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| Nazari Coast |
My third day in Lisbon, I decided to join a two-hour city walking tour, then see the City of Belem outside of Lisbon in the afternoon. It's getting hot, so I decided to ditch my hiking pants and wear shorts. ( Major mistake!) I moved my goodies to the bottom of the backpack, put other small things and my shirt on top of it and kept only the spending money for the day in my shorts pocket.
The tour guide was quite knowledgeable. Walked through the Lisbon city center, I was surprised how old and distressed the downtown area looked. New development, like malls, have moved to the suburb, old establishments were ignored and only the old residents stayed put. The Figueira Square, next to the busiest Rossio Square, was a hospital destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. The government had no money to rebuild it, so a statue was placed at the center and leave it as a square. Now the best usage is for kids to practice their skate board. Following our guide, mostly I kept my backpack at front, but occasionally moved to the back. When we were on the public bus, our guide shield us from other passengers in and out of the bus. She did not specify the reason, just reminded us to be careful. My lunch after the tour was nothing worth mentioning, and I felt totally sleepy after that. Hot weather and full stomach are lethal combination. Still, I had to finish today's plan and go to Belem. The Age of Discovery was a monument for the glory days of Portugal's golden day of exploration. I bought a ticket and waiting to see a film. Too sleepy, I reached my backpack for candy hope the candy would wake me up. The small pouch where I put candies was no where to be found, and the backpack barely had anything in it. By now I was very much awake. Ran to outside so I can see better, my things were gone!! When? How? I could hear my voice quivering, telling the service people I lost all my money. He kindly gave back my 5 Euro ticket money, I rushed out of the door, heading back to Lisbon. This time I did not even get a chance to fight them, they got me without my knowledge.
The tour guide was quite knowledgeable. Walked through the Lisbon city center, I was surprised how old and distressed the downtown area looked. New development, like malls, have moved to the suburb, old establishments were ignored and only the old residents stayed put. The Figueira Square, next to the busiest Rossio Square, was a hospital destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. The government had no money to rebuild it, so a statue was placed at the center and leave it as a square. Now the best usage is for kids to practice their skate board. Following our guide, mostly I kept my backpack at front, but occasionally moved to the back. When we were on the public bus, our guide shield us from other passengers in and out of the bus. She did not specify the reason, just reminded us to be careful. My lunch after the tour was nothing worth mentioning, and I felt totally sleepy after that. Hot weather and full stomach are lethal combination. Still, I had to finish today's plan and go to Belem. The Age of Discovery was a monument for the glory days of Portugal's golden day of exploration. I bought a ticket and waiting to see a film. Too sleepy, I reached my backpack for candy hope the candy would wake me up. The small pouch where I put candies was no where to be found, and the backpack barely had anything in it. By now I was very much awake. Ran to outside so I can see better, my things were gone!! When? How? I could hear my voice quivering, telling the service people I lost all my money. He kindly gave back my 5 Euro ticket money, I rushed out of the door, heading back to Lisbon. This time I did not even get a chance to fight them, they got me without my knowledge.
Rushed to the local police station. No, tourist had to go to the Police Station for Tourist. That pull me back to the Rossio Square again. Three policemen in the room were all taking cases. When it was my turn, I had to show my name from the photo of my US driver's licence in my camera because both my passport and DL were gone. My name, the items were stolen, amount of money, all entered into computer, then he printed me the record, in Portuguese, and gave me the address of US consulate. I wonder this theft happened because of my ignorance, the policeman said it was a common thing, by summer they would report at least 80 to 100 case everyday.
.
Got my police record, next stop headed to the near by Western Union to find out how to get wire money. No, this one had limited cash, could not handle my case, need a bigger office. The lady in WU looked arrogant. Looking at the police record with my name on it, she said no, this would not be considered as an ID. Without ID, I can only take in $500 a day, that's about 300 Euro. I needed over one thousand. So I had to wait for days to get that amount, and how would I ask my friend to wire me money for so many time? Plus WU charged good amount of handling fee each time, it's simply not efficient to do it that way. It was almost 5pm on a Friday, I would not resolve the issue today anyway. I needed to go back to hotel, calm down, regroup, and see this through. All I have with me was over 20 Euro in my pocket, fortunately I bought the unlimited Metro ride, leave me some money for food.
My hotel was small, but with good and stable wi-fi connection. And that's a life saver. I got money in my skype account, international calls would come handy and cheap. First call hubby, I almost cried.
"Say it again. You what? You mean they stole all your stuff from the backpack, and you didn't know at all?"
(...I am afraid so...)
Quickly switch to the problem solving mode in a night of frantic calls. To apply a new passport required over 100 Euro, which I did not have. So get the money was the first step. Since he worked in China, a country has tight control of foreign exchange, wiring from there in short order was out of question. We finally begged my good friend in the States to do the wiring. I explained to the hotel owner what happened to me and the ID problem, he pulled out his thick wallet, said he got ID, my friend can wire money to his name, and he would go to WU with me to get the money. That settled the money problem, all I could do was wait. Late in the night, I called each credit card and ATM card to inform and cancel the cards. In and out of sleep, the day finally broke.
As promised, the money arrived next morning. Hotel owner dropped whatever he was doing, accompanied me to WU. Already there was a line ahead of me. I felt much better and relief that I will get my money very soon, now in the mood of looking around. Who's using this WU? Mostly black people. This WU just located next to the little square where immigrants from the former Portuguese colonies gathering to meet their fellow countryman. (Ironically, this square used to be the place traded slaves.) Other than money wiring, WU also do long distance call business. Before making phone calls, the immigrants had to fill up a form, pay the money, and waited for their turn to use the phone booth. What a blessing for me to use skype! It was my turn. Hotel owner showed his ID, but the WU clerk knowingly talking directly to me. He must have seen many cases like mine. Once got the money, I thanked the hotel owner profusely, walked right into the nearby restaurant and had a feast. Now the only thing left was to get a passport. Without it, I could not even get on the plane to Italy.
Out of psychic, I planned six days in Lisbon before leaving home out of no reason. Now the sixth day fell on a Monday, just right for me to go to US Consulate. That proven to be harder than getting on a plane. The check point was thorough, even took the battery out of my camera and kept it till I finish my business there. The officer was an Asian American, and happened to be from San Francisco. Since I had no previous experience with any Consulate, I was worried I might bump into some problem and not getting my passport. Now that worry was almost gone seeing my fellow Californian. After listening to my incident, he told me, for my later trips, to take a picture of my passport, and email to myself as a precaution for case like this. From entering the consulate to receiving the temporary passport (good for 6 months), a very thin one, the whole thing took two hours. Because the consulate has no facility to produce passport with security features, I have to re-apply a permanent one back to the States. Now I am ready to go to Italy.
By the time I got to Italy's Cinque Terre, all of these were behind me, the only thing I worried was if I had the leg power to hike to the next town. (Do not dwell on the past, something I learned from my dog.) Three weeks later, I was back home to California. Because of the missing passport and driver licence, I decided to purchase the credit monitoring program, will get notified in case someone used my ID to apply for credit card, or anything beyond my imagination. To this day, I still don't know when and where did they get me. I was on guard 95% of the time, but they got me just the moment when I let my guard down. Did they follow me? Or they were just everywhere and happened to see the chance? My friend, the one wired me the money and saved my a**, said all her friends and families who visited Europe, each and everyone got tricked or robbed, no exception. It was my first incident in over 10 years of traveling, hopefully the last time. One thing I do know is, from now on, money belt is on, no matter how hot and how inconvenient it would be.
I always liked to tell people that travel really is not that hard, as long as you got your money and passport, you are good to go. Now cross that passport out. I have to have money to apply for passport. So get your money and hit the road.
在里斯本的第三天，我決定早上參加一個步行遊覽團，下午到城外不遠的Belem City 去。因為天熱，穿不住長褲，就把重要東西從膝邊的“長臂猿口袋”拿出來，放在背包的最下面，上面放了些雜物和薄襯衫，只拿了幾十塊歐元放在口袋裡當零用。全團只有我一枚女生，其他是一起來的蘇格蘭人。導遊講的不錯，一路走過里斯本中心，有些破舊的景象令人難以想像。新興的購物商場據說在市郊，城裡就只有老居民留守。城中的 Figueira 廣場本來是醫院，自從 1755 年大地震以後，沒錢重建，就只好在中間放個銅像算數，現在成了年輕人玩滑板的地方。一路上我大多把背包揹在前面，偶而移到背後。上下車時導遊還用身護著我們，她沒有明講，但要我們當心。中午遊覽結束，我進餐館吃了一頓難吃的海鮮餐，吃完了很想睡，但還是努力搭車去 Belem 的 Age of Discovery 紀念館，看葡萄牙人緬懷海上探險的黃金時期。買了門票，進場看影片，又是只有我一枚。在等放映的時候實在想睡到不行，伸手到背包裡想拿顆糖吃，看能不能提神一下，摸來摸去，找不到放糖的那個小袋。再多摸幾下，奇怪東西怎麼變的這麼少。頓時睡意去了大半，錢包呢？趕快跑到外面亮的地方去找，還是沒有。我真的急了，用顫抖的聲音跟服務員說我的錢包掉了，要去找。服務員很體諒的還把五塊歐元門票錢還我。我趕緊坐車回里斯本。這一次不用鬪就徹底大輸了。
前兩天在車上看到城中的警察局，下了車快步走去。不行，觀光客要去外事警察局，又走回頭路，滿身大汗，又氣又急。外事警局在最熱鬧的Rossio 廣場邊，三個員警都在和人說話。輪到我時，問我名字，我的所有文件都掉了，只好把相機上照的美國駕照給他看。這警察問我掉了那些東西，打進電腦裡，印出來給我當（葡文的！）證明。還給了我美國領館的地址。我問他這種事是不是常發生，他說我前面的三個報案的人都是遭竊，到夏天時每天至少八十，一百件。拿到警方文件，我到就近的 Western Union 去問匯錢的手續。得知這家手邊的現金太少，連一千歐元都沒有，只好又再去找另一家大一點的。這時已經是星期五下午快五點了，趕來趕去，只能用惶惶如喪家之犬形容。這 WU 的行員高高在上的樣子，問了我的情形，向我要身份證明，我給她警方的發文，她說那不能算。沒有身份證明，我每天只能收五百美金匯款，大約是三百歐元。我的錢卡沒了，全靠現金，需要超過一千歐元，那要搞幾天才有？而且每次匯錢都要付很多手續費，小額匯款是很不值得的。反正今天沒法辦事了，回旅館吧。我身上還有二十幾歐元，還好地鐵車票是買無限程坐的，否則以目前無頭蒼蠅的情況，連吃飯的錢都要坐車坐掉了。
Quickly switch to the problem solving mode in a night of frantic calls. To apply a new passport required over 100 Euro, which I did not have. So get the money was the first step. Since he worked in China, a country has tight control of foreign exchange, wiring from there in short order was out of question. We finally begged my good friend in the States to do the wiring. I explained to the hotel owner what happened to me and the ID problem, he pulled out his thick wallet, said he got ID, my friend can wire money to his name, and he would go to WU with me to get the money. That settled the money problem, all I could do was wait. Late in the night, I called each credit card and ATM card to inform and cancel the cards. In and out of sleep, the day finally broke.
As promised, the money arrived next morning. Hotel owner dropped whatever he was doing, accompanied me to WU. Already there was a line ahead of me. I felt much better and relief that I will get my money very soon, now in the mood of looking around. Who's using this WU? Mostly black people. This WU just located next to the little square where immigrants from the former Portuguese colonies gathering to meet their fellow countryman. (Ironically, this square used to be the place traded slaves.) Other than money wiring, WU also do long distance call business. Before making phone calls, the immigrants had to fill up a form, pay the money, and waited for their turn to use the phone booth. What a blessing for me to use skype! It was my turn. Hotel owner showed his ID, but the WU clerk knowingly talking directly to me. He must have seen many cases like mine. Once got the money, I thanked the hotel owner profusely, walked right into the nearby restaurant and had a feast. Now the only thing left was to get a passport. Without it, I could not even get on the plane to Italy.
Out of psychic, I planned six days in Lisbon before leaving home out of no reason. Now the sixth day fell on a Monday, just right for me to go to US Consulate. That proven to be harder than getting on a plane. The check point was thorough, even took the battery out of my camera and kept it till I finish my business there. The officer was an Asian American, and happened to be from San Francisco. Since I had no previous experience with any Consulate, I was worried I might bump into some problem and not getting my passport. Now that worry was almost gone seeing my fellow Californian. After listening to my incident, he told me, for my later trips, to take a picture of my passport, and email to myself as a precaution for case like this. From entering the consulate to receiving the temporary passport (good for 6 months), a very thin one, the whole thing took two hours. Because the consulate has no facility to produce passport with security features, I have to re-apply a permanent one back to the States. Now I am ready to go to Italy.
By the time I got to Italy's Cinque Terre, all of these were behind me, the only thing I worried was if I had the leg power to hike to the next town. (Do not dwell on the past, something I learned from my dog.) Three weeks later, I was back home to California. Because of the missing passport and driver licence, I decided to purchase the credit monitoring program, will get notified in case someone used my ID to apply for credit card, or anything beyond my imagination. To this day, I still don't know when and where did they get me. I was on guard 95% of the time, but they got me just the moment when I let my guard down. Did they follow me? Or they were just everywhere and happened to see the chance? My friend, the one wired me the money and saved my a**, said all her friends and families who visited Europe, each and everyone got tricked or robbed, no exception. It was my first incident in over 10 years of traveling, hopefully the last time. One thing I do know is, from now on, money belt is on, no matter how hot and how inconvenient it would be.
I always liked to tell people that travel really is not that hard, as long as you got your money and passport, you are good to go. Now cross that passport out. I have to have money to apply for passport. So get your money and hit the road.
在里斯本的第三天，我決定早上參加一個步行遊覽團，下午到城外不遠的Belem City 去。因為天熱，穿不住長褲，就把重要東西從膝邊的“長臂猿口袋”拿出來，放在背包的最下面，上面放了些雜物和薄襯衫，只拿了幾十塊歐元放在口袋裡當零用。全團只有我一枚女生，其他是一起來的蘇格蘭人。導遊講的不錯，一路走過里斯本中心，有些破舊的景象令人難以想像。新興的購物商場據說在市郊，城裡就只有老居民留守。城中的 Figueira 廣場本來是醫院，自從 1755 年大地震以後，沒錢重建，就只好在中間放個銅像算數，現在成了年輕人玩滑板的地方。一路上我大多把背包揹在前面，偶而移到背後。上下車時導遊還用身護著我們，她沒有明講，但要我們當心。中午遊覽結束，我進餐館吃了一頓難吃的海鮮餐，吃完了很想睡，但還是努力搭車去 Belem 的 Age of Discovery 紀念館，看葡萄牙人緬懷海上探險的黃金時期。買了門票，進場看影片，又是只有我一枚。在等放映的時候實在想睡到不行，伸手到背包裡想拿顆糖吃，看能不能提神一下，摸來摸去，找不到放糖的那個小袋。再多摸幾下，奇怪東西怎麼變的這麼少。頓時睡意去了大半，錢包呢？趕快跑到外面亮的地方去找，還是沒有。我真的急了，用顫抖的聲音跟服務員說我的錢包掉了，要去找。服務員很體諒的還把五塊歐元門票錢還我。我趕緊坐車回里斯本。這一次不用鬪就徹底大輸了。
前兩天在車上看到城中的警察局，下了車快步走去。不行，觀光客要去外事警察局，又走回頭路，滿身大汗，又氣又急。外事警局在最熱鬧的Rossio 廣場邊，三個員警都在和人說話。輪到我時，問我名字，我的所有文件都掉了，只好把相機上照的美國駕照給他看。這警察問我掉了那些東西，打進電腦裡，印出來給我當（葡文的！）證明。還給了我美國領館的地址。我問他這種事是不是常發生，他說我前面的三個報案的人都是遭竊，到夏天時每天至少八十，一百件。拿到警方文件，我到就近的 Western Union 去問匯錢的手續。得知這家手邊的現金太少，連一千歐元都沒有，只好又再去找另一家大一點的。這時已經是星期五下午快五點了，趕來趕去，只能用惶惶如喪家之犬形容。這 WU 的行員高高在上的樣子，問了我的情形，向我要身份證明，我給她警方的發文，她說那不能算。沒有身份證明，我每天只能收五百美金匯款，大約是三百歐元。我的錢卡沒了，全靠現金，需要超過一千歐元，那要搞幾天才有？而且每次匯錢都要付很多手續費，小額匯款是很不值得的。反正今天沒法辦事了，回旅館吧。我身上還有二十幾歐元，還好地鐵車票是買無限程坐的，否則以目前無頭蒼蠅的情況，連吃飯的錢都要坐車坐掉了。
回到旅館，開始瘋狂打電話。旅館雖小，無線上網卻很穩定，我在 skype 的帳號有錢，就拿來打國際長途電話，很便宜。第一個當然是打給老公，哭訴說我所有的東西都被偷了。
“你再說一次，你是說背包裡的東西都被偷光了，你一點都不知道？”（這怎麼可能呢？睡死了嗎？）
還好老公很鎮定地就進入解決問題的階段。電話來來去去，辦護照要一百多歐元，是不可能了，反正是周末了，也沒法辦，就先弄錢吧。老公因為在上海，而中國是外匯管制的國家，匯款沒那麼方便，只好麻煩我們在美國的好友幫忙。我跑去向旅館老板說我的情形，（用 Google Translate 先把要說的句子打進去，當面再叫出來。這老板會法文，英文比較沒那麼靈光。）他很爽快的說，可以把錢匯給他，我再和他一起去領錢。決定了之後，我只能等錢匯來。當晚飯也吃不下，就在旅館打電話，把幾張錢卡，信用卡都報遺失。睡睡醒醒，等到天亮。
第二天中午以前，接到電郵，錢匯來了。好心的旅館老板放下一切，跟我去領錢。排在幾個人後面，我眼見錢就要到手，這時才有點心情看看四周，都是什麼人在用這 WU。 大多顧客都是黑人，因為旁邊就是葡萄牙非洲殖民地來的移民聚集地，（諷刺的是，以前是在這裡賣黑奴的，）這些人是來此打電話回家的。要打電話還得先填表，交錢，叫到你時才到指定的電話隔間去打。我想到這裡剝削人的價錢，不知道這些辛苦謀生的人知道有 skype 這樣的好東西嗎。輪到我們時，老板出示證件，那行員卻是一徑對著我說話。他一定見多了這種慘事，知道錢是給我的。我拿到錢，大樂，向老板謝了又謝，就馬上進旁邊的餐館吃個大飽。心情大好，繼續還沒遊完的 Belem 之旅。里斯本大地震把葡王的膽給震壞了，據說他搬到 Belem 的皇宮來住，再也沒回里斯本。
錢的問題解決了，剩下的就只有護照了。沒有護照，我連去意大利的飛機都上不了。（意大利！扒手更多。）當初不知道什麼原因，計劃在里斯本停留個六天。第六天是星期一，正好辦事。手邊沒有照片，還很天真地想，到時再出領事館照就是了。那裡知道進領事館比上飛機檢查的還嚴，連相機裡的電池都不能進。還好館裡有自動照相的設備，填好資料，交了錢，向參事解釋發生的事。這位參事剛好是華裔，而且就住在舊金山。聽了我的故事，他很婉轉地說，很少看到像我這樣幾乎完全被偷光的。(意即：怎麼會這麼笨呢？）叫我以後離家前，用數位相機照一張護照的資料，用電郵寄給自己。（這樣做有什麼用我也不懂，領館馬上可以把我的資料從資料庫裡拉出來，我的照片連 Western Union 都不承認呀。）從進去到出來，兩個小時拿到臨時護照。薄薄的一本，因為領館設備不夠，沒法做出有安全設施的護照，回家以後必須再申請正式的。我明天可以上路了！
三周後回到家，重辦護照，駕照。因為這些都可能被用來申請假戶頭的，還加買了每月監視信用報告，任何有關個人信用的活動都會得到通知。匯錢給我的朋友交遊廣闊，說她所有親朋好友，只要遊歐洲，都遭到各種騙術，無一倖免。有的甚至當著眾人的面發生。我至今都不知道東西什麼時候、在那裡被偷的。整天大概只有百分之五的時間疏失，就被竊了。是我被盯上了，還是到處都是竊賊？我十幾年前第一次遊歐起，從沒掉過東西，也因為如此變得大意，以前用的錢帶 money belt 也不用了，聽到別人的經驗也沒特別在意。膽子大了，警覺鬆了，現世報，就給我個當頭棒喝。決定從現在起，出門旅行一定用穿在衣裡的錢帶，再熱也得用。
話說回來，在外旅行久了，總有機會碰到壞天氣，壞運，壞人，壞事。（像王文華特好笑的直譯：大便發生 shit happens。）財去人安，算是交學費吧。
每次被問到旅遊的問題，我都說，不用擔心，什麼行李掉了都沒關係，再買就好了，只要有錢和護照，就可以走天下。這次事件以後，我只好改口，有錢就可以上路了。
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