Apr 2006

So that last few days much has happenend and I am sorry I cannot update the page as much as I would like to, but for the most part we are busy moving all the time and the internet is harder to come by then you would expect. So surfing in Lagos was a great success. The first part of the day was spent shuttling around from beach to beach to find the best waves, we picked one of the worst days, either the waves were non existent or much too big. We had a really good group though, a bunch of young Germans and our teacher, crazy portugese Ricky. The best part was that 10 of us were crammed into a LandRover, a little stuffy. We got to our beach and did some warm ups and went straight into the water for our lessons. We went through a little storm which was fine since we were already drenched from head to toe. I would have to say that surfing is really fun and I know Josh had a total blast. What we practised most was just riding the waves which can be super tricky. I definitly had some very messy spills which can be a little terrifying and disorientating, but we caught on quite fast so I am happy to report we are both ok! I am also very happy to report that I stood up my first time! But not for very long becasue it was completly the wrong technique and knew I was going to get it from Ricky! Josh spent the rest of the lessons learning other things to do on the board since he was pro after not much time ( i could have too I just wanted to make him feel good, look out for my surfing videos coming soon) So as usual we asked for another nights stay at our pension and went to sleep. The next morning I went and collected more shells and then we went to the famous Zoo. It was a blast, we had a good time laughing at how funny animals are. I love Zoos from different parts of the world you really get to see some amazing creatures. The funny thing was out of the spectacular and beautiful animals we did see I picked my favorite animal and it happens to be the prarie dog. Oh my gosh we have the best pictures of how cute this thing is!! The two we saw had the fattest butts you have ever seen and they sit on it and just eat all day. We have really good pictures and that brings another thing up I am sorry I cant show more pictures however this site only lets me show about 10 a month, i am working on changing that. So we asked for another night because we love our little city so much. We know who all the town drunks and bums are, we have little town dogs that come to visit us and we know what every resturant is like. The next day we took a day trip to Sagres which is the most southwesternly point o Portugal and thats about it as we found out. What I found out about Portugal is that many people here "own" dogs but do not tend to feed them so like I said each city has its share of town dogs which are always sooo cute. In sagres I have a nice picture of five dogs just basking in the sun together, and dogs do not like oranges. So we went back into town and made our big plan of going to Seville, Spain. The week leading up to Easter is a huge deal for Spainards and we had seen a lonely planet video that said seville was where the main festvities were held so we wanted to be there. So the day started off on a bad note and was to continue going down hill from there. Josh left early to find out what time the bus would leave for Seville, so that we could leve early enough to enjoy some of the events that night in Seville. Two hours later he was back to let me know that no buses ran between countries on weekends and that we would have to take a train to Faro, and then another bus to Villa Real, and then a ferry to Alamonte, Spain, where we would catch a bus to Seville. Even with this much confusion of transportation it was much easier said then done. So we left and I chopped of a little of my pinky finger in the gate of our old elevator, I just added that in so you would know exactly how poopy our day was going to be. Oh and by the way we had made hotel reservations the night before because as I said this is a crazy we and all hotels were full and doubled up prices. Hostels were cost sometimes 70 Euros which is riduculous. So I checked this morning and they had been canceled due to some unknow reasons. So I quickly looked up what ever place I could find and booked it for much more.
We waited at our train station and met an american guy named steve travelling by himself. He was interesting to talk to because he was exactly what I had pictured josh and myself being like, a travel bum. He had been doing this for months already and did not come with many funds saved. He was surving off 15 US dollars or dahllers as he said. But he was the type happy to stay in abandoned huts with hay or the cliffs of the grottos in Lagos. So we caught our train to Lagos where we a couple hours to waste. We had a lunch which consisted of a chicken sandwhich which was pretty much the entire chicken with skin and feathers attatched yummy, so I threw it to the piegions. We got on our train again and headed to Villa Real. A couple hours later we arrived and then walked a coupole km to the ferry. About five minutes later we were in Spain again. Even though it was such a quick period I really enjoyed sunny, blue water, white sand, and palm trees Portugal. So we arrived in Alamonte, Spain just counting on the fact that there would be trains or buses waiting to take us to Seville. Our former pension owner was extremly helpful and let us know that buses would be running all night. So the three of us scavenged our way around town and finally found our way to the bus station. So here we were at the station at 7:30 pm ready to catch our 8pm bus. Now the crazy thing about crossing that five minite piece of water is that within that distance, time changes by one hour and not in our favor. So we were here to catch the last bus of the night and missed it by half an hour. Alamonte was small enough to not have a train station so we were SOL especially if you count our 80 euro a night hotel reservations. In this time along came two guys who did the same ferry thing so happy to be exactly on time to find out the were an hour behind. One was an italian and one a german who were both studying in Lisbon. So we bonded about our crappy timing over some beers and the football game in the bus station. We checked the times of the buses the next day and one would be leaving for Seville at 6:45 am. So it was then we decided that the best idea would be to stay up all night drinking and meet the bus bright and early. We began our adventure in the town square where many other people were doing the same. Josh and I had a few bottles of liquor with us, we had collected them over time so we mixed some really strong martinis which we shared between us five and just enjoyed the beautiful park, 8 hours to go... So we made our way around town and stopped by a few different bars. At one we watch the football game between Real Madrid unfortunalty David Beckham was not playing and some other team. As you known Europeans especially Spainsh are obsessed with the sport so it can be a very exciting event. I have to say it is one of the best sports to watch on tv. Between us five there were some interesting conversations about the differences between the places we live especailly when we told the Europeans the cars they drive are so teeny of course they think that ours are just gigantic. Like true spain many of the people did not start coming out until 12am and luckily for us the bars were open until 5:30am when the police had to come shut them down. We went and met some more travellers and went to another square which was sooo beautiful. The square was full of amazing tilework and surronded by palm trees which were full of birds. So at 6am it was time to get to our bus where we all passed out for the hour ride. When we got to Seville we had the daunting task of finding our hotel with no address. We were extremly low on energy so our movements and thought process was a bit slower than usual. To us this normally would have be an easy task, we would only have to find an internet cafe and then get our address. But it was Sunday, the worst/stupidest day in the world to travel most places including Spain espacailly the Sunday of the easter week. The reason I hadnt written down the address was because I was expecting Seville to be much smaller and though that we would be able to ask a cabbie and he would of course know where it was. So Seville has a population of over 700,000 so this was not as easy. Everything was closed for the day so we were out of luck and began walking to really no where but just started going because we were desperate. We went to a few places in the area and most wanted 85 euro and up per night which is about 120 CAD. This is something we probably should have went with but being a backpacker we thought there has to be something cheaper. Onwards we went and desperatly searching for an internet cafe where we already had 85 CAD a night reservations that were going through that day at 12pm even if we never found the place, by the way it was about 10am at this time. So we were tired and slow by had a ticking deadline fast approaching. We were a bit aways from the centre where we soon found ourselves. On the way we asked magazine stalls and resturants where to find the internet and some would point us in that direction where we would go and find closed cafes. During this time Josh and I had turned into bitter enemies because of course this was the other persons fault. So we split and headed in other directions to find something or anything!! I was close to tears when I found the city tourism building with a big sign FREE INTERNET. I went inside and shed some tears when they told me that the internet is always closed on the weekend and would make no exceptions, how do you close the internet??? Anyways so I met Josh and made him go inside because I was soo mad and he got a list of places where to stay. All hostels were full which was ok because per person they were charging as much as two could split on a hotel. Keep in mind all prices double if not triple during this wonderful weekend in Seville. The only good part about our journey was that we were in town centre and were there to witness a large parade into the main cathedral. So we kept walking and find more hotels where each one went up significantly 108E, 156E, and the one I liked the most 256Euros, oops I knew we didnt look like the others in that place! During this time we had a few elderly men take us to a place with "cheap" rooms. During these escapades we would follow the men for about 15 minutes through a maze of tiny streets where we would get to a not so nice hostel where beds not rooms were 70 Euros each, what a waste of time and the other was 90 Euro. At this point we had not had any water or food since late the night before so were pooped and gave in and went to the first hotel for 85 euros a night which wasnt too bad. Mean while reservations had gone through for our other hotel that we never would find. So went and had a nap as much as we could through the noise of the parades outside. I got up later around four had a shower and we went down to see the spectualar Eater parades, the entire reason I had wanted to come to Seville and the reason we were having such a hard time travelling in Seville. Their parades I am not clear on the symbolism but to sum it up men, women, and children walk barefoot through many streets of the city wearing black and white klu klu clan looking costumes. One has nothing to do with the other but once you see the pictures you will understand. At some points in the parade men wearing popeish looking garmets carry large candles and swinging insence in front of about 20 men hidden under the blanket of a large detailed float depicting Jesus and others. This is the time when all the population of Seville is out in the best clothes, I sure felt grubby that day. After a few hours we went back to the hotel and I slept again and later got up to go see some more parades. Seville as much as I hate it, is really gorgeous. Not like the other Spainish cities we have been to. Lots of modern olf buildings if that makes sense mixed with roads lined with very tall trees. The next day we left early morning to find a internet cafe which was only a street away and tried to find a place in Cadiz where we might be able to do more surfing. This was another smaller city on the tip of Spain and most importantly feet away from the water. We couldnt find anything because as Seville the rest of Spain is booked pretty solid. We decided on Santa Maria which was supposedly very close to Cadiz. Our hotel was gorgeous, it had a swimming pool almost the size of an olymic pool, with a tennis court, and a couple metres away from the beach. So we caught our bus from Seville and made our way. In Santa Maria we were dropped off at the station, or the side of a highway which it really was. As soon as we got off Josh realized he had left his favorite hoody on the bus Oh and by the way like the first reservations we had made for Seville the second ones hadent gone through so we never did pay for the other hotel we never found. So at this wonderful hotel in Santa Maria they had no record of my reservation, awesome. I went to an internet cafe grabbed the number and we checked in a bit later. So we lazed around that day and the next morning we wer off to Tarifa another home spot where we would stay for a few days. We were a bit ballsy and went without reservations because apparently many hostels are not on the internet. We had a short stop in Cadiz and it wasnt much anyways so we werent worried about missing it. We arrived in Tarifa later in the afternoon. The reason for our long stay in Tarifa is that it is on the very tip of the spainsh coast where we would make a few day trip to other places. Tarifa was a little piece of shopping heaven. If you have ever been to Banff it is like the tropical water sport opposite of Banff. The street was skate shop, skate shop, skate shop, cafe, skate shop, etc.. The city is very young and and full of surfers and hippies. And it has my favorite the small windy, maze of cobblestone streets. There are two parts of the city the new part and a walled in old city with the tiny cobblestone streets. So we searched for a bit and found only one place with room left, a plain old boring little room with two beds, sink, and a window, ahhh back to the basics. So this day we shopped a bit. The only reason we could shop is because I am sending home a huge box of stuff to lighten my load. Tarifa is a small city or town I not really sure, but it is a very popular area and somewhat has its own brand. You can buy tarifa cds and there are many many shops with Tarifa branded clothing, which I have a few things of. So that was it for our busy moving week.

So next day we ran our hearts out just so we could make a tiny trip into Sintra (about 45 minutes away) to see the Mordern Art mueseum which houses more PIcassos, Dahli, and other famous cats. This was also really good, but we were under a major time crunch so it was brief. We went back to Anas cottage collected our huge bags, ok I will admit I might have to send a few things home... then walked to the bus stop and boarded for our 4 hour ride to Lagos where paradise hopefully awaited us. We arrived at 11pm and walked to our next residence which was a nice surprise as it was more like a hotel. We have only been in these warmer parts for a little while but it began like we were chasing a dream of a perfect beach and the perfect city to accompany it. Madrid was much to large and no where near the water, Lisbon again to large and the beaches were to small and rocky, Cascasis was still much to crowded and too small of beaches, Sintra was nice but not near any beaches. However I am very happy to report that it is no longer a dream and the Josh and I have found our own little piece of heaven. Lagos is a town of about 45,000 small enough to walk easily to everything and large enough to cater to anyone of your needs and they have great shopping!! Not that I am spending any of my time doing that sort of stuff. The waterfront is palmclad beautifulness and we have 10 near beaches to chose from one being 6m long with whiteish sand and turqiose blue waters.

The first day we spent exploring but that didnt last long as we plunked down at the first beach we saw. There we spent a couple hours building sand castles and playing in the waves. The water is quite cold and the waves are strong enough to kick you over in a hurry. So after we went out for super, which reminds me that this backpacking thing is really not that hard to live off of. Josh and I were given a 100dollar a day budget, this was if we were going to the UK where it is more expensive. So far we have been living really well, we go out to eat every meal if we want and do what ever we feel like doing so no we are not the straving backpacker types, even though I feel like this is too easy and we must be doing something wrong. So we explored more around this beaut~iful town, oh sooo many cool shops it´s killing me. We picked up some liquor and made our own martinis and Josh had disgusting scotch. So that brings us to today. Today we got up later again and went and rented some antique mountain bikes rode to the grocery store, picked up breakfst and rode to the beach. I have this thing for ordering food from genuine portugese and spainsh resturants, although they do have english menus you tend to not get ~what you want added with lots of grease. So we went to the really long beach and ate our sandy breakfast. Before at beaches it was a major jackpot to pick up some fully entact shells but here they litter the beach as much a sand. Do you all know what you are getting for presents now???? We watched the surfers in the wild waves and relaxed. This is where we caught our beach dream. After we rode to the famous grottos and hiked all over and took amazing pictures. On the way back we stopped at another beach and then rode back to go to our new favorite place the Indian Tandoori Resturant for supper. Oh yes and another thing we signed up for surfing lessons early tommorrow morning. Must get some sleep and tell you hõw it goes.

Hi everyone, just wanted to do a quick check in and let you all know what Josh and I are up to right now. Tuesday we wrapped up our little stay in Madrid, as we are off to Portugal. Our flight home leaves from Madrid so we have four extra days at the end to enjoy in this city. We planned for Portugal to hopefully beach bum it for a couple of weeks, they are supposed to have the most amazing waters near the south coast as well as spain. So we went to the Prado muesuem and we saw lots and lots and lots of very old paintings by Goya and some other guys, good stuff maybe a little dry. After, we went to a huge park that Madrid has in the middle of the city and had a nap in the sun, do you see a pattern, we dont really do much these days After we went to our regular spot for some yummy sangria. Afterwards we picked up our large backpacks and went to the train station many hours early, you know just to be sure. At 10:45pm we boarded our train for a nine hour ride to Lisbon , Portugal. Josh and I had earlier planned how glorious our first class seats would be, now I would have to say I never want to exprience second class. Luckily I was sick with a bad cold so I took some pills and passed out for the journey and woke up in Lisbon, Portugal. It was about 8 something in the morning when we arrived with a bit of a cloudy sky but still the tempurature was quite warm. There we met a super cool austrailian guy named brett who was travelling by himself. We parted ways but hoped to see each other again. Previously the team (josh and I) had decided that we wanted to stay in really small towns to get away from tourists and really enjoy the life of the portugeseso we skipped through Lisbon on a train and went to Cascasis a smaller beach town. We went straight to our bed and breakfast where we found no one. Yes I was sick and dying and nobody was home!! An hour later our host came home to find us on the street, she didnt speak much english so we just went inside. Our b&b was more like a room inside their house but it was nice to have our own room for a while. I took a nap while Josh went and found the beach which was about 15-20 minute walk away. They say if there is one stop you have to make in Portugal it should be Sintra, a small tourist town with tiny streets, beautiful architecture, and castles! So the next morning we made our way to Sintra. I am not one to agree with stereotypes of people but what they say about Portugese drivers is sooo true! They are the most insane wild drivers you will ever come across, bus rides are now something we look much forward to. A little like a long rollar coaster ride. I mean the streets here are teeny tiny which the sharpest corners and yet they just cruise through like nothing. So we did the tourist thing and went to Sintra and it really was gorgeous. We went to all the castles which were amazing especially the gardens. We finished off our day with a trip up to the Moorish Castle which Josh was soo excited about. This trip begun with a wild ride õn the bus up to the top, these are roads that in Canada I know no one would be driving on yet here we go crusing up in the crazy bus and who do we see it is our austrailan friend brett walking up the hill. The moorish castle gave us a wonderful view of the portugese valley. We caught the bus home, this time it made me really close to losing my lunch. We went into Cascasis and had some white sangria which was still very very good and watched the sun set on the amazing beach.