Leiria

Today is Leo’s birthday! Somehow he is already two years old. For his birthday we decided to take a trip to Leiria castle. It’s about time- we always see the castle in the background. It sits up on a hill and is visible from most of the city. It has a really cool elevator that goes up and down the hill to the castle. Unfortunately, it was broken when we tried to take it up. There was a guy stuck in there, and Kyle and I were able to pry the doors open and get him out. He was really grateful. He was much calmer than I would have been stuck in an elevator.

We walked up to the castle. It was a lot of steps and hills that we hadn’t counted on, but I got some great pictures I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. We were also reminded, yet again, of how helpful Portuguese people are. Kyle was carrying a stroller and a backpack, and I was carrying a stroller and holding Leo’s hand. A man came up and asked if we needed help, and then held Sofia’s hand as she walked up the stairs. She got a kick out of it.

I’m not sure what I was expecting of the castle, but it was more amazing than I expected. First, it was cheap! 2.10 per adult, and the kids are free. The views were amazing. I feel like that should have been obvious since it sits on top of a hill, but I guess I never imagined what the views would look like. The kids walked around the entire grounds and got pretty tired. Luckily the elevator was working by the time we went back down. It was a really cool ride down. I can’t wait to go again and ride the elevator up the hill.

From there we walked downtown, to our favorite burger place. Leo’s favorite meal is a cheeseburger. The birds there were insane. They would dive down onto the table and steal our food. We would try swatting at them to scare them away, but some of them weren’t scared at all and actually ended up getting swatted. I have never seen birds as courageous and annoying as these ones. It wasn’t just our table either, they were attacking anyone with anything edible on the table.

One bird swooped down and grabbed Leo’s burger. It fell on the ground and they all swarmed and it was over. We just got up and let them win. There were too many of them and they were everywhere. Sofia started crying. We let her chase the birds and she got over it. She loves chasing birds. The restaurant was awesome and cooked us a new burger for Leo and packaged it to go for us. They apologized profusely, which is really sweet, but also so unnecessary because it’s not their fault that the birds there are some kind of weird burger loving kamikaze birds. They make the best burgers and fries in town, and I guess the birds know this. Next time we will eat inside.

Next up was our favorite ice cream place. Sofia loves their boba smoothies, and I love their coffee. They called it an iced coffee, but it’s really a shot of espresso mixed with vanilla ice cream, and topped with candy. It’s amazing. When it heats up I’m going to walk down there all the time for those things. After that we headed home and Leo got to open some presents. It was a great day and the weather was perfect. It was Leo’s birthday, but it ended up being pretty much my ideal day. Maybe I’ll pick all of this stuff for my birthday too 😃

It has been a rough week or so, but things are starting to settle down and get better. Earlier this week we left Sintra and came to Leiria. We stayed for 3 nights at a hotel right by our new apartment. That was a tough transition because there was so little space. We rented two hotel rooms, but it was still a tight squeeze and we missed having a kitchen and refrigerator. We moved into our apartment a few days ago. Before we did so, we were able to buy mattresses for everyone. That’s all the furniture we have at the moment.

Things went wrong with the apartment pretty much immediately. Kyle noticed that there was no hot water. He contacted the landlord and she told him to just turn on the water heater. He tried for 2 hours, but it wouldn’t work. He called her again and she agreed to come over. After some time she figured out that the gas line outside of the apartment had not been connected.

At that point we had hot water, which was great, but we still couldn’t get the radiators to work. They use hot water to heat the house. That first night was pretty bad because the house was freezing. We all bundled up as much as we could, but we were still cold. At bedtime we realized that none of the bedroom doors close, which sounds super trivial but matters to me since we have such young kids and don’t want them wandering the house alone right now. At 3 in the morning Leo found his way into our room. Poor guy was probably freezing.

At that point, Kyle went to try the radiators again and he noticed that the water heater was pouring water out. He called the landlord and she told him how to shut the water off. So then we were freezing and had no water. And Leo wouldn’t go back to sleep.

I think that leads to yesterday. I was super grumpy and hated everything. I hated the apartment, I hated Leiria. I was just exhausted and frustrated. The day before yesterday we had a few frustrating encounters and some people were rude to us. People told us it was a fluke and that people in Leiria are usually nice, but I was still feeling weird about those interactions. So back to yesterday- we decided that a fun day was in order, so we put off shopping and trying to furnish our apartment.

We went to downtown Leiria and spent the day walking around. They have the Christmas stuff all set up and it just adds to the charm. When we first got to Leiria I really missed the charm and beauty of Sintra and Lisbon. Well, downtown Leiria is charming. I like it there. Our apartment is a bit further than I want, but once we settle in it won’t be such a big deal.

One of our last stops yesterday was an ice cream/ coffee shop. They have some of the best coffee I have ever had. They also have boba ball smoothies that Sofia loves. It’s nice that anywhere we go now is somewhere we can go over and over again.

While we were out we signed up for phone/internet/cable. We got a Black Friday deal for 61 euro per month, which makes me really happy. We were paying $150 just for two phones in the US. We also have fiber optic internet, which is awesome.

Last night when we got home the cable/internet people showed up at the same time as the maintenance guy and another guy to fix our water heater. So it was pretty busy in the house for a while, lol. At the end of it all we got hot water, working radiators, doors that close, and internet. Our TVs were delivered too, so at least we have TV now. It’s amazing how much life improves with some hot water, heat, and TV. I’m feeling a lot more optimistic today.

Trying to get furniture has been a challenge. Our cards get declined when we try to make big purchases. We have daily limits but we’re not sure what they are. Our cards get declined when we try to make online purchases. I know banks here take security seriously, which isn’t a problem as long as you’re not trying to furnish a house. I think we are going to have to try making smaller purchases to get stuff. Hopefully, we can get some furniture in this week. For now, it’s just nice having a kitchen and showers back.

We are completely out of clothes, so we’re trying to catch up on laundry. Until now we have been using laundromats, but we have a huge patio and a drying wrack now, so we’re finally doing our laundry the European way. Our patio doesn’t get sun until afternoon, so I don’t think we will have clean/dry clothes for a while. A day at home sounds perfect right now though. Fingers crossed that we can get some furniture in here this week!