Portugal: Illogical Logic

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The illogic of Portugal begins. Ok so the main road connecting me to Spain, Faro and further afield is the A22 which became a toll road earlier in the year (unmanned, electronic only). People have different ways to pay: either wait 48 hours after and go to a post office to pay the toll since the license plate photos will be in the system by then (failure to pay within 5 working days leads to a large fine), or get a transponder device for the car connected to your 'portuguese' bank account which talks to the toll signals.

All is well for Portuguese vehicles, but what about foreign vehicles? Well, we can't post-pay the fee (so me crossing over from Spain last week means I'm now expecting a large fine to be sent to my UK address via DVLA) ... but it's possible to hire a transponder device and pay weekly (free only to Portuguese vehicle owners) and connect it to Credit card. Problem is, it's near impossible to get ur hands on one ... plus it only makes sense if ur using the toll road regularly.

I went into my local post office to enquire about it and was confused by all the unfriendly-looking people, queues and systems there, so i stared at a couple of portuguese people briefly and ran the feck out of that place (free parking tho, this woman gave me a free ticket which was nice of her, guess she felt sorry for me because i was trying to stick a 1 euro coin into a slot that didnt open for 2 minutes not understanding what was written on the display, then she came up and translated it as 'out of order, use other machine')

I decide to research online. After translating various sites into English using Google translate, I find out there are other options like buying a prepaid ticket (but u only have 3 days to use up all the credit or it goes to waste, wtf) ... or an EasyToll system where the license plate is associated with a credit card (but only valid for 30 days, again useless for me).

I finally find out about the TollCard, a card u can buy (5, 10, 20, 40 euros, take ur pick) then u go online and activate the card and link it to ur license plate. I actually bought it online and was confused as to how id get the card ... then after Google translating terms and conditions and other info, I figure out that i dont get a card, my number plate now happens to be in the system with €20 assigned to it which SHOULD auto-deduct when i use the toll rd.

Well, tomorrow Im travelling to Albufeira to find a halal meat butchers and to say hi to my boy Senor Neves if he still works at the pizza place ... so we shall see if this TollCard thing actually works ... thing is because Portuguese number plates start with numbers, my SB55 tends to get translated to 5855.

It has been super roasting here this week, so hopefully I'll get up to some fun shenanigans tomorrow to report back with ... it's also the last day of the peak season for Tavira Island ... will try and come back and hit the island in the evening

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