I do try to travel a lot. When I hear a name of a place in my head appears countless links to different possibilities within at least 300km around. Planning voyages, looking for the cheapest flights and following the couchsurfing website became my hobby actually this year, since with a clear conscience I can call myself strong, independent, self-sufficient and all the feministic adjectives you have ever heard. (Actually my independence ends up with the idea of money and costs – I am a student, but let’s pretend that limitations do not exist, are only in one’s head and all the couch and positive quotes.)
Even though I always check everything ten or more times, my rule is that traveling (here I mean the way between point A and B) without any obstacles, adventures, cancelled flights, missed trains, incorrect tickets etc. does not count. Easy journey is for the lesser mortals. Real explorers prefer solving problems and jumping through a hoop (this is the way I excuse my clumsiness).
The way from my home and new life in Portugal could not be different. Although I had two weeks for preparations, and I planned everything perfectly (I thought so) the reality was not so ideal. Problems appear already before my train to Gdansk. For two weeks I was deeply convinced that my plane flies out at 8pm. I booked my train for 1 pm because I wanted to be at the airport earlier (more than 3 hours) to make everything calmly and have peace in mind. But surprisingly about midday my boarding card showed me departure time 6pm. How it is possible??? No idea. However I managed to be on time at the airport thanks to super clever train change (admittedly without peace in mind). Phew! Somebody was supposed to pick us from the airport so now it’s easy-peasy. Flight went without any disturbances (once someone has smoked in my plane, also funny story) and on Aeroporto de Lisoboa I was waiting for my luggage. Due to the spoiler in the title you know that it was broken. So now the important announcement. Do not leave the airport with demaged suitcase! Go to lost and found centre, talk with a nice guy, there give basic information about kind of demage, age and price of the baggage and only then you are free (I haven’t received any reimbursement yet so I am not sure if it works but if I would have not done that, I would not count on anything for sure). Now I need only to make a complaint online and hopefully I won’t go bankrupt because of the new suitcase. I reached the final point, traditionally without boredom.
Ok, so one part of the title is obvious for now. What about the rest? It will be shorter, I promise. This is my second time in Portugal and I am here only for 2 days. Even though there are things that surprise me. Actually I think it might be really interesting for Portugese to read about such cases. I mean that issues which are obvious for a group of people can be abstract for others. My first problem appeared when in the evening I tried to make my bed. In Poland we put whole duvet inside of case (similar to the pillow case but bigger) and button up. Simple as that. Here I received only sheets and had no idea what to do with the duvet. Luckily my new friend showed me that mysterious way how to use that. And the second thing is buying bread rolls. I went to the supermarket and I could buy only 4 bread rolls. Sorry, my mistake. I could also buy 8 bread rolls, and 12 and 16. But couldn’t 1 or 3 or7 or 17. It’s really weird for me that bread rolls are packed and I am not doing that by myself and cannot take the number I want. Silly but interesting case.
Ok and now kind of personal philosophical traversable about life, passing and so on. Always when I go somewhere I create some pictures in my mind. How will the place look like, the life, the people, generally the reality. And obviously it always turns out different than in my imagination. No exceptions here. I planned a lot. Sightseeing, surfing, languages learning, books reading and so on and so on. And when I reached the final point the distances turned out greater and the communication more complicated. The prices a little bit higher and the working hours different than I thought. And it is normal. It is completely normal that new things are different than we expected them to be at the beginning. It does not mean they are worse. I live in a great apartment, already met nice people and the money will cover essential costs. I have already been able to explore surroundings and admire Lisbon from the other side of the river. So everything is perfect. Just different.
I have never written blog. The posts here will be kind of my diary from Portugal. I don’t think that many people will read that but actually I think it might be quite funny to read it in a few months and compare how silly I was.
I probably forgot, my name is Monika, I came to Miratejo in Portugal to make a European voluntary in RATO organization, that’s why my post appears on that website. I will stay here for two months and post texts each week.
Congratulations to anybody who reach that point!
