An early start for a big day, leaving Italy for Portugal, a country I have never before been to.
It was drizzling steadily as we drove to the airport. We’ve been very lucky with the weather as the area we’ve been travelling in is forecast to have rain for the next week. In contrast, Lisbon looks to be sunny and in the low 20s for the week we are there.
The trip to the airport was uneventful, we can now take the tolls in our stride and even found our way to the Europcar rental drop off at the airport with only one slight miss of a one way turn requiring a quick reverse manoeuvre.
We were flying Jetstar so no lounge access for us although paying extra to bypass some of the queues was worthwhile. Due to an error of judgement we were one of the last on the plane and all the overhead luggage compartments were full and my carry on ended up way back in aisle 24. I was in seat 2B sitting next to a tall man who was manspreading the entire trip, leaving me very little space.
Just before I turned my phone to flight mode, I got a text from my bank, giving me a code for a purchase I was just about to make. “If this isn’t you, then get in touch with us”. Not useful advice when you’re about to take off on a three hour flight! The expense was a five USD donation to a cleft palate charity, which could well have been something I legitimately would have done. On balance though, we thought the best idea for me was to put a temporary block on my card and call the bank when I got to Lisbon.
The flight was uneventful, apart from the lack of legroom, and we Ubered to our hotel with time for a brief nap before catching up with our friends in the evening.
I tried ringing the bank’s 24 hour helpline while waiting for our luggage at the airport, but all I got was a recorded message saying that I’d reached them out of business hours.
The hotel is in a very interesting suburb, an old one with lots of narrow windy streets and colourful tiled houses.
I’ll tell you the name tomorrow*. We had dinner in an authentic local restaurant. As in Sardinia, fish is big here, as is drinking, both wine and port. I already had a headache by the time we got back to the hotel at 10:30, ready to battle with the credit card company on the phone. I started by ringing the bank’s 24 hour 0800 number, luckily it was now in business hours at home so someone answered. The helpful lady said they’d seen that particular transaction a few times recently, so said it was safest to cancel that card permanently, and she then put me through to the international VISA assistance number. This lady was much less helpful, demanding and even accusative. Nothing about how smart I was to block my card immediately, but rather, why didn’t I go to the police if I thought my card was compromised? I answered a lot of personal questions so I really hope the whole thing wasn’t some elaborate scam. We shall see.
*Alfarma. Here is a photo looking back at our hotel.
