Why write this blog

My photo
It is a way of giving my other self, my unconscious and perhaps artistic self, a way of expressing itself, and thereby helping me working things out. It is somewhat cathartic in a positive way. :)

12 March, 2010

On the way to Portugal

So far so good, got to Porto on time and I'm now in the last leg of the journey, coach from Porto to Viseu, through the beautiful countryside of northern Portugal. I'm at the ready to take some pictures!
The journey in England was fine, I was dreading having to catch the tube to get the connecting train but it was pretty straightforward, taxi was on time didn't have to wait long for the train got a tube pretty quickly and didn't have to wait long for the connecting train either.
Checking in with RyanAir could have been a bit more organised but it was ok. Boarding the plain amused me, we had to wait, literally, for all the passengers from the previous flight to come out of the plane before we were allowed in, ah cheap airlines!!
Anyway, arrived at Porto 15 minutes early, to be fair the bags were out very quickly, got some euros out of the ATM and got myself a taxi to take me to the coach station, taxi driver amused me, he asked me where I was going, I said Viseu and he promptly replied that he could have taken me, I had already bought the coach ticket on the Internet but I asked him how much it would cost anyway, and he says, with the straighest of faces, only 75 euros not expensive at all, I played along, my coach ticket cost me 9.50, not expensive indeed!!
First experience of buying anything online in Portugal didn't go very well, there's this tiny little collection machine hiding in the corner of the waiting room of the garage ahem..., coach station!, and it gives me completely wrong tickets luckily the kiosk attendant was very helpful and gave me the correct collection number.
With half an hour to kill, I went to get some food, a coffee (galão) a savoury (pastel de bacalhau) and a croissant with ham and cheese, even something so simple as this is delicious in my home country, abs the coffee!!! Oohhg, divine, just what I needed!
Right, in the coach now, a couple of hours, my cousin (who's getting married tomorrow and the reason I'm on holiday) is picking me up, I need to start thinking in Portuguese pretty soon.
Lastly, my iPhone us useless as a phone over here because of the nature of my contract, but, it us also a digital camera, a notepad for my writing and more importantly the iPod I think has just made the whole journey a whole lot more pleasant and relaxing! Happy days!




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