Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2019
Edit Blog Post
I left my brother-in-law’s house right at 7pm… unfortunately in a bit of a rush, leaving my passport and behind! I didn’t realize it until I was on the bus from Seville to Lisbon. This mishap was just one of many. Raphael, my other brother-in-law, took me to Jerez de la Frontera, about 25 minutes away in his car, dropping me off at the bus station. The day before I’d bought tickets online through a website called Busbud for the bus line ALSA, for 82 Euros. They were a bit more expensive than Rome2Rio, but simpler. I was supposed to take bus from Jerez to Lisbon, then switch to another one from there to Porto, with emphasis on supposed to! Raphael was long gone when I found out that no ALSA buses left from Jerez. The nice lady at the ticket counter understood my predicament and gave me a free ticket from her company, to Seville where she sure I could catch the right ALSA bus. She said they would reimburse her company. Dubious about the whole thing, I took the offer. When I arrived at Seville, there was an ALSA/Rede Expresso bus that had just pulled in. The driver looked
at my printed ticket and told me in Portuguese that his bus wasn’t going but that I had the right place and another bus from the same line would pull into the same spot in about 2 hours and my ticket would work. Whew! Since I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, I wandered around a bit until I found a bar open that had tapas. By some strange coincidence a young Japanese guy I’d talked to who was waiting for same bus but had left the station while I was talking to the Portuguese driver, was already there eating. I ordered ensaladilla and a tasty pork dish while chatted. Both dishes were excellent. We returned to the station together and waited for our bus, meeting a young guy from Korea waiting on the same bus.
About half an hour late, the bus arrived and the 3 of us and about 10 others boarded. After several stops along the way to drop off and pick up folks, along with a 30 minute stop eat and/or rest at a roadside rest area, we pulled into Lisbon at about 6am. I hadn’t been able to do more than nap about 20 or 30
minutes, so I was pretty tired, and still had another 5 hour trip to go. I couldn’t find any ALSA buses or signs anywhere! Not a pleasant surprise, especially as tired and sleepy as I was. I finally asked the lady at the Rede Expresso office, showing my ticket. She only spoke Portuguese, so I had a hard time understanding her when she told me that bus, a ALSA/Rede Expresso bus would stop at the next door down, not a regular spot. I think Portuguese sounds like Spanish with a mouth full of food!
Again, the right bus did finally pull in, over a half hour late, and off I went on my last leg to Porto. Around 12:30 we pulled into the Casa da Musica station in Porto. Along the way I’d fought off going to the bathroom several times, besides not having gotten more 30 minutes sleep, so when we pulled and I discovered their restroom was closed for repairs, I about lost it. I got general directions to the Se (cathedral) and stopped at the first café bar to use the restroom. I ordered a café con Leche, to be fair about using their facilities, and
extend my energy and sleeplessness. I got rather lost soon after leaving the café, but finally found my hostel, Cats Hostel, two hours later!
The hostel graciously accepted my passport, but I’m still not with the idea that all the hostels along the Camino will be so understanding. I got my room “key” and went up, two floors to stow my gear. The key is electronic and opens both my room door and the nice big locker under my bed. They serving paella for dinner at 8pm, for 3 Euros, so I’m holding on until after that to get some much needed sleep. I’m staying a 2nd night to recover from the trip before I start my Camino, but I’ll post another blog tomorrow if I have anything interesting to say.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0321s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
richard ferguson
non-member comment
Trip to Camino!
Those are beautiful pictures! I can see you both are really enjoying yourself's. Stay safe!