Blog-A-Thon …

So, yeah, I took the summer off from blogging. Not because I didn’t feel like writing, but more because I just couldn’t find the time. I am finished with this sabbatical. I have so many posts that need to be written. I’ve been making notes and will have them up soon.

My first priority was to get my Portugal posts up. Today was a blog-a-thon day for me. A day to get back on track. A day to put my writing back on my priority list.

I hope that you enjoy reading about my trip to Portugal. As I was writing them today, I enjoyed reliving the trip …

Oh The Frustration …

I was on a mission tonight. And all looked good. I was going to upload my Portugal pictures and write a blog post. That’s all that I planned on doing. My dinner plans fell through because one of my friends was feeling under the weather, so I had the evening free. And knowing that I have over 2000 pictures to upload, I knew that I would need a fair amount of time to focus on this task.

I’ve mentioned many times how much of a perfectionist I am with my writing. When it comes to posting photos, I am just as bad. I love taking photos. It is another art that has always intrigued me. I’ve been camera happy for as long as I can remember, and when I present my work, I like to ensure that it flows correctly. Perfectionism – it may be the death of me, but at least I would die knowing that my work was presented in the way that I wanted it to be.

So, anyways, here I am, all set to upload my pictures to my computer so that I can load them up online and share them with everyone who cares to view and live through the amazement that I enjoyed for 3 weeks in May.

At first attempt, I tried uploading all 2077 pictures in one photo dump. The program froze at photo 55. Lol – guess that’s not going to work. I try again, this time batching my photos into more manageable chunks. Things were moving along smoothly until ……… My computer decided it no longer wanted to work. ARGH!!!! And when I say that my computer did not want to work, I’m not kidding. It froze. There is absolutely nothing that I can do but restart. In fact, I’m actually writing this post on my iPhone. Because my computer sucks!!!

I think that I need a new one. But in the meantime, I need to do a bit of a disk cleanup to get it working again.

Blah, thanks for letting me vent!!

The photos will get posted soon. I’m determined. But unless someone decides to drop off a computer at my doorstep tonight, it may not happen tonight.

Anyways, that’s all that I have to say on the matter. On a happier note, I am back! And I have a whole journal of entries that will be posted shortly outlining the trip and the fun that I had … For your reading enjoyment. Stay tuned for that!

A Long Day …

I’m home. Back in Van. The trip is over.  It’s really quite surreal to be home.  Surreal, but good.

It was a long day. An emotional day. A scary day.  Yes, I said scary.

We started our day with the scare.  We woke up at 5:30 am as planned, since we had an 8:30 am flight from Lisbon to Frankfurt, before heading on the plane to Vancouver.  All was going well, for about 10 minutes.  I was up and all packed. I double-checked my room, confirmed that I had everything and then went over to my parents’ room to let them know that I was going to head downstairs and jump on the Internet while I waited for them.

Before I get into the scare, I will start off by saying the rooms in our hotel were VERY small. So small, that we had to book two rooms. And the shower was just that – a shower, no bathtub, and not fully enclosed.  There was just a glass screen that covered just enough of the area to MINIMIZE water spraying onto the floor in the rest of the bathroom. Add the fact that the bathroom was tiled, and that could be scary.  And it was.  As I was talking to my mom at the door of her room, my dad slipped on the wet tile floor and fell…..  My heart stopped for a second.  It was scary.  He was hurt.

Luckily he did not hit his head, but he did hurt his foot and may lose his toenail.  As I said, a scary start to the day. Not a good start to the day.

My dad didn’t want to go to the hospital, and we did have a flight to make, so my mom wrapped up his foot and we headed to the airport.  We requested special assistance for my dad as we checked in.  Got him in a wheelchair and were on our way.

Little did we know, this incident that we had was the only reason why we made it home today.  A blessing in disguise, even though I would rather get stuck in Frankfurt if it meant that my dad DIDN’T get hurt.  See, our flight out of Lisbon was delayed by an hour.  Apparently the wrong food cart had been loaded on the plane and needed to be changed.  This was not good.  Being one hour late meant that we were going to have to run to our connecting flight.

I am not sure if you know, but Frankfurt airport is HUGE … it is one of the biggest airports in the world, after all.  So, the fact that we did not have a lot of time between flights AND the fact that we still had to go through customs to do so was quite unnerving.  And that is where the wheelchair assistance made sure that we made it home on time and are not sitting in an airport hotel in Frankfurt right now.  We were carted over to the gate where the drama continued.  When we checked in in Lisbon, they were able to check us into our Frankfurt flight, but couldn’t print out our boarding passes. For some reason.  We were told that we would be able to get our passes at the gate.  When we got off the plane and were greeted by the wheelchair assistant, she informed us that we shouldn’t worry, but needed to get there quickly.

And we ran.  She maneuvered my dad’s wheelchair while my mom and I ran through the halls.  We were rushed through customs (we NEVER would have made it through customs in time without the special assistance – the line was LONG!), and we finally arrived at the gate.  They did not have boarding passes for us.  We were NOT checked into our flight.  After a discussion between our assistant and the lady at the gate, thankfully they were able to get us on the plane.  In business class.  Yup, business class.  Yes, a blessing in disguise.

We had joked throughout the trip that we should fly business class on the way home.  Who would have known that that dream would actually happen.  And it really WAS a dream.  Whatever I wanted to drink was mine.  My seat turned into a bed. I was given a care package, which included an eye mask, a toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, ear plugs, and some lip balm.  My seat had a massage function. The movie selection was better. The food was better. Life in business class is really amazing.  I will never look at flying the same again. Hahaha

Lounging in Business Class

And now we’re back.  My eyes are still adjusting from the sensory overload that I faced – traveling back in time meant that for 9 hours it was ALWAYS 3:00 pm.  Every time we crossed to a new time zone, it was the same time.  The sun should have gone down hours ago, but it has not.  It’s time for me to sleep.

And I will let you know that my dad is doing much better and is getting checked out by the doctors in Oliver to make sure that all is good with his foot.  It may take some time to heal, but he is doing well.

The end to an amazing trip … thank you to my parents for taking me on this adventure.

Lisbon

A day of sightseeing in Lisbon. And what a day we had!  We started our day with breakfast and then headed for the subway to explore the city.

We started our tour by checking out the Mosteiro des Jeronimos. It was amazing, as everything that I’ve seen on this trip has been.  We then headed over to the Discoveries Monument, where we watched a film on the history of Lisbon and enjoyed the views from the monument.  We were able to see the Belém Tower from the monument, but we didn’t get a chance to actually visit it.

After visiting the monument and the monastery, we had a quick lunch and then headed on our way for more sights.  We stopped at the Coach museum along the way, before heading up to the Ajuda Palace.

By the time we were finished checking out the Ajuda Palace, we were quite tired and hungry, so we quickly checked out the Marquês de Pombal Square, and then set out in search for a place to eat along the river.  We found a place, but unfortunately it was too early for dinner.  In Portugal they do not even START serving dinner until 7:30, and it was 6:30 at the time.  Hungry, we had a few tapas and a couple of drinks and then continued on our journey.  I must say that I was quite disappointed with the fact that there wasn’t a restaurant open for dinner when we were ready to eat.  Because we only had the one day to explore the city, time was not our friend.  Had we waited until 7:30 to begin to eat, we would not be able to see any more sights.  Even with us being where we were at 6:30, we were already making concessions as to which sights we could see.

So, our little dinner/snack was finished and we still had a bit of time left in our day.  We were only able to see one more attraction, even though there were so many more that we wanted to see… St. George’s Castle, Sintra, and of course the Belém Tower would have to wait until the next time I visit this beautiful city.

Instead, we headed over to the Parque das Nações, which was the site for Expo 1998.  The architecture there was amazing, and the location proved to be a great way to end an amazing trip.  We walked around the area for a bit, did a bit of shopping in the mall and then headed back to our hotel.

We have to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow …. the trip is over ……. but first, here are my Lisbon pics!

Did I Mention That I Hate Good-Byes?

I cried.  I cried for about 45 minutes straight after leaving avó and avô and heading to Lisbon on the bus.  I HATE GOOD-BYES!!

It was such a good time with them.  They were so happy to have us and we were so happy to be with them.  I hate leaving them.  I know that I will see them in 6 months when they arrive for their yearly 6 month Canada stint.  But still, I cried.  And I cry every time they leave back to Portugal.  Every year.  That’s just how I am.  I will never change.

We arrived in Lisbon.  We are officially on the final home stretch.  Tomorrow we will do some Lisbon sightseeing and Saturday at 8:35 am we begin our trek back to Canada.  Or as I like to call it: Our trek back in time.  Heading back in time in search of those 8 hours that we lost when we got here.

An Ant Bit A Hole In My Toe.

I repeat, an ANT bit a hole into my toe.  OUCH!!  We made it to two castles today.  The first one was in Belmonte.  It looked pretty cool and I took a few photos, but it was closed so we couldn’t walk in.

Moving along, we headed to a town called Sortelha.  This castle was really cool.  It was huge!!  So big that there is a town built inside it.  Not a functioning town now, but it looks like it may have once been.

I took a lot of photos there.  Now, if you are ever going to check out castles, wear runners or closed-toe shoes.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT wear sandals.  Do not leave your feet open to bugs.  At one point, I was standing taking a photo when my left foot was swarmed by ants.  And they were the eating kind of ants.  It was hurting, so I freaked out and kicked them off me.  It wasn’t until we returned to the car that I realized that the ants actually drew blood on my toe.  And, when I got home and started cleaning it, I noticed that they actually bit a bit of a hole in that toe.  The size of a pen dot, but still a hole nonetheless.

After our castle day, we headed over to our tio’s place for dinner.  He’s my avô’s brother and it was his 70th birthday, so it was a fun time.  Good food, great wine, a bit of aguardente and the night was great.  And then came the time to say good-bye.  We head for Lisboa tomorrow and then home to Canada on Saturday.  I hate good-byes ….

A Different Agenda

Today was spent mainly at the house.  My dad woke up feeling a little better, but they needed to head back to a doctor (to get his dressing changed) and also to head out to deal with more car stuff.  I opted to stay at the house, mainly because my allergies were still getting the better of me.  I slept much of the day, headed into town for a brief Internet session and read a book.  It was relaxing and definitely needed, considering my allergy situation.  When they were finished running around, my dad took a nap, as he really needed some rest.  We are a bunch of broken people right now. haha

I am not sure if I will get to see any castles this week, but that’s ok.  My dad’s health is way more important.

A Weird Kind of Day

Today started off like many of the other days, but it sure didn’t end that way.  We got up early, had breakfast and then headed into Fundão to check out the Feira again.  It happens only on Mondays, so this is a weekly ritual for my grandparents.  The Feira is more than just clothes and shoes and purses, but it is also a market for cheese and fish and meat.  As we were looking for parking, we got into a bit of an accident.  My avô backed into our rental car.  Not a good way to start the day, and a definite way to put a wrench in our plans for the week.

So, as my parents and my avô drove around to deal with the car issue, my avõ and I walked through the Feira.  We did a bit of shopping and then we all met up for lunch.

There is something in the air in this area that is really aggravating my allergies, so when we got back to the house, I had to go lay down for a bit.  We had a couple of hours to waste before the game, so it was perfect for me to have a nap.  Note to self: NEVER leave the country without your allergy medication.  The country that you travel to may not have the same quality of stuff for you.  The allergy meds here put me to sleep and don’t really cure me.  It’s as if they are saying “here: just go to sleep and keep sleeping until your allergies are not bothering you anymore.” Ah well, I wasn’t going to let it interfere with the game.

We arrived at the stadium early – 2 hours early – so we just hung out while we waited for it to start.  My allergies got worse.  In the hour and a half game, I sneezed constantly.  In retrospect, I kind of wish that I had counted how many times I sneezed, or better yet, how many sneezes per hour.  It was insane!!

The game was good.  Quite lively, I took tons of photos.  It ended in a scoreless tie, but I still enjoyed every minute of it.  And why wouldn’t I?  I was at a professional futebol game between two World Cup contendors. =)

After the game, we went to the hospital – for four hours.  Without going into specifics, my dad had a minor skin issue that was beginning to get badly infected, so we headed to emergency to get them to look at it.  And, we all know how “quick” and “fun” emergency rooms are …

Oh what a day …. :S

The Scenic Route

I’m officially on the home stretch.  6 days from today, I will be back on a plane, heading home.  Portugal has amazed me.  It really is everything that I dreamed it would be and more.  I could see myself here for a long period of time.

But, at the same time, it’s not home.  It’s not my bed.  My friends are not easily accessible.  And I’m kind of sick of this VW Polo.  I am quite glad that we don’t have Polo’s in Canada because I will be quite happy to never be in one again.

The last few days I’ve received random messages from people through various channels (twitter/facebook/email/text) asking how my trip is going and saying that they miss me.  Thank you.  It made me smile to know that I’ve been missed.  I’ve wondered before if I make that much difference in people’s lives.  And, although I’ve always known that the answer is yes, it is nice to have it proven to me.

If I disappear, people notice. =)

We’re almost back in Silvares.  We woke up in Lagos this morning to a cold wind and rain clouds in the sky.  Yes – it was a good day to leave.  We took the scenic route home – went to Almada before driving to Silvares.  Almada is right by Lisbon, and is the city where my mom grew up.  We stopped to see the Cristo Rei,

a monument built overlooking Lisbon and the Taigus river, a monument of Christ The King (Cristo-Rei) built to watch over the city of Lisbon and the fishermen as they go out to fish the river.  It was built in the 50′s and is yet another amazing monument and piece of history.

Alright, let’s recap – I have now completed the church portion of this trip, the wine portion of the trip is almost complete (I still need to buy a Port – we may run over to Porto on Tuesday), tomorrow we will fulfill our bonus futebol portion (I had only expected to buy a jersey for the world cup; a jersey and a world cup warm-up futebol game sounds just a little better); all that is left is the castle portion.  Considering we head to Lisbon on Thursday, I guess Wednesday is castle day!

Our journey continues …

What Country Am I In Again?

Since I stepped foot in the Algarve, I haven’t really needed to speak a word of Portuguese.  Apparently this is a key tourist spot for many Europeans – the English especially, so everyone speaks English here.  It’s been kind of odd.  I know that I’m in Portugal, but it doesn’t really sound like it.

Today was a relaxing day.  After finally giving up on my beach day, I walked back to the hotel.  If I can’t spend the day in the ocean, I may as well lay around by the pool and tan.  My parents were just hanging out in our room, not doing much, so I invited them to join me down by the pool.  We did that for a bit then headed over to the spa when the key sun hours were over.  I didn’t get a spa treatment, but I did take advantage of the amenities – fitness centre, pool, hot tub (although it was more of a jetted warm pool – wasn’t all that hot), turkish bath and sauna. Ahhhh … total relaxation.

Now, I know that this wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do in the Algarve, but it was still nice.  The weather didn’t co-operate, but I didn’t let it get me down.  I still have a nice tan and we’re coming into summer – now that I have a car, trips to the Okanagan will be much easier. =)

Tomorrow, we will be heading back to Silvares.  Back in the car.  I was so happy to not have to step foot in the car today.