So late last night as the plane taxied away from the terminal at Logan, I did what all the guidebooks suggest to combat jet lag, I set my watch to Lisbon time - 5 hours ahead. For some reason the time advanced but the date did not - so in my world it it still March 7. And perhaps that is appropriate that March 7 seem like two days.
After a full day at "work" I flew to Boston just to avoid any potential hassles. The flight left promptly at 1015 and instead of turning off the lights and letting us sleep we had "dinner" - I think I may have been turkey. Then there was some kerfuffle with a sick passenger. All I know is, the lights never did go out. I did sleep a bit.
After only 4 hours we made our scheduled stop in the Azores - my understanding was to let passengers off. But for some reason we all left the plane for the terminal by bus in whatever an Azorean monsoon is called. It was cold and bright and the little coffee shop had several hundred people with fresh $50 Euros that they couldn't change. After our allotted wait we got back on buses to reboard the same plane but it was raining so hard they had to stop us and sent us back to the terminal.
Next time we make it back to our exact same seats and restore our luggage and take off to the two hours to Lisbon. I think most if you know how cold the winter of 2014 has been except I just trumped all of it. For some reason we had some heat but with something like the cargo hatch open. And the flight crew happily motored along serving us cold cheese sandwiches for - I guess - breakfast.
We finally arrived in Lisbon an hour late at about 1230. Thankfully immigration was quick and the hotel was close.
The hotel is a lovely old palace that us filled with original ceramic tiles and wide grand stairs - no elevator. The room is spacious, nice and quiet.
After a quick power nap - I'm not going to let the never ending March 7 get the best of me - I cleaned up and headed out. Not surprisingly Lisbon is a beautiful old city interspersed with urban sprawl and a bit if decay. It actually reminds me a bit of Valparaiso in Chile with the hills and architecture overlooking the busy port.
It was sunny and warm to start but sunset brought a cool breeze. So I am relaxing and typing with a bit if wine and thinking about food.
Ps: Portuguese is hard! Some words are based on Spanish but not all and the pronunciation emphasizes the hard consonants making it sound almost Eastern European. Thankfully there is a lot of English spoken.
So off to find dinner and end this miserable but glorious first day!
Obrigado (thank you)
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