Portuguse national holiday & public strikes - my new adventures.

Found today on the way to Bairro Alto

Since ever of my Spanish life experience of "random" holidays appearing, here i mean the ones that I did not know before due to the new culture and no previous information....anyhow,  i hope you got the point...so yes, these random appearing holidays is a great stuff, and not knowing everything sometimes turns out to be an amazing surprise and new adventures, like it happen with me today.

So as I got to know yesterday, then today`s the national holiday of Portugal, where they celebrate a religious day for one of the Goddesses. A great chance for me to take the middle of the week day to do some fun stuff. That what I thought yesterday...

Oh well, things changed on the morning when the portuguse language class was cancelled due to fact that my evs/flatmate Olja got stuck in Lisboa, as went there yesterday and no trains coming to Sintra this morning...yes, as i found out today, then workers got on strike due to changes of law that terminates they payouts of overwork hours, If hearing of the changes, then who likes to work extra and not get paid double but just quarter of it, i wouldn`t...anyhow, the strike took all day long and no trains there...

My plan of maybe going to beach, maybe to Lisboa instead or maybe finally checking out some fun things in IKEA puffed out just like that...that what i first thought.

So what to do within the National holiday and with no transportation to move around from Sintra side? I made the pre-research of any option to get myself to Lisboa with busses instead of trains, but the current public transport weirdness did not allow me to find any decent way for it, as they like to have each of the city parishes their own bus services and no place to check or plan the complete trip, neither even google could do anything of this...

Somewhere in Old Town @Lisboa

In the end i took the idea of checking out of how far i will get with the local bus, that luckily passes my place every hour...however in the end I did not try the ride, as a guy found me just in the bus stop and as first thought of me being local aka portuguese...yes, yes, that really happen...then in the end we ended up sharing a cab to Lisboa, as he had to go there, but i was completely fine of the invitation to join him if i want. Thank you Emanuel for such a nice guesture, you made the big part of my today`s start of adventures.

After having some quality time with great views and time for some city sightseeings and some pastelarias, then afterwards i had to find the way of how I will go back home...august vacations and no local friends in Lisboa as it turned out, so no chance to be hosted...oh well, but i was ready to take the adventure and not cab again to get back myself....

First by the tourist info centers girls recommendation i was sent to certain bus, however while waiting ages for that to show up and with another bus lines drivers advice, i found myself on the way to IKEA...yes yes, so I managed to not only to go to Lisboa but also to IKEA, which is on the home side, however its not really matching much of directions...IKEA was fun, however as its the holiday they close too early for me to check out things i wanted...

Yes, i did it. IKEA was there for me today too

after the IKEA visit, still with the given guidelines and after waiting of I don`t know how much of time, but it went like ages, i managed to catch the bus that was previously recommended...and even after hour or so ride i found myself in the place that was told to grab the taxi for the last short ride home...oh well, if there would be any taxis that would been an end of the story...but it turn out that the bus i arrived was not only the last one, but also that the place is so silent and not really people around that chance to get taxi almost impossible...

After double times rechecking the chance to move myself somewhere, I managed to meet Emil, who was as desperate as me, as he had to get himself to Lisboa this eve...so after some chit chat the smartest idea was for me to go back till the previous suburb center, that suited also him as it was on the way to Lisboa. After some walking, i came up with the idea of hitchhiking the car to get there, as not really knowing the distance to go may be wrong. And the first car we tried to stop...it actually stopped...and nevertheless they were already three in the car, they were so kind of helping us out, that in a very short time we found ourselves where we wanted to go. And here the big thanks goes also for Emil, as luckily he`s partially portuguese, so knowing the local language is a need.

oh well, the last part of the going home trip was the easiest, short taxi ride and I was home with no other adventures

To sum up...thanks to strike day, it took me instead of usual half an hour train ride exactly three hours to get myself home again. Thank you all strikers, i hope your day was as adventurous as mine.

Well, the party in the bar opposite side of street seems to be over, time to get ready of the new working day...lets see how my works develops, cannot wait to see myself busy,

Sleep tight,

S.