travelingwithheart

So I’m a bit behind on my posts, not that it matters. I wanted to write some about our trip to Sintra, if only for Junior and me to look back on it later. We actually took this trip over a week ago, the day after we went to Caiscais. I was a bit worried about having two busy days in a row but rain was in the forecast and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather.

Portugal’s transportation system is steps above what we have at home. And their train stations are amazing.

We took the train to Sintra where we took a tour of the Castle of the Moors and Pena Castle. I am so glad we did the trip when we did as I would not have wanted to climb the steps in the rain. Junior was amazing and did all the steps, though I did have to carry him back to the bus. As the Castle of the Moors was built by Muslims in the 8th and 9th centuries, it was a chance to introduce Junior to the basics of the Muslim faith.

We next went to the Pena Castle which was quite beautiful from the outside. We took a tour of the inside as well.

I had the honor of carrying Junior to and from the castle, and it’s not flat to say the least. But I decided that, on this trip, if there was something I really wanted to do, I was willing to carry Junior if that’s what it took

We found a wonderful place for dinner, a recommendation from our Airbnb host. Junior liked it so much we went back two nights in a row. Okay, so I thought it was pretty good too.

So I’m a little behind on my posts and I’m going to go out of order. We are currently staying in Luz, Portugal after moving from Lagos. I had hoped to stay in Lagos for 2 weeks before starting the trek back home but our lodging wasn’t what I wanted it to be. We had booked a double room at a fairly well reviewed “hotel” but I was able to upgrade to a studio without incurring an extra charge so that I would be able to cook meals. The studio was a nice size, but upon checking in there were multiple little things that added up to an unhappy mama. Luckily, the manager was very responsive and was able to make a couple of changes for me. The place was old and had a view of an abandoned building that supposedly the Soviets bought, gutted and left. It always felt a bit dirty and was damp enough that even dry, unused towels became damp. It came advertised as having a heated pool year round but that amounted to a solar cover on top. A bit disappointing.  I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t enjoying our stay there. While we had a beautiful, amazing beach to walk down to, the weather was quite rainy and windy at times, meaning we were stuck inside.

For our last two nights before moving to our new hotel in Luz (pictures looked nice and it had an indoor heated pool for those rainy days) we had to switch to the double room we had originally booked. I wasn’t looking forward to the move as I knew the room would be smaller and it meant an extra move for Junior, who was quite stressed with each move. i was shown the new room and almost broke down in tears. It was dark and dreary, with just enough room to walk around the bed and that was it. Oh, and it was suppose to rain for the next two days. I went back a second time and realized that we just couldn’t stay there. While there hadn’t been a vacancy the night before, one opened up that morning at our new hotel. I booked us an extra two nights, knowing that I was going to have to eat the 66 Euros I had paid for the hotel we were leaving.

I went and told the manager and asked, knowing he’d say no, if we could possibly have one of the two nights refunded. He started off on a story about his business and booking.com fees and I just let him talk and talk. He had a “business” proposition for me. If I would write a nice review for his hotel, provided, of course, that I enjoyed my stay, he would refund both nights’ fees. Well, of course i took the offer though I haven’t yet written that review.

So, I listened to my heart and did what was best for my son and me. We moved to a studio that is almost half the size of my house with a full kitchen, bathroom and ocean view. Oh, and a heated pool. Crazy thing is, this wonderful place is only 7 Euros more per night. We went directly to that pool while waiting for our room to be ready. Best decision I have made so far!

While Junior and I had had a fun day as mentioned in my last post, we were both feeling overwhelmed by the city, rain was in the forecast in a couple of days so it was time to go to the beach.  We had a nice, downhill walk to the train station, so downhill I knew we would be taking the tram back.

We took the metro and then the commuter train to Caiscais where there was a nice, small, mellow beach within 5 minutes walking distance from the station. Getting there around 10 am, we practically had the beach to ourselves. By the end of the day, it was packed.

It was nice to have Junior find some friends to play with, although they were limited by a language barrier. They were from Germany and knew a bit of English but they figured it out.

If you’re wondering why I’m writing multiple posts today, the weather isn’t like this at all. Came to Portugal for sun and beaches and we are getting intense rain and wind.

i knew we’d been busy but didn’t realize how long it had been since I’d posted. I figured it was time when my dad emailed me, concerned if we were okay.

Our first full day in Lisbon (when Junior would leave the apartment) I chose to not plan much but we had some diversions that led to a fun though full day. It started with taking the famous Tram 28 which the locals use for commuting but the tourists use to get an overview of the city.

We were lucky enough to get a seat but little did we know that when it got to the end of the line, everyone got kicked off, had to walk 50 feet and stand in line and pay again to get on another Tram. A bit irritating but oh well.

After the tram Junior wanted to go back to our room. But to keep him outside I put him in charge of where we’d walk. Then I saw signs for a church up on the hill and directed him that way, bribing him with gum from a store we walked by. Once there, after a quick perusal of the church we had a lovely game of tag in the courtyard for about 20 minutes. It ends up kids’ games can be played anywhere. Oh, and there are good pigeons for chasing here too!

Looking at the view from the church what should we see but a playground. Well, we had to go, didn’t we. So this mama, who thought she was so directionally challenged, did just fine getting there. There was an entire school of young children there which overwhelmed Junior a bit, but when they ate lunch, he climbed on some more of the structures.

So our short day became long as we hadn’t planned the park (the best things seem to be those that are not planned) but I still wanted to go to the castle near our apartment. We had a great time climbing all over. It ends up Junior is afraid of heights but seemed to get use to being up high and went back for more

Walking back from the castle we passed a place that served yummy sorbet. So yummy we went back 4 of 5 days when we weren’t away on day trips.

So much for a short day. But what fun.

Here at Porta Do Sol the streets are narrow and the stone sidewalks narrower still. There are cars, trams and tuk tuks with bells ringing and horns blowing. Two churches ring their bells on the hour and half hour, minutes apart. There are so many buildings lining all streets, both the main ones and the many narrower streets that seem to pop out of nowhere. It is October but there are still plenty of tourists. So many that I can’t imagine how crazy it must be here in high tourist season. Add to this pigeons, cigarette smoke and men trying to sell selfie sticks. It makes for feeling very overwhelmed. And I’m just talking about myself. To my five year old it’s too much to take in.

After traveling all day from Sweden where we’d been for 3 full days as it was the cheapest way to get into Europe, my son and I walked around Portas Do Sol to get our bearings and find some dinner. While our Air BnB host had made a suggestion, we didn’t find the restaurant and settled for one that was catered to tourists and not all that great.

The next day, my son refused to leave the apartment.

I’ve come to learn in the short time I’ve been parenting (3 years today, happy Mother’s day to me) that if I’m tired or overwhelmed, it is probably 20 times worse for my son. So I had the intention of slowing down today. And my slow isn’t his slow and in times like this I need to defer to him. We are traveling for a month and so rushing to cram in the sights won’t work for us. I finally coaxed him out about 11:00 but after 5 minutes he wanted to go back. I reminded him that we needed to get food and so he agreed to continue. After asking for directions at an info center and hearing that we could get frozen pizza at the store, my son’s energy increased by ten. He walked through the store holding his pizza, half the time trying to balance it on his head, singing loudly about having pizza.

I promised him movie time as I knew he just needed to check out today. While I tend to watch my money pretty closely, when Netflix was rude enough to inform me that they aren’t in Portugal yet, I turned to Amazon for some movies, because a promise is a promise. He got to watch two movies today. In between I coaxed him out for the five minute walk to the castle, hoping that by walking it today, when we actually tour it tomorrow he’ll be okay.

Finding strawberry sorbet that he actually liked was a wonderful bonus to our 15 minutes of touring today.

How much of Lisbon and Portugal for that matter, will we see on our trip? Maybe less than I planned but at least we are doing it together.

We had a nice two days in Stockholm but it was ccccold. Did I tell you it was cold? When the clouds came in, three layers just wasn’t enough. It was for Junior as he was running around every chance he got, but mama, I was cold.

We spent a day in Old Town watching the changing of the guard and visiting the Armory.

And when I say a day I realize that a day traveling with a 5 year old means 3-4 hours of activity, max.  Yesterday we went to Skansen, a very large, wonderful park that has a children’s zoo, animals native to Scandinavia as well as buildings of the area. We saw maybe a third of it as there was an inside structure that was like a mini fort. And then there was the snake tunnel slide set on a hill that puts the Jack and Jill hill at Oakland’s Fairyland to shame.

Of the three hours we spent in Skansen, two of those were spent on the slide and hill. Junior needed a day to just be a kid. But this is why I got a cup of hot tea which was at least part of the reason I couldn’t sleep last night. We are now at the airport waiting for our flight which has been delayed an hour. Which is a little problematic as our layover in Frankfurt is 1.5 hours. As Junior reminds me, I can just use my breathing tool.

I’m writing this part after arriving in Portugal. And I’m adding it cause I need to laugh at myself and it’s one of those stories that’s funny….later. So we arrived in Frankfurt late and had to transfer to a bus to be taken to the terminal so we had 30 minutes until our plane departed. I asked Junior to be a super traveler and get ready to run and he was up to the task. Down two flights of stairs, through a hallway and then up an elevator and then running to get to A terminal. Now there are three different signs for A terminal based on the number and even checking the boards I had A24 in my head. So we start to run from A1 to A24. Except that it’s not there. I check the board and it’s actually A34. Now while some signs indicated that A34 was past A24 (obvious I know, however A50 was back the other way) I didn’t see the sign in that moment and it looked like the terminal ended at A26 as there was a blind sharp curve. So we ran back to A1, this time with Junior crying and screaming and me carrying him for a few feet at a time. I ask and find that  the gate is back from where we just came and we have to run back past A24 to A34 with Junior protesting even louder, me sweating carrying two bags and it’s 10 minutes before departure.  And we made it as the plane was running late. But Junior was mad for awhile and commented many times about how that wasn’t any fun. But wow was he a trouper. Although he protested and was screaming for me to stop and to stop running, he ran most of the way.  File that one under do not repeat.

I definitely didn’t expect my AirBnb host to pick Junior and me up from the airport but that is exactly what he did. And he had toys for Junior to play with and he gave me his transit card to use for the weekend and he answered my endless questions. And then there was a kind stranger who saw my son start to have a meltdown (okay, maybe me too) as the authentic Swedish hot dog stand we’d found in desperation couldn’t change the large bill I obtained from the ATM and she reached into her wallet and along with her friend was able to change my bill.

Today’s destination was Vassa, a wonderful museum that has a four story war ship inside that is being continuously restored. The pictures of the ship I took didn’t turn out but there were some cool cannons to check out as well.

Over the course of the day we took buses, trains and trams. This morning we were both fairly awake, having been up since before 4am local time

At the end of the day, we both looked a bit different

We went shopping and I was happy to find that I could almost replicate Junior’s favorite meal from home only to have him nearly fall asleep at the table after 4 bites. Guess I’m glad we ate that hot dog.

So Junior and I are leaving tomorrow for Portugal via Stockholm. Random I know. There was a great deal on Norwegian Airlines from Oakland to Stockholm…that I missed…but it got me thinking. Where would I go in October if I could get to Europe for cheaper than it costs me to visit my Dad in Tucson (hi Dad!). I saw some pictures of Portugal and I was hooked. They have castles and trains and beaches. What more could my 5 year old want? For those of you wondering about “Junior,” I’m not sure I want to use my son’s name on something so public and Junior was what I called him before I knew who “he” was.

So we are off on the first of what I hope will be many travels. I am starting this blog as it seemed a good way to chronicle our travels and have something on which to look back. Plus I have to do something when I keep waking up at 3:30 in the morning! Please check back for updates. Any words of encouragement, suggestions of places to go  or just a quick Hello are welcome.