I came so amazingly close to being overly comfortable full tonight. I now know I am able to control myself. For example, (and yes this is 100% true) a group of us tonight after dinner went to get gelato.. alright get ready... I didn't have any! I said nope I'm full from my steak "portugese style" (which is well-cooked steak with ham and a sunny side egg on top). Pretty damn delicious if I'll say. BUT no. A friend ordered a crepe with nutella and powdered sugar. I have rarely if ever been able to deny nutella, and friends pressuring of "oh do it already, you're on holiday" did not help. Apparently being on holdiay for the next 4 months means nothing. So now as a result I am stuck in the gap between uncomfortably full and the warm fuzzy feeling you get after Thanksgiving dinner. I am now entering my third dinner coma in europe (give you a hint: this will be our third night). I was so close to the warm fuzzies yet now I am dozing off while typing this. I guess it was never meant to be to make it out to the bars. Tomorrow night!
And now to get all of your blood circulating again I'll get to the exciting adventures of our day. We walked around the little streets of Lagos making our way to the beaches which were spectacular! We laid out for a while, I swam and then we ventured down the sand looking at the towering cliffs to our sides and saw a couple local kids standing up at the top of the cliff. We waited and waited and then finally... AHHHHH!
BOOM!
SPLASH!
I think I was in the water already heading to the cave before Edie could recommend the idea. So she of course had to come along. We swam out to the little cave in the side of the cliffs which had stairs that led up to the top of the cliffs. The boys up at the top were really very polite, "ladies first", motioning for us to make our jumps. After about 10 minutes of arguing who was to make the running start first, Edes made the first move and! Boom! Splash! All the boys made some sound effects that made me a little nervous but I knew edes would kill me if I was not swimming in the water next to her very shortly. I normally don't like losing my stomach which is why I've never been able to do the big six flags roller coasters.. but this was incredible. Now that we conquered the big cliff (we decided about the height of a 4-story building) we realized that cliff jumping is our new calling. So on our cliff hike tomorrow along the Algarve we are fully prepared to jump as many cliffs as possible. Of course after watching someone else go so we make sure we aren't jumping to our doom- like a little tester! Hopefully you hear from us tomorrow!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Something Sweet
Alrighty ladies and gents. Presenting.. Lisboa, Portugal!! Not quite spanish. Def not italian. And certainly not ingles. But the one and only Portugese (also spoken in Brazil.. so I guess not the one and only. But one of two). Lisbon must not be a pivotal stop for us Americans on our Euro travels because when they ask us where we are from (I mean I thought it was obvious with our sperrys, camera around my neck, and a blatant american accent as we try to decipher the portugese menus and street signs) and they are shocked when we say America. "America.. really?! Wow!" And one lady selling us post cards didn't even understand that, "Emerka?" "No. A-mer-i-ca...Estados Unidos?" "Ah, si, si. Woww". Really? Who doesn't know America?
Guess I should start with yesterday, since I was way too exhausted to type. Eders and I both collapsed in the bean bags which the hostel generously provided for us young student travelers. They must have not thought about the out-of-shape-Americans who would have difficulty getting out of the bean bags half an hour later after a full day of hiking the hilly streets of Lisbon. (Had a great skype sesh while on our bean bags.. shout out to the Guat.) We had hiked up to the Castilo de Jorge- translation= St. George's Castle. Really awesome views and definitely worth the hike up there. The little area, the Alfama, has the most amazing, views, food, wine, service. An absolutely fantastic dinner at The Chapito. We both started out with glasses of wine: a rose and a green wine! Yeah that's right. A green wine. It was pretty tasty.. similar to a champagne. I ordered the beef which was from South America (but a Portugese delicacy) while Edith had the most delicious duck I've ever had. And then we had a traditional Portugese dessert- translation in America: creme brulee with a softer consistency. I think I'll try the chocolate tarte next time I'm in Lisbon :)
Today. Well, today we had a brilliant idea. Simply brilliant. One word: vespa. What better way to see absolutely everything two college students looking through picture tourism maps pick out to jam into one days worth of traveling? Hello... a vespa! A little shaky at first. I mean I pretended to be a pro when the lady asked us if we were all set with running it "Psshh. Oh yeah, I know. We're fine." And then Edes saying "Well, yeah.. maybe you could give us a little reminder. You know, because every vespa's different". Nice catch Edes. We still broke down and had to push it back to the store to find out we weren't turning it on correctly. Overall, worked out great. I got pulled over by a van of four policia in a van (whom I thought were just waving at us.. but were really us yelling at us to pull over). Just checking to make sure I had a drivers license (apparently loads of people here drive without one). Check! Fooled all four of them as the gathered around us on the side of the highway. Would have made a great picture- 4 Portugese police standing around 2 American girls on a vespa. Unfortunately, that was not our only encounter with the policia de lisboa- just the most interaction with. Edes had accidentally drove into a bus lane only where the trolleys go. With the police blowing there whistles and yelling at us, Edie continued driving, only to cut one of the trolleys off. Needless to say we avoided driving down that street again.
I most likely should be sleeping. But I'm thinking the 9 desserts Edes and I just had is keeping me awake. After our Petiscos here at the house, we decided we both needed a little something sweet. Even on the vespa we still did a TON of walking, therefore we earned it. I'm not quite sure we earned all 9, but we were committed once we had the first 4. So it's going to be a close call Jill. If you had asked me 3 hours ago I would have said I would be coming home so skinny you wouldn't be able to recognize me.. but I think I'm leveling it off with the desserts. I of course want you to still be able to recognize me. So we journeyed out to the streets of Lisbon to go Bakery hopping. Yes that's right, bakery hopping. Like bar hopping, but much tastier. The gelado guy was by far the nicest. He started giving us samples, and then said "one more". So I asked "one more each? or one more total?" "Hmm. You can just try them all!" (I really liked him :) We then had to buy a cone since he went to all that hard work scooping out a sample of each one. No wonder Americans have such a fat ass reputation. We only solidified this fact tonight. Sorry everyone!
Lagos tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Guess I should start with yesterday, since I was way too exhausted to type. Eders and I both collapsed in the bean bags which the hostel generously provided for us young student travelers. They must have not thought about the out-of-shape-Americans who would have difficulty getting out of the bean bags half an hour later after a full day of hiking the hilly streets of Lisbon. (Had a great skype sesh while on our bean bags.. shout out to the Guat.) We had hiked up to the Castilo de Jorge- translation= St. George's Castle. Really awesome views and definitely worth the hike up there. The little area, the Alfama, has the most amazing, views, food, wine, service. An absolutely fantastic dinner at The Chapito. We both started out with glasses of wine: a rose and a green wine! Yeah that's right. A green wine. It was pretty tasty.. similar to a champagne. I ordered the beef which was from South America (but a Portugese delicacy) while Edith had the most delicious duck I've ever had. And then we had a traditional Portugese dessert- translation in America: creme brulee with a softer consistency. I think I'll try the chocolate tarte next time I'm in Lisbon :)
Today. Well, today we had a brilliant idea. Simply brilliant. One word: vespa. What better way to see absolutely everything two college students looking through picture tourism maps pick out to jam into one days worth of traveling? Hello... a vespa! A little shaky at first. I mean I pretended to be a pro when the lady asked us if we were all set with running it "Psshh. Oh yeah, I know. We're fine." And then Edes saying "Well, yeah.. maybe you could give us a little reminder. You know, because every vespa's different". Nice catch Edes. We still broke down and had to push it back to the store to find out we weren't turning it on correctly. Overall, worked out great. I got pulled over by a van of four policia in a van (whom I thought were just waving at us.. but were really us yelling at us to pull over). Just checking to make sure I had a drivers license (apparently loads of people here drive without one). Check! Fooled all four of them as the gathered around us on the side of the highway. Would have made a great picture- 4 Portugese police standing around 2 American girls on a vespa. Unfortunately, that was not our only encounter with the policia de lisboa- just the most interaction with. Edes had accidentally drove into a bus lane only where the trolleys go. With the police blowing there whistles and yelling at us, Edie continued driving, only to cut one of the trolleys off. Needless to say we avoided driving down that street again.
I most likely should be sleeping. But I'm thinking the 9 desserts Edes and I just had is keeping me awake. After our Petiscos here at the house, we decided we both needed a little something sweet. Even on the vespa we still did a TON of walking, therefore we earned it. I'm not quite sure we earned all 9, but we were committed once we had the first 4. So it's going to be a close call Jill. If you had asked me 3 hours ago I would have said I would be coming home so skinny you wouldn't be able to recognize me.. but I think I'm leveling it off with the desserts. I of course want you to still be able to recognize me. So we journeyed out to the streets of Lisbon to go Bakery hopping. Yes that's right, bakery hopping. Like bar hopping, but much tastier. The gelado guy was by far the nicest. He started giving us samples, and then said "one more". So I asked "one more each? or one more total?" "Hmm. You can just try them all!" (I really liked him :) We then had to buy a cone since he went to all that hard work scooping out a sample of each one. No wonder Americans have such a fat ass reputation. We only solidified this fact tonight. Sorry everyone!
Lagos tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Logggan
Well, it looks like I might make this flight. After hourly checks on the status of my flight I finally made it here to Logan! My flight is going to go one v. one with Irene, the only thing stopping me now is standby??Wait a second. I'm pretty sure I've had this flight booked since May 31st since the deadline was June 1st. Slightly confused why I am not guaranteed a seat on this flight. Didn't dare mention this to edes because she probs would have had a panic attack in the boarding line and been declared insane and kicked off the flight. I'm following the agents instructions (as my mother and nani would be thrilled to hear) and am sitting in the closest seat possible- yes, the designated handicapped area- to the gate so I can bombard the SwissAir agent when they get here in 24 minutes. Maybe I'll get upgraded to business?! If nothing else at least my luggage will make it! Hopefully see you in Lisbon eders! But if I don't make it.. be a dear and pick up my luggage please, my new jeweled sandals are in there. And I am not ready to part with them yet. Thanks eders!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Europe in 2 suitcases
Not one person in my household expressed nearly as much as enthusiasm as I was hoping for when I accomplished the impossible: packed for my european adventure in 2 suitcases- Of course, meeting the intercontinental flight requirements of ryanair which is 1 checked-bag under 20 kilos (44 pounds) and 1 carry-on under 10 kilos (20ish pounds). Not only did I MEET these requirements the uber cheap airline set, I exceeded these expectations and went 42 and 15 pounds! I originally planned to leave more than 7 pounds of extra space for things I buy over there.. but that would have been just an absurd reality.
So after the extensive hours of dealing with who I swear was a descendant of Mussolini to finally get my Visa, determining which outfits in my closet could not accompany me and my travels to Italia, and calming the nerves of my crazed travel buddy, Eders, I think I am finally going to make it to Europe! That is unless Irene has bigger plans for the metro area of Boston... Guess we'll find out on Saturday, huh Edes?
So after the extensive hours of dealing with who I swear was a descendant of Mussolini to finally get my Visa, determining which outfits in my closet could not accompany me and my travels to Italia, and calming the nerves of my crazed travel buddy, Eders, I think I am finally going to make it to Europe! That is unless Irene has bigger plans for the metro area of Boston... Guess we'll find out on Saturday, huh Edes?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)