Tickets Please

  Praise be, we actually got out of the house and did something besides shopping! Our day started lateish because of who we are as peole, but we weren't in a rush so we had a lovely brunch of toast and orange juice on the back patio before assembling ourselves for our day trip to Sete Rios to purchase our bus tickets. We were out the door around 1:00pm, fully committed to not screwing up the train validation this time! At the station we reloaded our cards with enough money for the ride to and from and boarded Line 1 towards Roma-Areeiro.

  We rode 3 stops to get to Sete Rio, a trip of about 20 minutes which includes a lovely view of the shores of Portugal as the train takes you over the bridge. We hopped off and found out bearings, navigating out the doors and towards the Red Expressos station! The bus station is mostly outdoors, even the escalators, but there is and inside part where certain buses load and unload and where the ticket booth is located! There were plenty of booths there selling tickets yet for some reason lots of people were lined up for only one. This was weird as all the booths sell the same tickets. Ignoring that Jess and I got in line behind 2 groups of people instead of 5+ and waited a rather short time in total. The woman at the booth for us all sorted out and without us asking or even knowing it existed added an Under 25 discount to the ticket. That's apparently very common in Europe. Now, I said in my earlier that the tickets were going to be 34 euro each one way, but it turned out the bus we wanted was only 21 euro each one way and then with the discount it was only 18 euro and change each and we felt quite pleased with paying that instead of the hundred something euro we thought it was going to be!

  Having bought our ticket and seeing as there was no rush we meandered about the station so we knew where we would be the next day. The stops change each day according to what buses are running and at whAt time, but we think we've got the general gist of the area all sorted out and we should be alright for the journey. That being handled we headed out wit no plan in mind, our work for the day having been done. I'm front of the train station we found and ice cream stand though and decided we'd earned an ice cream (and we had a lot more money on us than we thought we would) so we got an ice cream sandwich to split. What? We didn't feel like millionaires who can each get an ice cream. Baby steps people.

  Ice cream in hand we people watched at the train station, watching regulars and tourists alike begin or end their travels for the day. When the ice cream was finished I decided I'd like to walk up the street to see what we could see. We found ourselves under a large bridge with murals of animals on the beams and realized we must be close to the Jardim Zoologico, or the zoo we'd seen so many advertisements for while on the metros and trains. Turned out it was right across the street and we decided to look around and maybe check the prices. The area outside of the zoo was essentially a miniature zoo equivalent of Downtown Disney with an assortment of places to eat in, shop at, and explore. There's a little garden walkway with benches that Jess and I enjoyed which lead to the prices sign. 21 euro each felt like a but much, but we decided we would see how much money we spent the next few days and if we had enough we'd go for a whole day!

  I do like zoos quite a bit, but of interest to me was a skyline gondola type ride which carries zoo-goers over the zoo and the shopping area. The sign said all attractions except the train are included with the price of admission so I do hope that ride is part of it because I just love those things! If we go, even if it's an extra fee, I at least wanna ride it once! Jess liked the gondola ride too, but as we were walking around she found something else of interest: one of those you machines where you put a coin in and get a random surprise out. The theme of this you machine was squishy animals and Jess decided she needed on. Unfortunately, we didn't have a euro coin which the machine needs. We did, however, have 2 50-can't euro coins so when we poked into the gift shop the woman at the front exchanged them for us. Jessica's prize was a squishy pig which was delightful and we both had a good time smooshing it while we sat on a bench under the gondola ride.

  After enjoying the little pig for a bit we went back to strolling and found a carousel. It was down at the moment but for 2 euro and 65 cents we wouldn't have paid anyway, but we did get pictures because Jess loves carousels! Double decker carousels must be a big thing in Europe because they're the only kind we've seen so far! There were other ride-type things around the shopping area including a bouncy house snapped like a giraffe and several of those coin-operated rides that you'd see in shopping malls. It looked like all the rides were just being opened up, which was weird because it was almost 4:00pm. Must be a Portuguese thing.

  Having seen everything to be seen, Jess and I headed back to the train station, used the booth to put on our cards that we were headed to Corroios and tapped the correct validation stand before boarding Line 4 towards Coina. We successfully got through the exit machines after the ride and were very proud of ourselves for not screwing it up again! We did still stop at the tickets machine again though to reload our Zapping cards so we wouldn't have to worry about it the next day in the early morning. Then we walked home and both took showers so we'd be fresh and ready for our long bus rides and fabulous pictures in front of the castle! Lunch (sort of) was some more peas and two pastries while we chatted like we hadn't seen each other all day. I made sandwiches for the morning before we parted ways and relaxed in our respective areas. Dinner was, shocker, grilled cheese and pastries while we watched Hercules with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. We'd both never seen it but it was ridiculous and we loved it. Also it had The Rock, wow enough. Our meal and movie was followed by a panic session as we realized we had no idea how to get from the bus stop in Porte de Lima to the Paco de Gloria. This castle literally has no official address and the station in Ponte de Lima apparently doesn't have a name listed so we we had to guesstimate that anyway. In the end we decided we were just gonna have to deal with that another time and went to bed for a rousing sleep of maybe 6 hours! C'est la vie!