Hi everyone! We made it to Portugal! It was a very long flight and I didnt get as much sleep as I wanted to, but that is ok I had a power nap. Lisbon is a very crowded big city. There are a lot of different districts to see, some a little better then others! We arrived at our hotel too early to check in so we went right out and started seeing things. We went down to the Tagus river and walked around. We had lunch at a little cafe, we pretty much stuck to cheese and bread. The food [View Full Entry]

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Ericeira has once again turned it on for us. This spot is perhaps my favorite place in Europe. Mostly reef breaks it's shape and consistency are legendary and yesterday I saw it at 6 foot. A size the locals say is the minimum for them to go out.. or the more bravado of the locals. Ericeira has been good to me over the years and it didn't disappoint. It's got great food, friendly locals (unless you violate one of the rules of surfing!), cheap and has great waves. We have been here for a week and a half now and relaxed [View Full Entry]

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We NEARLY missed the bus to lisbon but luckily we made it, making a quick stop at the loo before we left. sitting on the bus, the mad came up and said we had tickets from lisbon to madrid.. but after looking at our (probably white faces) he let us on.. ha. we booked a little less known bus than most of the other ppl we met, but it was a pretty awesome bus! we got it half price to them too!! there was about 10 of us on the bus.. so we all got a couple of seats to ourselves, [View Full Entry]

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Our side trip to Portugal which was unplanned until we got into Barcelona, turned out to be a really great time. We found out about a music festival in Lisbon on the 10th,11th and 12th. Optimus Alive 08 with main attractions Rage Against the Machine, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Ben Harper, Amoung many others. I know those of you reading this who happen to be huge fans of RATM have to feel a little jealous of Micah and myself. This show was amazing. I heard that there were 50,000 people at the show that night. And it was better than [View Full Entry]

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How do you know when you're in the right place? That it's "ment to be"? I know by deja-vus. And I have a lot of those here. Again. But first let's start with the journey. Thursday, I think, was the most boring travel-day one can experience. Usually you'd meet people on the train, start a conversation, just for the sake of talking, perhaps even someone interesting. Nope, not me, na-ah! I took the 6h ride from Ljubljana to Vienna (had to change trains in Maribor a.k.a. my long forgotten home-town - how amusing!) at an unrationally early hour which left me [View Full Entry]

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We got into Lisbon just after day break and pulled up at a giant transport interchange building. I followed a fellow passenger in the direction of the main building. He seemed to have the same idea as me and went straight for the toilets. Unfortunately they were closed. Wouldn’t want the general public using them now would we. Had to search the entire expanse of the great featureless building. A guy in uniform directed me back where I came from and I found the WCs. Trouble was that only one cubicle had toilet paper and was being used. After a minute [View Full Entry]

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A new country but we're up to the same tricks. We didn't book a shore excursion so we decided to try it on our own again. After our ordeal in Casablanca, you would have thought we had learned our lesson. NOT!! This time we were somewhat more fortunate. Linda G negotiated us a limo with an English speaking driver. His name was Colada--like in Pina Colada and he had good command of the English language and knew his way around the city. I forget how much he charged us, but unlike our tour in Gilbraltar, we had to buy our admissions [View Full Entry]

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C'est confortablement assise dans une vraie villa dans les Vosges en France que je vous écris! Et oui notre découverte du Portugal terminée, nous sommes retournés sur Paris afin de terminer nos derniers préparatifs pour notre périple vers l'Est! Pascal est courageusement resté sur Paris pour affronter la bureaucratie chinoise pour faire faire nos visa ... BONNE NOUVELLE, NOUS AVONS NOS VISAS! (et c'était pas gagné, car avec les Jeux Olympiques, les relations entre la Chine et la France ne sont pas au beau fixe!). AUTRE GRANDE NOUVELLE: LES BILLETS DE TRAIN POUR LE TRANSSIBÉRIEN SONT EUX AUSSI ARRIVÉS, ça non [View Full Entry]

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Following our disasters in Madrid, Jay and I fled to Salamanca Thursday to get the earliest train to Lisbon. We thought an overnight train from Madrid would cost more, so we took the free ride to Salamanca, stayed in the train station -- after having the great fortune of replacing Pacman the Sacman -- and grabbed a 5 am train to Lisboa. The train was one of the shadiest shitboxes I have ever seen in my life. It was probably 40 years old and had the old-fashioned cabins with sliding doors. There were sleeper rooms, but that was definitely extra. We [View Full Entry]

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Lisbon Arrived here right on time at Noon on Thursday, May 22. Since we were not going to disembark until the next morning, we opted to take one last excursion and were glad we did because the weather which had been perfect for the entire trip, turned cold and rainy. The first stop was Queluz, the Summer Palace for Queen Mary I. It was a nice tour but nothing exceptional and typical of the palaces we have seen in the past. Next was the old town of Sintra which is in the National Park and is quite charming. They boast of [View Full Entry]

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