Welcome to a crazy (unlucky) but funny day of Love Is Traveling! Our trip to Lisbon didn?t flow as easily as other trips but even those days we love and should be known how to handle them. Let us tell you three situations, when we felt like bad vibes are following us, and how we […]
Welcome to a crazy (unlucky) but funny day of Love Is Traveling!
Our trip to Lisbon didn?t flow as easily as other trips but even those days we love and should be known how to handle them. Let us tell you three situations, when we felt like bad vibes are following us, and how we made the best out of it.
How everything started?
We planned a trip from ?vila, Spain to Lisbon with Gonzalos parents. Because we don?t own a car we asked an uncle for it who lives in Madrid. To go to Lisbon from Madrid it takes about five to six hours that?s why we wanted to leave as early as possible BUT unfortunately his uncle wasn?t at home before 11 am. So we started the day in a relaxed way, getting up, taking the train to Madrid, having breakfast in a bar, picking up the car, getting ready to leave aaaaand leaving Madrid! The trip has started, let?s do it!
At least we had a relaxed trip to Madrid with a delicious Spanish breakfast without any stress!
1.) Six hours in the car? ? What have you done in that time?
?I don?t know what the others did but I read my book and played Pok?mon.? ? Jess
No worries guys, the trip was more exciting than you just thought!?Of course we slept and talked and slept and talked and drove. Suddenly the highway ticket got us into a state!?Where did we put the ticket?! We stopped the car in front of the gate and didn?t find the ticket anymore. Everybody got out of the car, we looked for the ticket everywhere in every little gap, in every bag? No ticket! We have gone to the information already, asking for help when unexpectedly Gonzalos Mom screamed: ?I?ve found something! Is it the ticket?!?
Bad luck number one:?Wasting time looking for the ticket that hid itself between the rear seat.?Number one was followed by bad luck number two immediately:?The exit we took leaded us to another highway, a wrong highway to another direction without any possibility to turn. Finally we drove one hour more.
Bad luck? No, we were so lucky!
We could have been mad because of all that time we wasted but we weren?t. We are on holidays and the holidays start with the journey. And a road trip can be so enjoyable! Although we had to drive an hour more we stopped whenever we felt like we wanna explore the place closer. At the end we took some remarkable pictures and flew the drone to record videos.
An insider tip is to fly the drone in Portugal because the law is pretty drone-friendly 😉
Ancillary information
Did you know that Lisbon has the Golden Gay Bridge? The bridge is called ?Ponte 25 de Abril?. It welcomed us with an incredible sunset combined with all the car lights ? it was remarkable!?The apartment we stayed in was such a pleasure! It was equipped with modern furnishing, close to some cosy streets and the metro. We felt like home 🙂
https://instagram.com/p/7_DYmtgWIc/?taken-by=loveistraveling
2.) A new day, a new beginning, new luck?
Getting up from that comfortable bed was awesome! We started the day in a new positive way and went to the metro with fresh spirit, looking forward to discover the city.
At the metro we bought one card with four 24-hours-tickets on it. Gonzalo went inside, the next one was I. Once I put the card on the scanner, it didn?t work, twice, three times ? nothing happened just the red light was getting crazy. We didn?t know what went wrong and soon afterwards a woman offered us to help. We explained her what we bought and right away it was clear that we should have bought three more cards and on each one the 24-hours-ticket.
Bad luck number three: The woman asked on the information button for help and soon a member of staff came. Again we explained our situation and again the woman called another member of staff. So we waited again. The time passed on??
Bad vibes? No, we just look at the positive side.
I think the most positive thing on wasting time in the metro was to get to know the locals! What polite staffs the metro in Lisbon has ? wow! We talked and talked and talked although nobody of us knows any Portuguese. We?ve got some really nice advices from the woman while we waited for another person to change our tickets.
Another awesome thing was that we haven?t had to pay again 24-hours-tickets ? we were so lucky! The staff was so gracious and changed our first ticket so that we haven?t had any more cost than three more cards.
Ancillary information
After getting the right tickets we went to Bel?m without any problems. Bel?m is a part of Lisbon that is about 6 km on the west. Bel?m means Bethlehem. That part of town has many monuments like
?Torre de Bel?m?
?Mosteiro dos Jeronimous?
?Padr?o dos Descobrimentos?
One walk and plenty of astonishing things to see!
3.) The highlight of the day was the visit to Cristo Rei
The journey to the statue is another reason why nobody should miss Cristo Rei: You go by ferry to the opposite site of Lisbon. There we took a bus up to Cristo.
Strangely at the bus station no tourists waited for the bus and even close to the statue we haven?t seen any crowd.
Bad luck number four: It was later than 7pm. We arrived perfectly to the sunset ? because photographers prefer taking pictures or recording vireos at sunset time. Everything was so perfect but we had one big problem, Cristo Rei was closed! What a pity!
Unlucky or just unorganized? We don?t mind!
We went all that way to Cristo Rei, took the ferry, waited for the bus more than 20 minutes and at the end Cristo Rei isn?t barrier free to visit? We just didn?t know that there are opening times. We didn?t know that the last climb was at 6pm.?It was really a big pity but we couldn?t change the situation anymore.
We just accepted it – It didn?t matter!?We?ve got not everything we wanted but at least we?ve got something: Cristo Rei and we were alone! No tourists, no noises just Cristo Rei and the sun. Perfect to fly the drone and enjoy the view. Another trip will come and then we will climb up for sure.
https://instagram.com/p/781hcGAWLL/?taken-by=loveistraveling
Ancillary information
Cristo Rei in Lisbon seems like the statue in Rio de Janeiro. The story is that in 1930 the patriarch of Lisbon marveled at Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro and decided to build one in Lisbon after the II. World War. The statue is more than 100 meters high.
5 steps we used to get a clear mind
Don?t waste any moment with the thought that you?re unlucky!
Tell me a definition about being unlucky. Okay, if you have an answer now you should tell us because for me it?s fucking difficult to give you one.
Being unlucky is such a situation in which you just feel like everything what?s happening is bad. Exactly in that moment you should change your bad-vibes-thought.
Make luck out of it!
1. Take a deep breath.
2. Don?t look back.
3. Start laughing if you?re in the mood.
4. Think about what benefits you can take out of the situation.?(Because there?s always something positive.)
5. And keep enjoying the day!
All’s well that ends well
Okay, maybe we missed the climb on Cristo Rei and maybe we wasted a lot of time the whole day even the day before BUT one thing we are glad for is that we arrived to the center of Lisbon at night! It couldn’t have been better. That aura was enchanting us: beautiful lights on the buildings, people having dinner, shops, musicians playing, people laughing and talking, happiness, …
We think it was the best time to go to the center that’s why all the time we wasted before doesn’t matter to us anymore.
At the end we love to remember our time in Lisbon because we think Lisbon has something special! Convince yourself!