This week we traveled from Lisbon to Barcelona (day 320). Multiple people spoke Spanish to us out of the gate, and we failed on every one of them. We got settled into our new Airbnb, and took in some of the city. Both the city and our place are proving to be incredibly nice. We also spent a lot of time continuing to research ACA related things (days 323 and 324).

Travel Log: Day 318 (5/11), Portugal

We’re really winding down our time here and didn’t do anything noteworthy today. JC and I took a walk later in the evening.

I ran out of things to research after we settled on our likely vehicle plan. We plan to get a 2026 Nissan Leaf because it is cheap enough to qualify for $3,250 in CO tax credits. That will actually wipe out our remaining tax bill from the Roth IRA conversion. When combined with the capital gain harvesting, we will actually get a refund overall. The second part of the car plan is to buy a reliable old gas guzzler that has seven seats and is great off road. The leading candidate is the Lexus GX470.

Travel Log: Day 319 (5/12), Portugal

Today was the last day of school for the week, and we just have two weeks remaining.

We began packing today, and had a more difficult task than usual. Due to the bites on my arm which we think may have been bed bugs, we are inspecting everything. I looked through every corner of backpacks, rain jackets, hats, and every article of clothing. As we cleared each thing we stacked them on the dining room table. JC brought up a good point that I may have got those bites trying something on at Humana. That would make sense since nobody else got any bites. I also never got any additional bites. In any case though I’ll feel good knowing we did what we could to avoid bringing any with us.

I scheduled our Bolt ride to the airport for tomorrow morning at 5am. I also spent a lot of time nailing down the train route we are going to take in Barcelona to get to our Airbnb. It’s not as straightforward as Japan. I get different answers from every route app I use and different answers between AIs. Ultimately I think I have a plan in place. However, I would say there’s a high likelihood something will go wrong with the plan. I guess this is why I always here travelers in Europe saying you should plan on train mishaps.

Travel Log: Day 320 (5/13), Portugal and Spain

Leaving Lisbon Airbnb

The day got off to a brutal start when I set my alarm on my watch for 4am, forgetting that my watch is an hour ahead of Portugal time. It ended up waking up both JC and I at 3am and we never really went back to sleep. Our clock is a full three hours forward from our usual schedule, so 3am is like midnight in CO. It was an omen of more failures for me through the day.

At 4am we got out of bed and started getting the final pieces complete to leave our Airbnb. It was a little more nerve wracking than usual because we had to walk out the door with no way to get back in if we forgot something.

Our pre-scheduled 5am Bolt was there waiting for us, and we made great time to the airport on the empty streets.

Lisbon Airport

At the airport everything was fast because we had already checked in online seeing as how TAP Air Portugal gives a carry-on allowance that accommodates our bags.

We went straight to security, and I give the Lisbon airport a standing ovation for their security procedures. They have this system where there are three stalls per belt, and one group of people enters a stall to put their things in bins. When done, you push them forward onto the rollers. With no single file line you are never THE person holding up the line and it just runs smoother.

From there we had to wait for our gate assignment, so we grabbed some seats and got coffee. Continuing with my failures, I couldn’t find our boarding group even after looking at the correct document, but JC found it. Next, I couldn’t understand the airline lady when she asked if we were in zone B, and she had to switch to english.

Flight and Barcelona Airport

The flight to Spain was uneventful, but more failures started piling up. Upon exiting the plane a guy started talking to me in Spanish asking something about suitcases. He was probably asking if I knew the luggage carousel for the flight. I couldn’t even get out a “solo hablo un poco español”. He said in english “you don’t understand do you”, and JC asked if he spoke english but he said “no French”.

We ate McDonalds at the airport around 11am before going any further because that is actually breakfast time for us here in Barcelona. I made a deal with AC that we’d eat McDonalds if she never asked for it again in Spain, and she agreed.

Our next task was to take the terminal 1 to terminal 2 bus. We had to get to terminal 2 in order for all of our trains to be on the T-usual card system. We found the shuttle no problem, and upon arriving at terminal 2 we figured we had to go into the terminal. There was a check for boarding passes, so I went up to the lady checking them and asked “donde esta suchandsuch station”. She had no idea what I was asking. Probably because I literally said station in english (as opposed to estacion de suchandsuch) and butchered the station name pronounciation. She realized I wanted the metro though and let us through.

Navigating Trains and Subways

At the metro station we got our T-usual cards with the help of a nice lady who just intercepted us and helped us before we got to the machine. We carded in through the gates and waited for our R2N route train.

On the train it was very hard to understand the stops because there was no marquee showing the next stop, and the announcements were Spanish-only and quiet. JC managed to see the station signage at each stop to keep us on aware of progress through the stations.

We had to transfer at the Gracia stop to the L4 line subway. We walked toward the L4 signs and got to a platform, where I was just going to stay. JC realized we needed to go farther though, and not just a little farther, like a decent walk through hallways and up and down stairs. We got to the L4 platform and AC was telling us it was wrong and we needed to go back. I blew her off initially but she ended up being right, that we were at the L4 in the wrong direction. After getting to the right platform we rode the short two stops to our station.

Brief Walk Through Barcelona

Walking through the streets to our Airbnb, we saw how much more refined and beautiful Barcelona is compared to Lisbon. The streets and buildings are perfectly constructed and gorgeous. We found our building but JC had to run over to a supermarket to pick up the key, which was weird. They provide this air tag looking thing that can open the outside door, and then an actual key for the unit. Once we got into the Airbnb there were two sets of keys waiting for us.

While I was waiting for JC to return with the key, I failed again when a lady asked me in Spanish if we would move our bags so she could park her bike in that spot. She had to switch to english before I even got out a word of Spanish to tell her I didn’t understand.

We also met our next door neighbor who speaks perfect english.

Our New Home

Our Airbnb is amazing and such a luxurious place in comparison to the Lisbon Airbnb. It’s modern, huge, everything functions, and it’s beautiful. The bathroom is separate from the shower like in Japan, making one bathroom feel like three. We have a big TV. JC and I have a big comfortable bed. The kids are in an entirely separate area upstairs. It has a big fridge/freezer combo, and the freezer alone is as big as the entire fridge/freezer combo in Lisbon.

We started unpacking a bit and doing all of the initial setup for a new place, such as setting up our charging station, trying out the water, etc. JC and I took advantage of some house-provided Nespresso capsules.

Grocery Run

JC made a list of the things we need for the next few meals, and we went to the grocery store. We started at the small grocery store where we had to return the key. The groceries at the small store were expensive though, so we went to a larger grocery store.

The bigger grocery store had a pretty good selection of items, and even had the Nespresso capsules this machine takes. We bought some pre-made lunch stuff, some frozen pizzas for tonight, and then enough stuff for egg sandwiches in the morning. It was $67 which is not cheap, but over $8 was Nespresso. A good reminder we can’t get back into that when we go home.

Travel Log: Day 321 (5/14), Spain

I woke up in a new mindset after getting a 94 sleep score. Everything is more positive after sleeping, and I felt better about my failures yesterday. On the language front I took a proactive step and added a new section to spanish-trainer named “panic”. It has phrases to say when we don’t understand the speaker at all, missed a word, need them to talk slower, etc. We all practiced these today but we need many more reps to be ready for situations like yesterday.

We all walked over to the beach and strolled around there on the walkway and the sand for a bit. The beach isn’t really super nice compared to the nicest beaches we’ve been to this year. It’s not fair to measure beaches against Guam though.

After that we walked to a grocery store that turned out to be smaller than I thought, but we got a few things. Later in the evening on another walk we stumbled upon another grocery store. It turned out to have really good inventory and we plan to go back there.

I’m feeling like I really need to get some clothes. People on the streets are out classing me.

Travel Log: Day 322 (5/15), Spain

It was a pretty cold day today, only getting into the lower 60’s and overcast. We all walked to the gym I wanted to join today, and BC and I went inside. I asked the guy at the desk “hablas ingles” and he said “yes” which was a relief. He set me up with a membership through the end of June which will automatically expire. There was a 40 euro registration fee which was bogus, but he prorated the month of May which was unexpected. It came out to 131 euros which was right in line with expectations.

From there we walked through a park that JC wanted to walk through, although we didn’t see the majority of it. We continued beyond that toward a fitness supplement store I wanted to go to. I got some creatine and isolate whey protein. They guy working there was nice, and when I asked him he told me the cheap creatine was the same as any other.

I felt kind of like crap all morning with a scratchy throat and a headache. After having coffee I felt a little better but no totally. When we got settled back in after the fitness store and then a grocery run, I took a nap for an hour. I felt a lot better after that.

Later in the evening JC and I had a couple drinks and then hit a couple bars right here by our place. The first bar was really boring and we got scammed out of 20 euro for 3 roses. The second bar was more lively and served strong drinks. JC’s seemed especially strong, staggering me a bit when I took a drink. It put her under for the rest of the night, but luckily we made it home and had dinner before that happened.

For FAC it was my movie pick and I chose Alien, which I had never seen. It was pretty good, and had I seen this in the late 70’s it would have blown my mind. The special effects really held up to this day.

Travel Log: Day 323 (5/16), Spain

I slept like garbage last night, and I think it’s at least partially due to the early morning sun we’re getting here. We’re going to need to find a better way to block the window.

I went for a run at the gym and it was really good. The run sucked actually and I felt like I was dying, but I made it three miles. The gym however was great. It has all the machines and weights I will need, the treadmills are good, and everything is well maintained. I walked up to the pool area as well which looked really nice, but I left immediately so I didn’t look like a creep.

The bulk of the rest of my day was spent wrapping up a post with my Lisbon travel reflections.

After that, JC and I got down into an AI induced rabbit hole on our health insurance. We were getting ready to submit it and just wanted to see how to verify coverage will start on 7/1.

Claude went down a whole path of saying our qualifying reason of losing insurance may not be accurate because Cigna Global might not qualify as medically essential coverage. That’s apparently some bar that has to be cleared for it to be a qualifying event, even though in the app process I saw no mention of that.

Claude was saying we may need to apply with a reason of “permanent move” from abroad, which I didn’t even see as an option. At this same time it was saying the dumbest shit like our coverage wouldn’t start until 8/1. I pushed back on all this dumbass stuff it was saying, and it eventually said “yeah I was being too cautious” and “yeah I got that wrong” and then said to go ahead and submit it.

I’m planning on calling connectforhealth to verify the 7/1 date, but I’m not going to deeply examine the qualification reason. If our Cigna Global coverage doesn’t qualify they need to make that more clear. It’s just so irritating because this is the PAID version of Claude on the latest public model (Opus 4.7), and it’s whiffing badly on some silly things.

In the evening JC and I went out for a couple drinks and dinner. We were both dragging a bit at the beginning. After a drink at the same local pub we went to last night, we walked over to the beach and ate at a taco restaurant. It was fine but after 30 minutes of not getting our tacos JC had to ask them what was up. On the bright side they got them out quick after that and comped them.

JC and I started watching The Fly but only had time to watch about half.

Travel Log: Day 324 (5/17), Spain

After the Claude fiasco yesterday, I lost my whole day to ACA research. I went deep into what would happen if we were denied the special enrollment period (SEP), and what I learned was both interesting and bewildering. In CO if you don’t apply during an open enrollment period, you are screwed outside of two options. One is qualifying for the SEP, and the other is applying for medicaid if your income is low enough to qualify.

There are no more private insurance options because the rules and regulations in CO dried up those markets. It leaves only weird specific event insurance like for cancer, hospitalization, etc, or religious-based cost-shares which are not insurance. They have no obligation to pay your bills, and I refuse to pretend I’m religious. It may be for the best that old-style private insurance plans are gone though. They had predatory terms and you could find yourself with a large medical bill due to denials.

In the end we’re back on track and ready to submit the enrollment tomorrow. It took an entire day of research, asking Claude questions, getting overly verbose responses, and boiling it down into a plan. After all of that I ran the plan by Copilot for a Sanity check and it confirmed everything, and also said our chances of qualifying for a SEP are 100% iron clad. It makes me wonder why Claude got all nervous about this yesterday. It was even it was backing off of the denial scenario being at all likely.

In the end our plan is to submit and almost certainly qualify for the SEP, and then we’re done. Maybe we end up having to qualify under the permanent move clause, but we have both angles. If that falls through we will just pay cash for medical services. We will keep our MAGI low, and in the event something drastic happens medically, apply for medicaid.

What makes that possible is that medicaid can cover up to the prior three months of medical expenses from the point at which you apply. There is no enrollment period and you can apply any time if you qualify. I don’t want to use medicaid on philosophical grounds, but if CO leaves us with no other option, I will. I’d rather just buy a private plan though.

We also went to the beach today, but we didn’t stay long because it was cold.