Day 14: Tchau!
By: Siddharth Téndulkar
Tags: Backpacking, Portugal, Europe, Travel, Lisbon

Até nos encontrarmos novamente

October 19, 2019. 11:15 AM. So, I fell ill. Honestly, I was just surprised that my body indulged my wanderlust for that long.

We had a lot to pack (but still found time for the OOTD selfie). I also quickly made a list of people for whom I had bought or was yet to buy souvenirs (still regret not buying fridge magnets at Granada).

THIS is the truth Mosteiro dos Jerónimos won’t tell you but art installations (non-state funded) would

We had a couple of things planned for the day (this was before I fell ill). We were to go the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (tile museum), which was a bit far from the Lisbon city centre, admire the city from the Elevator de Santa Justa and shop a bit. Except for the first one, we ticked the rest off our list.

Recon of the aerobus stop and luggage disposal at Cais do Sodré

Our first stop for the day was Cais do Sodré, which had an aerobus stop. We went to the metro station with all our luggage (evidently more than what we came with) and tried to fit our bags into one of the lockers. When they didn’t fit, the ever so kind staff guided us to their other facility, a few minutes away. Once we were luggage-free, we made sure we knew the exact departure point of the aerobus to avoid surprises.

Elevador de Santa Justa

We first went to Elevador de Santa Justa. It had begun raining. Not drizzling, raining. I have stressed enough on how we hadn’t carried our umbrellas and had in the past refused to buy one. This was the last day. An umbrella vendor (South Asian) approached all of us standing in a queue (without a roof) with umbrellas. This was the same man we had asked directions to, on our very first day in Lisbon. He’d looked at us, asked us in Hindi if we’re Indians, and then gave us the directions (he wasn’t selling umbrellas that day). We refused to buy the umbrellas, yet again.

Fancy lifts!

Finally, it was our turn! What is special about Santa Justa is that it is a Neo-Gothic cast iron lift built in 1899 in order to connect the lower regions of Lisbon to the higher areas (told you it’s a hill). It has its charm for sure, and the views from the penultimate floor are simply stunning! That morning, the Lisbon sky was completely covered in grey clouds. To our dismay, the topmost floor was inaccessible that day thanks to the rain.

The rains were threatening a comeback

We decided to first grab something to eat (of course, at Armazéns) and then think of our action plan for the day. Azulejo was out, Pull&Bear was in. I shopped for a few things I didn’t need but liked very much. We had some time to kill, and as we’ve established before, I am a basic white girl (no offence to them) when in Europe, we went to Starbucks for a cup of PSL and free wi-fi.

We had a 9:15 PM flight to catch for Mumbai, and since we (not me) believe that ‘on time is late’, we left for the airport. Actually, we first left for Cais do Sodré, dragged our bags from the underground storage facility, lugged them to the aerobus departure point, and then left for the airport (napping on our way).

Emigration queue was long but nothing like Barcelona’s immigration. Keeping us entertained, was an eclectic personage, Maya Sarabhai-esque given her Luis Vuitton bags but with a touch of Monisha (couldn’t leave her Vimal paan masala dabba back home, you see?).

“Nom nom for us, David”

We were quite hungry, and the airport had several options. (vegetarian, not so many). So imagine the happiness on discovering a McVeggie burger in Lisbon. Do not try to imagine, you cannot (but do check the photograph). I had the McRoyal Bacon (yes, my throat had given up but my taste buds hadn’t. You don’t get it here in Mumbai!). We also had an Apple Pie, which I’d never had at McDonald’s before.

The happiness on finding McVeggie at an international airport :’)

The flight was late, but we barely noticed it given the sheer quantity and variety of chocolates we were left to buy (classic Indian travellers). Lisbon duty free was not enough for us, so we fought our sleep walking instincts and bought some chocolates at the Dubai duty free too.

Final look at Lisbon’s picturesque streets and rickshaws

We landed in Mumbai at 2:30 PM on October 20th, 2019 — with a jet lag, a heavy heart and a treasure trove of memories (68 pages-long trove, to be specific).

E pilogue:

Phew! That was long, and yet there are so many episodes that I haven’t been able to capture in the travelogue — the Sharpie-annotated printed maps, the dilemma over whether to include Lisbon or Madrid, collecting camera from one friend (shoutout to Shruti!) and extra SD card from another (shoutout to Shraddha!), our parents packing bakarwadis and theplas, choosing the travel insurance and many more.

These 14 days when I flooded Instagram (and my cloud storage) weren’t just a vacation. They were representative of so much more. This was a dream trip, not an impromptu weekender, which we planned from scratch. This was a coming-of-age ritual. An hors d’oeuvre of financial independence for two 20-somethings.

At one point, whilst taking these 2,050 photographs, I wondered if I am being ‘in the moment’ enough or if I am simply doing it for the ‘gram. (a Spanish uncle even gestured Shreya to throw me off the boat in Seville, since I was in my phone :o). But today, as I finish writing this, it all makes so much sense. Those same photographs are the foundation of this travel memoir. And they’ll live with us, till death do us part (or a cyberattack.. or a storage wipe-out, you get the point).

About the authors:

“Fins aviat!” say Shreya and Siddharth

Siddharth and Shreya want you to know that they adore this photograph. It was taken for them by them at Camp Nou, Barcelona in the Autumn of 2019 — that is, as you guessed correctly, a few months prior to the first detected case of Coronavirus and the death of tourism industry for a little while (I hope that it is resurrected).

They both happily ditched Madrid for Lisbon and have since felt glad about trusting their gut. For a long time they refuse to choose a ‘favourite’ amongst the cities of Barcelona and Lisbon, but knew deep down that the latter had their hearts.