Inauspicious Beginning

Well, my friends, I have waited for better news to come to start this blog, but I need to let all of you know I am alive, and we are all well. So, what's the inauspicious beginning ...? My bags have not yet arrived. I am going into the fourth day and just broke down to buy a few shirts and things this afternoon. Sergio, who is the owner of the condo in which we are staying took all our information from us about lost bags (Drema's and Judy's bags are also lost). He phoned the bag service for us and later let us know that they are 'still looking' for my bag, and their bags would arrive today.

As it turns out ONE of their bags arrived today. I am trying to not be too discouraged, as I bought new clothing and shoes for the trip. So, I'm trying to meditate and 'connect' myself with the bag again. I understand lost bags can really take a long time.

So, while dealing with that, we've also had quite a bit of rain, which has slowed our progress a bit. We are in a funky old neighborhood - narrow cobblestone streets (and me in my 3" heel boots). Only cars that belong in the neighborhood can get through these streets, and to stop others they have the typical barrier poles to prevent cars in certain streets. If you belong here, however, a sensor in your car makes the pole retract into the street, and the car can pass. After the car goes through, the pole goes up again. Genius!

How narrow are the streets? Well, when I got in my taxi and indicated the address, he was definitely NOT happy, and kept saying 'dificil, dificil!' over and over. As we got closer and the streets got more and more narrow and the hills were very steep, he turned around to me wagging his finger saying, "Internete, Internete!" I sheepishly responded, "Si, lo siento."

Judy has been the most adventurous one with food, trying many of the local foods and even sardine pate! Pork and fish are pretty big deals here, and we haven't found one restaurant menu with chicken! What's up with that? We see chicken in the butcher shops, so it is available.

This evening we have a 10:30 p.m. dinner reservation at a lovely restaurant close to where we stay. So we will be having a prix fixe typical Portuguese meal at the stroke of midnight. It should be fun and interesting.

We've scoped out the Oceanario for tomorrow - a big aquarium-like structure, so we'll have that to report. We plan to rent a car and go south one day. We've scoped out some good Fado music, and Sergio is helping to direct us to a good place with traditional music - not tourist-y.

So, here we are! Alive and well. Happy New Year to all friends and family, and I hope you are blessed with all good things in the year to come.

Cheers,
W.