. however, this is where the fun began. As I was getting to the lower level of the tracks an annoucement came on saying that the train would wait on the tracks for a moment due to a suspicious, abandoned bag at the net station. The announcement then said the train would stay there until further notice. By 8:10am the train still hadn't moved and there was no indications of it moving anytime soon. So I headed upstairs to go grab a taxi outside. However, I was clearly not the only one with this idea. I got to the taxi stop and waited. And waited, and waited and waited. After about 30 mintues of waiting, an older man behind me noticed my luggage (which by the way was only a small carry-on bag, and my purse. For those who know me and my packing habits should be very impressed!!) I was next to get a taxi and he asked if I was going to the airport and if so, which one. Luckily he was heading to the same one and asked if I would mind splitting the cab. I said not at all. Oh but the fun didn't stop here. Because obviously there had to be more traffic and more construction than normal espceially since it was now 8:45. The problem is that my flight was at 10:50 which means the check-in closes at 9:50. Finally, 20 euros and almost an hour later (9:38 to be exact) I arrived at the airport. Luckily my check-in gate was a 2 minute walk from where the cab dropped me off. Plus it was obvious that I was not the last one to get there. So although my cab cost me less than I had expected it was still just as stresful. Leave it to Paris to have no other way to get to the airport quickly or cheaply if the trains don't work! lol
At least I got there and was off to Portugal!! More to come!