The whole city looks like a construction site. It’s incredible the amount of work that’s going on all over the place.

I guess it’s good for a part of the economy, as a lot of people are able to keep their jobs and provide for their families, but I remember reading somewhere that construction workers were being infected in bulk. Even today it’s easy for find them unmasked, clogging the sidewalks, blowing smoke into our faces.

There’s noise everywhere, there’s dust everywhere, there’s chaos for pedestrians everywhere.

Try to find a single street with no building site, and you have your work cut out for you.

We found a lot of these sites today as well, as we do every day.

Moving on…

On our way back I remembered I had a voucher for a drink at Starbucks, so decided we’d walk by, redeem that for a delicious White Mocha Frappuccino, and try to go up Calçada da Glória on the elevator. It’s a very steep one, and tinyMovieStar never rode the elevator.

The Frappuccino was great.

(A tip, though: don’t try this when carrying a forward facing baby! It was hell!)

The Rossio/Restauradores area is a big hit with the baby. There are fountains with water, and buses going by, the National Theater is beautiful, there’s plenty to keep her entertained.

On to the elevator…

We have tried it before, but we’d always arrive there when the next departure is too far off, and there’s no way I’d be able to keep the little one calm standing around waiting for that.

Today the scheduled time was three minutes away. Great.

I stood outside, waiting. The time arrived, I was lucky to have a note, an actual bank note in my wallet (cards not allowed), and tried to hand it over to the driver. No way!

“You must pay cash, but exact amount only, my friend.”

Coins! In 2021! My friend!

These assholes (if I may) charge 3.80€ for a ridiculous short ride, and have no change!

The things are usually packed with tourists, willing to pay the exorbitant price, because they have no idea it’s so overpriced, and want to try a local thing.

These days it’s hard to find a tourist, the darn thing left with one single passenger. They don’t care, of course, it’s not like they’ll get more money if more people use the service, right ? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

We walked up the hill again, it’s good for us anyway, and soon we were home again. Happy.