- Traveling alone, having lost my phone, I set out to explore Lisbon

It was an early winter morning when I got out of the Madrid-Lisbon night train, to find myself on a desolate Santa Apolina train station. It was 7:30 A.M. by my watch, which wasn't that early! It was strange that such a major station was totally abandoned. After much effort, I managed to find a station officer who explained in his broken English: "Public transport Strike, No Metro, No Bus, No train in Lisbon". I was scared. It was the first time I was traveling alone and that too when I had lost my phone in Barcelona, two nights back. My friends believed that 'Portugal is more or less like Spain'. I disagreed with them and decided to travel alone to Lisbon after Seville. But Alas! I found myself stranded on the railway station with the nearest hostel being 4 kms away. I felt lost. What was I doing there alone on a day like that? Couldn't I have done some research?
Just when I was about to lose hope, I saw the Spanish guy whom I had seen on the train last night. I had helped him keep his luggage in the overboard space. I remembered him because he was traveling with an old lady, probably his mother. I was desperate and could not afford the expensive taxi, so I did something crazy. I dashed towards his taxi, which was about to start, knocked on the window and asked 'Could I just share your taxi till the city?'. And without even waiting for an affirmative response, I opened the taxi door and entered.
The guy barely knew me and the old lady surely looked angry. But I guess he took pity on me and asked the driver to drop me wherever I wanted. The Spanish guy then smiled at me and asked,"Do you always travel this way?"
Its experiences like this which makes me believe in the innate goodness of humanity.
Lisbon had another surprise lined up for me when I reached the hostel. Turns out that the time in Portugal is 1 hour behind Spain. So I had reached much before the usual check-in time! But the kind hostess let me in and offered me free breakfast.
What started as a nightmare, Lisbon managed to steal my heart with its friendly people, beautiful architecture and tasty cuisine. I took a walking tour through the intimate streets around Castelo de Sao Jorge, rode the cute yellow tram, tasted the amazing indigenous desert of Belem called Pastel de Nata, made some new friends at the hostel, spent the night playing drums, singing and drinking local Portuguese beer. 'Lisboa loves Me' - I saw spray painted on a wall, truly describes what I feel about the awesome city.