Corinne CrawfordI woke up with a bit of a headache and the feeling in my throat a bit more pronounced. I grabbed my phone and used the flashlight app to look into my throat in the bathroom. Sure enough, I had some white spots on my tonsils. Great. I didn’t feel too bad but didn’t want it to get worse and the white spots most likely were some sign of an infection. I googled things such as “tourist urgent care” and “seeing a doctor in Portugal” and found a few websites that claimed a doctor would come to your hotel or accommodations for a visit. I emailed one of them with the information that I had white spots on my tonsils and what the cost and timing would be for an appointment. I immediately got an email back that instructed me to call a number for additional information. My phone plan with TMobile is great because I get free data (high speed up to a point, then low speed) and free texts and of course I can use WhatsApp for calls home but it would cost me $1.00 a minute to make regular cellular calls. In this instance, I decided I did not have a choice and called the number. The woman I spoke with got all my information and said that she could send a doctor that day, but much later in the afternoon and it would cost me 80€. So worth it, so I accepted the appointment and because I didn’t feel too bad, I still decided to go do my site seeing and then grab lunch and still be back at my apartment in plenty of time for my appointment.
My first stop was the main church in town that was a UNESCO site and no longer a functioning church, Church San Francisco You had to buy a 6€ ticket and that got you access to the actual church, an adjacent building and the catacombs. The church was amazing but unfortunately no photos were allowed which was a shame because it was as elaborately and historically adorned as any church I had seen and the catacombs were super interesting. I believe that Portugal had disallowed burials in churches like that at some point but I couldn’t find the specific information again. There were hundreds of family vaults in a maze like underground as well as a window in the floor that showed all of the bones under the floor.
I also visited the downtown train station that was known for its tiles that told the story of a bit of Portugal history.
After a bit of roaming around, I headed in the direction of my apartment and towards Café Santiago. I had been told by someone in Lisbon that if I go to Porto, I have to try their famous “sandwich” the Francesinha. I put sandwich in quotes because I could not quite understand what they were telling me as far as what the heck it was. It sort of sounded like an enormous dumpling in soup with layers and layers of stuff in it but that didn’t sound quite right so I decided not to google it and just be surprised. Café Santiago is one of the more famous places to get this “sandwich” in Porto and it was not that far from my apartment. It was what I thought would be after the typical lunch hour but it was still quite crowded and I was directed to a seat at the counter. I ordered a beer and looked at the menu. There were several versions of this sandwich and the descriptions were tantalizing. I choose the traditional and could also see from my place at the counter the area where they were preparing these by the dozens as I am sure this is what the majority of the patrons come in to get. Basically, it is two pieces of thick white square pieces of bread with layers of every type of meat you can think of with an egg on top then draped on all sides with thick slices of cheese with a hole in the middle for the egg yolk to poke through then baked so that the cheese just melts around the sandwich and then a ladel full of thin brown gravy- more like a broth is spooned over the whole thing and it comes with fries. I think this gravy is where I thought the soup description came in. You definitely cannot eat this with your hands like a typical sandwich, it was pure fork and knife and pure deliciousness. The fries soaked up the gravy as well and the whole thing, paired with a local beer was heaven on a plate.
I knew I wouldn’t need much dinner after this so I was glad I ate late. After almost cleaning my plate, I headed back to my apartment to wait for the call from the doctor saying they were on the way. The woman I spoke to in the morning thought it would be around 4pm and it was now about 3:15pm. I spent some time working while I was waiting and when it got to be a little after 5pm, I bit the bullet of paying for a call and called the number again to make sure I was not forgotten. They explained that I was next on the list. I waited a bit more, doing some packing as I was leaving the next day and within 45 minutes, there was a knock on the door. A nice woman in a mask, gloves and smock came in while the driver in the company car waited in the alley. She was very nice and asked me a few questions, then took a look at my throat and quickly determined I had what I think she said was tonsillitis. I was already on an antibiotic for my dental work and she looked at that and said that it was not a strong enough antibiotic so she instructed me to stop taking that one and gave me a new prescription for a better antibiotic along with a fever reducer/anti inflammatory. I paid the driver the 80€ and then made my way to the corner pharmacy where the two medications were less than $10. How is it that so many other countries can figure out health care but the US absolutely cannot. Same day appointment to my location and cheap medication. Really makes you think that if so many other governments can figure this out, what is holding the US back from making changes. Oh yeah, someone is getting rich off the healthcare system and it certainly is not its citizens.
