Lisbon Day 4

Today started off with the standard breakfast of bread, butter, jam, coffee, and juice…and I left at 8 to ride the Metro-Underground out to the Convention Center…then decided to stay on it out to the Airport, as the word is there will be a strike of all public and service employees on Thursday and it may disrupt the flights. The airport is real easy to get around…just up some steps from the Metro and into the ticket area and there was United. She was most helpful and advised me that I will be flying on their partner airline, TAP Portugal, which flies into Rome….and after going over all of my ticket to be sure all is in order, she suggested I go talk to TAP around the corner, which I did. I got a very helpful agent and she explained in quite good English what was happening and that the air folks really did not know much more than we did…other than their flights are scheduled. The issue is getting to the airport….and I have the first flight at 6:30 AM….too early for the Metro, buses will not be running…and she did not know about the taxi’s. In any case, she said that if I got to the airport, I should get the flight. I rode the Metro back downtown on another line…and then went to the Information office at the Square…..and inquired about a ticket to Sentra as well as the strike issue. She, again, did not know much more, but assured the taxi’s would be running…in that they are independent and see it as a good day to make extra money.

I then walked up about a block to the downtown train station to Sentra, which is a historic site about 45 minutes out of Lisbon via the fast train. The train station, and I have some great photos…is about 4 stories up from the street. As I have mentioned, Lisbon is on 7 hills and this track is on the top of one of those hills…so you have to go up that high to get on the train, which is also where the ticket office is. Very modern and very convenient once you get the idea. Yesterday I walked down the Funicular line from this height…and the train runs along the top of this hill…so it will have a magnificent view of Lisbon downtown.

Got my ticket for Tuesday afternoon then went back down the escalators and caught one of the Hotel buses to the Convention Center…and that started a most enjoyable 3 hours of “duty”.  I ended up being positioned at the entrance to the House of Friendship, which is where all of the 100 plus display booths are as well as the food and the main traffic flow back to the breakout rooms. My job, along with 3 security men and another volunteer was to verify badges, etc.etc..and the etc. part was the most fun….just one laugh after another with the questions, the comments, and the observations of the many attendees that wanted to stop and ask questions or get explanations, or whatever. In a period of about 2 minutes you become the “go to” person on every subject imaginable. Unfortunately, my assigned area was supposed to have an experience “Sergeant” there with me…but he ended going to the big Plenary exit area as they had a problem…so there we were. It was a constant 2 hours of questions, etc…and someone got the idea that I could speak French…so all of the French speaking questions came to me, along with the Spanish, as my “helper” was from ST. Louis; was kind of timid and quiet; and somewhat overwhelmed, to say the least. (I doubt if she will be back next year. A very attractive middle aged Club President Elect…but not too take charge, which was kind of needed). The 4 security guys were all young and speak only Portuguese, so every language that had a question came to us….( I have decided to take a 1 year brush up course in French, as believe it or not, quite a bit came back, like left, right, over there, around the corner, and there is the bathroom), but this would be good preparation for next year in Sydney and then in Sao Paulo). We were doing pretty well until about 2 PM when a middle aged considerably Japanese woman came up to me and said “can you get me a wheelchair….I cannot walk another step…I am hot and about to pass out”. The security guys could not understand me asking them to radio for a wheelchair…and she continued to almost yell…”get me a wheelchair”. I offered to help her to get inside the building to a chair and she said she could not walk another step, and proceeded to sit flat on the ground. Now, with as many as 100 people trying to get through the door into the show room…this was not the place to sit down, but she did. This would have been a million hit You Tube if someone could have gotten it. There I was trying to convince her to get up and I would help her…she was yelling back “no, I want a wheelchair”…and kept it up. I finally got the security guy to call for help…and then one of the head Sergeants showed up to see what was going on, and she started yelling at him. I saw a big divan style chair at one of the show booths so went in and asked the display guy to help me carry it out towards the door where the woman was and he did…and then it took 4 of us to lift this “dead weight” woman up and 2 of us led her to the chair…where she just collapsed. About that time some other Japanese woman came up and started talking to her, etc…I went back to my door…and about 15 minutes later looked and she was gone…someone said they say her being wheeled off in a wheelchair. What a scene that was for all.

All in all, with all that happened, a really fun and enjoyable 3 hours at the door. Met a lot of very nice folks from all over the US and the World, including some from Davis and Sacramento…even the District Governor for Rains County and Emory, who lives in Henderson, TX. (There is a small club in Emory that meets at Lake Fork Resort).

It was so busy that I continued to help others as I tried to get to the buses to leave…and finally got the 4 PM bus back to the hotel area. From the Information Office earlier, the clerk said that if I wanted to see more of Lisbon I should get on a city bus that goes to the city limits…very interesting and a lot to see…so I got on the bus. It was very interesting going through the many and varied neighborhoods for about 45 minutes..but also very hot and the buses are modern but not really enough AC to cool all..so it was hot in the sun part of the bus. On our way, we say a small vegetation fire, with their version of county fire trucks, and it looked like it was burning about 50 acres up the hillside. At the station, which was also the furthest out Metro station I decided to take the Metro back, and got back to Rossio Plaza. The Information agent also told me that “you must ride the trolley cars”. I had seen them on the Hop ON-OFF buses…but she told me where to get one, so I went there and spent an hour on the trolley car, and have some great photos of this experience. Suffice it to say now, this was the most interesting trolley car ride that you could ever experience. It is the SF Cable Car magnified about 10 times. They are smaller, faster, and go up and down streets at almost a scary speed, with about 1 foot of distance between the car and a building or another car. In 2 of the downtown areas, they are the primary means of getting around, for buses cannot go up and down the narrow streets, dating back to the 1800’s. A trolley car ride is an absolute must for any Lisbon visitor. With all of the stops and then changing to come back to the start point, it was about a 90 minute ride in total. I got back to Rossio about 7:45…and headed for me room to wash up…then back down to my favorite restaurant on the busy walking street for that delicious Pizza. The restaurant was crowded but he put me up on the street, and the street musicians were out in force. A black trumpeter and his white bass buddy did a nice job with jazz tunes…just put down the case, pick up the horn and start playing. If folks don’t clap and give money, pick up and move to the next restaurant location….a true no hassle situation…but really fun to watch.

Well, I start at 8 on Tuesday as my duty is at the Plenary Session…so I am curious to see what job I get…it will have to go some to beat today’s job.