Sintra

A restless night. I had found out that an old friend passed away. I met him and his family when I moved to Coronado. They were very kind to me. I suppose this will be happening more and more in my life. I remember my grandfather, Papa telling me that he needed to read the obituaries to see if he was in them. Living a long life means seeing your friends die off, kinda sad. That’s why I take the time now to travel because you never know when your time will be up.

Here we go down another rabbit hole, but I am reminded of a day in the Kingdom of Tonga a few years back. My friend, Megan and decided to travel there on the advice from a patient of mine. She said it was like Fiji but less touristy. On the day we were to fly to a smaller island, a hurricane decided to delay us. Once we realized that it was going to get bad and the third hotel “had no room at the inn,” I told Megan that I was satisfied with my life and could and would die peacefully. She replied instantly, “Well I haven’t!” We survived, stuck in Tonga for a few days without water, electricity nor Internet. Amazing people, those Tongans.

So today is the day to see Sintra. I had purchased some tickets on line and had a general idea how to get there. It was hard to wake up, but finally did enough to get the espresso machine working. Dressed and got my back pack ready. Might rain, might be chilly. Definitely walking a lot. I walked out of the hotel towards where I would catch a bus to take the train. Popped down into a parking lot by accident, then tried to board the wrong bus. Received some gentle direction from the driver and was on my way. Two stops later, I could have walked I arrived at the connection for the train. It’s a confusing spot since it’s called Restoradores, restaurants right? Nope. I wandered in the underground, navigated the ticket machines, walked in and back out of the wrong place and finally found my train. Arrived with minuets to spare. Again watched for the most people getting off the train and I knew that I had arrived at my destination.