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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The Arabs named this part of Portugal ‘the Al-gharb’ (land of sunsets) but upon our arrival, it was difficult to see anything, much less a sunset! After the most drought-stricken summer on record, the heavens were wide open…just in time for our three- night stay. For much of the duration, the high winds whipped the branches of the palm trees from side to side, and the sky remained overcast (an unpalatable colour of grey and dirty dish water). The rain poured with a ferocity that was verging on the tropical. There were several thunderstorms, which caused electricity to momentarily cut out [View Full Entry]

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We´re leaving our beloved village in two days. The month has gone by so very quickly. We´ve discovered so much more about this area than we understood last year on our first visit. Our favorite discovery is the beach/cliff walks that paralell the sea. The sea has changed greatly on this visit. We´ve had a series of easterly winds and storms. So, we´ve seen our quiet wave action turn into pounding surf. We now know why the rocks are so eroded--and beatiful. We´ve spent less time visiting sites mentioned in guidebooks and more time at places local people have told us [View Full Entry]

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I had so much fun in Proenca-a Nova! Jose Santos (Ze) was the perfect host every traveller dreams of coming across. He and Catarina were fantastic finding me free accommodation, taking me to places and dinner parties, giving me tips on what to do in the area, etc. They were just great company. Even Miguel, the prodigy boy was very good (most of the time, hehe!) I would never imagine all that when I first said hello to a guy speaking Portuguese at El Chorro campsite! Proenca-a-Nova is a delightful town near Braganca. It is the centre of a county that [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 everything there [View Full Entry]

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We´ve just returned from a three-day bus tour that was great fun. The first day we drove to Seville, Spain for a few hours. What we saw of the city was beautiful: the Plaza of Spain, a beautiful building built for a 1929 Exposition; the old Jewish Quarters and St. Mary´s Cathedral. The latter is two-thirds of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that also includes a royal palace. We´ll be going back to Seville for a couple of days at the end of the month, so I can write more about it then. After Seville, the bus took us down to [View Full Entry]

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Porto Weekend Travelled out early morning Friday 15th February with Ryanair after getting 1p flights (£20 return after tax). Was supposed to stay in the Grande Hotel de Paris, but upon arriving was told that there were "problems" (and going by the fire alarms lights looking like a Xmas tree in the background, that would seem to be an understatement) and that they were going to have to move us to the Best Western Inca. Look up 1970s interior design in a dictionary, and there was a picture of the Inca, but it was comfortable enough with large rooms. Walked down [View Full Entry]

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We made two trips to Loule last week. The town is the largest in the interior of the Algarve (between the sea and the mountains) and is known as a great market town. Our first trip, however, was to go to their Carnaval! They have the largest carnival celebration in Portugal with a parade of 17 floats. The parade was around and around the same four long blocks in town where the street is separated by a wide plaza. All the floats had sound systems that were blaring Brazilian music and there was one Portuguese band that was playing as loudly [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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