I get flustered easily
1 minute read
Today I had a nightmare of a time using public transport. It wasn't that bad but I get flustered easily, and a couple of things didn't work immediately.
I got the metro to the train station, then bought a ticket to take the train. I had done zero research ahead of time and it felt that way too. Thought I'd missed my train, started to walk down the escalator and then as I was halfway down my train arrived. I couldn't see the train direction, by the time I got back up to the platform I saw it pulling out of the station and clearly saw my destination on the digital display. Next train wasn't for 24 min, and I was running out of time. I was going to meet some friends-of-a-friend for coffee and wanted to make a good impression. Google maps said I could take a lime scooter, so I tried that. Found the worst scooter on the market, confused myself about the suburb, and as I was getting my bearings (gps on maps stopped working correctly) the scooter stopped working, warning that I was in a "no-ride" zone. The directions provided by google maps for the particular scooter service were 90% the "no-ride" zone. A complete waste of time. A bad map is worse than no map.
I ended up getting an uber and arriving 10min late. Not the worst, but I resented spending the extra money, especially on the scooter. Did some deep breathing to try to calm down. I'm slowly coming down with something, so that made it a little more frustrating.
The coffee wasn't good but the chat was. A couple who've done 9 or so months in Portugal on the same visa as me. Learnt a lot, and shared struggles with some of the same bureaucratic nonsense. Bonding over a common enemy.
After that I walked towards Belém. There's a tower there, and a pastry shop. I got about halfway and stopped at a combination Power Museum and Contemporary Art Gallery complex
Much later
I got tired and stopped writing this entry. Will leave as is.
questions
- how to finish an abandoned entry?