Fátima Bus Trip

I didn’t think I had enough time to do this trip. But in the end I yielded. I took a bus from Madrid, departing from the Avenida de Americas station. I paid a little over 80 euros for my return ticket to Lisboa. It was a night Avanza bus with its formidable white horns which made it look like some kind of highway beast. What was good about these buses were they had seats on the right side which were just single seats. You’d think however that was a big waste space. We departed around 9 or 10 pm. I paid about 80 euros for my return trip to Lisboa. We arrived close to 4 am at the Estaçao do Oriente, which was a massive place combining stations for buses, trains, and metro. It was one of the best designs I have ever seen of a station. It was architected by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It had a roof of glass and steel made to resemble a row of trees. The place was close to deserted. There were guards of course. This wasn’t really my destination. I still had to take another bus going to Fatima. I asked probably about 4 guards. They said that I could get information at around 7am when the ticket offices open. How could I wait that long? I asked about the toilets. They were closed. This one, I could not understand. How could it be? The most beautiful station I have ever seen and there are no toilets I can use. I have seen the worst station in Spain in Valencia and I could go to the toilet at any time. I waited there for three hours for a 6am bus going back to Madrid. But Lisboa, no. I was wondering how much longer I could hold my urge to pee. More than three hours would be a long time to wait. I asked another guard, who told me that the buses to Fatima would not be from the Estaçao do Oriente. I had to go to Sete Rios. I could wait for the metro going there, it wasn’t very far. I got a metro ticket from one of the vending machines paying less than 2 euros. I found the directions confusing. Anyway I decided later on to just catch the cab to Sete Rios. I was there in seven minutes. At that Sete Rios bus station, there was no problem finding the toilet and there were some people waiting around. I think I had to wait till 6am for the ticket office to open. . But I couldn’t even get my colacao drink as the coffee shop was not open. The sign said they’d open at 6:30am but they didn’t. I got a return ticket to Fatima. Arrived in Fatima around 8:30am on Easter Sunday 24th April 2011. It would be the beginning of a wonderful pilgrimage. Perhaps more later.