Hi Friends and Family, Our breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs and 2 slices of toast served by the hostel staff and help-yourself tea, coffee, cocoa and juice. We were still hungry so we asked for another batch and the ladies were happy to oblige us. The plan today was to go to the "Bairro Alto", the "Baixa / Chiado" and the "Al Fama" areas. The "Baixa" is the 18th Century part of the lower town which is surrounded by hills and a network of cobbled streets. "Chiado" is Lisbon's most elegant shopping area and the "Alfama" is the oldest and [View Full Entry]

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Hi Friends and Family, As promised, I said that I would be travelling to Portugal and indeed, here I am! Yesterday was Easter Saturday and also the birthday of "The Small Young Gentleman". He had had his birthday party on Good Friday and Saturday was thus spent relaxing and doing something with my hair! By 7. p.m. I hadn't started packing not to talk of finishing it! By 10 p.m. I was done with everything including no longer wanting to go out for a few Easter drinks with my friends... I set my mobile to 4.a.m and woke up with a [View Full Entry]

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I finally went for the first time in Lisboa and discovered not only a great and magic city, but also wonderful and warm people. If you ask for your way, they will change their direction, even go into a shop to get the right direction and then explain you in either Portugese or English if they speak. The city is big, however you can walk quite a lot and the pedestrians ways are lovely with small stones. When you can see so many restaurants and coffee terraces that mean that the people really like good life !! Amazing prices too!! Imagine [View Full Entry]

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Had another great weekend this past week, just got home from Lisbon, Portugal. It was fun to get a chance to see another European country and a new culture as well. I went up with 6 other friends from my school; 2 Canadians, 1 Philipino, 1 Chilean and 2 Colombians. We left Salamanca Friday morning at 5:00 am and just barely made the train. As we got to the station the train was already there, but we didn't have any tickets yet. Some train station employee told us that it was fine, we could just buy tickets on the train. [View Full Entry]

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As much as I love La Mancha, it is always nice to get away. I spent the whole of January waiting excitedly to spend the next Puente in Lisbon and Porto. As usual it was the normal mad rush to Madrid and the the airport. I seem incapable of chilled travel. We had organised to couch surf too, and as it was my first time I was pretty nervous. Im not sure why, I had hosted without any difficulties, and looking back...there was nothing to be worried about. So we headed over to our host's neighbourhood. Reluctantly handed over our smallest [View Full Entry]

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We began our swing around Europe with what amounted to a week-end in the Portugese capital lisbon arriving Saturday morning around 10 a.m and departing 6 p.m on Sunday. We liked the jumble of brightly coloured buildings meandering up and down Lisbon's seven hills, and enjoyed the view's from the castle especially. Being mid February, Lisbon felt in semi-hibernation with most of the locals wearing several layers of clothes with scarfs and hats even though the temperature in the sun on Saturday was quite mild by UK standards By Saturday evening we had walked around and seen just about [View Full Entry]

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In case the refrence is lost on me when I read this again in 20 years, the trip is Lisbon and Sintra (kind of like Frank, except without the "a" and no connection to New Jersey). Both absolutely gorgeous towns with castles and lots and lots of hills. Lisbon = 'Frisco b/c of the large, orange suspension bridge, the hills and hilly streets, and the trolley cars. Both cities are also excellent ports with their respective oceans to their wests. Onto the trip... Friday 02/08/08: Took a half day of work and jetted off to Lisbon via Luton airport. Crappy airport. [View Full Entry]

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Yes, the two weeks I've spent in Lisbon have been quite diverse! I've met up with the Portuguese guys Pedro, Antonio and Marco, who I first met in El Chorro a couple of months ago and I've had a great time from climbing to kayaking, from exploring an underground gallery to doing a bit of sightseeing in Lisbon... Only Zé was missing, but he will certainly feature on my next blog. Pedro was a great host, providing me with lots of useful information and taking me to most of the climbing areas around Lisbon: Guia and Mexilhoeiro in Cascais, Fenda in [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday 5 February 2008 Over the rolling hills of Portugal we drove, around the southern coastline, past the popular seaside town of Faro, and up the western coastline towards Lisbon. We stopped at a service station along the way for the driver’s rest break. We weren’t excited by buying dinner from a diner with such a name (photo). It was quite late when we arrived in Lisbon so we caught a train from the bus station to the city and went straight to our hostel. Gladly, our hostel was very well located in the city so we only had to walk [View Full Entry]

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We've moved on to Italy but here are some of our last pictures in Lisbon. We had more and also a video but ran out of internet time to post them and now our internet site won't support or camera. We had a great time in Lisbon. It is an incredible city to just walk, explore, and get lost. When I was a boy my brothers and I would try to get ourselves lost on our Great-Uncle Louie's farm and timber land. When we were thoroughly lost we'd start trying to find our way back and always had adventures and discoveries [View Full Entry]

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