6.5" x 6"
Paper
by Suzanne Chantal

When we stayed at the Palace Hotel in the Bussaco Forest I bought one of these books for myself. By the end of our trip I was so into it I knew I had to get some for KIOSK. The only problem was the shitty bureaucracy the hotel functioned under "If you want 12 more why did you not buy them when you were here!" Weeks went by, I could not buy, the "responsible person" was not in. Eventually we decided we would stop by the hotel, 1 hour return out of our way, as we were driving from Porto to Lisbon. The day grew late, dinner and packing boxes meant it was finally 11:30 pm when we set out. Driving via Luso, stopping to drink the famous water directly out of the spring, we arrived at the hotel at 1am; the guard at the door thought we were mad. "Hello! We are here to buy 12 books, at one in the morning in the middle of a forest!" "No!" "Why?" "Because, the desk is closed." "But you are here!" I gave the managers name, the man would not budge. He looked as though we were bandits and he was guarding either the princess or a pile of gold or perhaps Rumpelstiltskin in the tower. After 30 minutes we finally left without the book and me blowing the horn at the guard. Luckily, a friend from Porto was driving near the hotel two days later and she could get them. Can you believe after all that she walked in, bought twelve books and without a question walked out. Can you believe, after all that, some people get all the breaks! Printed in 1972 it is a guide, creative writing piece and history lesson on the area. We will never get more, I tell you this now, and if I went to such an effort to get it you know it is good.