Jonathan, Emily, and Daniel (and one more) to Portugal and Italy: Days 10 and 11, The long journey to lemon land.

On yesterday we left our apartment said goodbye to Ligia and the woman who works in the cafe below us, whom we had befriended. I took our clothes to a lavandaria (laundromat). I was expecting a coin-wash kind of place, but it was a dry cleaner kind of place. But I was happy to find out they also had a washing machine and dryer. The woman at the desk didn't speak much English at all, but we figured out what would work best. At first she said we could come pick up the clothes at 5:30 PM, which was way too late, but I got her to agree to 11:30. She charged by the kg of clothes washed. We had the car packed and were ready to go at 11, so we walked over to the laundromat to see how close she was to being finished. She was just folding the last few items, and it cost us 4 Euros. Can you imagine? They wash, dry, and fold your clothes for you for $5.2? I would never do laundry myself again if I lived in Sintra. Contrast that with Italy, where this morning we heard a guy talking in the hotel, saying they charge 2 Euros per item of clothing.

After picking up our laundry, Emily wanted to find some more of her favorite Portuguese coffee, Nicola. The place where she used to live, Sao Marcos, was on the way, and there are some grocery stores there, so we stopped by. I saw her old neighborhood, and she said it had changed quite a bit. The road construction was gone, and there were lots of new businesses. (Sadly, we couldn't find her favorite coffee).

We drove to Lisbon, found a parking spot, and went to the oceanarium. Daniel really loved it, but his poor sleeping at night and lack of good naps had caught up with him, and he was swinging wildly between hysterical fits and euphoric love of fish. I thought the oceanarium was pretty cool. In the center is a huge tank with lots of big fish, and then surrounding it are some medium and small tanks with lots of interesting creatures. There was a penguin exhibit, and the penguins were very active. You could watch them underwater, diving around like little torpedoes. When Daniel says “fish”, it sounds like “pish”... which is very similar to the Portuguese word for fish, which sounds like “pesh”.

We returned our rental car, and then caught a flight on Portuguese Air to Rome. We arrived in Rome at 11:30 PM, and all of the hotel shuttles had stopped. We asked around and found that no one would take us to our hotel for cheaper than 35 Euros, so we paid to go on a nice looking shuttle. We were lucky to be the first people dropped off. Daniel was asleep by then, but he did not sleep at all on the flight and he was a wreck on the flight. He did not even stir as we changed his diaper.

This morning we work up earlier than our bodies wanted us to, got some decent hotel breakfast, and then took another shuttle into Rome. We had directions for how get to the Rome train station, Termini, by public transportation-- bus, then train, then metro-- but we thought we would save our energy and bought ourselves the shortcut of a shuttle. The shuttle driver dropped everyone off a good distance from the Termini, but they were sightseeing around Rome. We paid the driver an extra 7 Euros to take us directly to the Termini train station. It was very worth the price, because we had 2 rolling suitcases, 2 full backpacks, a stroller, and Daniel. Emily took Daniel and the stroller and I took the rest.

The first leg was from Rome to Naples. We took the 2 hour train because it was half the price of the 1 hour train and half the time as the 4 hour train. The train was very nice, and we sat across from a friendly Italian couple who liked Daniel.

We had to switch trains in Naples, and the one which would take us to Sorrento was in a different area and with a different company than the one we'd just been on. Their trains are not so nice, but they were much much cheaper. This train station was not intended for strollers, and the only way down to the platform was a steep, long stretch of stairs. A nice man helped Emily carry Daniel down in his stroller. We hardly got on the train because it was packed and we had to take Daniel out and fold the stroller when we realized we were not going to fit otherwise. I think the train driver waited for us. Emily had so much stuff (and so did I) that she was struggling to stay upright on the crazy rocking train, so some nice lady took sleeping Daniel out of Emily's arms (with her hand gesture permission), and someone else got up to let her sit down. It took a while for the train to empty enough for me to consolidate our luggage in the corner of the standing area. The train ride when past some very beautiful and interesting views. There was Mount Vesuvius, some other pretty mountains, the ocean, and some huge shipyards.

Arriving in Sorrento, there was a group of Swiss people who had bikes they were trying to get through the little exit gates, which are glass doors that slide in and out of metal stands. They have proximity sensors, and you have to hold your tongue just right to get the door to open. Their bikes were throwing everything off. I realized that our tickets had no effect on the machine, unlike some other stations which require you to hold your ticket on a little sensor to get the door to open. Everyone was assuming the tickets were the key until I realized that the proximity sensors were the key.

We were supposed to call our host Elena in Naples to give her warning so she could pick us up, but we were too rushed, couldn't find pay phones, couldn't find a SIM card place which didn't have a huge line, etc. The pay phones were not working at the Sorrento station, after I tried four. Even if they had been working, they were very confusing to use. We met a woman who had her credit card stolen. Emily thought she said her suitcases had been stolen too. We felt bad for her. We finally asked a guy selling lemonade ice if we could borrow his mobile phone. He was very nice and didn't let us pay him, so we about some lemonade ice from him, and it hit the spot. Elena came 15 minutes later in her little blue car.

Elena is a freshly graduated social work major who doesn't think she can find a job with her major in Sorrento, so she is studying to become a yoga instructor. She hopes to open a tourist oriented yoga studio in Sorrento. The place we're staying is on the mountain side above Sorrento in a little gated community. There's a pedestrian road down to Sorrento, and we'll soon find out how much of a killer hike the hill is. The house we're in is a little guest house next to what I'm guessing is a vacation home. She must rent it out for her family.

We got to the house without eating dinner, and we were hungry. I was going to hike into Sorrento and see what I could find, but 100 feet away from the gate was a hotel with a restaurant. They were very nice and I bought us gnocchi, spaghetti, and an omelet. The food was mediocre but very appreciated.

Right now I'm sitting next to Daniel while he's in his crib. He is so hyper and happy. He's kicking his feet, talking to himself, making animal noises, singing little songs, and being very restless. But at the same time, he's very happy to be in bed and isn't asking to get out. He has been in such a good mood this evening. It has been very nice. He's over his cold and jet lag, I think.

Looking out our Sintra apartment's window, this is Daniel's little friend.

Moss grows everywhere.

Here is a tour of our Sintra apartment, which is on the third floor of a building on Sintra's main street. The bathroom. Including Daniel's favorite play area, the bidet.

Sintra apartment.

Sintra apartment. The front door. It had a huge lock on it... three bolts went into the wall in the middle and then one more at the top and one more at the bottom. It used a huge skeleton key which you had to turn about 8 times.