How a Pack of Dogs Helped Me Find Lunch •

Pena Castle in Sintra, Portugal. I’ve written a few posts now about sensing “signs.” The irony is I feel that most of my life I’ve had trouble seeing/hearing signs and, even when I did, listening to them was an entirely different challenge. I’m now trying to be highly alert to each detail that might be a sign I should follow.

And so I found myself walking for miles in a town called Sintra. Actually, having read about it in a Rick Steves guide, I thought I had an hour walk from the train to the sites. I learned, slowly, that it was a bit over an hour walk from the train to the beginning of the walk that takes an hour to see the sites! Along my walk, I simply followed the tour buses and signs directing traffic to the castle I wanted to see.

Beautiful view of Sintra, Portugal.

Slightly exaggerated idea of dogs barking at me.

However, along the way there were some windy streets and I somehow ended up on a street where I didn’t think buses could go, but turned up it just the same. I came upon two dogs barking at me from behind their house gate. Their tails were wagging so I thought it possible they were friendly, but decided to pass them. Then some other dogs from behind a wall began to bark as I walked up the street. Before I knew what happened, it’s like the dog alert system had gone off and the entire street seemed filled with the sounds of at least ten dogs barking my arrival news. When I got to the house where the dogs were on top of the house walls, staring down at me, I began to wonder if I should turn back. They didn’t look friendly, as opposed to the first ones. They also looked like they were up to the challenge of jumping down to the ground to eat me.

I decided to walk back down the street. When I did, I saw that I had accidentally walked up a street that was one way and I was going the wrong way. I turned down the next small street and ended up in a lovely area which had the perfect café to dine outside. I realized those dogs were a sign for me to correct my course. They started out friendly and got progressively more mean so I would get the message. Sometimes signs come in unexpected ways and lead you to food and beauty and to the road you were looking for all along.