miracle

great. we finally have a car. it’s a rental… but for a long time. so, on saturday we leave our house ready for a hike and guess what… it’s not where i parked it. ok, probably towed, maybe stolen. so i make a few confusing portuguese phone calls, and they have it. after another confusing phone call in portuguese we find the lot where they tow the cars and after an hour of paperwork, and some euros, the car is ours again.

great. but i don’t want that to happen again so on monday i head to the parking office to try and get a residential permit for our rented car and magically they give me one. but!, it’s not just a regular permit, it’s one that allows us access to the historic traffic controlled zone of our neighborhood where apparently there is more parking (earlier i was told that we couldn’t get this).

great. i use the card to access the neighborhood and, ummmm… it doesn’t work. so i have to go back to the office and get a new access card, and today for the first time the card worked. a portuguese christmas miracle.

ps, the car is a hyundai. so much for experiencing a small european diesel hatchback. but for a hyundai it’s not that bad.