Portugal!

Thursday, June 7: Left Bilbao to Vitoria .... Well we missed the 8:45 bus so we had to get on the 9:15 pm bus. James and Katie went with me. We arrived in Vitoria, got our train tickets to Lisboa then went and had a beer. We boarded the train.. and we got a sleeper car.. those things are great!!!! A few stops later, we had a new friend join us... he was Portuguese and spoke some Spanish.. Taught us how to say Off and On for the lights! But then we still didn’t know if he wanted them on or off! Oh well.. slept until about 10 am .. our train got in about 11am... then we went to the Hostel...

Friday, June 8: arrived at the Hostel and then went to a Chinese place to eat... got sweet and sour pork, fried rice, noodles with Three Delight!, spring rolls and scallops with garlic... all very good! So whats three delight? We were wondering the same thing. But it turns out it is shrimp, chicken and some beef... so good!!! Then we checked into the hostel... and then went to check out the city... All the streets are made of small black stones while the sidewalks are made of small white stones with black stones making designs . They also had all these little trees that were painted by people.. it was really neat to see all the different ones...


We went to the oceanarium, the castle and then ate dinner at a small cafe. The oceanairium was built for Expo 98... and it was very cool... the castle had great views of the city.
and great views within the castle...

For dinner we had cod, pizza and paella.. sharing it all. The paella had huge shrimp.. with eyeballs included! haha!.. that was interesting cleaning them! we then headed home....

Saturday, June 9: we woke up.. ate headed to the tower.. then we walked around some more and then went to the zoo.. we saw a dolphin show.. all in Portuguese! haha! very interesting.. and then they played YMCA in PORTUGESE!! After the zoo we went to a British bar.. Where they didn’t speak English! But we had a few drinks then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday, June 10: We woke up.. Then headed down to the main squares we found by a metro stop... we took a funicular (elevator) and got great views of the city and the castle .... the we headed to the train station and headed home around 4 pm.. we didnt get a sleeper train this time.. and should of. we had 2 big leather benches... trying to sleep- YEA! our train got in around 4:30 am...

Monday, June 11: Train got in around 4:30 am.. then had to wait at the bus station till 6am when we got our bus.. that we almost missed!!!! Got back to Bilbao about 7.. then went to class!!!! after that i went to the beach.. where i was supposed to take my siesta... but ended up just reading! oh well...

Tuesday, june 12: went to school.. and hung out.

Wednesday, June 13: didnt go to school--- slept through my alarms.. woke up at 2:30 pm!! i guess it was needed after my crazy weekend...

this weekend i am headed to a small town nearby called Durango with my teacher.. then to Barcelona for a few days, and then headed to Bologna on Monday to see my cousins Michael and Cinzia.. and kynan... then i go to Torino on the 25th-- and start my tour on the 26 for 3 or 4 days.. then my classes start!!

Sorry about my spelling! i cant figure out the spell check on here because it is all in spanish!!!
Miss you love you!