Thank you, Lisbon Airport, for encouraging my adventure!
I had a layover around 4 1/2 hours, and I wasn’t 100% sure if I was gonna leave the airport or now. “I mean… I should! I’m in Portugal!”
“…But also… I’m so tired” *shakes fist at sky “Curse you, Silicon Valley!”
And I didn’t know how long it takes to get through European airports. “Do I even have time to go out an explore.”
As I was trying to follow the signs to see where I’d go to get to my next flight, I was just kinda magically led outside. Like, “Huh. Oh. Well, I thought I was following the signs to a different part of the airport. Aaaaaand now I’m in Portugal.”
I got in a cab, and met Carlos (pronounced Carlosh, because it’s Portugal! So some “s” sounds have an “sh” sound (or at least that’s what I came to understand from Carlos(h).) I was like, “Well, I guess I want to go to… [There was like this aquarium place I kept seeing signs for in the airport.] So, I was like, “Well, I guess I wanna go there. I don’t know. I’m just in Portugal for 4 hours. So, I just wanna go to wherever touristy place makes sense.”
And then he asked if I wanted to take a little tour of Portugal. He gave me a super reasonable rate/good deal. And we were on our way!
He took me around to beautiful views of the city. As we were walking along one area past some shops and things, it was funny that alcohol was sold everywhere. Literally everywhere. There was someone with a table set up on the sidewalk – not a real shop or anything, just a table that sold alcohol.
We also went out to the water. Portugal’s so cool because you’re at the water then you’re at a castle, then you’re in a garden. Like, it’s so beautiful and old school and it has everything within such a short radius.
One of my super favorite things about Portugal is that the attitude there is just so thankful! I learned the word for “thank you” (“obrigado”) And when I asked how to say “you’re welcome,” Carlos told me I just say obrigado back. “Thank you” is met with “thank you”!
And when I felt like I was in someone’s way as we were walking through a crowd, I was like, “How do I say sorry?” And he told me, “We don’t use sorry that way.” Like, what?
It’s so cool! I feel like I use sorry or apologize so much in America (for stuff like that – feeling in the way or whatever), but they don’t use sorry like that. Sorry has deeper meaning and you don’t apologize like that over there. It’s pretty cool.
Anyway, sadly, before you know it, it was time to fly. Off to Spain I went.
And I’ll talk about that tomorrow.