Flyin' Around

Pitts - Paris was an hour shorter - so we landed at 1:45 am - 7:45 am Paris time.
Cool - plenty of time to get through customs, re-check our bags, grab a snack, and catch our 1:20 pm flight to Lisbon. Well, turned out, our bags went through, we didn’t have to re-check the. Customs was all of 5 minutes to get a stamp on our passports, and we found ourselves at Paris’ side with four hours to kill.
Eiffel Tower anyone?
We managed to dodge the old women asking us long questions in French to ask the information desk guy where we could ditch our big bags for the morning, and figured out the train ticket kisok and jumped on the train to Paris! By Lauren’s excellent directions and calculation, it should take an hour by train, then a 10 minute walk, and voilé! The Eiffel Tower is ours to behold and photograph. Oh the thrill of it!
A friendly, artsy French lady made conversation with us on the way, informed me if I’m learning Portuguese and visiting Portugal I should have read up on Fernando Pessoa, the famous, FAMOUS poet that I’d never heard of. Ok.
Well, as it turned out, we got a little lost, the maps were in French after all. And the train wasn’t exactly the express line, so our four hours were quickly ticking by. We got to “Notre Dame” station and the guard instructed us to wait for “Vick” (say it in your best French accent, its fun) the train to take us to our last stop, we had to realize that our time had run our, chances were gone, Eiffel was out of our reach. Sadly, we headed back down the stairs to our train back to the airport, had some quiche (and a croissant!) for lunch and waited like responsible young ladies four our flight.

Humph, the flight left 45 minutes late.

As in, we sat in our seats on the plane for around 45 minutes until we could finally leave. We all fell asleep actually, and they kept making announcements in French, but, yeah. It was only a two hour flight, but it sure felt longer! Especially with a sniffling guy beside you and a loud one behind you. Oh the joys of flying. I’m glad that was our last one until we leave, I couldn’t take anymore.

Corey, how did our short time in Paris make you feel?
(Corey) I was surprised. Everyone seems to make Paris to be a big deal, but the side we saw was nothing special. It was slummy. Maybe next time we’ll get to see the “other side.”

Welcome to Lisbon! It’s a crazy airport to navigate. We’re a little bummed we didn’t get our passports stamped, but there was no line for that. We just walked out. But first we freshened up and got dressed to head to Bethel! Our rental car is a Skoda Octavia, and its reminds me of a Honda Accord. Big enough for all of us and our suitcases! Lauren’s expert driving got us to Bethel in no time - we just got lost in some round-abouts, one took us into a mall parking lot… good times.

For those unfamiliar, Bethel means “house of God”, and Jehovah’s Witnesses have several branch offices worldwide, like this one in Portugal, affectionately termed Bethel homes. Most are used for printing Bibles and other books and literature, like the Watchtower and Awake magazines. There is no more printing done in Portugal now, it has been moved to the Germany branch. But there are still offices and other work that are carried out here.

Bethel is, in a word, amazing. The grounds are beautiful, the building is so lovely and clean. We got there around 5:00pm and everyone was done working. We will tour in the morning. This home houses 57 volunteer workers. And a special Ministerial Training School is being held, so there are around 30 extra people staying here presently.

Our hosts are Al and Simone, they are originally from Canada. They are so friendly and kind, and had us up to their apartment for dinner - so good! And she snagged us some chocolate mousse for dessert--- too bad we didn’t have the cameras ready for our pure initial reactions after the first spoon-full. Oh. My. Word. SO. SO. GOOD. Delicious. Amazing. They tell us it’s a typical Portuguese dessert - yay!

Lauren, how did our afternoon in Lisbon make you feel?
(Lauren) It made me feel giddy as a school girl! It was one of the most thrilling experience I’ve had in a long time. To be taken care of by complete strangers here in Bethel has been exhilarating. I’m still trying to wipe that goofy smile of my face!