The Long Rocky Road Home

 

And continuing with the theme of little annoyances …

As I was packing up my stuff to leave the hotel, I broke the spoon rest I’d been using since Porto.  That thing lasted a whole year of travel and I break it in Georgia.  Nice.  I’m still going to use it though.

The flight I’d booked out of the country would take me to Philly and then onto Lisbon.  I actually prefer this method of getting out of the U.S. as it makes the transatlantic flight shorter (6 hours as opposed to the direct flight out of Türkiye that took 12 hours).  A good choice … except the flight got delayed.  Twice.  Then, for the first time ever in my traveling life, my flight got cancelled. 

Awesome!  Now what?

At least I’d already had a surprisingly good BBQ chicken pizza (served in a paper bag -- okay) so that I wasn’t starving during the delays.

I got into the very long line of disgruntled passengers for the front desk and heaved a great sigh.  I stood there for about 5-10 minutes, getting more annoyed as the through line for foot traffic was right in front of me, when my phone started pinging.  American Airlines had already rebooked me so there was no need to stand in line.  That was the good news.

The bad news was that instead of going to Philly, I was now headed to O’Hare (that airport is spooky), and Heathrow (yay!  Another stressful run-in with security!), on the way to Lisbon.  This route also meant that I would be too late to make my separate flight to Faro Airport and would have to rebook that one on my own.

Have I mentioned lately that I’m really tired of moving around so much?  That it’s the airports and the crowds, the waiting and the expense that is really getting on my nerves?  

I managed to get through O’Hare at a run so I wouldn’t notice the creepiness and quickly boarded my flight.  In Heathrow, my already tired self got into the stupidly long line for security and prepared for another hassle.  When my computer bag wasn’t flagged, I said Hallelujah so loud the woman next to me snickered.  Lady, you have no idea what I’ve gone through in this airport.

Happily, I arrived in Lisbon, an airport I know so well now I can maneuver around with ease. I was equally happy to see that my two checked bags made it to Lisbon with me (the cancelled flight had me worried). Except … where is the ticket booth for Tap Portugal?  I see the dedicated area for checking in bags, but what about arranging for a new flight?

After wandering around for a while, a woman pointed me in the right direction.  I got to the desk and explained my situation only to be told that the next flight was at 11 p.m. (it was around 3 in the afternoon) and for the privilege of waiting around in the airport for hours, I’d have to pay them another 150 euros.  Seriously?  For a 45-minute flight?

Titanically heavy sigh.

After being extorted, I got my ticket and grabbed a quick meal before heading to security.  This should be a breeze, right?  I mean, I’d traveled across the pond with everything intact and even avoided a long search at Heathrow.  So, nao faz mal (no worries in Portuguese), right?

Except … both of my bags had been checked for the overseas flight.  In order to do that, I had to shift some weight from the large roller bag to the small one.  One of the things I moved over was my big bottle of leave-in conditioner that I can’t get anywhere except from Amazon.  I’d also just filled it up so it was nice and full.

It’s trash now.  Thanks, Portuguese Security!

And I still had an hours-long wait for my flight.  I’d arrive in Faro after 11 after all the shuttle services were closed.  That meant another 100-euro taxi ride to the apartment – which the guy couldn’t even locate at first. And neither could I.

I mentioned in a previous post that the Google Fi service on my phone recently switched my home region from the U.S. to Portugal.  As expected, the service no longer worked in the U.S.  No big deal.  I’m still not a big phone user and most of the time I could just hook up to the hotel Wi-Fi if I needed anything.

Well, I’m back in my beloved Portugal.  Does my phone have full functionality in what is supposed to be my home country?  Nope.  I kept switching from Google Fi to the Esim I’ve been able to use in Cyprus, Türkiye, and Portugal and only the Esim will connect.  What am I paying Google Fi for again?  Oh, right.  Just to annoy and piss me off.

Just … why … this is ... I don’t even know.

The beauty part?  After all that, I finally did make it to the apartment in Portimão and I FREAKING LOVE PORTIMAO! I am very happy to be back here.  I couldn’t book the pink palace where I stayed for two months last year, but I scored a month in the other apartment I stayed in which is almost as good. 

 

And it's a good thing I like this apartment as I've spent more time inside than I'd planned.  The first week was marred with off and on rain almost every day.  The mornings would be sunny and glorious, then by the time I was ready to go out for a walk and lunch, the torrential rains would come.  Kind of annoying.

On one of the days I finally could get out, I went to the beach (of course).  After a long walk, I stopped by a restaurant I liked by the water.  As soon as I sat down, a waitress came over to remove the other 3 place settings.  She looked at me and said “Caipirinha?  Mr. T?”  I just stared at her.  The drink order was correct, but I didn’t recognize the Mr. T part.  I got the menu and noticed that Mr. T was their 30-euro steak entry.  Not what I ordered last time but similar to the steak that I did order.

THE WOMAN REMEMBERED MY FACE AND ORDER FROM 4 MONTHS AGO!!!  HOW?!  WHY?!

The waitstaff I’ve met on my travels have been wonderful.  They’re also a little scary.

Something else scary.  A little over a week after I arrived in Portimão, Heathrow was shut down because of a power outage.  Being a major hub, this disrupted travel for thousands of people.  It might take weeks to recover full function.  It looks like I slipped through just in time.

London’s Heathrow Airport closure causes global travel disruption