Arriving in Lisbon (Lisboa) I hadn't researched a thing about the place. Call it laziness, as I'm increasingly neglectful of looking up the places I'm travelling to. I'll deal with it when I get there, I suppose. The arrival in from the airport (named
Humberto Delgado, a national hero and early admirer of Hitler who started
TAP Portugal's national airline, though he seemed to become more a democrat later, and was assassinated). All you need is a credit/debit card for the
metro, and it was an easy two line transfer to the station closest to my hotel. The next morning I set out down my street, a main one called
Ave Almirante Reis, heading, I thought, in the direction of the port. I hadn't looked up any historic sites or museums. I simply headed off. And lo and behold, after a half hour, I was in the city's historic centre, jam packed with colonnaded arcades, monuments and restaurants (I thought the Greeks are big on food, the Portuguese could give them a run.) Ah, here is the tourist mecca! I kept walking to the waterfront and wandered through the vast and stunning
Praça do Comércio. Then along the waterfront where three massive cruise ships, which had disgorged their passengers, were tied up. I kept walking not at all knowing where I was going. When the port road went no further I started walking inland and up the hills with their narrow ever-so-cobblestoned streets (and sidewalks made out of the smallest stones, some with inlaid crest-like designs called
Calçada Portuguesa ). And all of sudden I was again in "tourist central" near the famed
St. Mary cathedral. Wow, the tourists were in droves! Conga lines up and down each side of the street. Obviously they were seeing "the sights" with pre-planned guidebooks and maps. I just happened upon it. In fact, in all my travels in Europe, I have seldom seen so much tourism except, say in London or Prague. So is this "over tourism?" The Portuguese seem to like it since there are myriad restaurants catering to the crowds. Fine, but being an "untourist" means no "preset" discovery, not fallowing the crowd, and discovering for yourself, where even the obscure nooks and crannies can reveal riches.
Which brings me to the subject of photos. I, like everyone else, has long desired to take the "just the right" pic of a cityscape or historic site. But this trip I've changed. Sure, I might take a pic of that historic church or castle (no monuments please). But I will often take it in its present day reality. If that means there's a construction crane to the side, or traffic in front, so be it. It gives a sense of what the city is really like.
Airline online check-ins can be problematic. Flying from Malaga to Majorca on Spain's discount airline,
Vueling, online check-in was only in Spanish. I used a translator but still messed up. I thought I'd selected an option which allowed a carry-on in addition to an "under the seat" bag. Nope. Despite paying $66.80 CAD for just the under-the seat (with seat selection!) I got to the boarding gate and was dinged another $95.71 to bring the overhead on board. And today, checking-in on
TAP for my next flight to
The Azores, the same problem. My
Booking.com receipt allowed one overhead in addition to the under-the-seat. Yet the TAP website asks if I want to put a bag in "hold" for an additional price. Screw that. I'll check in, in person, at the airport (no charge) like I did my last flight to Lisbon and pay only one fee, and hopefully not that.
- Ron Stang, a frequent traveller, Windsor Ontario Canada
