Destination Lisbon

So has anybody else ever decided to live somewhere where they have never been? Yes thats what we doing, our second home which is now to be Portugal is a destination I have never been to!!!! Sue has a RESIDENCE permit, and is about to get her card, and I get mine on the 8th March.

Just something fun before I tell more stories, we had two tickets to the business class lounge, and I wanted to get the girls in, so I started a negotiation with the lady at the front, she quickly put me in my place as the French tend to by saying “this is not a market!’, to which I had no response and left the girls to wander the airport with ten euro’s , which bought two coffee’s. Going to have to watch our spending, thats for sure.

There are a few lessons to be learnt, thats for sure. The flight from Paris to Lisbon was easy, thankfully as what lay in wait was clearing the baggage, finding the car, and packing it with all our baggage and surfboards. Before leaving I knew a few things 1) there were 5 travellers 2) there were 3 surfboards 3) there would be approximately 10 suitcases. – this meant we needed a BIG CAR, so I went for a Renault transporter, which seats 9, and boy that was a good move, everything fitted and we didn’t feel squashed or boxed in.

Of coarse here were the first few challenges to overcome

1. LEFT HAND CAR – wow, this is so weird, the passengers held on for dear life, as they perpetually thought I was going to hit things (I didn’t)
2. GPS – very hard to work, we would have been better off getting DATA and using Google maps, – the drive was a nightmare,
3. It was RAINING, so the wipers were going, the windows were misting up, so the adventure was starting
4. We arrived at PEAK hour traffic, so that just added to my woes.
5. Serious lack of sleep, we have been travelling for 37 hours, so I am not as alert as I should be.

So far, all I have experienced is STRESS, and different intensities of it, – It would make me so happy if tomorrow the skies are blue and the roads are empty and the drive to Porto is spacious and beautiful. I guess this is part of the journey, exploration and experimentation?

Lisbon is beautiful this much I do know, and we will explore in the morning before our drive. We staying at the BESSA HOTEL. a 4 star hotel. Perfect for our needs, clean and simple. But guess what : looks like we are the only one’s staying here, as COVID has caused LOCKDOWN, which means no tourists, – rather weird times we living in :

As long as you prepared as my friend Chris Bertish would say, then the obstacles are not obstacles but hurdles which can be overcome. In these weird times, one needs to have all your documents in order, for me its five sets of them, so a system is imperative. I bought a moon bag, which has several compartments, and in the back one, kept the passports , the middle my phone, the next the Covid test results, the next the Residence permits. This way everything was always on hand when I needed them, which is more often than you think.

Travelling far can put your suitcase under duress, and mine did, it broke, and if I was not an old surfer with roof straps, I would have been totally buggered, so a tip – come prepared in whatever way you can, you cant think of everything but you can plan for some mishaps…

Then as we came in late and everything is shut down, due to LOCKDOWN, we had to order UBER-EATS, and there was not a vast choice, so Burger King it was to end off a rather long but fruitful day.