After having been on the road for three weeks - ten days in Ireland and ten in Portugal - I was ready to head home to Glasgow, meet up with my mates, have a nice pint (or nine), and relax for a few days before starting to study for my finals. First though, I had to spend one more day in Porto. Having been there for three already, I decided to take things easy - have a nice walk in the morning and then spend the afternoon at the beach. Yeah. That would be nice. Here is what actually happened.
08:30
Wake up. Grab free bowl of cereal and an apple from the hostel, then go off with Kelly to find the post. She wanted to mail something before she had to catch a flight with Hadassah back to Glasgow. My flight was early tomorrow morning and Meghan was going a few hours after that - but to London, not Glasgow. I got to try speaking some Portuguese while looking for the post building. "Onde es el correo?". They look confused but understood what I meant after a few seconds. Maybe 'correo' doesn't translate well from Spanish to Portuguese. Maybe my accent was shite. Probably both
09:30
Walk Hadassah and Kelly down to the Metro station and said goodbye. Seemed a bit of a pointless goodbye as I was going to see the both of them tomorrow in Glasgow but goodbyes are always nice. Went back to the hostel, ate some yoghurt and showered.
10:00
Meghan is awake and studying downstairs. Time to start my languorous wander about the city.
10:10
Text from Hadassah. Turns out that karma didn't like how I had been laughing about my friends who were stuck in Iceland due to volcanic eruption. Kelly and Hadassah's flight was cancelled. Mine might be too. Run back to hostel to tell Meghan. Looks like I'm trading in that day of relaxation for a day at the airport. Fun!
10:45
Had a nice 15 minute nap while waiting for Meghan to get all her stuff packed
11:00
Left hostel and went to the Metro
12:10
Show up at the airport. Hadassah and Kelly are already in the queue to change flights. First I decided to check the internet and then I joined the queue
14:30
Finally reached the end of the queue. My flight is still good to go tomorrow morning. Hadassah and Kelly had to change their flight but now they're on the same on to London as Meg. Then they'll just grab another plane to Glasgow. Everything is sorted nicely and best of all, Meg's got Hadassah and Kelly with her in case something goes screwy. They'll be fine. Now I can get some of that relaxing done I'd planned on. But first, tastytimes were in order. The four of us walked down to a cafe. I ate some of that delicious chorizo bread I'd been munching on all throughout Portugal and also two corn/meat triangle things, two fish things and a can of coke.
15:00
Went to a tiny supermarket near the cafe to get provisions for spending the night at the airport. I grabbed 1.5L of water, canned pineapple, canned beans and a €1.95 bottle of wine.
16:00
Back at the airport and getting some of that relaxing done by laying out in a nice sunny patch of grass. Life is good. Also decided to start in on that pineapple. God I love pineapple. And life. Did I mention that it's good?
17:30
Kelly's parents are going to be in Glasgow tomorrow so we got the brilliant idea to swap my flight for Kelly's so that she'd be home quicker and could meet them. Instead, I learn that I am fucked. My flight tomorrow morning is cancelled. Kelly, Hadassah, and Meghan's is still on though.
18:30
Finally got through that queue - again. Changed my flight to go to Faro at 7:35am and then from Faro to Dublin at 12:45pm. From Dublin I'd need to figure out how to ferry back to Scotland. It was the best available option I had. Thankfully the others are still okay, and still with each other. Now, time to deal with some stress. Where is that wine?
18:35
Realize with Hadassah that we had no corkscrew and can't get into our wine. Luckily, we have metal spoons and I can maybe bash the cork into the bottle
18:36
Make new best friend in Elliot, an American who looks and sounds exactly like Seth Rogen and, most importantly, offered his corkscrew to us
18:36:30
Open wine and start to drink with Hadassah. Also, ate a muffin thing.
19:30
Wine gone, need more. Sent Meghan to go get the money she owed me before I got drunk and forgot about it and flew away.
19:45
Meghan still isn't back. Time to go investigate that supermarket with Hadassah for more wine
20:00
The supermarket was closed but we found a semi-fancy looking restaurant that had no problem in selling two bottles of wine to myself and Hadassah. On the way out, we see Meghan and Elliot. They too, are looking for wine.
20:05
Open wine on park bench and start drinking before Elliot and Meg come back out from the restaurant
20:35
Finish the first bottle of wine before we even get back to the airport. I am respectably drunk now and life is pretty good. Time to eat another muffin thing.
20:45
I decide to switch to water for a while and Hadassah decides to pass out. Fair enough, it's been a long rough day.
21:00
I found Kelly on the Internet. Decided that now would be a good time to print out my boarding pass for my flight in ten and a half hours. Kelly had made a new friend in Denmark girl.
23:00
Elliot is gone now, back to some hostel somewhere in Porto. It's a shame really, I like that guy. Denmark girl has sortof taken his place though. She doesn't look or sound like Seth Rogen but she's pretty and good to talk to so it's a fair trade all in all. Decided to go down to internet some things for a half hour. First though, phoned Steph and also left a message for my parents. My phone died and ran out of credit at the exact same time. I don't think the world wants me to communicate.
23:30
Open up the last bottle of wine (out of three) with Denmark. She has one glass and I drink about half the bottle. Life is still good.
00:30
Hadassah is awake now but still sleepy and cold. I give her my Glasgow hoodie and winter jacket for pillows and warmth. I was the only one out of the group with real 'warm' clothing because I had been in Ireland for ten days before. Everyone else was packed for warm weather and I was packed for gross and rain and cold. It even snowed on me in Ireland. In March. How fucked up is that too. Proper good windy snowstorm too.
01:00
Went and found Kelly again. She was cold too so I gave her my hemp hoodie. Had a nice chat a bit before she decided to go to sleep
01:30
Chatted with Denmark girl some more. Had some wine some more. Still liked life some more.
02:00
Meghan was sleepy now. Gave her my colourful Lisbon hippie hoodie and a towel.
02:30
Hungry. Ate the full can of beans and the last two slices of pineapple
03:15
Everyone is asleep now. Even Denmark girl. I might as well give it a shot seeing as how I've got nothing better to do with my time
04:15
Awake again thanks to sharp pain in my collar bone. Note to self: next time you try sleeping, don't put most of your weight on one of your more delicate bones. You would think I would know how to sleep proper by now but no, this is apparently not the case. Everyone else is still spread out throughout the airport sleeping, except for Meghan, who I cannot find.
04:30
Meghan comes back with a chamomile tea, puts it on the ground near where I am sitting and pushes it wordlessly towards me. I am drunk and tired and confused. I look at her. She pushes the tea in my direction some more. I look at it and then at her again. She smiles, I grab the tea without lifting it off the ground and look again. Still smiling and not talking. Finally I think I understand and pick it up. "Thank you". Another smile. It is the nicest thing anyone's done for me
05:00
Wait in the now very short line and ask about my flight in two and a half hours. It is still apparently okay. The one from Faro to Dublin is also still apparently okay. I hope so. I don't want to leave the others in case something screws up but they'll have each other if that happens. They'll be fine and I already know I can deal with whatever happens to me on my own. Everything will work out.
05:45
One more glass of wine for the road
06:30
Goggled Meghan and Hadassah on my way to security. Then they got me right in front of the security guard. Assholes. He understood it was a game though, and was amused by me having to lay down on the ground.
07:35
My flight leaves to Faro and I am unconscious for the full hour. Thank you wine and lack of sleep.
08:35
Get to Faro and realize my mistake immediately. Right inside the airport is a board with cancellations. My Dublin flight is cancelled. Meg, Kelly and Hadassah's flight is cancelled too. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, I should not have left them.
Had a hell of time trying to find the ticket booth. Needed to ask the security guard for directions three times before he just walked me there. To be fair, the airport had a stupid layout but I should have been able to figure it out on my own. This made me realized just how weary only having two hours of sleep and to be still processing the roughly two bottles of wine I drank has made me. Not to mention all the stress.
Eventually find the queue for the ticket desk. It is enormous. Three or four times the size of the one in Porto. Got in line behind an English couple who have a farm north of Faro. An English family soon joins the queue behind me
12:35
Still in the queue. Still looks to be about another hour before I get to the desk. Time to start thinking about options. There is still time for me to bus back to Porto. Or I could stick this queue out and bunker down in Faro. I really don't like Faro. Plus, I know that Kelly, Meghan, and Hadassah are probably a mess right now. I prayed that Hadassah could keep it together for the group. I don't pray ever but Hadassah does. Maybe it will help her in a way. I should be there anyways.
The Farm couple are going to go back to work on their farm until they can fly home. The English family are trying to get back from vacation. They are really nice and I've been having a good chat with them on and off for a few hours. Also, they have a seventeen year old daughter who has been making eyes at me and even said that she wished she had an accent. Fucking funny how she would be the first one in all the time I've spent in Britain to be (noticeably) turned on by my accent.
I could offer to help the Farm couple work on their farm if they let me stay there. Or I could play 'down and out' with the English family and see if they offer to let me stay at their hotel. Their daughter would push for it, I was pretty sure, so it might work. That could turn interesting quickly in who knows how many ways.
Ultimately though, I decide that I need to go back to Porto. Before catching a bus from the airport to Faro, I go to the Vodafone store to charge my phone and get credit for it. The English family looks over my stuff while I'm out of the queue. Spend €4.25 on a terrible ham and cheese sandwich then ring Hadassah to tell her I'm coming back. She sounds relieved. I should never have left.
14:30
Catch bus to Porto. Well, to Lisbon really, then I've got to get on a different one to Porto. Slept for two hours. It is beautiful.
19:00
Back in Lisbon. Such a beautiful city. Part of me is sad I can't stay here for a day. Well, I probably could but I'm needed elsewhere. Goodbye again, Lisbon.
20:00
Stuck in traffic. Because I haven't done enough queuing today. On the other hand though, the sunset is pretty. You know what fuck sunsets. FUCKCOCKASSEATINGFUCKSHITCUNTWHORE.
23:00
Back in Porto. Deja Vu. Text Hadassah and she tells me to meet at the Metro. She's found a new hostel for everyone to stay at. Kelly got a hotel because she needs to de-stress and just have some nice relaxing her time. I don't blame her. Met up with Hadassah. Hug.
"I'm so glad you came back"
"Me too. I shouldn't have left"
She told me all about their day. It sounded awful. I should have been there. Though, I was proud of her. It sounded like, for the most part, she held it together for everyone and kept them from going insane - she did my job. I shouldn't have left but she did good and didn't break down until I came back. This was her first chance to break down, really. Strong girl.
"I shouldn't have left".
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