OMG let me tell you the day I’ve had today, my goodness. So today I had a tour via Airbnb Experiences called Sintra Cascais Guided Tour with Pena Palace Ticket and I was supposed to meet them at the Hard Rock Cafe Lisbon at 9am. I actually believe it or not woke up early around 7am so that I could get myself together and I needed to go to either a pharmacy or grocery store to get some essentials (because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to by the time we got back-and I needed some things for the tour). My goal was to leave out of the Airbnb around 8am but I left a little afterward maybe 8:11am.

I chose to check the pharmacy 1st (bad idea I should’ve checked the grocery store 1st because that’s where I ended up getting my things). They weren’t too far apart but they were apart enough to make a difference which I’ll get to. (Sidenote: Yesterday I bought an esim to help me get around a bit better without having to worry about wifi and internet connections and it proved well…yesterday). So after the grocery store I needed to go to the nearby metro station Arrios but I couldn’t remember which way it was…no problem I’ll look it up. I go to look it up and I can’t.

My esim is on, my regular sim is on, and somehow I’m not getting a connection. I try just my esim and still no connection. Mind you time is passing by as I’m desperately trying to figure out which way to go so I can hop on this metro and make this tour. Not to mention that even after taking the metro I need to walk 8 minutes before I reach our meeting point. It is now 8:45am and I still don’t know where this metro is so I just start walking and then double backed because it felt like I was walking the wrong way.

I finally find the station but I have no idea what stop I’m supposed to get off on since I can’t connect so I ask the information woman and she tells me. I hop on the train and ride the stops I need to to get to my destination. Ok, I’m there now but I still need to walk to get to the Hard Rock Cafe Lisbon and I have no idea which way to go. I can see that I’m getting a call through What’s App from my guide and I try to answer but it doesn’t connect. I try to send a text, but it doesn’t go through. I ask a nearby taxi if he could just take me there but he says its so close I can walk and he directs me which way. It is now a little past 9am (like 9:05am) and I start running and all I’m thinking is, “Please don’t let them leave me” because this activity literally takes up my entire day so what would I do?

I arrive finally at the Hard Rock Cafe sometime between 9:11am-9:14am and I am tired. I saw a group there waiting so I thought that was them just to find out that it wasn’t and that my group had left. They (the group) informed me how my guide tried calling and calling and they couldn’t wait anymore due to some places being timed (which I get, but it was still disappointing). The group said they were waiting on their guide who was running late and offered that it might be possible for me to ride with them and I could just catch up with my group (because they were going to the same place).

I was hopeful and they said if it weren’t for their guide being late they wouldn’t have even been there. Their guide arrived and so did more people and guess what…there was not enough space for me. The guide there was in contact with someone from the agency Patricia who was trying her best to connect me to my group. She suggested that I take an Uber out to Cabo da Roca which was a good 21 miles away and looked like a cliff and I was like, “Yeah no I’m not trying to get stuck out there with no service. What if we miss each other again?” So I was ready to give up, count my loss and I was just going to take the train to Cascais since I missed the tour.

I let Patricia know my plan while I was at the station about to head that way when she suggested I go to Sintra instead. She said I could probably meet them there. I said alright so I changed course and headed to Sintra (mind you I get wifi then lose wifi so the communication is spotty which makes it that much more difficult to keep up. I take the train to Sintra and arrive around 11:50am. I check What’s App and see Patricia sent me a message at 11:35am saying that the guide was there and he had to leave. I’m thinking, “Are you kidding” and told her that is why I didn’t want to come. I was ready to wash my hand with the day because I had been playing this rat race/Amazing Race for too long now.

Then Patricia says, “Wait wait, take the bus up to Pena Palace. If you get on now you can make it. You all have a 1pm reservation and you’ll be in Sintra for at least 2 hours.” Ok Patricia ok, I’ve come this far why not keep on trying to make it. My goodness that bus seemed like it took forever getting up to that palace I surely didn’t think that I’d make it up there in time. Finally we got up there at 12:58pm and I’m rushing trying to get off the bus. I get off the bus and look around amongst the crowd of people…yet another problem. How am I supposed to find him in all this?

Suddenly I hear someone say, “Malecia” and I’m like, “OMG someone knows me!” I’m looking around and it’s the other guide from earlier along with the group. They were like, “You made it” (they were so happy for me) and honestly I was relieved to see them. They asked if I ever met up with my group and I told them no that I just got there. The guide called my guide and told him I was with him and that we’d meet up somewhere inside. Going up Gilthése (a girl from the black history tour) crosses over a sea of people because she saw me to say hi. We gave a quick hug and I told her it was good to see her. I went inside with the other group and listened in on their tour until finally, I was united with my guide and group.

I didn’t want to be let out of my guide Jorge’s sight now because the 1st half of my day was a lot. I finished touring the palace with my group and Jorge gave me some facts about it while the others had some free time. After Pena Palace we went down into the old town of Sintra to walk around some and get something to eat. We ate at a Tasca Saloia which had traditional portuguese food. What I had was good which was a chicken dish with spinach and a flavorful broth with spices (I didn’t take a photo as my phone was charging at the time) and with it to drink a cider (the same as the other day). We sat, ate and chatted amongst each other and within our group there was a couple from Singapore, Scotland and Spain and Jorge is from Sintra.

When we were done we had a little bit of time to look around and do some shopping before it was time to head back to Lisbon. I looked for unique finds and got a few things but truth be told I wasn’t trying to spend any more money. We walked to the van (let me tell you the hills and steps in Portugal are no joke especially Lisbon). My goodness these hills for me to be young I felt out of shape after awhile. It is in no way, shape or form handicap friendly. The drive back was nice as I had more of a resting feeling than an anxious one that I had for most of the day.

Once back we all thanked Jorge and I gave him a tip because between him and Patricia not letting me give up was one of the main reasons I eventually met up with them. They both extended themselves to try to help me not completely miss out on everything so they’ll get a nice review. I wanted to try to see if I could find some interesting/unique souvenirs or a Moorish tile (the Mourish people were Arabic/black and they are the creators of the tiles not the Portuguese. Naky said it best the other day all the Portuguese did was copy and paste and then somewhat recreate from that). I found a tile store and got one (that’s really the only souvenir I wanted for myself. By now after the very long day I’ve had, I was ready to head back to the Airbnb.

I got back at a decent time and I still have leftover food that I can have for dinner. I did however want to check to see if my tour for tomorrow is still on because I was the only one at one point and there was a chance it would be canceled because of that but the guide reached out and said we’re good to go for tomorrow. And let me tell you something, I will be Ubering there, how about that.

Here are some facts Jorge told me today (I probably would’ve had more but given the day I’ve had this is all I have):

•In 1511 Pena Palace stared as a monastery the red part is the monastery portion)
•The yellow portion represents the new palace and is of Moorish (Arabic) style
•Styles that range on the palace include gothic, Manueline and Islamic.
•Pena Palace became a national monument in 1910
•In 1995 Pena Palace was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
•In 1755 Portugal had the biggest earthquake (9) in European history
•Blue tiles were extracted from cobalt and were the hardest to make