Cast of Characters:
Stephanie, a cheerful, superfit, helpful Christian who has travelled abroad to the British Isles, so she understands about the pound and the euro, the electrical converters, and the unavailability of ice. Her husband Bill has prepped her with all high-end technical gear. Stephanie has been doing two fitness classes per day, kick boxing plus High Intensity Interval Training, maximizing her $20 per month investment in gym fees by getting approximately 32 classes a month plus walking.
Kathy, a grateful, kind sister who has a herniated disc and requires some help with her suitcase, backpack, fanny pack, cane and neck purse, all tangled with her colorful neck scarf. Kathy is dogged and fierce about doing this Camino, despite pain from her disc, having sacrificed last year’s trip to saving the health of a loved one. Kathy likes to get enough sleep and is not always comfortable with surprises, so traveling will be her teacher.
Judy, a fun, gracious single woman who is a dedicated teammate and strong walking partner. Judy is a retired art and humanities teacher, so she is interested in the art, photography, and history of the Camino. She has been to Lisbon and has travelled extensively all over the world so she is seldom flummoxed. She does get distracted by eligible attractive males whose dentures fit correctly.
Debbie is our protagonist. (I am writing this so I get to be the protagonist.) It remains to be seen what her fatal flaw will be on this trip, and what the primary conflict will be— woman vs other human, woman vs. nature, or woman vs. idea.
So far on this trip (in one day):
Stephanie thought her gate assignment was her seat assignment, and tried to move a man out of 14A on the plane;
Debbie’s seatmate Gabriela asked to get out to use the restroom, then when Debbie got up, Gabriela threw a full cup of hot coffee into Debbie’s seat;
Kathy and Stephanie broke the law by jamming both of them plus their luggage through a single electronic turnstile at the metro;
Judy arrived at the airport with a sinus infection and antibiotics, and still soldiered on from 8:30 AM in Seattle to 1:30 the next afternoon in Lisbon;
All four of us ordered a meal which was a complete mystery to us. Debbie ordered soup and water and got soup and a Paul Bunyan plate of beef steak with a fried egg on top, salad, fried potatoes, and carmelized onions all for 8€ (Deja vu to Villafranca where the priest thought I said my husband died and proceeded to pray for him in the mass);
Our clean, cute Airbnb seems to be in a motorcycle race zone on two minute intervals; 9ACD04C4-21AC-4B13-9F08-379467C49326
Act I of Planes and the Metro:
The four characters are closely following printed instructions to get from the metro to the Airbnb. They stop every three feet to double check platform names, and Debbie smashes into Kathy and kicks her cane each time. Each time they peer around like baby birds in the nest, and some gracious angel standing nearby gives the pointer finger point to the correct direction, or says, “No, you are here at the Aeropuerto station.”
They stand in line for twenty minutes to have human help to buy their metro tickets rather than attempt the automatic machine. A passerby gives them a free ticket for 2€ and they don’t know what to do with it. Debbie tries to say no thanks. The tickets are used by placing them on the wireless reader to the right of each turnstile. Judy puts hers on the left turnstile and activates Debbie’s turnstile, so Debbie runs through and throws her ticket back to Judy. Stephanie gets her suitcase and backpack jammed up in the little doors and can’t get through, so she and Kathy piggyback into one turnstile on Kathy’s ticket. This is a SMOOTH group, suave in the big city.
Act II tomorrow.