The hassle dazzle of getting into a community hospital

So I was sick, very sick. I kind of thought I was going to boil up alive. I had taken a day off work, but it was not enough. In Portugal, you have the right to be three days at home when sick. I am a very conscious employee, so I decided to go get help. I tumbled down the stairs from our apartment to my car where I sat deep down on the driver´s seat, merely seeing over the steering wheel. Alright, I am short(ish), anyhow I was buried in the seat.

Waze directed me to CUF Cascais. All went fairly well at the hospital, got to see a Doctor fast and had five (5!!) days of sick leave and a long list of medications. When I got home, I spoke with a fellow colleague on the phone telling her about my hospital visit. Then she remembered to inform me that, it is not allowed to get sick leave from a private hospital. Whaaaaaaaat?

After about 10 calls here and there, including my mother (who is in Finland and cannot help me by any means) I went to the community hospital near my house. Sweating and heart pounding I entered a box-like building (actually it was a box, a building container to be precise). I went to the counter where I found a bored (in life) lady. I asked if it was possible to see a physician. She looked at me up and down, and snorked “take a number”. I was bewildered, there was no one else in line. I turned around, stretched my arm to a ticket machine and took a number, 75. Seeventy-fivEEEE the lady shouted. I looked at her even more confused and said, “That would be me”. She did not look happy at all.  She asked for my healthcare number, which of course I did not have since I never had needed one before. She said, “We cannot help you”, and gave me a number to call. End of story. I was so angry, I had tears running down my cheeks going home. What am I going to do? I opted in the last resource possible and drove to a bigger community hospital nearby.

When I reached the stairs of the entrance I fell. Look at poor me, going to die soon, a 37 degree fever. The lady at the counter saw me and my red cheeks and said that you can only make a healthcare number between 14-15h. Then she asked me to sit down, and she drew out papers and started to fill them out for me. Bless good people. The next day I went in for a physician, she gave me two days of rest, despite the five days given by a private physician. I learned that community hospitals only give a maximum of three days at once and then you have to drag yourself to the hospital again.

Lesson learned, sort out all the relevant papers/identification codes before you really need them!

Myth of solo cinema

 Somebody you know goes alone to the movies on a Saturday night. Do you feel sad for the person for going all alone (sing: All by my seeelfff) OR do you respect this person for not being afraid of being alone? (this time I sing: I want to be all by my self).

I have always been an independent self-starter. I am not afraid of doing activities alone, it does not mean that I am alone. After all, I am alone in Lisbon. And guess what, it is marvelous.

It is odd to see how people react when someone is doing something alone. As this myth of going alone to the movies. GOD. When I told people I am going alone to the movies, I am met with the response ”That’s so courageous” or ”I wouldn´t be able” or ”I always wanted to, but do not have the guts.” And then people tend to think that the solo cinema rider is sad for being alone… Not true.

I actually have a greater experience when I see the movie alone, I actually focus…for once more on the movie than the popcorn…

From my perspective, going alone to the movies does prove a grade of maturity of not needing someone all the time. It is ok to be alone, as it is ok to go with friends or boyfriend. We do not need someone to hold our hand when we go to the bathroom either? (Correction, I have one friend who is an exception...) Nobody looks at you in a funny way for going alone to the movies. Nobody notices, nobody cares. If you care (do I look pathetic?), then someone cares and that´s you.

There are things in my ”bucket list” that I always wanted to do, but with age people have their own lives and therefore, I cannot expect to have companions in all that I do. (Note to the reader: isn´t it more pathetic to stay home alone and bored because you cannot do something alone?)

Being capable of doing things alone could be one of our Nordic features? I have so many friends who travel solo, and tell their experiences to be life changing. So why not. I am going to solo travel this fall, and I am expecting it to be the vacay trip to heaven on earth of my l-i-f-e.

How to Sauna – in Portugal

As Portugal is in carnival mood, I decided to seize the day and go to the gym. After a complete and well done workout I headed to the sauna.

As we Finns like to think – the sauna is a place where you sweat out the stress and anxiety of life. All the toxins of your body drip to the floor in the shape of small pearls. You experience a profound relaxation and leave with a peaceful mind.

But not in Portugal...

I have commented about this before, you can find my former observations in the blogpost GymtasticPortugal. 

How to sauna Portuguese style;

1.     The sauna is part of your workout. Abs in the sauna is a must. You go in, lie down on the highest bench and start to do crunches. The heat helps you burn more calories and you get fit faster. Anyone remembers sauna belt? Same idea. You sweat – a lot – and look slimmer until you drink a glass of water and wadabam. It’s back. Not common knowledge here…

2.     Sauna = tumble dryer. Of course you need to dry up your sweaty clothes after the workout. So why not put the sweaty underpants on the sauna bricks? They dry up faster. The smell is a minus, but who would care? Btw, the stove is a Harvia and I would just have loved to throw water on the stones…

3.     If you do not have flip-flops, use shoes. So somebody decided to wear tennis shoes to the sauna… the same genius wore also socks. The sensation of slimy toes is probably superb.

4.     After working out, it’s nice to have a post workout meal – in the sauna.

5.     If you do not have swimming pants or towel, go naked. Not disturbing at all. We Finns like to be nude, but in Portugal? Nope. I did not want to see what I witnessed.

6.     Push-ups. Someone once told me that the best workout is when you feel your head is going to explode, so why not do it in the sauna and occupy sitting space of other people. The warmer, the better, aim for the highest bench to have the optimal heat.

7.     If you are sick, have a cold or fever the sauna is the cure. (NOT?!?! You crazy people).  

8.     Throw a bucket full of water on the stones and sit on the floor. Makes sense. Not to me since I was sitting on the highest bench.

Picture from the internet... can't wait for Summer, sauna and sausage at the cabin. Relaxation. Until then, deal with crazy rituals in Portugal...

Pick your apartment wisely

This is important folks!

When you move to Portugal it is good to have some standard knowledge of the apartment you are going to live in. ...it applies also for Spain... and probably any country :D 

Jumping into a time machine, taking us almost two years back, when we moved to Lisbon with Swag N or Nik. 

It was the end of Summer (in Finland), late August, when Nik left ahead to find an apartment for our one year stay in Lisbon. He went to solve the apartment situation while I was packing our old apartment in Finland. Dude, it should have been the other way around. A 160 cm tall girl dragging all furniture and packing things together is not a good combo. I learned my lesson. 

The apartment situation was not too good since many students (about 10 000) move into Lisbon each year. The apartment range was small, extremely small and expensive. All apartments seemed to have a problem which we could not overcome. In the end we found a relatively good flat in Bairro Alto. It was in the budget range we set for ourselves, 800e. (It is expensive in Portugal). We even made the contract with a housing agency to have a legal back up, which later on did not work at all. Since the agency did not care. 

We moved in. 

One month later the rains started. I was casually at home doing my homework when suddenly it was raining inside the apartment. Crap. I put buckets (and basically anything I found from the kitchen) beneath the worst dripping places. I called the landlord and told him about the raining inside. 

Two days later the landlord shows up to see a completely soaked roof. Determining on his face it was very bad. But then he casually said "It will dry in the Summer, lets find the hole and cover it." OK?? Two weeks later the roof was re-painted (in a nice yellow tone that showed the moist coming through). The painter man also broke our vacuum cleaner (small thing), which we never said nothing about because there were worse issues. Like the roof. 

Next Spring it leaked again. But then we had had enough, since we also had mold in the apartment caused by water between the walls.. it was also touching the electricity wires.. but that was overseen by the landlord... Nik (Swag N) also had aggressive attacks of allergy, eyes watery and swollen 24/7, cough, asthma... 

In November I spoke sufficiently Portuguese to understand what our bills said. I figured that the landlord was asking us to pay water every month, although water is paid every two months. So when I pointed this thing out, he turned all bills to his home and started sending images of the bills instead. Which is illegal, but who cares. 

In January we had a whole year estimate payment of 250 euro of electricity we had not consumed but had to pay anyways. We were also getting tight on money at this point. 

In April we found a new apartment and decided to move since our contract with the old apartment was about to end. We cleaned up entirely the moldy smelly household, left it very pretty. 

In June when we were in Finland the landlord, who did not want to come visit the apartment for a last inspection (for a 10000 different reasons) said that we have left the apartment in an extremely bad shape and the vacuum cleaner was broken. Therefore, he did not want to pay us the deposit. Excellent. 

Then I returned to Lisbon in July to have an argument with this landlord (and give back the keys which I refused to give until he paid us back). I told about Nik's asthma, showed the mold, explained the vacuum cleaner and said that we cleaned the whole apartment. Then the landlord started accusing us of not paying bills?? What?? So I had to collect each and every single payment we made to show him that nothing was missing. Which was not. 

Conclusion. After a massive fight we had 550e back of our 800 euro deposit, because the vacuum cleaner (still working) was broken. 

I took the money and ran.

A picture from the street we lived in. The houses are built over 200 years ago.