My Travels

Oh Patricia

lhourihan — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:44:00 GMT

Alright, so right now I am sitting in a library in Silves, Portugal and took a Benadryl about 2 hours ago, so I´m going to make this quick because I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Madrid was a good time. Initially, I wasn´t sure that I would find ways to keep myself busy for the few days I had alone there, but the city grew on me and I met a few people along the way. Events include:

-napping in the park for 3 hours with Dave (it was great except for the flies that swarmed around us)

-buying my ticket to the bullfight, and meeting a man who was very insistent that I go with him to his car… creepy

-trying to avoid restaurants and failing miserably...

-walking into a fairly exciting protest… but having not a clue what they were protesting about

-watching a man play Spanish guitar next to a museum for about 2 hours… he was so good and made me so happy that I actually started to tear up…

-50 eurocents for a one liter box of wine… yummy

-walking into a cathedral which I thought was having mass, sat down then realized it was a private ceremony… oops

-eating free paella at the hostel bar, and meeting people from everywhere

-going to the bullfight with Jae Hun and Matt (my roommates from the hostel from Austrália and Korea)… it was definitely an experience, but I almost threw up in my mouth a few times… the place was packed though, and I felt like it was a great way to experience the culture

-deciding not to take the metro from the bullfight back to the hostel, and not to use a map, even though it was dark out… we got very lost and ended up jumping a concrete wall/fence which only led us to the highway… i almost peed my pants because i laughed so hard. i´ll just say that we eventually gave up and decided to take the 10 minute metro ride, about 2 and a half hours later

-reading in the park

-buying one of the only books in English the book stands had to offer

-practicing my spanish language skills eating lunch with an older spanish man i met while i crossed a busy intersection

-and finally… meeting back up with the guys at the Madrid airport then heading to the train station where we set up camp in the parking lot for a few hours

Which led to…

another overnight uncomfortable train ride, this time 14 hours to Southern Portugal. This is where our first workaway experience was set up with Patrícia from Poço Barreto. The workaway website (www.workaway.info) sort of inspired this trip. Basically, there are loads of people who are willing to host you in gorgeous places around the world. The understanding is that you work 5 hours a day, and get free meals and a place to sleep.

Now… Picture this. 4 Americanos pull up to a train station in the middle of nowhere Portugal where I have a feeling they don´t see many unfamiliar faces. We walked into the town bar across from the station with our packs on and used our best Portugese language skills to ask to use a phone to get a hold of Patrícia, our gracious host. Unfortunately, we had 9 hours until we would be able to get a hold of her, so we had our first hitch hiking experience to the beach. Well, half way… we walked the last 2 maybe 3 miles with all of our crap and finally collapsed in the sand. It was a long day on the beach and we finally taxied our way back to the small town of Poço Baretto where this story began. Same bar, different people, and again, our friend Patrícia was not answering. The one man in the bar who knew a bit of English laughed at me when I told him that we were staying with Patrícia and he told me she was a bit off her rocker. We were finally able to get a hold of her but she was a little confused and thought I was supposed to be a guy…haha. Finally, they came to pick us up, and I was definitely skeptical. It was really dark so we couldn´t see much, and she led us to our sleeping área… a hut with a missing wall and stinky blankets. Haha. I couldn´t stop laughing, because during the small amount of conversation we had, she discussed how excited she was that we could build houses…I don´t know where she got that, but I told her we were engineers so I guess she just made the assumption. Anyways... we got in our little hut and fell asleep to the sound of the frogs barking next to us ALL NIGHT LONG… ugh.

In the morning everything was different. This place is like something from a story book. Although our actual sleeping arrangements are not the greatest, this place is lovely. It is really hard to describe, but it is gorgeous. We are staying on the top of a hill which overlooks the town and in the distance you can see the ocean. I need to put up pictures. They have 2 horses, 3 dogs, a load of birds… 2 of them talk/squawk, a pool, a couple villas, 2 ponds, and a ton of citrus trees. Suddenly I felt safe. Patrícia made us a nice breakfast, and the work began.

So this is how the day goes… we wake up at about 730, eat breakfast, work until 11, have a tea break, and then work until 1 when we eat dinner. It´s really not bad and the food has been great…although Patrícia sometimes has her moments, she really is a nice lady.

Our work has included:

Finishing building our sleeping hut… the wood floors and fresh paint were added today…

Weeding… unfortunately I weeded a bean plant which was quickly realized by George, the gentleman of the house…apparently he has been watching over it very carefully for the last three weeks…woops, it looked like a weed to me

Painting… the pool and a room in one of the villas

And making a dolphin mosaic backdrop for the swimming pool… I can´t believe that Patrícia had enough faith in me to let her help with that… let me just say that it does not look like dolphins… ooops

Anyways, this post is taking way longer than I thought. The experience is still great. I am trying really hard not to take any of this for granted. Unfortunately, I have terrible allergies here, and I think it has been topped off with something that the guys have passed on to me from Morroco, so I´m currently not feeling the greatest, but am still managing to enjoy myself. Again, I miss everyone back home and hope all is well! I don´t have internet access too often, but hope to update again in about a week with some new stories!!

The First 2 Weeks

lhourihan — Fri, 8 May 2009 13:49:00 GMT

Wow. So I am really kicking myself for not starting this earlier, and have so much to catch up on. I am currently sitting in the dungeon of CAT's Hostel in Madrid Spain, and for the first time of this trip am entirely alone.

First of all, I must say that I am completely impressed by how this trip all came together. As I assume most people reading this know, I was laid off from my first job as an engineer at Cessna Aircraft... and so were the majority of new hires, leaving us with nothing but time and a measly severance pay. My last month in Wichita, KS was the best of them all, and although I could not wait to leave just a few months earlier, it was a bit sad to finally get out of there. I will remember my 7 month stint in Wichita forever, and I would like to say that I will truly miss everyone that I had the pleasure to meet while I was there. Long story short... I am now traveling with Ramsey, Brandon, and Matt who I met within that last month in the largest city in KS, and we were able to throw this trip together. It certainly made us look busy during our last few weeks of 8 hour days in the cubes. Lets just say we turned our lemons into lemonade, and now we get the last laugh as we are enjoying the adventure of our lifetime. It is very hard to summarize in just an entry how this trip has panned out thus far. I'm going to do my best.

FLORIDA...
It all began April 22nd on a flight from STL to MIA. It was a feeling of liberation. Anytime the beach is in my view I turn into a little kid, and during our first night on South Beach, I began to realize that essentially during this trip, I am one. With no responsibilities, we do whatever we want, whenever we want... and I love it. Unfortunately the first night was a short one. We had the pleasure of romping down Ocean Drive with our fabulous packs (my lovely Craigslist find is referred to as the turtle shell) as we watched all of the luxury cars and well dressed Miami folk pass us by.

I was bogged down by an interview for Sikorsky Helicopters the next day, so we took a nice early morning drive to West Palm, and I had the pleasure of interviewing for a company that is not hiring. Don´t worry... I was told multiple times during the interview... "we would just love for you to work here, you are the first on our list, too bad we´re not hiring." Lovely. It was actually a fun experience though, and I got to meet up with Kyle, a college friend who is currently working there. It would be a great opportunity to get to work there, but somehow I get the impression that it is not going to happen...rats.

The next 36 hours were accomanied by:

ramen
"socializing" unsuccessfully
$5 footlongs
getting lost using public transportation
THE GSTRING LOVA on the beach, and many other topless ladies to accompany her
realizing just how heavy my turtle shell really is
slap happiness
the worst shower of my entire life
really bad sunburns
more slap happiness

and then we went to Ft. Lauderdale... for our first Couchsurfing Experience. It was actually a great one, and I would like to recommend "The French Connection" to anyone who might want a place to crash in the Ft. Lauderdale area. We stayed with 3 lovely French gentlemen who were very hospitable and happened to live a walk a way from the beach. We had some nice conversation and learned a bit about French culture. Apparently we need to eat a lot of stinky cheese when we get to France. However, I don´t think I´m going to like stinky cheese, so I´ll update everyone once I get the chance to try it. More summarization...

bad gelato from a place with "the best ice cream in FL"
even more slap happiness
singing on the beach (under a bridge)
eating sand
avoiding the sun at all cost
taking creeper pictures
matt finally arrived!
dinner with the Connelys, it was great to see them :), i hope they told my parents just how wonderful the guys are
making "french" toast for our french connection
and then... departing for the CRUISE!!!!

THE CRUISE...
9 day transantlantic cruise... $370
balcony upgrade... free
laughing hysterically at the dinner table the first night when we realized that we were all laid off and enjoying our first fine dining experience... priceless

We became instant cruise celebrities. Sometime between the sexy legs competition for the gentlemen (I´d like to congratulate Ramsey for that win), and giving Princess Pop Star a shot every night (Matt took that one, Ramsey and I gave it our best shot night after night and I can´t even begin to imagine how we did not make it... although no one watching could believe that we were truly 100% sober during these performances) people began to enquire about the laid off young kids on the ship. The average age was approximately 70, so we did stand out a bit. We also managed to make friends with every single bit of young blood on the ship. It was absolutely amazing. The cruise definitely calls for some summarization...

learned some new dance moves... tango, merengue, salsa, even some country line dancing
watched my young gentlemen reel in the older ladies
some swimming
a lot of eating (we got way more out of it than we paid for)
winning $20 on red
hitting up the skywalkers lounge night after night to bust some moves
falling asleep at shows
more eating
making connections
trying unfortunately unsuccessfuly to meet our yacht owner to take us around... although we did meet Alfred our billionaire friend
the AZORES... gorgeous... the pictures sum that trip up, they will be up shortly
trying to sleep on the balcony
"spritzing it up" in the perfume store approximately 7 times per day
and then... we arrived in LISBON...

LISBON, Portugal...
After our 10 days of gorging, we were not quite ready for our 5 euro daily food budget, and watching our Crown Princess depart Lisbon was a bit disheartening as we sat there hungry just 5 hours after stepping off the ship. As I said, we met great people aboard the Crown... and we continued our 2 day stay in Lisbon with them. Marcia and Desire (two ladies from San Diego, who were a blast by the way) offered us a stay on the floor of their Marriot hotel. Haha... all 6 of us, since we also picked up our fellow solo travelers Dave and Spencer along the way. Basically we walked a lot and learned that taxis are not a bad idea when you are traveling with a group. The first night was a blast as we somehow managed to hit 3 gay bars in a row (I´d like to thank our local friends that we met for finding them all for us, we would have never found them ourselves considering that you had to literally knock on the doors to get into them.. lets say they were a little sketch). We made our way back to the Marriot where somehow the 8 of us managed to strategically place ourselves across the floors and in the beds for a nice sleep until 1PM. How did that happen?? After a little more touring, and some fountain hopping... we were ready to board our night train to Madrid. Much to my surprise... they did NOT have bunk beds waiting for us. So... we drank our 4 bottles of 1 euro wine ate our cheese and bread, and enjoyed the train ride, as we tried our best to fall asleep. Yikes...

MADRID, Spain...
11 hours later we arrived. It was me, my 5 gentlemen (Dave and Spencer still with us) and no kind of plan. Walking off the train bright eyed and bushy tailed, we somehow made our way to CAT´s hostel and trucked around for the rest of the day. Let me say, I wish that I had done a bit more research, because I have not a clue what we saw all day. I do know that it looked pretty, and we wound up in a Church at one point. We also had our daily practice at being bums, as we found a few fields to lay in. I am still getting used to the fact that although people might look like they would speak English... they really don´t and you can´t just walk up to people and start talking... eventually I will learn, I´m sure. Anyways... last night was fairly uneventful, we tried out the hostel bar, and went to bed. The guys all left this morning. I would like to wish Dave and Spencer the best of luck as they go their own ways. As for Brandon, Matt and Ramsey, they all left for Morrocco, and I will be seeing them again on the 11th.

That leaves me sitting here in Madrid writing this EXTREMELY long post... sorry, I had a lot of catching up to do. The trip so far really has been lovely. I am so grateful for meeting Brandon, Ramsey, and Matt, and look forward to all of our adventures to come. They really do make up a fun group, and after all that has happened in the last 2 weeks, I know that we have a lot more ahead of us. But for just a few days, I am finally alone... and enjoying it. Now I really get to do WHATEVER I want... haha, and I just might start out with a siesta. I would like to say that I really do miss everyone back home, and wish that I had better access to communication. I hope all is well in the US and now that I finally got this first post out of the way, I plan to update much more often.

Adios.