Naples, Italy

Friday, March 15, 2024

Today was our last day in Lisbon, Portugal. I spent some time blogging in the early morning hours, and then packed our bags in preparation for our flight to Naples, Italy tonight. It doesn’t matter where we go, or how many hours the journey takes us, travel days are always long, tiring, and sometimes frustrating. I mentally prepared for the day as we packed and left our airbnb apartment this morning.

Since our flight to Italy wasn’t until 5:50pm tonight, our airbnb host offered to let us keep our luggage in the apartment until 3:00pm. But, Andi and I decided to take our bags with us today so we didn’t have to come back to the apartment to pick them up before the airport.

Today, we promised Tory and Aden that we’d take them to the Lisbon Oceanário. Tory’s had her mind set on visiting the aquarium since we were in Lisbon a few weeks ago with Andi’s sister, and today seemed like the perfect day to grant her wish. The aquarium is located 15 minutes from the Lisbon airport.

Andi found a luggage service in Lisbon that will hold your bags for you for the day. Conveniently, the luggage storage place is located in the basement of the Colombo Centre Shopping Mall which is within walking distance of the Lisbon Oceanário.

We took our time this morning showering and packing up, and then left our rented apartment at 11:00am. Our plan was to grab lunch and then spend the afternoon at the aquarium before our 5:50pm flight. Andi called for a Bolt ride-share car, and we made our way to the luggage storage place. Our driver carefully navigated the narrow, cobblestone streets of Lisbon and once again, I was thankful we didn’t attempt driving in this city. Some of the streets look like sidewalks they’re so narrow, but cars manage to squeeze through them like it’s no big deal.

When we arrived at the luggage storage store, Andi was a little confused because he’d read that the business was inside of a mall. No worries — we spotted the sign for “Luggage Storage Lisbon,” and figured we must be in the right place. Aden rang the bell on the building, and a door opened leading us up one flight of stairs to the luggage storage business. “Watch, this is some guy’s apartment,” I joked. It kind of felt like it.

It wasn’t some guy’s apartment; Luggage Store Lisbon was an actual business. The four of us were warmly greeted by the owner of the company, and invited inside. He immediately rushed over to Tory and Aden, and told the kids to sit on a sofa ottoman. He asked the kids if they spoke English, and turned the TV to the Disney Jr channel so they could watch cartoons while the adults handled the luggage check-in process.

With the kids occupied, the store owner explained his pricing. It would cost us €30 to keep four pieces of luggage, plus two small backpacks in his store for the next three hours.

Deal.

“How long to get to aquarium?” Andi asked the guy as we prepared to leave. “Oh, one hour by metro, or 30-40 minutes by car,” the guy responded.

Um, excuse me?

Andi had a puzzled look on his face. “I thought the aquarium was across the street,” he said to me. “That was the whole point of bringing our luggage with us.”

The luggage store worker overheard our conversation, and asked a further clarifying question with much enthusiasm, “Do you mean the big, beautiful Oceanário? It is the second largest and most impressive Oceanário in all of Europe! Or, do you mean the small aquarium that’s close to here? We joke that’s where the sardines sleep,” he said.

Andi’s look of confusion turned to disappointment. “Did I look at the wrong aquarium?” He felt terrible!

The business owner continued, “You should take your luggage with you, and go to my other luggage storage store that is located by the Oceanário. Because if you go to the Oceanário, you won’t have time to come all the way back here to pick up your luggage before your flight tonight.”

Ugh, so there are two luggage stores! That’s exactly what happened. Andi must’ve asked the Bolt driver to take us to the address of the wrong luggage storage store. Shoot!

The luggage store owner said he’d call his brother who operates the other store in the shopping mall to let him know we were on our way. With our bags in hand once again, we hopped in another Bolt ride-share car and made our way to the Colombo Centre Shopping Mall. The one silver lining was that the ride-share car was a Tesla which made Aden very happy. “This is my first time riding in a Tesla!” he exclaimed, “Wow!”

There was a lot of traffic between the downtown Alfama neighborhood and the Colombo Centre Shopping Mall. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the mall. Of course, it was raining when we arrived there. The four of us navigated our way through the shopping mall with our luggage, eventually finding the luggage storage kiosk in the basement parking garage. Andi paid €24 to store our luggage there for the next three hours (cheaper at this location, at least), and then we made our way to the food court in the mall to find some fast food to eat for lunch. By now, it was already 12:30pm and we were running out of time to visit the Oceanário. Tory was getting antsy.

The food court inside Columbo Centre was absolutely crazy with people! There were hundreds of people eating in the mall food court — I suppose because it was raining outside today? We had a difficult time making our way through the crowds of people to order food and find a table to sit down.

Andi ordered a chicken curry bowl for himself and a Mexican rice bowl for me at a healthier “Go Natural” fast food restaurant, while I stood in line at McDonalds for Aden. Tory picked Taco Bell.

Once we had our food and found a table to sit down, the four of us ate our meals quickly. Who knew the mall would be so packed with people today? And, why do we always find ourselves inside a shopping mall on every trip we take?

By the time we finished lunch, it was 1:30pm. Our flight this evening was at 5:50pm which meant we needed to be at the airport no later than 3:45pm. Somehow, with all the logistical mess-ups today, traffic, and the crowds of people, we were running out of time to see the Oceanário.

The four of us made our way out the front entrance of the shopping mall, and ran through the pouring rain to the Oceanário located on the other side of the big plaza. As we walked up to the Oceanário, we saw huge school groups standing outside the front entrance. Oh great, it was going to take forever to buy tickets to get inside the aquarium.

Now, it was 2:00pm. Realistically, we had 90 minutes to spend inside the aquarium before we needed to leave for the airport, and judging by the size of this aquarium that would not enough time. This place was huge!

“Here’s an idea,” Andi suggested. “How about I give each of you the €25 it’s going to cost to get into the aquarium, and you can use it to buy something inside the mall. What do you think?”

Tory was so mad. And sad. Poor girl. She had her heart set on visiting the aquarium today, and unfortunately it just didn’t work out to do so.

“No! All I asked was to go to the aquarium,” she responded through tears. After standing in line for another five minutes or so and realizing the line wasn’t moving quickly, she changed her mind though. “OK, we can go to the mall,” she resigned.

I felt so bad for her. So did Andi. It really stinks when you have your heart set on doing something, and it doesn’t work out. Travel days never go according to plan.

The four of us walked back to the shopping mall. On the way, Tory stepped in a hidden puddle of water and soaked her tennis shoe. Now, she was really upset. She stomped her feet. More tears ensued. Andi and I both apologized to Tory that plans didn’t work out the way we wanted them to today. We promised to make up for it in the shopping mall.

“Can we go to the candy store? I think I saw a candy store,” Aden piped in, over and over.

Tory wanted to buy a new sweatshirt with her €25. We searched several clothing stores in the mall, but had a hard time finding something in her size that wasn’t too babyish. Finally, we found a zip-up hoodie sweatshirt that she liked at a department store called C&A. I also treated Tory to some new concealer at Sephora while Andi took Aden to the electronics store to buy some new headphones. (Aden left his headphones at one of our last airbnbs.)

The Oceanário would have been great to visit today, but Tory and Aden seemed happy with their new purchases. Before we left the shopping mall, I stopped at the customer service desk to ask where I could find an international mailbox to mail some postcards the kids wrote to their friends. The clerk said there is a post office in the train terminal, which worked perfectly since that’s where we were headed next.

Andi, the kids, and I returned to the basement of the shopping mall to collect our luggage. Then, we left the mall and walked a couple blocks away to the Lisbon Benfica train station.

The post office was on the lowest level of the train station, so we went there first to mail the postcards. It took us a few minutes, but we eventually found CTT, and dropped the postcards into the correct mail slot.

Andi promised Tory a bubble tea drink, so we searched the food service kiosks in the train station to find a place that sold them. We eventually found the store, but the place didn’t look very clean, so Tory decided to pass on ordering a bubble tea after all. Maybe the airport would have one.

Now, we needed to buy train tickets to get from this train station terminal to the Lisbon airport. Everyone we talked to said taking the train was a simple process, but we had a heck of a time figuring it out. Andi tried to buy tickets at two different kiosks, but neither of them were working. We carried our luggage up and down three flights of stairs trying to figure it out. Finally, he tried to buy train tickets at a service counter, but the woman working behind the desk told him he needed to go all the way downstairs to buy tickets from the booth on that level. “Screw this, we’re taking an Uber,” Andi said.

There were actually a line of taxis waiting outside the train terminal, so we hopped in one of those. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the airport. Why did we even try to take the train? Taking a taxi was so much simpler!

Of course when we got to the airport, we learned that our flight to Naples, Italy had been delayed by one hour. We probably could have gone to the aquarium and had enough time after all! Oh well. We now had three hours to waiting time at the airport before our flight departed at 6:55pm.

There weren’t a lot of options for dinner in Terminal 2, so we ended up eating at McDonalds. Tory swears the burgers taste better in Europe than they do at McDonalds in the United States. “It tastes like real meat here,” she said. McDonalds for the second time for Aden today — sorry about that, buddy.

Flying in Europe is not our favorite thing. Airport gates are small and crowded, and the airlines love to have passengers line up way before the flight takes off. I actually think they cue people up early because there isn’t a lot of room to have people wait at the gate, so they essentially line everyone up on the tarmac 30 minutes before the flight.

Tonight, we flew Ryan Air and Andi paid for priority seats. We still had to stand on the tarmac for 30 minutes, but at least we were at the front of the line. While we waited, Tory and Aden entertained themselves by playing a game called Dolls. One person is the “doll” and stands motionless while the other person shapes their body into different positions. They are so cute! I love how well Tory and Aden get along together when we’re traveling. I can only hope the sibling bond they share will continue throughout their lifetimes.

Our flight from Lisbon to Naples was pretty uneventful. We sat on the plane for an extra 30 minutes before take-off without any explanation as to why, finally leaving Lisbon around 7:45pm. That meant we didn’t get into Naples until 10:45pm.

Ryan Air didn’t offer any free snacks or beverages on the flight, but we’ve learned that this isn’t uncommon for European airlines. How spoiled we are flying Delta! The flight attendants on Ryan Air did sell perfume, cigarettes, and lottery tickets which was interesting.

We finally reached Naples, Italy at 11:00pm. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go through Customs since we were traveling from an EU country. Such a nice perk! One bonus point for European travel.

Since we don’t bags, we made our way off the plane and outside the airport terminal within a few minutes. Outside the airport, the four of us hopped into a taxi and rode about 15 minutes to Gold Tower Lifestyle Hotel. Andi booked us a family suite at the hotel for tonight. The driving is cra-zy in Italy. Wow! Our 20-minute taxi ride to the hotel might’ve been the most hairy part of our day.

It’s rare in Europe to find a hotel room with two beds, so we either needed to book two hotel rooms or book a family suite. We opted for a family suite, not feeling comfortable having Tory and Aden in their own hotel room in a big city. This hotel room wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t cheap! €300 for one night’s stay. Our room has one queen size bed, a fold-out sofa that transforms into a bunk bed, and one bathroom. The room is clean though, and good enough for the night. Tory and Aden were so excited about the free slippers and robes in our hotel room.

It was 1:00am by the time we crawled into bed. Oof. Long travel day. Of course, we were all exhausted and yet, no one was tired enough to sleep. It was time for bed through, because tomorrow morning we’re hopping on a ferry to visit the island of Capri, Italy. Can’t wait!

Welcome to Italy!