Day 2, continued and it's raining

As I mentioned previously I was tooling around the airport, trying to find where I needed to be to for the Bolt/Uber pickup spot.  The Porto airport is just as confusing to a new arrival as any other airport. But it was easy enough to find, all I had to do was pay attention and identify other people that were looking at their phones talking about Bolt and Uber. I just slid in behind them and acted like I wasn't stalking them. Not that I was, it was more like I was "tailing them". There's a difference, trust me on this.

Oh and I hadn't actually confirmed a ride yet. I had no idea if the Bolt app would actually work for me. I find the location to the Bolt pickup spot, it was outside, (duh) but you had to an escalator back up, which by the way the escalator was conveniently not working. Porto clearly didn't get the memo that I was coming. I was expecting like a whole red carpet situation. Oh gawd, but not like the work Red Carpet. Oh geez, that's a whole other story. One that is not conducive to a PG-13 conversation.

I lug my, um...luggage up the escalator, and at the top there were probably 16 million people all underneath the only covered area. If I didn't mention it, or you had forgotten, it was raining, not a hard rain, mostly a misty drizzle, but enough not to be fun to hanging out in.  But do you think that stopped me? Of course not, just outside the covered area, there was a lone tree with no one underneath. Right next to the tree were all the Bolt/Uber drivers for people. I was in the right spot. I went straight for the cover of the tree, pulled out my phone and did all those things to get a ride. While was waiting for Sr. Ricardo, (Bolt Driver) to arrive, I took the opportunity to see exactly how this system was working. The cars were in a line, and it seemed actually pretty well organized, passengers were bobbing and weaving to their ride, just like you'd expect. I'm thinking cool, I got this. My ride was 6 minutes away, no worries, I'm under a tree, I'm not getting wet. It's cool, and then.  AND then a gust of wind blows. Do you know what happens to the water from the rain, that collects on a trees leaves when the wind blows? I'll tell you what it doesn't do, it doesn't go in the direction that the wind blows. Nope not at all, the water on the leaves just seems to drop straight down.

Fucking gravity sucks!

All good, as you probably guessed, I just acted like it was no big deal. My ride shows up and I also do the bobbing and the weaving and the stuff you do to get to your ride. The driver pops out of the car and greets me, like you would expect. It was the same process we're all used too. I hop in the car, and we take off, then the driver started speaking to me. In Portuguese of course. Now I get to see how well my Portuguese lessons have been. Let's just say, my driver was very patient with me. The cool thing is, he spoke a bit of English too. It was probably better than my Portuguese and he was kind enough to help me with specific pronunciations. I was in desperate need of help there. He was pretty chatty, and we had a conversation albeit it took a bit to get through it, but he was patient. He brought me to the spot I asked him to drop me off, it was a few minutes walk to the AirBNB I was staying in for the next few days.

I got out of the car, Sr. Ricardo shook my hand he wished me well, and I was off on my own. I turn a corner the corner to the left because that's where Google Maps said to go. Holy shit, it was a steep as hill doing down. The road/walkway was made of stones cut into squares and what not. Did I mention it had been raining? Yep, this is clearly where I die. I did the whole, stare down the hill, wondering how the hell I was going to navigate this, and not end up some statistic or better yet just not embarrass myself.

I could just put on my luggage on one side, hop of it like a bobsled and go for it. That probably would get me a few looks, and perhaps arrested. It's probably too early for that, so I opted to risk slipping and sliding on my ass down this hill. Oh, it just occurred to me, this is "downhill" Woot woo! This is exactly what I was hoping for, just not made of cobblestone and wet. Probably should go slowly, yeah that's the ticket.

Into a sea of people who are basically all tourists and me who clearly is the new arriving tourist. Besides looking down at my phone 16 million times to make sure I was in the right spot, pulling a suitcase behind on a cobblestone street I totally fucking blended in. I even spoke my best Portuguese greeting to everyone I passed, even if I heard them speaking English, or Spanish or whatever. I was going to speak Portuguese Damnit!

I turned right onto Rua da Reboleira, which was, OMG uphill and a cobblestone street. I was pretty sure since I didn't slip and slide down the other hill I was could tackle this hill. I did great, but sure enough some obvious good for nothing tourist coming downhill did end up slipping. Good thing his companion was there to catch him, it really is interesting that no matter where you are in the world, when a dude slips everyone waves their arms around like they are trying to take off and fly. It really is hysterical. (I so have issues)

A few minutes later I arrive at the first door to the AirBNB. I really hadn't thought very clearly about all this. I still had 2 and a half hours to wait before I could get into the AirBNB. So, I took myself down another street and went along the waterfront and strolled around like a complete lost tourist. Which I wasn't, not lost that is. I strolled along the waterfront with my luggage killing time.

I ended up finding a spot where I could sit and watch the riverboats carrying loads of tourists up and down the Duoro River.  I was approached by a dude that very politely asked if I would like to purchase "Hash or Cocaine" in my very best Portuguese I said "não obrigado" and the dude walked away. And as though I did something wrong, it started to rain....again.

More of Day 2, when I decide get more time.

Until then stay outta trouble, and if you can't do that. Don't get caught.

Tim