Hello all!!!
Sorry for such a long delay in emails, we have been busy and I have been tired, and free internet is hard to get on because everyone always wants to use it!! This is going to be a LOONG one, so you may want to get a snack.
We are currently in Lisbon, Portugal, the last time I wrote to you all we were in our second to last day in Madrid. Our last day in Madrid we went to a Palace, it was cool, but a palace, is a palace, is a palace, so it was like most other palaces we have seen throughout Europe. But it did have this cool distillery place that the royal doctor used to use to concoct potions to cure people, it looked more like a witches brewery though, I am glad I live now and not then, it was a bit sketchy and unsanitary.
After the palace, we went to the Prado Museum, it had lots of art (yawn...) it pretty much sucked, but I did see a painting that I had seen in one of my classes, so it was cool to actually know what one was all about. All the rooms in the museum were themed to different kinds of paintings, and, I kid you not, there was a room full of disabled (mentally, physically, little people etc...) members of the royal family throughout history depicted in paintings, it was realllllly weird to see all the paintings, there was quite a lot of them, but a little discrimanitory to put them all together, lol!
After the amazingly exciting museum, we went to one of the most awesome parks I have ever seen. We spent a long time just laying and sitting around until it was time to trek back to the hostel to get to the airport. On the way to the airport we met an American guy studying abroad in Madrid, he was cool, but a little crazy.
We got to the airport fine, and boarded the crappiest plane EVER. It made weird sounds, it looked really old inside and while we were flying made weird sounds and we kept looking at eachother saying like that did NOT sound normal! But what can you expect, it was an Airbus. We made it out alive, and landed at the worlds smallest airport, Jerez, Spain. We exited the plane via stairs that came out of the back of the plane, and then took a bus to the one room airport. Since it was around 10 at night, we took a taxi to our hotel, yes HOTEL, we actually got to stay one night in a hotel, which was awesome. The taxi ride was the fastest ride we have ever had, he was seriously going like 100 mph, and to boot, it was his first day on the job! We thought he would either get us lost (he had to ask the other drivers where we needed to go) and drive up the bill, or get us killed, one of the two. Well, fortunately, neither of the above happened and we made it to our hotel, he even apoligized for going so fast! He was seriously gonig SO fast, he said another plane was coming, so he had to hurry. Why take your time and not put peoples lives in danger when you could make another 20 euros?
The hotel was awesome, we had our own room, own bathroom, towels and comfy pillows, blankets and bed. We ate the next day at an all you can eat buffet breakfast and gorged ourselves, it had delicious donuts, everything was soo good, but they didnt have pop and I was sad. After that we went up to our room to get ready as quickly as possible because we had to check out in 45 minutes or so, well when we got up to our room, we couldnt get back in. The key must have been deprogrammed or something, so we went down, had it reset, and went back up, but it STILL didnt work, time was getting shorter and shorter so we went back down again and this time he came up with a machine to get our room open, at this point we had like 20 min to shower and pack, so fortunately he gave us an extra half hour to check out.
After checking out, we made our way to the train station via taxi to head down to Cadiz to see Erin. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong train, but it worked out ok, the train we got on still went to Cadiz, we just had to sit gazing at the train station for awhile. We arrived in Cadiz and Erin picked us up, by picking us up, I mean walked down to get us, haha. Erin is Kristina and Is friend from school, who is studying abroad in Cadiz until December, we have known her since middle school. Since we didnt have a hostel booked, we were just going to go to the first hostel we saw to make a reservation, it sounded easy, but definitely was NOT. The first one we went to was booked, the second one we went to, was booked, the third one we went to, was booked. It was insanely hot and we have extremely heavy backpacks on our backs, this was not a fun adventure. We finally found a place called a pension, it was kind of like an apartment building with shared bathrooms. We went in and asked if he had any availability, he said yes, I tried to pay him, but first he was like, you dont want to take a look? And Im like sure...so we looked, and it had a bed and a place to put our crap, so it looked excellent, at this point, any place would have been good, so we were able to pay him and check in. It was a pretty nice room, but noisy because it was on the street and the walls were the thinnest I have ever seen.
We put our stuff down and the three of us decided to walk around the city. On the way out the door I fell down the steps. It is what I do best. Thankfully, the ankle I twisted on the way down was my good ankle, not my screwed up one or I would have been in a world of hurt, and unable to walk. My ankle was a little sore and I couldnt put much pressure on it, but after a day or so, I was able to walk it off. It was more embarrassing then anything, the owner and a guy working on the stairs was out there and watched it happen, and they were like flip flops, bad! I rarely have been wearing them here, and of course, one of the days I wear them, I fall on my ass down stairs.
We wandered through the city and shopped a bit and then parted ways with Erin because she had stuff to do with school. The two of us went to dinner and ate REAL Spanish food, we tried Paella! It was suprisingly good, we even ate squid! Which also was suprisingly good, or more like ok. But we ate it all! Afterwards, we went to have authentic churros, which were supriginsly, not good. That was dissapointing. They arent like Disneyland churros.
We met up with Erin later that night and walked around some more and then went to a bar with people from her school (most go to the UW) and just hung out for a bit, no craziness like Madrid.
The next morning we wandered around while Erin was in school and bought a lot of crap, I mean souveniers. We decided it would be a good idea to walk to where Erin lives in the insanely hot sun, we were trying to find a pay phone to call her, the first one ate my Euro (around 1.40 US), the second one wouldnt work, and the third was also broken!!! After about an hour, we finally found a working pay phone, then Erin didnt answer!!! We trekked on and called her once more, and thankfully, this time she answered and we met up with her and hung out at her house where she is staying. Her host mom gave us pop, it was soo good. After Erin had packed, we met up with her friend Stephanie, who was also going to Portugal with us. Erin rented a car and we all 4 set off for the Algarve, (Lagos) in Portugal, oh what an adventure that would be...
The drive to the Algarve (around 4 hours) went fine until we got off the highway. Erin was such a good driver, it was a stick, so we were of NO use to her!!! We got to the city our hostel was in (Lagos) but couldnt find our hostel to save our lives. We drove around and around, and by this point, it was dark, I had the idea for some of us to get in a taxi and for Erin to follow. I warned Erin that taxi drivers in Europe drive like they are on speed and she needed to drive like crazy to follow us, good thing I warned her. Kristina and I found a taxi, and I knocked on his window and motioned to see if we coudl get in, her turned around and threw up his arms like what do you want!! Then told us to get in. I gave him the address of our hostel, and he went GRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Seriously. I go, is it far? Because he was obviously upset, he replied, ARGHHHHHHHH!!!! And took off like a bat out of hell. Kristina and I just looked at eachother and were like, WTF? We kept looking back at Erin hoping she was able to follow us, this guy was driving INSANE, with a ton of pedestrians and streets that only fit one car, but are made for two. The guy got us to our hostel, we (think) we realized why he was so angry, our hostel was right around the corner practically, haha! He made 3 euros off of us. We thankfully got out alive, and he didnt eat us. Erin got out of the car freaking out, she said her life had flashed before her eyes and that he heart was beating so fast. But she was a superstar and got her and Stephanie and the car back in one piece, unscratched.
We checked into the hostel, and it was so nice!! Definitely (thanks Erin for teaching me to spell that word) the nicest hostel we have ever stayed in, they even gave us towels! Which was great for Kristina since hers was stolen. We walked around the town a bit, and got some dinner (Pizza) before heading back and going to bed.
We woke up in the morning early and went out on a grotto tour. The grottos and this area is SO amazingly beautiful. It is hard to explain how amazing it is, without seeing it, you will all have to see our pictures. The grottos are a mix between pirates of the caribean and the Little Mermaid. Our boat driver was an older man, and he stopped the boat and picked up a dead squid and posed with it for us! He was going to eat it for lunch, which is a little discgusto since it was dead and birds were eating it...
After our amazing grotto tour we laid out on the beach forever. The water was great, cold at first, but I stayed in forever. After the beach, we headed back to discover that...get ready...Kristinas towel was MISSING!!! Was it stolen? Or is she just really bad at keeping track of her towels? Who knows, it will always be a mystery.
The girls went out again later, and I took a nap. After the nap, they came back, and we went out to eat, and saw a bunch of puppies with their mom!! Some nasty lady was selling them though, they were so cute, but I felt bad for the mom because her mouth was in a muzzle..sad ) : We played with the puppeis for a bit though. We went out that night and I talked to an Australian guy from our hostel all night about politics, it was great! He knew all about American politics and what was going on with the presidential election. It was a multi hour Bush bashing session, fun, fun fun!! Kristina met a drunk ass Australian that thought all Americans were like South Park characters...interesting.
We found the mommy dog wandering around the city later, without her bum owners, no puppies and the muzzle still on her mouth ) : I went after her to try and get it off of her, everyone told me to stop, cuz she might bite me, but I could tell she was nice. If you dont know me, I am a HUGE animal advocate (hence the vegetarianism...) and HATE seeing animals in pain. She eventually found me again and hid under my skirt!! SADDDD!!! She could tell I like her. Erin and I took her muzzle off and she was SOO happy. She prob hadnt eaten or drank water all day because it had been on, she went off much happier and ate some leaves, also sad ) : but at least she could eat!! I could now sleep easier. The next day I found a help the dogs in the Algarve organizatino and donated some money to them. It made me feel a bit better, I hope she was ok, I would have brought her home had I lived in the US. My mom and dad really want a dog.
The next morning, Erin and Stephanie had to head back to Cadiz for school, so Kristina and I headed off to kayak through the grottos!! We were very excited. Kristina had never kayaked, and I did like 10 years ago. So, it was interesting. We were the only kayak with just girls, so we, of course, were the slowest by far. Water kept splashing up and running sunscreen into my eyes, and I wasnt wearing sunglasses..glasses..contacts, so I was half blind, half squinting while kayaking through the ocean and grottos. It was VERY VERY windy, and the waves were VERY high, the guide kept warning us that we might have to turn back, the waves were 2.5 meters high, and for kayaks, that is high. We turned back shortly after the guides kayak tipped over. If he tipped, we were screwed. Unfortunately, we didnt get to see the grottos by kayak, but fortunately it ended over two hours early because our arms were dead and we got our 25 euros back!!!!
We went back to the hostel, and I napped (again, I have a sleeping addiction) and later shopped some more and walked around the city. We like shopping, can you tell? Later, we went to an insanely cheap dinner, it was unlimited spghetti and garlic bread for only 4.75 euros!! If you paid 10 euros, you also got unlimited beer or wine for an hour. I opted for a sangria only (by the way, I have become obsessed with sangria, it is so good, it is like half wine, half juice, with a bunch of cut up fruit). Anyways, Kristina decided to go for the all you can drink wine in an hour. She drank 8 glasses of wine in an hour!!! Haha, she was funny after that!!We met some Canadians from Whistler at the place who had just been in Lisbon (our next stop) and said it was a hell hole, and f-d up, and that it was like Eastern Europe, we were like great, another Prague! But thought this time we would actually give it a try... We went back to the hostel and met some German guys later on the roof, and talked to them for awhile, again, about politics, it was great!! Those guys had just been in Lisbon, and loved it, so we had VERY conflicting reports from Lisbon.
The next day, we wandered around the city until our bus left for Lisbon, Portugal, where we are now. We got in and decided to take another taxi to our hostel. We have decided taxis are awesome, they get you right to where you need to be, you dont get lost or tired from walking! What a concept. Everything is cheap in Portugal, our taxi was only like 6 euros to our hostel a ways away from the bus station, so that was awesome. We checked in, and walked into our room to 3 girls smoking!! AHH!!! Grosso. They stopped, and were actually cool, they were from Eastern Europe. After checking in, we tried to find something to eat. Lisbon is a pretty cool city, but has really sketchy guys out at night. Lots of staring, and lots of calls. We had dinner ate a really really cheap pizza place, and were excited by the cheapness! Welll we shortly realized why it was so cheap, the pizza was NASTY!! THe first couple bites it was like, this is interesting, oh this is different, then oh, this is sick!!!! I dont know what it was, some weird ass cheese and no sauce and rotten bread. Sounds delicous, huh? Neither of us even came close to finishing, makes me sick just thinking about it. After that we went back and went to bed in the most comfotrable hostel beds, EVER! Big fluffy blankets.
We woke up (thats today, this morning) and Kristina woke me up saying, its 1 oclock! I was like holy crap, how did we sleep till 1?!?! We both go up and got in the shower. I was really suprised, we didnt set an alarm because we thought wed get up early because we went to bed at 11. Oh well. Oh, and the showers here SUCK, they are hand held! They have a whole shelf of shampoos and other stuff that people have left, and I grabbed some Dove shampoo since I have been using some head and shoulders some guy left in our room that is mint flavored since I ran out of shampoo, it was like washing your hair with toothpaste, so I opted for the Dove. To my suprise, it was conditioner, so I washed my hair with conditioner, and then conditioned it again with my conditioner, haha. After getting ready, I went downstairs, to write you all an email. First, I grabbed my cherry juice I had bought in Lagos from the fridge. I was very excited to see cherry juice, since I love it and it is almost impossible to find in the US, so I was looking forward to drinking it. I had my name written on it three times, in permanent marker. Some asshole OPENED it and DRANK it!!! I was PISSED. It wasnt all gone, so I drank the rest. GRRR. I was angry. Bad start. I hopped on the computer, and realized that it was actually 10 am, not 1 pm, so we had hurried for nothing!! I was writing this email for about half hour when some girls needed to quickly use the computer, I got off, but asked her to keep the email up, well her friend got on after her and didnt know that and closed out my freaking email. I was SO SO SO pissed off. I had spent half an hour writing this email and now it was gone!!! They were very apoligetic, but I was still angry. And some bitch drank my juice. Thats what you get for being nice, grr. We left after that.
We hopped on a double decker bus and went around Lisbon, a pretty cool city, but rather small and not a lot to do. One of the things wer were gonna do, go to the palace, we cannot do because it is only open Saturdays, boo! It was pretty chilly here, and FREEZING atop the bus in skirts. We found an open market, but it was all crap, so we didnt buy any of it, we have enough of our own. After that we had a gourmet dinner at McDonalds, its been a week or so since we ate there, it was a nice change...haha. After that we shopped some more, everything is SO cheap here! Its great.
I forgot to mention, I was brilliant and bought a purple ceramic POT in Lagos. It goes on the wall, and I am going to put dried flowers in it or something, but in case you didnt realize, pots are not very packable or portable. So it has been interstin getting that sucker around.
We came back to the hostel after shopping and I restarted this email, and almost an hour and a half later, I have just about finished, I know what a bright shiney part of your days these are, haha. You would have gotten one about 10 hours ago, had it not been closed out..grr. But on the plus side, the girls who closed it out bought and brought us a really good pastry while I was on here retyping this!!! I guess there are still nice people in this world!!!
Sorry for the loooong recap, it has been awhile! We live the day after tomorrow, sad. I get to come home to packing up my apartment and moving, AGAIN, and more LSAT stuff. But on the plus side, I changed my seat on my flight home so I have my own row, yay!
I will write more in a few days, see you all soon!
Love,
Kimberly
PS.
Ruth is missing. Ahhh!! I think Kristina has something to do with her dissapearnce. I will need someone to volunteer to make posters.
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