Hike Away Miss A...

On July 9th we hit the air ready to enjoy our honeymoon in Africa filled with kiteboarding and scuba diving adventures. When we landed in Cairo, Egypt on July 10th at 3:30 our bag of our kite gear and snorkel gear was no where to be seen. We checked in with baggage claim and they assured us our bag would be delivered the very next day.

July 11th rolls around and still no bag to be seen. Lufthansa’s loss baggage claim informs us that there is no bag, they don’t know where it is, and the previous agent lied about it’s return date.

After looking further into our tracking numbers, it appears when United Airlines transferred our luggage to Lufthansa in Toronto, Canada, Lufthansa failed to check in the item as the tracking number goes completely ghost after Toronto Canada, Frankfurt, Germany, and Cairo, Egypt as if the oversized luggage never existed.

We know our gear is out there somewhere, but Lufthansa has been zero help in finding it. Please help share our story to get their attention so we can be reunited with it!

#Lufthansa #lufthansaairlines #lufthansacrew #lufthansagroup #lufthansalostluggage #lufthansalostbaggage #EAS #CAI #FRA #YYZ #lostluggage #lostkiteboard #lostkiteboardinggear #lostsnorkelinggear #EgyptianAirServices #lufthansacustomerservice

We woke up at 4:30 knowing we had to prepare for the hot day ahead. For some reason, it took us an hour and a half to actually get out the door. We did have breakfast at our hostel where we bought bread and cheese the night before at the market to enjoy along with fruits and juice.

Finally on the road, it was still dark out. We made our way across the bring that brings us into Tui, Spain. Instead of 6:00, now it was 7:00. We stopped in Tui to enjoy some much needed coffee.

On the road again, we enjoyed some beautiful flowers, blisters, and my reoccurring knee dilemma. My poor mother has received her first of many Camino blisters. Luckily for me, my dear friend Alain from Canada, (who I met last year on the Camino), told me about putting Vaseline on your feet. It has worked for me so far, but unfortunately not for my mom.

Our goal today was to get to Rodendela, which originally I thought was around 30km. This I was very wrong about. It was 30+km from Tui and we started 5-10km from Tui.

We met a lovely couple from Ireland early in the morning where we explained our goal. They sure did laugh as they were stopping in Porriño. I stopped there last year, but since we are on a tight schedule we have to go further.

Once we arrived in Porriño, my feet were aching and my mother’s were as well. We were beyond exhausted and we wanted to stop, but we decided after a long break we would continue to Mos which was about 5-7km.

Once we arrived in Mos, we saw many faces that we recalled from earlier in the day. Two Czech Republican gentlemen cheered us on as we made our way up to the albergue.

Since Mos is a very small town, there are only 2 places to stay. I was really worried it would be full since we arrived so late (5:00). I went to check the albergue, but a kind gentlemen told me that maybe we should look into the hostel across the street as it wasn’t the cleanest. I wasn’t too worried about it, but I decided to check. They had two beds remaining. Wohoo lucky us! So instead, we got a wonderful bed and pillow with clean sheets all for 10€. We shared a room with a gentleman from Germany.

After washing our clothes and taking showers, we went down stairs for dinner. I spoke in Spanish and translated to English for my mom. I thought I was terrible at Spanish, but I’m doing pretty well! I’m loving that I’m actually able to practice and I think I am getting a little better. For dinner, we had the pilgrim menu. We both had bread and pasta. My mom enjoyed pork with fries with sangria and I had fish of some sort with white wine.

I fell behind on my blog. You can’t blame me though when you are in a beautiful country like Portugal.

Yesterday, we explored Belém where we saw the monastery. We were going to go in, but the line was extremely long. Since we had to catch a bus at 2:00, I gave my mom the quick tour of Belém. Unfortunately, we did not get to buy any custard tarts, but we have been enjoying some here in Porto.

When traveling in different countries, there are stressful times. For example, catching the metro, train, or bus. On our way back from Belém, our train was pulling in so I began to run and told my mom to as well. We had an hour to catch our bus and we were definitely 30 minutes away and who knows when the next train would be. As I ran on, I thought my mother was right behind me. Oops, she wasn’t. I shoved myself in between the doors to try and force the doors open. The doors on the metro open by a button. I forgot to mention this to her. Now she knows and my arm paid the price with a solid bruise. Oh well! We are safe and together! Go team!

After that, we had to make it back to our hostel where we had to catch an Uber to the bus station. When we arrived at the station we had less than 5 minutes to figure out which bus was ours. When it comes to planes, buses, etc. I get really stressed if I’m not there well before we depart. So I’m sure you can imagine how I felt when we found our bus right at 2:00. Our trip was 3 hours and 30 minutes. After all of that stress, I was nodding on and off on the trip.

Once we arrived in Porto, we took a taxi to our destination. This time I did not get yelled at, which was a huge relief! Last time in Porto the taxi driver just drove and drove yelling at me. No idea what he was saying. It was my worst experience ever. I was petrified. Anyways, I figured out on booking.com how to show the address in the language of the place finally. That was a huge help!

When booking a room for Porto, I was thinking of the wonderful hostel I stayed in last time. I decided maybe we could just do a private room somewhere else and give it a try. Well, I definitely regret that. This hotel room is definitely not as clean as our last place or the hostel I stayed at. The great thing about it though, we only have to sleep here; therefore, we will survive.

We have done a lot of exploring since being in Porto. We have enjoyed the local cuisine and the fabulous vino. Today we did the hop on hop off bus. I highly recommend these buses when traveling because they not only explain where you are, but also you can get off at any stop and then hop on again later. I would also recommend keeping sanitizer with you and tissues. But hey, when a bird poops on you it’s good luck, right? At least that’s what I told myself, my mom, and a gentlemen behind us who got the brunt of it. If you don’t have the above handy, a map works just as good!

We went to the cathedral, where we then walked across the bridge that makes me want to throw up if I look down. From there we went down by the ocean to explore all the port wineries. No port tours this time. We then took the bus again on the blue line around another part of Porto.

There is a street that is full of shopping, food, and street performers. For some reason I couldn’t find it, but today on the bus we finally came across it. Go figure, it was 2 minutes from our hotel. Now I know!

We are back at the hotel getting ready to enjoy dinner and crepes somewhere. I have to plan our next stop. Tomorrow we will be traveling to a town right before Tui where we will prepare to begin the Camino. 5:00 is going to come so early! Yikes...

Until tomorrow! Bom noite!

After a nights sleep and waking up at 10:00, we were ready to concur Lisbon. Although, I definitely could have slept for another 10 hours.

After our delicious breakfast, I ordered us an Uber. Uber, right?! I read an old article from March that said there was a huge fued between taxi drivers and Uber drivers. Apparently Uber drivers had to be hush hush and were supposedly band for awhile. I feel like that may be everywhere, but this one was pretty serious.

Anyways, Francisco was a real gem! Told us what things were and where to go. Spoke great English! Dropped us off at our location just like we asked. Perfect! One problem, for some reason whenever I book through booking.com (which I could not live without and absolutely love), I always seem to get lost. It said our hosts was at 291 when really it was 250. Not a huge problem, but without WiFi or cell service it’s a little annoying and almost stressful.

Once we found our hostel, we decided to set off to explore for a little while. A little while turned into the entire day and boy did we find a lot of steps. Let me tell you all, I was trying to do this by memory, so maybe we didn’t find the quickest ways, but we found the way AND different destinations. We went to the Castle de Jorge, the cathedral, and even found two places that I haven’t even been to until today. I got my mother to try the liquor of Portugal (gingha) which is a delicious cherry liquor.

One of our missions today was to get our passports for the Camino, even though we don’t need them quite yet. We went to the cathedral where we got our Compostelas. At the cathedral, we paid to see the museum, which I paid for last year. Completely misunderstood last year that there was a museum above the cathedral. We went up there and there was a door open that led to the beautiful stain glass window. Now, I’m pretty confident you were allowed there, but after my mom and I snuck in for a picture a few times and then a little boy ran in, I think it’s safe to say that the guy in charge (who was MIA during this time) didn’t care or maybe we were allowed to after all. We will never know...

We then headed to a restaurant for drinks and tapas. My mother enjoyed a sangria (her favorite so far) and I had a glass of white wine. We shared a salad, tuna croquettes, and cod cakes. It was absolutely delicious and exactly what we needed after walking all day.

At night, my goal was to find fado music so my mother could listen to it. I’m not an expert, but fado music is a type of music that is sung in Portuguese. It is typical a sad love song, but they are all original. They don’t memorize their song, they just sing from the heart. It’s rather breathtaking. My hope is I will find some in Porto for her.

Since we couldn’t find any in the area, we went to the beer museum where we had wine a cheese. Makes sense right? I was laughing too.

After dinner, we walked back to the hostel where we enjoyed street performers along the way. I know I’m tired and I’m sure my mom is too. We have another busy day as we prepare to make our way to Porto. Tomorrow’s mission...bus station.

Well, we have survived our thirteen hour layover here in Dublin, Ireland... so far. In the past, I usually just stay at the airport, but thanks to my dear mother, we were feeling adventurous.

We took a bus down to the center of Dublin at 7:30 this morning. We spent most of the morning walking around looking like the only tourist. We had a delicious breakfast and beautiful coffee at Tang by Yogism. (Spain’s and Portugal’s coffee...so much better. Shhh you didn’t hear that from me!)

After breakfast...or was it dinner? Or a midnight snack? Anywho, we continued to explore. We found a beautiful park called Saint Stephen’s Green. We saw new plants and numerous birds. It reminded me of my time in Tomas last year, but this garden was much bigger!

We then decided to make our way to the Dublin Castle, which was rather difficult. It didn’t look like the castles I was used to seeing in Spain and Portugal. I actually went to the cathedral first..oops! Inside we were going to do the self guided tour, but unfortunately you miss out on the castle’s cathedral and the medievil part of it unless you do guided tour. We decided it would be worth it and it was fascinating to hear about the history, but I cannot wait to show my mother all the beautiful castles and cathedrals we will encounter in Portugal and Spain.

Finally being 1:00 in the afternoon and the other tourist deciding to appear helping blend us in, it felt appropriate to enjoy some of the beer of Ireland. Let me remind you, we haven’t slept in over 24 hours and it was 8:00 in the morning back in Vermont. It’s fine... really. My mother enjoyed listening to the bickering and the discussions of the locals. I can’t blame her. Their accents are wonderful and hard to mimick. Very unique!

Finally, feeling sleepy after a beer, we are back at the airport where we both hope we can sleep on this flight (if we are lucky). We depart in approximately two hours, which means roughly five to six hours stand between me and and a glorious bed.