When we left Tomar to travel to Évora after breakfast on the train, we had to go back to Lisbon to connect. (Yes, I put my mask on after this photo!) The station at Lisboa-Oriente was huge and modern. There were lots of levels and shops and cafes and even a farmacia and medical clinic.
Since we had a bit of a wait, I went to the farmacia to buy the equivalent of acetaminophen for my headache. This was a lot different from our pharmacies and drugstores. They are much smaller and what are non-prescription medications in the United States are not on the shelves here. You have to take a number from a machine at the door, and wait for the next pharmacist. There were four of them at this busy farmacia, behind a counter with plexiglass partitions. Another staff member provided customer service in the main part of the store. When I stepped up, I already knew that the name for the same type of medication in Europe was different, so I asked the pharmacist for the equivalent of Tylenol. She knew what I meant and got it for me. Yes, it was less expensive. I also asked about Covid-19 tests, since I had been told that I could get a supervised test at any farmacia for our travel needs. This turned out to be no longer true, and I was referred to the clinic, who told me that I just needed to make an appointment for the day we needed them.
Our train finally appeared on the monitor, so we went up the stairs to sit outside and wait for it. It was about ten minutes before the scheduled departure. That ten minutes came and went, the train number disappeared from the monitor, and a few other concerned people left. We waited another fifteen minutes and Sandy went to the ticket counter to see what was happening. Turned out that there was a scheduled strike and that train had been canceled. What’s more – they knew that there would be a strike a week ago, yet we would still be sitting there waiting for all we were told, after buying tickets online a week ago. The next train was much later, and they couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t be canceled. However, we were able to go to the bus station and get tickets for the next bus.
I was hustling back and forth because it was not at all clear where the bus station was. There are several bus companies. One sold tickets from a snack kiosk on a laptop. Finally I found the counters for Redi-Express and there was a bus leaving for Évora in thirty minutes. I went back to the train ticket counter, got my refund, and made it back to the bus just in time. I was pretty frazzled. We got on the bus and I was happy when the front seats were empty, but alas, it turned out that they weren’t for us. We had assigned seats, and when a young man on the bus finally interpreted what the annoyed bus driver was saying to us, we found them. The man in front of me had reclined his seat so far back that he was nearly in my lap. At some point I spilled a whole bottle of orange juice all over me and my handbag and my book. I was not happy on this bus, but at least I didn’t get carsick, which has happened to me before on buses. I could see that it would have been a comfortable, nice ride if I hadn’t been squeezed in with sticky juice all over me.
Finally we arrived in Évora. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was the one place I spent a lot of money on during our trip. It was the Pousada de Évora, a renovated historic convent at the top of the city, right at the square with the Roman temple ruins and the cathedral. Our room was once a monk’s cell. It was a beautiful place, and we set out to see what we could of Évora in the late afternoon and evening. The weather was fabulous.
^^^Drinks in Praça do Giraldo, the center square beside a 16th century fountain. We came back to this square a lot.
We decided to have dinner at a restaurant named Medieval. We ordered pork and lamb, and shared them. The lamb came with “bread pudding” which was similar to our bread dressing or stuffing. Chips or fries seem to be the main side dish for Portuguese meals. Chocolate mousse and a special dessert that was like creme brulee – so good!
slowly she turned 