Okay… just one anecdote from my trip to Steemfest.

Landing in Lisbon

So I travelled alone from London City Airport to Lisbon. The flight was pleasant enough full of thoughts about what awaited me in Portugal. Steemfest2 would host over 300 people from over 30 countries but I wondered how many were travelling alone to the cryptocurrency conference like I was.

I got to the Lisbon Airport and I noticed two familiar silhouettes in the distance. It was a couple. The woman I had met before. At last year’s Steemfest. The man I had only seen online. It was Alla and Ivar. They were doing that slow maundering that only young lovers do as they waltzed through the Airport. As they stood on the escalators I approached.

I introduced myself with a jibe, “What are two fit people like you doing standing on an escalator.” Ivar is a professional body-builder. Alla looks like she just steped out of a modelling shoot. It took Alla a second to recognise me. We exchanged hugs and she formally introduced me to Ivar. We shook hands and decided to share a cab as we were staying in the same hotel complex.

The hotel ride

Alla whipped out her phone and proceeded to order an Uber. Believe it or not, I’d never used an Uber before that day. I usually commute to work by public transport and use my car to get around at other times. I knew what Uber was but was surprised by the sophistication of it all. It’s a far cry from the minicabs I’d used ‘back-in-my-day.’

Anyway we jumped in the Uber and were greeted by portly cheerful gentleman. On the way to the hotel, we exchanged banter with the driver in English. He was sharp minded and quick to pick up on my quips that can often go un-noticed. I liked him. He dropped us off at our hotel and offers to show us around Lisbon over the weekend. Alla took his number and promised to get back to him.

Picking up America

Fast-forward to day two of the Conference. It was dinner and everyone was mingling. I get chatting to a young lady. I introduced myself and she does likewise. She said her name was America.

Naturally when you meet someone called ‘America’ the conversation starts with her name. She lived in the US but her parents were Mexican. It’s not unusual for parents to name their child America. She tells me she is a twin and she is one half of the @cybercodetwins.

Just as I start talking to America, Alla comes over. She wanted to know if I’d found anyone to join us on our tour around Lisbon. ‘Have you asked her?’ She said gesturing to America. Well, er no... the days of me introducing myself with an opening line ‘ Hey my name’s Nanzo, would you to take a trip around Lisbon with me tomorrow?’are well and truly over. Alla asked America if she wanted to join us. America, as cool as you like replied, ‘Sure.’ So we were set. Alla, Ivar, America and I were going to get a guided tour of Lisbon and the surrounding towns courtesy of our cheerful Uber driver, Joseph.

Picture perfect tour

So we meet Joseph at our hotel and set off. Everything was going superb. We travelled around Lisbon. We travelled to Cascais. We stopped off at Guincho. With the grande finale set to be a trip to Sintra.

Joseph’s hospitality was first class. We got thirsty; he had water at the ready. We got peckish; he had snacks. He came ultra-prepared, with handouts and a ready-made script in his head for the whole tour. We on the other hand were that slightly disordered party that would linger far too long at every venue.

Last stop...

Finally we travelled to Sintra. The Icing on top of the cake or rather the Palace on top of the hill. We make it just in time to get into the Gardens and the Palace. It was great. Alla and Ivar go off and do their thing. I get America to take some photos of the stunning scenery as my phone battery had died. As we talked America started to complain about having a headache. I wondered whether the walk uphill has taken it out of her but low-and-behold she was off again, bounding up another set of stairs to take more pictures. I decided to go into the Palace. America opted to stay outside.

At the entrance to the Palace I met Joseph. He had the tickets. He asked where America was, as she’d need a ticket if she wanted to enter the Palace. I told him she was just around the corner. We go around the corner. She was not there. Okay, no panic. We left her ticket with the attendants and Joseph proceeded to give me a guided tour around the Palace.

Twenty minutes later, Joseph and I left the Palace. We bumped into Alla and Ivar outside. We were ready to go but there was just one thing. America was missing.

We spend 10 minutes looking for America. We went to ask the ticket attendants but the Palace was closed. I asked Alla if she had America’s number. She didn’t. America’s cell phone didn’t work in Europe. I was sure she was okay but my mind began to wonder. What if she was actually missing? I was the last person to see her. How do I explain my actions? I’ve left my wife and 3 kids to go on a cryptocurrency conference in Lisbon yet there I was; in a fairytale palace on the top of Sintra with a couple a barely know. And now our female companion, that we’ve only known a day had gone missing! With little ol’ me being the last one to have seen her. I felt like I’d seen this movie before. On the outside I was calm but inside scenarios were playing around my mind. What if she’d collapsed somewhere? It’s a long fall of the side of the Palace walls. It’s pretty dark by now, what if someone had abducted her and spirited her off into the forest? That America such a lovely young girl. Yet I would be the chief suspect surely? I played it cool, as you do and started thinking of the best lawyer I know.

The search

Someone who was not playing it cool was Joseph. When we climbed the hill to the Palace he looked like he was about to have a seizure. Now, now that America was missing, he looked like a cardiac arrest was moments away!

From behind me I heard his voice boom;

“AMERICA!”

All the visitors at the Palace stopped to stare at Joseph. He carried on to another corner of the courtyard and bellowed.

“AMERICA!!”

“WHERE IS AMERICA?!!”

Everyone was looking at Joseph like he was a certifiable madman. Inside I was dying with laughter. I knew at that moment this was not going to be a tragic tale but a funny one.

Alla, Ivar and I volunteered to go down to the entrance to try and find her. Maybe she had returned to the car. We then had the most surreal ten minute walk you can imagine. It was now virtually pitch black as we headed to the entrance gates. The air was silent. Only punctured by the occasionally scream in the distance….

“AMERICA!”….. then a minute later….

“AMERICA… WHERE IS AMERICA?”….

The further we got away from the palace the more faint the voice

_AMERICA….

_{WHERE IS AMERICA?…}.

Finally we get to the entrance gate. And who was waiting to greet us?

America.

The reason she had left is because she had a headache. Alla phoned Joseph to let him know the hunt was off. He met us at the bottom of the hill and he was fuming!

“America! Did you not hear me calling you?”

The dressing down

When we got in the car, Joseph sat in the driver’s seat and waited. He had our seatbeats on ready to go but he just sat there. Then he spoke. “When you are on a tour with me, you are MY responsibility! If anything happens to you; I am responsible.”

“Yes dad…” I felt like saying. It was like being twelve again.

Finally he calmed down and we had dinner in a Fish restaurant in Almada, across the replica San Francisco bridge. More laugh and banter followed. America was back in Joseph’s good books by the time he dropped us back at the hotel 10 hours after picking us up. It had been a great day.

Encore

I was shattered as I entered the hotel lobby. I was ready for my bed. The time was nine-thirty in the evening and there were a few other “Steemains” milling in the hotel lobby.

“Hey Nanzo! Want to play poker?” Someone asked. “A few of us are going to play in a hotel around the corner. We’re just waiting for the others to come back with some biscuits and nuts.”

“To eat?” I said

“No to use as chips.”

Suddenly the evening got a whole lot more interesting. Just when I thought my day was over… I hadn’t realised, my night was just beginning! But that is a story for another time!!

Cast List:

@allasyummyfood as Alla

@ivargereiko as Ivar

@cybercodetwins as America

@nanzo-scoop as Nanzo

Joseph as The Uber Driver