March 26th, 2008. Hi Friends and Family, ’Sorry that I haven’t updated this blog since, but being at home is not like being on holiday! Things to do, people to see, places to go. I mean, Berlin IS a funky town baby. Anyway, here we go….. Some of you already know that I like history and museums so today was going to be a cultural day. First, to the most important place of all - Castelo de Sao Jorge. What an impressive place. It’s a splendid castle perched on top of Lisbon’s highest hill and from which you can see over [View Full Entry]

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A Postcard from Madeira - April 2008 It’s now nearly nine months since we returned from our trip around North America, and the English winter has recently been getting to our bones - time for a short break to warmer climes to top up on a bit of sunshine. Why, then, Madeira you might ask? Well; for a start, we had heard about their cake and wine, but more to the point, we remembered my little brother, Michael, had once visited the island and told us how much he loved it. We thought we should check it out. You can’t get [View Full Entry]

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“A church made of bone!?” I exclaimed. “Yes, and tastefully done too,” came Ralph’s reply. The bus taking both of us from the city of Palmyra in Syria continued to rumble along the dusty, desert highway as visions of a bone church unfurled in my mind. I again questioned, “Human bone?” and the answer, though expected, was still a surprising “Yes”. I contemplated such a church, and thought that anything constructed of human bone would be confined to the realm of computer games, where these unholy places were always guarded by a great horned demon who pursued any foolhardy intruder relentlessly [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone! So this is sort of my fairwell blog to you all. I am in my last week of classes here in Spain and will leaving in two short weeks. I can´t believe how fast everything is going! I´m looking forward however to my month of traveling and visits. It should be a fantastic time and will have to tell you about it when I get back since I don´t have the time to really write in the next month. This past weekend I took my last trip with friends to Lagos Portugal. Our beach weekend was sadly full of [View Full Entry]

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It’s unfortunate we had only 12 hours in Lisbon. It’s definitely a city I could have spent a week in. We spent the morning searching for internet, getting our bearings on the city and eating delicious soup and spaghetti. In the afternoon, we headed to Castelo Sao Jorge which is a beautiful castle. I really have no idea of the history of the castle, which is a shame, but the building was very well kept and it overlooked much of the city. We spent a couple of hours walking the castle grounds, taking lots of pictures and enjoying our last day [View Full Entry]

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I am in Lisbon! We found an internet cafe first thing so I dont have anything to report about Portugal yet, but I thought Id upload some pictures from the last week! [View Full Entry]

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April 11, 2008 After getting ready this morning, Julie and I met Katie at the bridge and walked to where we would get on the bus to Portugal. For once in my life I stayed awake on the bus because I was too busy reading my book “Playing for Pizza” by John Grisham. A couple hours after we left, we arrived at the boat to take us to Ihla de Tavira, the island we would spend 5 hours at. We headed straight to the beach, after we changed, to work on our tans. When the sun was out, it was nice, [View Full Entry]

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April 12, 2008 We went to the free breakfast, and it was delish because there were peaches and pineapple and chocolate muffins! Then Julie, Katie, and I headed to the beach. The beaches in Portugal are gorgeous! There are cliffs and rocks all over. We found a place to lay and started to tan. I went for a couple walks because I was getting bored and wanted to see more of the beach. Around 3, after 4 ½ hours of sun, we headed in to shower. Then we went shopping in the stores off the main road. On our way back, [View Full Entry]

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April 13, 2008 We left leaving Portimao this morning, so it was breakfast and onto the bus for an hour until we arrived in Albufeira, an Arabic influenced town. We were given 5 hours here, so we headed to the beach. Now since we, especially me, were a little colored from the day of tanning before, we lathered up our sunscreen before laying out. We didn’t have much to do, so again walks happened. After awhile on the beach, I decided I needed to flip over, so the clothes went on so I wouldn’t get even more burned! Julie, Katie, and [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend I went with 4 of my friends to Portugal. First, we flew into Lisbon, the capital, and spent a night there. We stayed in this adorable little hostel right in the center of town. It had a room with internet, a room you could watch movies in, a room with beanbags and a stereo system that you could hook your own music up to, and a kitchen. We could use all these rooms whenever we wanted and for free. In the morning, they also served you free breakfast, which was amazing because you hardly find that at hostels. A [View Full Entry]

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