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July 19th 2006

Published: July 19th 2006

So yes, I'm in Portugal and this is how it happened. I left Tuesday early in the morning fully intending to go to Amboise and spend a day and then do an overnighter to Portugal. What I didn't expect was for the trains to be completely incompetant. After a hefty argument in French at the train station in Amboise, I managed to procure a ticket to St Pierre Station in the Loire. I wandered around aimlessly for a bit before my train. It made me want to return. From there I traveled to Irun, Spain which took a total of 6 hours.

Now the ride itself was nice. I read a lot (I'm still ingesting the Fountain Head) but there were two nightmare French children. One was going to be a complete heartbreaker when he got older and the other was a little butterball. They both had voices to burst the ears of any healthy human being. The poor young man sitting across from me kept covering his face with his book.

The mother hissed and pretended like she was doing something to quiet her children. She wasn't. When the heart breaker wannabe addressed me in French I said in English that I didn't speak French. There was NO WAY I was getting in the middle of that battle.

Finally, on hour five, the family left the train and the young man across the way and I met eyes and just burst out into laughter. Then, in a hodge podge of Frenglish (more French than English this time) we rehashed the horrid experience. Turned out the poor guy had been sitting beside them for an hour or two before I even boarded the train. Then we talked until he got off at Biaritz and we bid adieu.

I continued to read.

Then I had a question about the next train station since we had to cross the border in order to get to it. The woman spoke Spanish and French only so we ended up having over an hour of conversation in French. It wasn't quite natural for me, but I think I did rather manage well!! Then we got off at Irun and I heard some English speakers. Turns out they were heading in the same direction as I was so we all went to the cafe for a beer and some food. We rehashed the worldcup from our various perspectives as two of the guys smoked a cigarette and the other sent me furtive glances. Sometimes it's nice to be a lady. Hehe. Then another guy across the way heard us talking and joined in. We had a party for about an hour before our trains left and then it turns out they hadn't made reservations so they had to wait for a later train.

I entered my couchette (train where you sleep) alone and was horrified to find that three old men were in the 6 person room with me. I dashed out and found a young woman around my age and she spoke almost fluent English. Turns out she was half French half Portuguese and spoke Spanish as well. We ended up talking and she invided me into her room to hang until the old fogies went to sleep.

Now in THAT room there were 4 Swedish guys who spoke various levels of English and we all ended up talking. Then another American popped by and it turns out he was in my room so I felt a little better. Then a young Grecian walked in and we all bonded in the little room although we didn't quite all fit in there. The train conductor got annoyed at us but the other American and I promised we'd sleep in our own room. I took a few funny pictures and we had a blast until we all became tired and went to bed.

That was an adventure in and of itself. They had put the ladder up wrong so I ended up hoisting myself up to the top bunk by sheer muscle power and the room smelled so badly I almost gagged. An old fart was snoring and I resigned myself to no sleep. I got three hours.

So at 6 the train conductor woke us up to announce the border crossing into Portugal and Matt and I ended up staying awake cause the old folk were talking. We talked about where we were from in America and tried not to yawn. Finally our multilingual friend woke up and we talked before both she and Matt had to leave. I have their emails to send pictures and K.I.T.

Then I met some other Americans and we talked a while before the Grecian girl woke up. we changed cars and chatted while she smoked. Turns out she'd lived in Portugal for a month so she gave me pointers. We bonded a bit and when we got of the train we had an espresso together before we parted ways. It took me a bit of walking and one more short train ride to find my hostel, but I did it. It was decent. I changed clothes and washed my face because I wasn't allowed to shower until check in at 6.

I grabbed my backpack and set out to explore. I ate a croissant and discovered that my French is more useful than my English. Quite by accident I stumbled on an aquarium and decided to go in. WOW!! It was so amazingly cool!!! They had otters and penguins and dolphins and sharks and everywhere you walked there were ways to look inside or into different tanks. Needless to say I completely spent up my entire memory card taking pictures. The otters were the best.

After that I took this skyride type of thing and looked out over the ocean. My fear of heights kept me from enjoying the first part of the ride but the beauty of the ocean drew me out of that.

I headed back to the hostel, checked in and took a BLESSED shower. Like whoa. I can't believe how good it feels to be clean. I was in the same clothes for 2 days and for an upper middle class girl like me thats torture.

And that's about it. I have internet access, a bed, a closet and a charger. Now if only my father would pay the phone bill and I'd have my phone back too!!! Tonight around 10h30 I'll be meeting my buddy to hang and then tomorrow, more exploration of Lisbon.

Love you all!!! A plus!!!

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