September 21, 2022
Sometimes you check into a hotel, or in my case, a tiny studio apartment, and everything seems to go wrong.
I finally reached my apartment building in Lisbon and pushed the buzzer for reception. No answer. I tried again. No answer.
Then I remembered that there was a phone number with the confirmation. They had a short check-in window from 2:00 to 8:00 PM, and it was just after 2:00, so maybe they were late getting to work.
I called, and a man answered. Almost immediately, he appeared at my side to let me in. My, he was a handsome one, about my height and 40ish. He took my suitcase to help me up the first flight of stairs explaining that the elevator started on the first floor. (In Spain and Portugal, the ground floor is floor zero. What we Americans would consider the second floor; they would call the first.)
He checked me in but explained that the room wasn’t quite ready. Housekeeping was just finishing the cleaning, and it would take ten minutes or so. No problem. I didn’t mind waiting.
He brought me up and showed me how to use the code to get into the room. I then tried to set up the Wi-Fi on my phone. It didn’t work. He said he would reboot it and that I could use the same password to log into one of the other routers in the building.
I did my thing and got minimally settled. This was indeed a tiny apartment! It didn’t even have a closet, just a rack about a foot long with six hangers. It did have an iron and ironing board, though, something I had not yet seen on this trip. Oh, and a safe! I could lock up my computer when I was out and about.
I took a little rest before heading out to explore. The trip from Nazaré had been exhausting. Well, it was mostly the trip from the bus station to the apartment that did me in. Two subway rides with one escalator and one elevator out of service. Lugging that 40-pound suitcase up stairs is no easy feat!
I went to try my code on the safe, and it wouldn’t lock. I tried a different code and got an error message and a loud beeping noise. To my relief, the noise stopped after about 30 seconds.
I stopped at the office on the way out to let Mr. Handsome know about the safe. He insisted on coming back up with me to see if he could reset it. Not what I wanted to do, but better to get it over with. He had the same thing happen; beep, beep, beep…I told him not to worry about it, and he said he would fix it tomorrow.
It was a hot but fantastic afternoon of sightseeing. I followed the Rick Steves Baixa Stroll and was delighted that the apartment was within the map’s boundaries. In fact, it was just a few blocks from the beginning of the walk. After some gelato at the Plaza of Commerce, I made my way up to the Rossio train station, had dinner, bought some groceries, and returned to the apartment, ready to relax for the evening.
The day had been hot and humid, so I turned on the air conditioner and got ready for a shower. I noticed a steady drip of water coming down and got the big soup pot under it.
After the shower, I noticed the hair dryer didn’t work. Earlier that day, I had thought that I could have left my little travel hairdryer at home because every place seems to have one. That had to be the last malfunctioning/broken thing in this tiny apartment.
Nope. I couldn’t get the computer connected to the internet. When I finally got on one of the other routers, the signal was so weak that I couldn’t even surf the net or check Facebook.
At least there was a TV. I turned it on, and all the stations were that telltale blizzard. I guessed the cable wasn’t working either. I checked the back of the TV and saw that the cable was just disconnected. I plugged it back in, and all was well. At least I could veg out and watch some HGTV shows.
The next day…
Today after my morning outing, I stopped at the office to tell them about the dripping air conditioner. Again, Mr. Handsome insisted that he send the maintenance guy up right away to try and fix it, and he would get the safe working for me. I wanted to rest for a bit but getting it out of the way was good. Some new batteries took care of the safe, and I can now lock up the computer. The maintenance guy switched out the filters but was sure there was more to fix.
Mr. Handsome was still there after the maintenance guy left. I mentioned that I had heard him speaking perfect Spanish on the phone earlier and asked why he spoke it so well. He seemed pleased to know that I spoke Spanish. He explained that he had worked as a flight attendant based out of Madrid and had traveled the world for five years. Then he assured me that I would continue to pick up Portuguese and that there were a lot of similarities to Spanish. He also showed me the other hairdryer that was hiding in the cupboard. (The one attached to the wall was old and no longer worked.)
The air conditioner began dripping almost as soon as they left. But no one was in the office when I went to leave for my afternoon outing.
When I returned, I broke the bad news to Mr. Handsome. He said they were fully booked but would see if he could get me into a different apartment tomorrow since the technician couldn’t get here right away. I assured him that I would be fine either way.
I won’t mind another conversation with Mr. Handsome, though. He looks deeply into my eyes when he talks to me as if he can dive into my soul.
Ultimately, I stayed in the tiny apartment with the dripping air conditioner. My days in Lisbon were packed with so many beautiful sights to see.
Wandering Shannon 