One of those days

It's been a day of tiny irritations.


First of all there was the difficulty reading the bus schedules mentioned in the last post. The warden said that various buses go to Estação Velha from the Praça and that I should ask the bus driver if unsure. I had to try a couple of times before getting an affirmative answer. Fortunately I had remembered what the other side of the road looked like when I arrived and got off at the right stop.


The IC was several minutes late. I didn't mind at all, it was only 2 hours to Lisboa anyway. My first major mistake was not realising that the train stopped at Lisboa Oriente first, then Lisboa Santa Apollonia. I mistook Oriente for the terminus of the service; it was an impressive station after all, so I got off. Note: this is not such a hard mistake to make, Portuguese train stations are not exactly abundant with name signs.


When I asked at the ticket counter about booking for the Lisboa-Madrid Lusitania night train, they said that bookings opened at 2 pm. What sort of service was this, that you can only buy tickets at certain hours? Oh well, check in at the hostel first then come back later maybe.


At this point I was still under the misapprehension that I was in Santa Apollonia. Why did the metro station say Oriente? Was this a synonym for Santa Apollonia (with Coimbra fresh in my mind)? After passing a few stations, and comparing with the route map, I realised that I had got off at the wrong train station. Ok, how about I head to Santa Apollonia now and book the ticket first then go to the hostel. I have a hostel booking so I'm not worried about that. The cost of the metro ticket I'll write off as metro touring.


At Santa Apollonia, a sign directed me to door 48 for international tickets. At door 48 there was a redirection to counter 1. Blast! At counter 1 a sign above said that international tickets were only sold between 1500 and 1630 and some hours in the evening. It was only 1330. Blast! Maybe I can buy the ticket at a city station later and not have to come back? Ask the clerk. No, tickets are only sold at Oriente and Santa Apollonia, not Rossio. Grr! Nothing for it but to come back later.


What kind of pissy ATM system lets you withdraw only 200€ max? Grr and double grr!


At the hostel, after checking in, I calm down. I check the CP website to see if I can buy the ticket online. No, but it can be purchased at travel agents also and CP gives a list. Ok, I'm being too narrow-minded. In fact I can do any of these things:


1. Go back to Santa Apollonia in the evening and book the tickets as planned.


2. Book the tickets at a travel agent in the airport in between coming back from Brazil and heading off to Madeira.


3. Book the tickets in Madeira, it's also part of Portugal, and a few travel agents there are on the CP list.


4. Buy the tickets when I get back from Madeira the same day as I want to travel. It's unlikely that they will run out of compartments; it's a train, not a plane.


5. Forget about taking the Lusitania night train and catch a cheap flight between Lisboa and Madrid. I can either leave my luggage in storage, spend a day in town, then take a very late flight; or spend a night in Lisboa, and take a flight the next day. I like trains, but really there is nothing to see at night, and it's just as comfortable spending the night in a hotel as on a sleeper train.


Anyway the main thing is I can take some time to think about this.


The other minor irritation is that one of my jeans developed a small rip. Fortunately I had brought some adhesive mending patches. They didn't have an iron at the hostel so I had to improvise with a frypan.