Izzy's Travel Diaries: Portugal

I've never been to Portugal, but the plane ride I was dreading. The longest flight I've ever been on, except as a baby, was to Glasgow. Middle seat on a WizzAir. About 2 hours in I was claustrophobic. Not fun. I didn't have so much trouble on this flight, though I did take my tablet with plenty of stuff to watch, and sat next to the window. So much better. Avoiding middle seats in the future.

The first stop was Fatima, where we went by car. Stayed at Hotel Anjo de Portugal. It's a nice hotel, newly built and very modern. I wrote a review on Tripadvisor and did a video too. I do recommend it when visiting Fatima, because it's near the shrine, and not too expensive. However, overall Fatima isn't that big of a deal. At least not for an atheist.

Review:

Good hotel, but housekeeping

The location is great. It's a short walk from the complex, but far enough to not be bothered by the large amount of tourists. There is also free parking.

The room looked very nice. Simple and comfortable, I quite liked it. TV a bit on the small side, but had good channels, and many in English. One thing that bothered me was, the place to put the suitcase was in front of the mirror. An awkward place to put it, as I couldn't properly use the mirror because of it. The scale in the bathroom was weird, and actually didn't work well. I've never seen one in a hotel.

There was a bit of problem with housekeeping. I didn't complain, because I just spent one night in the room, but they didn't take out the trash in the bathroom. It was full. Also, there were some hairs on the outside of the bathtub. Not mine, they were black. I'm blonde.

Breakfast was okay. Nothing too interesting. The place for the breakfast felt a bit uncomfortable. It had very high ceilings, almost like a church. I felt like I should be praying there, not eating. Which is even more weird, since I'm an atheist.

I went to the shrine around midnight. There were still people around, even the crawlers. I call those crawlers, who crawl down on their knees to the altar, trying to atone for their sins. I wondered about the desperation of those people. I think it's not about asking for forgiveness from a god, but rather trying to forgive themselves. I felt sorry for them, because no matter what you do, you have to find it in yourself to live with it. If it's something that happens to you, then you have to accept your fate, and make the most of it.

In the morning I had breakfast, then went to the shrine again. I really liked the older church. It was kind of modern, but had clean lines, and wasn't too ornate. I also visited the modern church, but it wasn't all that church-like. More like an auditorium.