Yeah I know … it’s a bit early.
We’re not leaving until tomorrow but I’m not exactly a ‘seasoned traveller’ – the sort of person who can toss a few things into a bag and be out the door in half an hour. In fact, going to Barcelona earlier this year – and now Lisbon – is a personal record (even with them being short trips of 3-4 nights away). So it takes me awhile to get organised so I don’t get all panicky at the last minute.
Anyhow, the five-day weather forecast looks promising, though it looks like the temperatures are going to drop quite a bit on Friday. So not sure about clothes. But most of the other stuff has been laid out on the spare room table so we won’t get to the airport and realise the passports are still at home.
One of the girls next door (who happens to be from Lisbon) will be looking after the cats, which is a relief. I’ve given her Maria the vet’s phone number in case of any emergency, but really all Paula has to do is freshen their water bowls once a day and scoop the turds out of the litter boxes. Well, and make sure Sunny doesn’t escape from the living room. They don’t tend to eat much when we’re not around – I reckon they enjoy being fed and fussed over more than actually eating
With all the finger business going on there hasn’t been much ‘build up’ – it’s kind of crept up on us. Even Nog (aka Mr Map) hasn’t got routes planned out for us and lists of places to go. But I think this trip is going to be a lot more relaxed than Barcelona and having an apartment rather than a hotel room will make a big difference. This will be a kind of recharging holiday as when we get back we’ll have quite a lot of ‘big time stuff’ to deal with, so it will be nice to just disconnect for a few days and be in a whole other setting.
Meanwhile, I totally forgot about learning a bit of Portuguese so I’m hoping that Plan B (speaking Spanish as if I were Sean Connery) will do the trick.
Oooh, I’m getting so excited! 🙂
casa azahar 
well color me jealous. That sounds awesome!!! Have a great time!
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oooh, I’m getting excited for you!
And putting all the other stuff out on the table is a good move just as long as you remember to pack it – last year I was all set to fly to Germany from the UK with some girls I was at School with for a weekend, drove all the way to the airport in the wee hours of the morning only to discover that I’d left my passport on the kitchen table…
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…and make sure you don’t make the mistake I did a few years ago… 😳
I was on my way to the US of A for a scientific meeting. The day before leaving I had paid some of Mum’s bills and had used her teller machine card to get cash. Her card and my credit card was issued by the same bank, and thus had the same colour.
The morning after I was at the airport where I made the first stop over. While waiting for the next flight I decided to shop a little. I was VERY surprised when my credit card was handed back – it was Mum’s card… I had mistakenly put my credit card amongst her stuff back home.
Fortunately I had my 2nd credit card in the wallet. Less money on that one, but I survived the trip on a somewhat “strict budget”.
Since that occasion I always double check “tickets, passport, money” before leaving home.
Have a nice journey!
*sits down and waits for piccies from Lisbon*
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Hmmm… the weather forecast is now saying there is a chance of rain Saturday & Sunday, so we’d better go to Sitra before then.
And I have already put the passports in my bag, and printed out our boarding passes, so there shouldn’t be any disasters in that department.
Also pretty much packed now, so after yoga class tomorrow morning I’ll just have to shower and change and put all the toiletry stuff in the suitcase … and then we’ll be ready to go!
It turns out that we won’t be able to ‘disconnect’ entirely as I’ll have to check in online for a part-time job I’m doing, so I’ll probably stop by here briefly (if only to clear out my spam file).
And no doubt there will be lots of piccies, though the camera has been doing strange things lately so I hope it doesn’t conk out on us.
I think going to bed tonight will feel a bit like Christmas Eve. I’m glad it’s an afternoon flight – early morning ones pretty much guarantee that I won’t sleep a wink.
Oh look, I’m babbling … shutting up now.
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Life never runs quite smoothly, does it? At about 8 pm we found that a plastic doohicky thingy on my new walking sandals had snapped.
So, took them back to El Corte Inglés to exchange them for a non faulty pair, or get my money back. No joy with the man in the shoe department, however. Said I must have been adjusting them with too much force (translation – I don’t want to deal with this) but said we should take them up to customer service. Which we duly did. Passed on to some time serving jobsworth. “Can’t do anything. It can’t be a defective part. It can’t be repaired. It’s too complicated. Etc, etc.”
Battle of wills between az and said jobsworth. “I want to see the boss.” “I am the boss.” “You mean you don’t have a boss?” “Well, erm…”
Eventually someone arrived from the bossosphere (or wherever these guys hang out). After forty minutes or so of farting about, it then took about forty seconds for him to agree that they could be repaired (albeit not in time for our holiday tomorrow, but fair enough).
Anyhow, looks like my old sandals must serve for now.
But no pasa nada. Should be a nice break, with plenty to see and do. So off to bed now. Still have an early morning class to teach, and last minute jobs to do (mostly involving cat litter), but we’ll be on our way after lunch.
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Have a wonderful time! When you get back, you can tell us the absolutely one thing we MUST do when we are in Lisbon! I totally agree on the apartment thing. Maybe we are being precipitous, but we are in the process of making our reservations in La Casa Flores A for our visit to Seville in early April. We seem to have hit the right time: the week in between Easter week and the April Fair.
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That apartment looks lovely, hmh. My only concern is its rather ‘secluded’ location.
At the moment I’m looking up Fado houses in Lisbon, though I suspect it might be as tricky as finding an authentic place to hear/see flamenco in Sevilla.
“Anyhow, looks like my old sandals must serve for now.”
I seriously hope the apartment has a balcony to keep them on. 😉
Yeah, nobody fucks with da az when it comes to getting customer satisfaction. 🙂
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Have a fab time in Lisbon – and say hola to the frogs in the Gulbenkian for me.
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As Sean would say *I hope you didn’t forget your Pashport.* 😉
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So…………….
How was Lisbon?
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