Spain and Portugal
SPAIN | Tuesday, 12 February 2008 | Views [308] | Comments [1]
January 7th 2008 we flew into Madrid Spain. We booked a hostel called Ole. We flew Qatar Airways, which was just bizarre... nothing more can be said. The hostel was right close to the subway station and easy to find. We had to lug up a couple of flights of stairs, but were greeted by a warm and cozy atmosphere. The hostel was cute and small. Ericky, a cute young Spaniard... who can speak four languages gave us the tour and welcomed us in. Things were looking good, until we saw our room. It was a shoe box, two bunks crammed in and no room for luggage. I slept with my things on the bed.... at least it kept me warm. Our first real day in Spain and Jaymie and I had some tensions from India and weren't ready to sort through it.. we decided to go our own ways during the day... we had different things we wanted to see anyhow. I checked out the Prado museum... it was beautiful... so many amazing pieces. Jay got a small case of travellers stomach.. must have been readjusting from India she wasn't feeling well. I met a guy, Ilan, from Israel and we decided to stroll around a grab a drink. The pub we found was sooo adorable. Tiny and the only patrons were the owner and a friend. The walls were covered with paisley and diorama's of random events of Madrids history, but played out by cheaper versions of barbie dolls and plastic figurines. The beers were so cheap. lan came to sell toys in the mall centers illegally for the holidays. He made decent earnings... it½s the first thing he did after being released from the Israeli army. The hostel was doing a pub crawl that evening and we decided to attend. Jaymie woke up and decided to join us. We got free cover into a few places and a couple of free shots and three dollar beers... I didn't want to drink.. I babysat one beer most the night. I was absolutely drained and decided to leave the crawl early and head back. The next morning J was feeling even worse a nice Brazilian boy she met told her he'd head to the pharmacy with her to help her translate her illness. Vinicius aka Vinny and I walked her back and decided to check out some of the sights. I wanted to see the old bull fighting arena and he wanted to see the gate of Madrid... Ilan joined us. The arena was closed, but we walked around it anyhow and discovered the circus was using the grounds. We saw tigers and Lions in cages up close... we could have touched them if we weren't scared to death of losing rims. I saw many plazas that I had previously seen in the spanish foreign movies I used to rent at home and then we went for a bit. Spanish food is quite yummy. I had empanadas with tuna.. delicious! On our was to see the National park we ran into another group from the hostel... all eight of us hung out for the rest of the day. In the middle of the park was a crystal Palace, which was lame, but there was a really weird exhibition of stacked lumber inside. It was shaped like and igloo. We all headed back to the hostel and had a couple of beers. I met a really cute couple, Camilla and Marcello, both from Brazil. She was only 20 and three months pregnant with twins. They were looking for work. The next day we took it easy and had a night in the hostel chatting and drinking Yerbe Mate. On the 11th we decided to just shop around. I needed shoes that could handle the rain and Jaymie just liked to shop. We had it out that day and talked best we could... mostly we aired frustrations and came to some understandings... It was a sad birthday. I was depressed. That passed quickly as I talked to my family and friends back home and realized their wishes were warm and genuine and I was lucky to have them. Back at the hostel there was a new guy, Fernando, from Mexico and he wouldn't let me stay in on my Bday. Sebastien and another guy from argentina also wanted to head out since it was their last night. We went to a pub and then three other places... I only had a couple of drinks, surprisingly, but a great night. The next day we caught a train to Lisbon.
Portugal- there is something about this place. Just walking out of the train station and seeing the surroundings put a smile on my face. Comparing it to the rest of what I've seen to the date I cannot pinpoint what it is that has made me fall in love. Our hostel was beautiful... more like a b&b. LisbonLounge.com if you want to look it up. We were wrecked after our overnight train and our rooms wouldn't be ready until 1:00. I took a nap on the sofa and J walked around. They let us in on the free breakfast, which was really yummy kaiser buns, cheese, cereal, juice and tea. As soon as we could move into the rooms I unloaded my bags and met the rest of the travellers... Cam, a Vietnamese girl from Germany now living in Australia and two other girls studying in Marseilles. I decided to go explre the surroundings. I found a cute cafe and ordered a coffe (which is espresso here) and continued to stroll down the street. It was just heaven. The bitter sweet taste of the coffee, the just a touch of cold weather, the blue sky that was coming down and turning into night... I was in love. Things just got better and better. In the evening I made my own dinner and then went into one of the common rooms and met Kyle and Sophia...a very sweet couple from Melbourne. Cam joined in and brought a few beers and we just stayed up until 1am talking about our adventures and misadventures. It was nice to be able to relate and get some useful info and just talk like you would with old friends. The next day Jaymie took off as I was waking up and Cam commented on how we don't even seem like friends. She couldn't grasp that we would be taking in the same sights, but not together. Cam and I made plans to see the city together. We went to the famous area of Belem, where there is the first pastry factory in Lisbon. They are known for their exceptional custard tarts.... SO DELICIOUS! We bought some trinkets to send home, toured the childrens museums as we were both burnt out on the regular ones and ended with a coffee and baileys... yum. In the evening someone invited us to see a fado show... but instead we stayed in and joined Kyle and Sofia again in the common room and stayed up chatting. The next day we ventured to the flea market that Cam spoke so highly of... it was lame and it started to rain so most people packed up. Next we went to brunch with a few people from the hostel J came along. The food itself was delicious. I still remember, I had a light salmon pasta and cappuccino with a surprise... a yummy piece of marble cake. (By all the food talk you must think I have become an elephant... not just yet my friends haha). J headed back to the hostel and the rest of us went to see the castle, which has breathtaking views and then a crafts market.... really cool marionettes. We all went for tarts and coffee and then called it a day... back at the hostel everyone took a nap and I read. Lisbon Lounge had a chef that made dinner every night. Three courses for seven euro. Every night I only heard praise... so I decided to try it out. It was a fantastic cabbage soup, followed by seafood risotto and then a banana trifle pudding. Props to the chef! We decided to add one more night in Lisbon because the accommodations were so excellent. Everyone took off the next morning and I took and easy day and just went by the water and doodled and read. In the eve J and I agreed to meet up and catch up on emails and head to dinner. She ordered a sandwich and I ordered a fantastic Roughie. The waitress brought over bread and put it near me and made a comment about Jaymie not eating too much. Ouch. She inhaled her sandwich and demanded we leave... I was just served my food and wine. I put the bottle of wine in my bag and ate quickly and we headed off. I told her she had to try a tar before leaving Lisbon, so we found a bakery and had coffee and dessert. The baker was so cute I didn't want to leave. J set her alarm wrong and I didn't set mine and we made it to the train station to see our train leave... we had to hang out for an hour and a half for the next one... we made it into Lagos at 11:30. We only booked one night there... I wish we would have booked more.
Lagos- The weather was in the high teens or low twenties... about ten degrees warmer than everywhere else we'd been. Lagos is beautiful... such a perfect little place by the sea to go for a short holiday. The coast has tons of tiny little beaches for miles. It took us a bit to find out guesthouse, Zalinda's. It was in the interior wall part of town and so cute. We had a nice room ensuite and a kitchen we never used. I walked around and got acquainted with the city and decided I wanted to move to Portugal... I thought about how to pitch it to my ma. Turns out I didn't have to... she'd only heard good things about it. The next morning we went our spereate ways and decided to meet up at 3 to catch the bus to Sevilla. I found a secluded beach and actually sunbathed. I saw a few sights, museums and a fort which had an art gallery inside with really cool metal sculptures. On the way back into town I stopped for lunch and to write postcards and ways flirting with a really good looking Portugese guy and lost track of time.. it was 3:10. Shit. I booked it back to Zalinda's. I grabbed my things and booked it down the hill with J and we took a cab to the station and caught the bus... phew. Our bus ride was seven hours. I took out the bottle of wine I'd saved from Lisbon and had a small drink and read my book. Mr. Nice.... an autobiagraphy of howard marks. cool story.
Tags: On the Road
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