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Now we are back in tourist mode! Had breakfast at the hostel and we may have taken some extra buns and meat for lunch. We decided to do a free walking tour, something we need to start doing in all major cities. The tours are run by an actual company (http://www.newlisbontours.com) but the guides only get paid by tips, and tourists are pretty generous from what we saw with tipping the guide. The tour was about 2.5 hours and we walked to many different places including the oldest bookstore in the world and the most expensive chapel in the world, Sao Roque. The guide Luis was awesome and explained a lot about the history of Lisbon, which John and I were not familiar with at all! After the tour we had our lunch by a harbor, then we walked around. We had a very Portuguese drink, Ginjinha, which is sour cherry liquor and sugar served in a chocolate small cup. It was actually a very tasty shot! Then we decided to wash it down with a beer which we bought at a corner store. We enjoyed the beer at a park with a great city view. After the beer we really had to go to the bathroom but this one bathroom in the train station you had to buy your 0.5€ ticket before you actually went inside. We thought that was kind of crazy (and we hate paying for toilets) so we walked 10 mins to the Mcdonalds. Then we went to the supermarket to buy food to make a delicious pasta with ground beef. And we even bought a basket of strawberries for 1.25€! I was very excited about that since there are not many places you can find strawberries that cheap! After dinner we went out to the barrio alto, the old district which is filled with bars, restaurants and clubs. Since it was still early in the night it was pretty quiet. We had a euro beer and wandered around the narrow streets. While it got dark we sat by the river with a great view of the 25 de Abril suspension bridge enjoying yet another beer.
Our mini vacation was over today and we had to go back to the life of a traveller. After one last sleep in, we enjoyed a couple cups of coffee and took our time eating breakfast. John returned the scooter at 9:30 am, unfortunately I never had the chance to try and drive it but that's probably for the better! We packed up all our stuff and went on one last walk on this beach. Such a beautiful place we had but it was time to move on. As much as I love traveling it can definitely be tiring and a bit stressful at times and this break was much needed. But I never thought not knowing where I was going to sleep the next night could be so exciting! The bus trip was about four hours and this bus had wifi so we kept ourselves entertained. We arrived at the hostel around 5:00pm and settled in a bit. We are staying in an eight bed dorm in this cute little hostel. As always after a day of traveling we were starving after checking in. So we decided to go have dinner at McDonalds. Yes, we caved and finally went for some American fast food, a burger was calling our names! This wasn't any original McDonald's meal, we were able to have a Portugal beer as the drink! I wanted to have a beer at a McDonalds since the last time I was in Europe and today I was able too! There wasn't a lot around us to sightsee at night so we hung out at the hostel all night and just relaxed, and read our books. Tough life we have eh? Lots of people kept checking in and the walls were very thin so we could hear everything the room next door were doing and the locks on the door were electronic and beeped when you opened it.
After breakfast we headed up to the rental place to pick up our scooter. We got our daypack ready and hopped on the scooter to go for a drive along the Algarve coast. Cruising around on a scooter reminded me of my teenage years in Germany but this time Ashleigh was my passenger! It was a bit windy and cloudy. Fortunately the scooter didn't go much faster than 50km/h, but it was a little chilly nonetheless. We first stopped at an old fortress overlooking the ocean atop a high cliff. The view was great! We drove past the town Sagres which we would explore later, to get to the very tip of Portugal, the most southwestern point of Europe - Cabo do St. Vincent. A beautiful lighthouse was built on the very edge of the cliffs, the last of Europe any ship would see on it's way out into the south Atlantic. By the lighthouse is a German owned sausage stand, selling the last bratwurst before America. Phillip, a friend from Germany, had told us about this unique place when we were in Morocco so it was a must see for us. We had a delicious sausage and were awarded with a certificate to prove it. The weather had improved and the sun was coming out so we drove towards Sagres and stopped at a small, secluded beach that was hidden below some cliffs. The beach was amazing, protected from the wind and we could enjoy our lunch and tan in the sun. We could have stayed there all day, but we had a few other beaches to visit, so we went on towards Sangris to check out the fortress from the outside only and to lay on another beach. This one was in a very modern and rich area. Fancy villas with tennis courts and pools dotted the area. The beach was quite nice with turquoise water. We relaxed for a bit and drove to our last stop, a small village Salema with a narrow beach. The road was leading up a steep hill before going down into the town. Our weak scooter didn't have the power to climb up the steep road, so I had to kick Ashleigh off and meet her at the top :). We went for a quick walk along the beach, before returning to Luz, our place for dinner. We made veggie pasta and Ashleigh ran to the store to pick up some beer. It was our last night here so we took it easy, played cards and ate half a tub of ice cream. It has been a great and needed vacation from our travels. Refreshed and energized we are ready to move on to the big cities!
Quick Links:
Morocco Trains: ONCF -http://www.oncf.ma/Pages/Accueil.aspx has comfortable second class seats, with some A/C as well as first class seats. Routes can be found on this map:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rail_network_in_Morocco.svg Morocco Buses: CTM, covers the entire country. Comfortable, A/C, cheaper than trains by a bit.http://www.ctm.ma/index.php/contact Supratours, another bus company in Morocco. Same site as ONCF. Other Tips for Morocco: Many tours such as desert trip or Mount Toubkal guides, can be booked online, however when buying them on the spot prices can be negotiated and should therefore be less :) Even some hostel prices listed on hostelworld can be haggled, so booking ahead might not always be the best way. Portugal Buses: EVA Has youth discounts. http://www.eva-bus.com Ridesharing: Popular routes include Lisbon - Madrid, Madrid - Barcelona.http://www.blablacar.com Air BnB: Great site for house and apartment rentals!https://www.airbnb.com Woke up to blue skies and the sun shining, perfect day for the beach regardless of the little gusts of wind! We made some bacon and eggs for breakfast and finally succeeded at making instant coffee after many failed attempts over the last few weeks. At 10am we headed for the beach, which might seem early, but the sun was hot! We found ourselves a nice spot on the sandy beach between two little rocks which somewhat barricaded the wind a bit. The ocean was a little bit too cold for a swim, but just putting our legs in was a good enough cool off. There were lots of British families on the beach so that gave us some entertainment. We relaxed, read books, tanned and soaked up all the warmth we could get before the wind picked up, at which point we decided to wander back to our place for lunch. With lunch we tried our homemade white sangria, which turned out great and it didn't take long for that pitcher to be done! We will make another one tonight for tomorrow! We sat on our porch in the afternoon and read our books. When it finally got to hot (no wind hitting us on the porch) we went for a stroll around the town and stopped at the supermarket to pick up the ingredients for the sangria and some treats for us. Once back at our place we played a few card games and did nothing, exactly what we wanted! For dinner we prepared chicken pasta with a chocolate pastry and had tea for dessert. This little break from constantly trying to figure out our next stop or just the hassle of packing and unpacking is perfect right about now. It is exactly what we needed before we start to burnout, plus my feet need a break from the city walking. As much as I have loved traveling so far and meeting new people it's great to feel at home for a couple days and not having to worry about a thing.
After a great nights sleep, no place to be until noon, we had time to relax! We had the hostel breakfast and enjoyed our coffee which we haven't been able to do for a while! Before we had to catch our 12:30pm bus to Lagos (Portugal, not the city in Nigeria ;) we walked around the town a bit more and took it easy at the hostel! The bus ride was about two hours to Lagos then another 30 minute bus ride to Luz a small town where we would be staying. We rented an apartment from AirBnB on the Algarve coast for four nights. We figured we needed a break from always being on the go, a vacation from traveling! The apartment is cute and small with all the necessities, an ocean view, and best of all its 200 meters from the beach! We bought some groceries and made our favorite dinner: Salsa chicken, mashed potatoes and a salad. A well balanced meal is exactly what we needed. After dinner we walked to the beach to catch the last little bit of the sunset. The wind decided to follow us here but hopefully it will ease off for the next few days!
The Chinese train was back again with a Russian one joining in last night. Not sure how people slept without earplugs with all that loud snoring! We were up at 6:15am, ate breakfast and walked to the bus station. The bus left for Faro at 7:30 am and arrived at 10:00am Portugal time (one hour behind). We headed straight for our hostel and left our bags there since check in wasn't until 3:00pm. Since it was a sunny day we wanted to find a beach, which was a 25 minute bus ride away. So we caught the bus and found our way. We found a spot on the nice sandy beach but didn't last long since the wind was crazy. There was a spot on the other side where some boats were parked and where the wind was not very strong. From there we could see the airport so we watched tons of planes land and take off over the two hours we were there. We caught the bus back to the hostel at 3:00pm. At this point we were able to actually go to our room and settle in and take a shower. I burned my face pretty bad a couple days ago (cold wind deceived me) and now I'm peeling and as John says I look like Jennifer Lopez transforming into white chicks the way the spots are peeling! But I don't think it's that bad! We ventured down to a supermarket to pick up some dinner and I bet you can guess what we ate.... Pizza and a side of this little like meat pie rolls which were actually quite good! Our hostel was putting on a BBQ with unlimited free white Sangria. At €15 euros each it was a little out of our price range for the day but we still hung out with the people and tried some delicious Sangria for free. Today was the first day we met Canadians not from Quebec which was sweet! It was definitely a youth hostel so we enjoyed that and got to hear about other peoples travels! After an early morning bus ride and a day at the beach we were both pretty wiped at night so we just laid low!
It's a good thing we have good ear plugs because last night we had a Chinese train in our room, aka a very loud snorer who was an Asian lady. We have been the first people up for breakfast in so many places and today it was even later for us, 8:30 am. The breakfast included was just cereal since they had no bread and shops didn't open until later. But cereal was a nice change. We made our lunches and headed out to explore. It was a really nice day, perfect 22 degrees! We first went to an old Catholic Church which like anywhere in Europe is extraordinary! Huge ceilings, so much detail and this church has Christopher Columbus tomb. However if the actual remains are in it is questionable. John quickly snuck in a picture before the security guard came by to stop the photos! We were hoping to go up the tower (an old mosque) but it was closed. After realizing this used be an Islamic city we were able to make the connection for all the small narrow streets and big centers just like a medina in Morocco! Across the street from the church was an Alcazar which we were hoping our ISIC youth cards would get us a $10 discount but they didn't work since it had to be actual student ID card. We didn't think it would be worth almost $30 to go in with the adult prices so we just walked around it. Then we went for a walk through the gardens and streets and sat by the river for our packed lunch. We bought four ice cream bars for dessert from the supermarket, two for a snack and two for dinner. There are a lot of places to see here, just wasn't worth our money to go in but we both felt we saw enough. Just walking the streets was good and exploring the area with somewhat getting lost was nothing new. We stopped by the bus station to check our timetables for our bus tomorrow to Faro. We wanted to go back to the hostel but we took the very long way back and saw a couple more things along the way back. After walking for almost six hours our legs were about ready to give up. We have been exploring different cities (and a country) for about six days straight so it's starting to get tiring! We arrived back at the hostel around 3ish and a half hour later headed back to the bus station to buy our tickets. And it's a good thing we went back and did some research because we were able to get a student discount, €3 off so about $5 each in savings. Then we went to the supermarket where we bought a prepackaged stir fry for dinner. Still a beautiful day so we went to the roof top terrace of our hostel, finished our beer while I suntanned and John worked on making some thread bracelets. We made our stir fry, which wasn't too bad and went for a walk to the river. Then we came back to the hostel rooftop and had our second ice cream bar! The sun was still beating down so we enjoyed it and relaxed all night. We are both happy we are leaving tomorrow, this is not
exactly our place. The hostel really isn't the greatest, realizing today that it's actually pretty dirty and they were spraying something on the walls that clearly can't be good for the lungs! But at least we got our moneys worth at this place since we spent so much time here! We always seem to meet someone and go for drinks whenever we have an early morning the next day. An American guy was staying in our room and at around 10pm he was going out to explore, so we decided we would drag along and show him the way around a bit. We got back around 11:30pm and went to bed right away. This morning we figured we would all treat ourselves to a sleep in. Waking up at nine, a first in a couple weeks, we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast. We had yogurt and cereal to mix it up for us since tomorrow we go back to hostel breakfasts which is most likely going to bread like everywhere! Since our bus to Seville didn't leave until 4pm we spent the morning exploring Tarifa. We walked down to the most southern point in Europe and this is where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea meet. We walked down the peninsula and spent a good hour there just hanging out on the rocks and walking around. Before we had lunch we went back to the hostel to get our 1.1L of beer and headed to the beach where we drank the rest and chatted. For lunch John and I wanted to get some Tapas so we went in search for some. We thought tapas were like an empanada of some sort but we found out quickly that it's just small snacks. We found this place that had 1€ tapas and we ordered a couple. When mine came with an anchovy and cheese on bread and John had a tiny octopus salad we figured it all out! Since that obviously didn't fill us up we went to the grocery store, bought some mini pizzas and ate those and plain pasta back at the hostel. We headed to the train station around 3:30pm after saying our goodbyes to Sarah! It was nice to meet and get to know her along the way! The bus ride was about three hours and a pretty decent ride through the countryside! We arrived in Seville around 7 pm and had to figure out how to get to the hostel. John asked the information desk and we headed for the city bus. About a half hour ride later we jumped off right down the street. The hostel was easy to find and had a 12 bed room available for two nights so we were set. I think I am used to sleeping with lots of sounds going on so it shouldn't be a problem! After dropping our stuff off we went for a walk to find some food for dinner. The food here is a little pricey so we resorted to having a Döner, one meal that we can never go wrong with! Since the food is pricey we stopped at the grocery store to buy some bread, meat, cheese and a cucumber for lunches for the next couple days. And well since we can drink again and for cheap we treated ourselves to a beer and some peanuts! We arrived back at the hostel and just hung out in the living room and drank the 1.1 L bottle of beer!
Today John, Sarah and I explored an entire country in seven hours! Originally we were going to get the 7:45 bus but when we saw the pouring rain outside we decided to push it back a bit until 8:15. We almost missed our connecting bus since we were all tired and out of it. We were sitting on the bus thinking it was just a quick stop when actually it was going back to Tarifa where we came from! Luckily these two ladies told us where it was going and we raced off pretty fast! We arrived just outside of Gibraltar two hours later and walked across the border, no stamps or anything, just a glance at out passports and off we went. The airport runway goes right through the road into the country and you have to walk across the runway before you get to the city. At first we just walked the city a bit, had a quick coffee in an English pub and looked in a few shops then decided to start our trek up the big rock that Gibraltar is famous for. John originally wanted to take the cable car up but I convinced him to hike it which was the best choice, since there wasn't a lot else to see. There are lots of streets and houses built into the rock and we took a small escalator (outside on the rocks) to bring us to the starting point. As we were walking up we realized we weren't going the right way when a construction man came running out of a worksite chased by a monkey and two other monkeys jumped in as well to chase the poor guy. John and Sarah kind of freaked out a bit but I just sat laughing at there reactions. John had a monkey jump on him two years ago when we were in Germany so he was a little hesitant the whole time. We headed downwards pretty fast and tried a different route. We came to the entrance of the Natural Reserve where we had to pay 1€ to walk further. There were some World War II caves you could check out but it was expensive so we just peaked in. The higher up we went the more the monkeys started popping up. Apparently these tailless monkeys are one of the healthiest since they only eat fruits and vegetables and only live in Gibraltar. They were very cute and didn't beg for food and really didn't pay attention to the humans which I liked. Tourism hasn't ruined it for them yet. To get to the top we had to climb a flight of stairs where monkeys had decided to hang out. Luckily we were able to sneak by with nothing more than a glance from them! The view from the top was so beautiful, you could see the Mediterranean Sea on one side, Atlantic Ocean on the other and we even got to see a plane come in for landing on one of the viewpoints! Once we started getting really hungry we started to head down. We thought we could have lunch at the top but with those sneaky monkeys we didn't want to risk our homemade salad that we were all craving! Going down was pretty hard on our feet since I think our toes were still recovering from our descent from Mount Toubkal! It was almost 4 pm by the time we made it all the way down so we did a little souvenir shopping and headed for the bus station. The first bus was there right away but our last one we had a twenty minute wait. It's hard to get used to these gaps in the day where everything is closed for their siesta time! It was a great day exploring and weather couldn't have been better! My Spanish is slowly coming back to me but after listening to German and French, I think Spanish is still lost somewhere in my head! I really like listening for the Spanish lisp, makes it tough to understand sometimes though! Again after a long sightseeing day we were craving a pizza and beer, a craving that comes very often for us! After dinner we just relaxed and figured out our plans for heading onwards to Seville tomorrow!
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November 2022
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