a letter to the director of lisboa tourism
dear madame/sir,
i am writing to congratulate you on your fantastic "ask me lisboa" service and the well planned public transport system in lisbon. the centres are conveniently placed and are staffed by very knowledgable and helpful english speaking staff, and the public transport system is efficient and easy to use. despite my praise, i do have some recommendations in the interests of improving your service and consequently the general experience and well-being of other travellers to beautiful lisbon.
firstly, and granted the information service is not a travel agency, but if one is to offer information about bus services then it would be best to provide accurate information. it is only by chance that i disregarded your agents advice and sought out a bus to seville myself otherwise i would have spent an unecessary night waiting for the supposed "one 9.30am bus to seville a day" special. i am not sure if it is a ploy to keep tourists for extra nights in the city, but if so then it's quite a crafty one and i applaud you for that. most machiavellian of you and in the end i am not in the slightest annoyed with the way things turned out and how i was dealt with.
my major recommendation and criticism is directed to the public transport system: i was happily on the tram out to the quite spectacular monastery of jeronimo after a lovely morning up on the medieval castle hill, as i gazed out the window over the river i found myself staring at a "beware of pickpockets" sign above the glass. it was at this moment that i felt a slight tug at the pocket of my pants and i turned left and found myself eye to eye with the very scum that your pretty sign had warned me of. my death stare must have been powerful enough to scare his slimey hand away from my pocket and the creepy looking lad proceeded to move accross the other side of the tram. i had noticed this lad arrive on the tram with some buddies who, it seems, were infact his big-heavy cronies (with bulging potbelly's from beer purchased, no doubt, with stolen money). i was a little disturbed by the whole proceedings and kept a keen eye on the bloke as he sidled up to other people in the train but to no avail (i believe). anyhow i was glad when he got off the tram and even more so when i reached my destination. the disgusting part of the whole scenario, however, is that on our return journey, on the very same line that we approached the monastery, we encountered the very same group of sneaking thugs who sit at several junctions along the tram as their gollum-like scoundrel does the dirty work for them. i have no idea of the role of the 'heavies', but i am sure that they are either there to scare off those who try to get their money back. my only other optimistic guess is that, if the sneak is caught in the act they collaborate as "goodguys" and pretend to take the theif to the police, escaping detection from the authorities alltogether.
well whatever they do it seems to go on all day long and this, i believe, is most definitely due to the lack of any authority on the train. at the very least a ticketcollector or inspector should be on and off to stop the free-riding and subsequent low-cost pickpocketing that these assholes engage in. you never know the prospect of a 1euro fare each trip might be enough to limit the activity; but at this rate it's a zero-cost operation.
other than this my time in lisbon was exceptionally lovely, particularly because of the 70 year-old 'fado' singing hostel receptionist we had the luck of meeting, and the similarly aged tri-lingual (at least) fellow tram-rider who helped us out with organising tickets.
good day to you and i hope my recommendations are of some use...
observantly,
jonathon miller
i am writing to congratulate you on your fantastic "ask me lisboa" service and the well planned public transport system in lisbon. the centres are conveniently placed and are staffed by very knowledgable and helpful english speaking staff, and the public transport system is efficient and easy to use. despite my praise, i do have some recommendations in the interests of improving your service and consequently the general experience and well-being of other travellers to beautiful lisbon.
firstly, and granted the information service is not a travel agency, but if one is to offer information about bus services then it would be best to provide accurate information. it is only by chance that i disregarded your agents advice and sought out a bus to seville myself otherwise i would have spent an unecessary night waiting for the supposed "one 9.30am bus to seville a day" special. i am not sure if it is a ploy to keep tourists for extra nights in the city, but if so then it's quite a crafty one and i applaud you for that. most machiavellian of you and in the end i am not in the slightest annoyed with the way things turned out and how i was dealt with.
my major recommendation and criticism is directed to the public transport system: i was happily on the tram out to the quite spectacular monastery of jeronimo after a lovely morning up on the medieval castle hill, as i gazed out the window over the river i found myself staring at a "beware of pickpockets" sign above the glass. it was at this moment that i felt a slight tug at the pocket of my pants and i turned left and found myself eye to eye with the very scum that your pretty sign had warned me of. my death stare must have been powerful enough to scare his slimey hand away from my pocket and the creepy looking lad proceeded to move accross the other side of the tram. i had noticed this lad arrive on the tram with some buddies who, it seems, were infact his big-heavy cronies (with bulging potbelly's from beer purchased, no doubt, with stolen money). i was a little disturbed by the whole proceedings and kept a keen eye on the bloke as he sidled up to other people in the train but to no avail (i believe). anyhow i was glad when he got off the tram and even more so when i reached my destination. the disgusting part of the whole scenario, however, is that on our return journey, on the very same line that we approached the monastery, we encountered the very same group of sneaking thugs who sit at several junctions along the tram as their gollum-like scoundrel does the dirty work for them. i have no idea of the role of the 'heavies', but i am sure that they are either there to scare off those who try to get their money back. my only other optimistic guess is that, if the sneak is caught in the act they collaborate as "goodguys" and pretend to take the theif to the police, escaping detection from the authorities alltogether.
well whatever they do it seems to go on all day long and this, i believe, is most definitely due to the lack of any authority on the train. at the very least a ticketcollector or inspector should be on and off to stop the free-riding and subsequent low-cost pickpocketing that these assholes engage in. you never know the prospect of a 1euro fare each trip might be enough to limit the activity; but at this rate it's a zero-cost operation.
other than this my time in lisbon was exceptionally lovely, particularly because of the 70 year-old 'fado' singing hostel receptionist we had the luck of meeting, and the similarly aged tri-lingual (at least) fellow tram-rider who helped us out with organising tickets.
good day to you and i hope my recommendations are of some use...
observantly,
jonathon miller
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