Portugal

Madrid. But not to worry. We didn't stay there long. About an hr or two after we arrived, we jetsetted to...

Lisbon
Just so you know, this is my new favorite city. Even though we arrived at night and we didn't get to see much of the city that first night, I knew that I was going to like that city. I was...right of course. We had decided to try couch surfing on this trip, and it turned out to be a pretty good idea. Our first host, Luis, lived right smack in the middle of Lisbon. He was super cool and had the most interesting books on his coffee table. He's a journalist/surfer so I'm sure you can imagine some of the books you would find. Anyway, we met Luis and he took us to a look out point to see the city at night. Then we with him to a restaurant to celebrate his friend's birthday. At the restaurant, we got our first taste of Portuguese wine. It wasn't bad.

We went back to his house early (he had given us a key), and went to bed. The next morning, we woke up, say bye to our host, left, walked to the Ofama, Graca, and other historic sites in Lisbon. We returned to Luis', got our stuff, dropped our key, and headed to the...

Beach (or Cascais)
And this is why I enjoyed Portugal so much. The beach. The sun. The hostel in which we stayed. The view. Ridiculously awesome. E. and I seriously stayed in like a penthouse/mansion/home straight out of those home decorating magazines. The house was beautiful, spacious, clean, airy, and about a 10 min walk from the beach. The first day we got there, we chilled on the beach. Did the same the second day. It was pretty sweet. We don't have beaches in Soria. On the second day, we went to Sintra, a popular vacation spot of the old Portuguese kings.

Anyway, E wanted to do a bit more than chill on the beach, so we rented a scooter and explored the coast. The girl almost killed me thrice. Once, we crashed into a gate, the second time, almost into a bus, and the third time, we ran off the road. The coast is beautiful and I think I got some good shots. Unfortunately we only spent 2 days on the beach, but if we did have to go back at least it was to Lisbon.

Lisbon
So we went back to Lisbon. We had contacted our second host the night before and had arranged to meet him at 6:30pm at a certain bus stop. Since we arrived in Lisbon at 12ish or thereabouts and had a long wait ahead of us, we decided to drop our bags off at the train station and then go to a huge outdoor market. From the market we walked 10km to Belem. That was taxing especially because it was hot. When we got to Belem, we decided to screw sight seeing and turn right back around. By this time, it must have been 5:45. We couldn't find a bus to take us back to where we needed to go until around 6:20ish. We arrived at the station at 7:00. Our host was upset! Rightfully so.

But he kind of forgave us. He took us to a look out spot in the city, and we paid for his dinner. Then he took us out for drinks. And we paid for that too. But, he woke up at 5:30am to take us to the airport. So, in the end, I think we lucked out.