Porto

When things go wrong they don't just go wrong they go majorly wrong. And when things go your way they just keep coming your way. Today was a testimony to that. Just around the corner from the hotel was the bus stop. I needed to go and get my Samsung gear watch looked at, as it had gone to watch hell. Got to the stop. Thought I will ask this gent if I could get a ticket on the bus, as in Italy you needed to get it before you got on the bus. This nice human being not only gave that information but also asked where I as going to, and then informed me I was standing in the bus stop going in the wrong direction. So he crossed the road and showed me round the corner where I should go to in order to catch the bus. All good so far. 10.00 minutes later the bus comes. And when I ask the driver he tells me no I should be where I had been. Confusing!!!!!!.

Back I go, a bus comes along. After 3 stops that's it, the bus is not going any further. Not where I should be at all. So back to the place I just got down from. Now what there was a metro station there too. I asked a couple who were seated. These two were also super helpful. The man even went down the road asking people if they new where I was looking for, he got the necessary information and informed me, drew a diagram where I should get down etc. His partner made sure I got in with them when the metro came and so on. All good.

Now I come to where I need to get off the metro, looking looking no such place as what I want, but I need a SIM card too for my phone. And there is a Vodafone shop. I had read it was best to get a SIM card from Vodafone while on the camino. I go in there and the guy serving me spoke very good English, and handsome to boot. He was super friendly too. We discuss what I needed and he had done the camino 4 times. The last time was from Spain on a bike 1200 kms. He gets the SIM card for me, and then things turn bad.

I blame it all on Colin. I had gone to the main farm with him in his truck and was going to walk from there to blue mountains and back. When getting out of his vehicle he made a wise crack and I dropped my phone. My screen protector cracked at that time, which I replaced. But what I did not know was that it also damaged the SIM card tray. The darn thing could not be opened how ever much handsome dude tried to get it opened. Which meant no SIM card could be put in. So what now. Either buy a new cheap smart phone or get it repaired. The place he thought might be able to help when I went there was closed. So back to Mr Handsome and I asked him how to get to the Samsung shop I was originally supposed to go to.

Got there by another metro ride, but this time I bought a ticket that was valid for 24 hours. Got to the Samsung shop and to coin a phase used by Barbs a lot. "These guys were as useful as tits on a bull". Went to Waltens an electrical and appliance shop. The sales rep was of the same caliber as the Samsung guys. But there was a repair area too. And that man tried his best to get the phone opened. No luck. But he suggested I go to another shop of theirs in the same mall but a larger one. Mind you this was as big as Harvey Normans. In Lower Hutt. He said there they had a Samsung repair station. So off I went. This man was hopefully regards the phone but not the watch. It needed to have the software installed in NZ. By now I could not care a hoot about the watch. He said leave the phone with him for 2 hours.

So after a bite to eat I thought I will go to the Porto city centre, using my metro ticket. Got there and walked out of the metro station and realised oh bummer I do not have my phone for taking photos, so what's the point in going anywhere. Back into the metro station, when I spotted an information officer (IO). Thought I would ask about a place I wanted to visit the next day. I knew I needed to take a train to get there. When I explained where I wanted to go to he said oh no that is in the next metro station. I said no, and he said no, in the end it was better for me to listen to him after all he was the information officer. But I knew he was wrong!!!. Where I needed to go was a long way out of Porto. This man also told me that there was also a train station a few stops away which had the entire foyer in painted tile murals.

Back to my phone repair place and he had good news for me, my phone was back on the job. No cost to me either. I thought I will go to the first place the IO had recommended. Well it was lovely. Might not be what I had read about, but it was yet, fully worth seeing. The avenue getting their was very busy. Something for the rich, the poor and the average alike on the same street. Walking down the street towards the end came to a "beautiful old church". I have a feeling those three words are going to used a lot in this journal.

Month of May is dedicated to our lady . And normally in the evenings on each day the rosary is recited in most catholic homes. This was just about to happen in the church. So I stayed for that, and did mine in English. Then there was Saturday vigil mass which was also the Pentecost Sunday mass. After that feeling very Pious and Holy I went on a different route. Annoyed a Ching Chong China man by trying out a few articles of clothing and not buying any of it. Then saw a building which had a large tourist map on the window. Went in their out of curiosity in case it was an information centre. It was actually the train station that my IO had told me. So talk about the blind finding things in the dark by fluke. The Green lady in the photos is a still miming person.

After that had a jaunt around that area, which had a lovely square and back on the metro to get back to the hotel. My day was done.Read more