Czech Republic. Italy. Spain. Portugal. Croatia. Slovenia. Hungary. Poland. Austria. Germany. Greece. Thailand. Australia. Tanzania. Zanzibar. Malawi. Zambia. Zimbabwe. France. Monaco. Colombia. Cambodia. Vietnam. Laos. Myanmar. Cuba. Mexico City. New Zealand. Banff. Japan. Netherlands. Scotland. England. Chile. Iceland. Norway. Denmark. Covid-19. The journey continues..

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Ahh..Sevilla!

This morning, we left Salema at 6am for our 630am bus which brought us to Seville, Spain. I LOVE Spain- not a much as I loved Prague and Italy but compared to Portugal- LOVE IT! Once we got to Seville, I bought a phone card so we can call to find places to sleep. Poor Kel..she said..I need to sit down..I ignored it because I was focused on finding us a place to sleep LOL! In Seville is where I am putting my Spanish to use. It´s not the best but hey at least they understand what I am trying to get at =). I got lucky with the hostal situation. After minutes of frustation of trying to get the phone card to work, it finally did. I found a cute place for us..a hostal on this little street with a very cute dog! The 6 hour bus ride was worth it..Seville is beautiful and I am starting to feel my 100% again! Tonight, we plan to watch a Flamenco show and then we stay in Seville all day tomorrow before heading to Ronda!

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Ahh..Charming Sevilla!

Continuing from last night..

It´s about noon here and I just finished doing my laundry- Kelly is still there with her load so I am just hanging out waiting for her. It´s so HOT here in Sevilla. so last night, we saw a Flamenco show and it was pretty awesome! Woke up this morning, went to the train station to get our tickets to Ronda tomorrow but they didn´t have a morning train so we walked to the bus station instead and bought tickets there. We depart at 10am tomorrow morning for the white hill towns of Spain before going to the Costa Del Sol of Spain which are the beaches. People in Spain don´t sleep either but in a good way =). Seville is a cute city with a lot of character..traffic here is horrendous but hey I am not driving!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Salema- sleepy beach!

So last time, I left off at Lisbon. I think I had just woken up from a nap? So to continue from there..we went to see this church was that really hammered by this earthquake and instead of re-building it, they thought it was more romantic to leave it the way it is. It was beautiful and amazing to be in the structure of it but without the rooftop. It was built in the 1890´s. After the church..I um..went back and took another nap. I haven´t been feeling 100%..not sure it is was the flight or if I am finally reacting to all the meds I was on for my foot and then the hives I got right before the trip?? Our last night in Lisbon was..something. People in Lisbon don´t sleep. They just don´t. We fall asleep to men screaming at each other until 2am. That night, they stopped at 2am..just in time for the trash truck and then followed by the recycling truck. I thought..u´ve got to be kidding me?! Oh but that wasn´t the last of it..here comes street cleaning. Finally, at 3am..two hours of silence for some Zzzz. We had a 830am train to catch. We decided to head to Salema, the Algarve coast of Portugal because I just wanted to play on the beach. We first arrived in Lagos- didn´t like it one bit. It looked like Sausalito gone to hell- full of tourists, shops and never ending restaurants. We hopped on a taxi to Salema instead which was 20 min away.

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In Salema, we found a place to stay by my second try. Salema is just a plain sleepy beach town. It has one main road, one mini mart, two large restaurants, a handful of places to stay, many fishing boats and a nice pretty beach. Our first day there, we sun bathed and then had dinner followed by bedtime. Our second day there, we went to the bus station in Lagos to get bus tickets for today, went back to the hotel to take a nap then went and played on the beach for the rest of the day.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Arrival in Lisbon!

Hi guys,

Kel and I are here in Lisbon. It's monday afternoon and we just woke up from our nap! Our adventure started at SFO saturday. Our flight was delayed an hour which led us to be concerned about our connecting flight to Lisbon from London. The counter person was no help! she originally told us that we were re-booked on a flight that leaves Lisbon the next morning..long story short..we got back on track and didn´t waste a day no help from dumb and ditz- the counter person and her mgr. Our flight from SFO to London was pretty tough to take cause the plane was really stuffy and I found myself pretty close to hurling! Flight from London to Lisbon was a little easier to take..though rockier but more air circulating.

Portugal- Not nearly a tourist flood as Prague or Italy..it has its own charm

We arrived in Lisbon yesterday evening and took the bus to downtown to our pensione. We put our bags down and explored the downtown area. We hopped on a double decker bus for the night tour since neither of us were in a mood to look for street names on a map! After the tour, we had dinner and then headed back to the pensione for a good night´s sleep.

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Which brings me to today..its HOT here!! Our day started at 830am. We went to the ruined castle, hopped on a trolley around town, we had lunch and then we decided..we wanted a nap! We were both really tired..not sure if its from the plane ride or from our busy jobs that we left behind. We´re feeling much better now. We plan to visit this old church and explore the narrow narrow streets of Lisbon before walking the beach. Tomorrow, we either head to Evora or just skip the cities and head down south to the Algarve beaches before going into Spain. We´ll decide during dinner tonight. I guess thats the great thing about backpacking..a plan is never really a plan and we just go and do whatever we feel like doing =).

Portugal is a cute country. Not nearly a tourist flood as Prague or Italy..it has its own charm. But because its not as touristy, its a bit more tricky to get around. I find myself mixing up the Italian I learned during my trip last year with the Spanish I think I know..

Happy Monday everyone!