This week was all about getting from South Africa to Portugal. It was a long series of flights and layovers that totaled 38 hours from leaving our Knysna South Africa condo to entering our Lisbon Portugal condo. Shortly after arriving in Portugal JC and I got sick which made for a few boring days.

Travel Log: Day 283 (4/6), South Africa

This is our final full day in South Africa. After school we tried to go to the mall but almost everything was closed for “family day”, which is a national holiday the Monday following easter. We did some of our checklist for exiting the condo, and packed things onto our shelves to get them ready for final packing in our bags.

Travel Log: Day 284 (4/7), South Africa

In the morning we ate breakfast, packed, and completed our exit checklist. We took our stuff to the car at 10am and handed the key over to the cleaning lady.

Since we had a lot of time to kill, we went to the mall and looked at heavier layers. We didn’t ultimately buy anything.

After that we drove to Wilderness and went back up to the amazing viewpoint by the Map of Africa. It was very cool this time because there were para-gliders taking off from that very spot. We saw a handful of them launch, and it was amazing how long they can stay in the air. We were there for 20 minutes and the guy who was in the air when we got there was still in the air when we left. This is all without any propulsion.

For lunch we went to Salina’s, the same restaurant we ate at the first time we went to Wilderness. The meal took forever but that was a good thing. It was about 2pm when we were done, and we went from there to return the rental car.

I didn’t know what to expect with the rental return, but it turned out to be a big nothing. We handed the keys to a lady, she got the mileage and said something like “everything is as it should be”. We didn’t have to go to the counter or anything, and just went to the airport departure area. I’m still half waiting for them to come back and say “hey what happened to the underside of the car”. My guess is that someone did the majority of that damage before me though.

There wasn’t anything too noteworthy on the flight from George to Cape Town. We were given a sandwich on the short 45 minute flight, which surprised us. It was actually really good too.

Travel Log: Day 285 (4/8), South Africa, Angola, Portugal

We flew out of cape town at 12:35am, and landed in Angola around 3:25am after falling back an hour. The flight was good; I had an empty seat beside me. I’ve had the best luck with that this year. BC slept the whole flight, and the rest of us got some sleep but it wasn’t great.

Angola Airport

At the Angola airport we just had to go through a quick security check and then we were at our gate. This is the first time we have connected through a different/third country this year so we didn’t know what to expect. It was a reminder that we’re in Africa when at security the Angola TSA guy made me drink my water to prove it was water. That’s what passes for security around here I guess. He picked me out but let everyone around me put their water through untested.

We went near our gate and actually got some sleep. BC slept underneath our row of chairs. I slept on the floor by the windows. JC and AC figured out a way to sleep on the row of chairs despite the arm rests.

I had an adventure trying to get coffee. There are only a couple places to get it here, so I went to one of them. They spoke no english but we got far enough that my order was clear, two Americanos with milk. She asked me if I smoke through charades, and I have no idea why. My card failed to work though, so I left that place. At the next place the first guy also didn’t speak english but I got to an Americano with milk. My cards also failed here, and they already had the coffee made. I asked if they take USD and they said yes, so I had to go get that for them.

On To Portugal

The flight felt really long, every bit as long as the 7 hours it took. I was sitting next to a tall guy which is never good. We had a full lunch, and I picked a beef dish for that which was so-so. Toward the end of the flight we received a smaller meal, which was a small self assemble sandwich.

We were among the last to exit the plane since we were sitting in the back. After making our way to immigration we thought we were going to sail through because there was a special American/British/Similar line. Someone stopped us though and pointed out it was only if you were all 16+. So we had to go to the long line for “all other passports”.

This line took forever, and we were in it for about 2.5 hours. There was only one guy processing “all others” at times, any time there were EU passport holders in their line. The EU citizens got special treatment and had multiple agents processing them, even though they were a smaller group. After each group of them was completed, they would open the other agents up to us. I was very irritated at how slowly this went.

Next we found our bags, got 400 euros, and then went to the Uber pickup spot. Our ride took about 20 minutes to get arrive because of construction she said was going on. She was a great driver, and filled us in on the immigration lines. They are always that long, and the other fast electronic line we weren’t able to use only exists because America, the UK, and others complained about the terrible immigration lines.

Airbnb

The host’s husband was waiting for us at the Airbnb. He spoke english which was a relief, and gave us a tour of the place. I really love this place, and it’s one of the few places where I liked it immediately. It’s much more livable and charming than the pictures. It is very divided up into separate rooms which I think is fantastic. I can be in the living room without kitchen noise coming in, school is separate from the kitchen, the bedrooms are tucked away, etc. It’s a trend that needs to come back into style in my opinion.

I took pictures, JC and I showered, we set up charging, and then went to bed.

Travel Log: Day 286 (4/9), Portugal

I woke up around 7am today, after going to bed at nearly 2am. Despite that only being about 5 hours, I slept pretty hard except for waking up a couple time freezing with cold air from the window pouring down on me.

JC and I had instant coffee and got caught up on categorizing transactions. I practiced Portuguese phrases, and then we woke up the kids. We ate some snacks that we had left over for breakfast, and then went to the grocery store.

The grocery store was nice and just a 15 minute walk that felt really short. We struggled our way through figuring out the grocery store procedures, but it’s pretty nice once you understand them. Lots of things are purchases either by weight or by count. The first example we ran into was apples, which requires enter a product code and it weighs the apples. The machine then spits out a label to stick on the bag. A really nice older guy had to help us through that one, and then we repeated it on a couple other things we bought.

The prices were really good and we found almost everything we were looking for. We came away with a mix of groceries and ready to eat things for lunch and dinner. The total was only $76.11 which seems very reasonable given we had two large reusable grocery bags plus one plastic bag full of food.

At checkout we tried the self-checkout. It worked really well for the most part, but the attendant did come over at one point. It’s when we needed to buy the third bag, and he was really just coming over to make sure we didn’t remove the two full bags. While he was talking though we didn’t know what he was saying so I used one of my 39 memorized phrases to say “I speak very little Portuguese”. That really helped break the tension and reset his expectations of us. He laughed when I said it and said “tembem”, meaning “me too”.

For lunch we ate sandwiches, wraps, and JC had a salad. Dinner was a lentil/vegetable soup that was completely bland, and baguettes.

JC and I went for a long walk by ourselves in the late afternoon. We were really celebrating getting out on our own again, after not doing it at all in South Africa, or practically at all in Sri Lanka.

Travel Log: Day 287 (4/10), Portugal

I slept amazing last night, apparently the best I ever have since wearing a sleep tracker, as my score was an all time high 94. Instead of ice cream we got pastel de nata from the grocery store.

I got back to language work today, including updates to spanish-trainer for a new more native Portugal voice on some of the phrases. I ran through them all a couple times and I’m getting more fluid with them. Duolingo and Dreaming rounded out the day.

After school we went to the grocery store to get FAC stuff as well as some groceries. Since we had alcohol we went to the regular checkout. It was an awkward experience because the checker was fairly abrupt and I wasn’t grasping everything very fast.

It was unclear if she was open because there was a sign on the belt and I didn’t know what it said. I motioned to the belt and she said podge (Pode), which is a word I know from my phrases. Being unable to immediately process what that meant in isolation, I asked her “aberta”, and she shook her head yes and said “pode”. After thinking it about it once we left I understood that mean “you can”.

After scanning all of the items, she showed us a box of some cracker thing, so we said yes we’d take one. We gather that was the promotion item on the belt. It must have been super annoying for her because she had to move the promotion sign back every time the belt ran. I payed with the card and she presented me with a paper which I assumed was the NIF. I asked her “NIF?”, and she shook her head yes and I said “no tenho” (I don’t have). At that point JC pointed out it was a slip to sign, which I wasn’t expecting.

JC and I had drinks while watching window, and then we watched JC’s pick for movie, The Intern.

Travel Log: Day 288 (4/11), Portugal

I woke up feeling under the weather, and it only got worse as the day went on. JC was looking to go walk around the city, but I wasn’t up to it so just her and AC went. Around noon I could tell I had a fever, and I was out of commission the rest of the day. I decided to sleep on the couch in the living room because that drafty window sounded like torture.

Travel Log: Day 289 (4/12), Portugal

Today I am feeling better than yesterday, but still not great. My fever is mostly gone, and my aches are almost completely gone. Unfortunately JC is now fully sick like I was yesterday.

We didn’t do anything today outside of the condo, aside from a walk that BC and I went on in the evening. I did a good amount of Duolingo and Dreaming Spanish, as well as converted some of my log to Spanish. Also I refined the restaurant and grocery sections for Spanish in spanish-trainer.

JC and I decided to move our mattress into the living room because we can’t deal with the drafty windows anymore.