"PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA" Fátima by mavl

finally, fatima!

as much as the place has been 'modernized,' it still exudes an unmistakably serene atmosphere. even when the visitors increased in number, i still couldn't get distracted. fatima draws you, even when you're already at the doorstep of the apparition site and the church.

by the way, d.c. (dark cloud - my dark cloud, that is) made another appearance halfway up the mountains to fatima. once again, we got caught in the middle of a strike! this time, it was by the public transportation bus drivers and it happened right when we were en route!

so, there we were, the only two people stuck at a bus station in the middle of the mountains (can't even remember exactly where) waiting for hours for some kind of vehicle - any kind of vehicle - to pass by. but, there was nothing.

we finally just got on a phone and called for a taxi to pick us up - from lisbon! can you imagine the surprise of the operator when she asked where we wanted the taxi to meet us? so that's that.

however, we kinda did something improper (insert sheepish grin here). while waiting for our taxi to come, a bus for fatima pulled up, lo and behold! we had all of thirty seconds to decide whether we'd stay and wait for the cab or hop on the bus. when the doors were about to close, we decided to board. figured it was getting late and there was no actual assurance that the cab would arrive so, hesitantly, we opted for the sure thing.

i therefore apologize to the portugese taxi driver, whoever he is and assuming he's portugese and not from somewhere else, who went all the way there to pick us up, assuming he actually did.

so there, everything's right in the universe again.