the crucifiction of ronald mcdonald

Let's play some more catch-up, shall we? I'm also avoiding studying for exams, so lucky for all you story-listeners, I'm a procrastinator. The tale today will be about Portugal. I went to Portugal on Feb 19. I'm very sorry that I continue to suck royally at this blogging thing.

Anyway, our Portugal trip. We decided that we would take an overnight train to Portugal. We went through Renfe, which gave us much grief throughout the process, but whatever. We wanted to take a train, so we did, but only after our master plan. Most of us having difficulties sleeping on transportation decided to hit up the chups bar before our excursion so the alcohol could make us sleepy. Pretty sure it worked. Almost all of us slept- then again it was 3 am when we finally got on the train. I slept. Sorry that there isn't much more to tell of that ordeal.

We got there the next morning, grab the metro to where our hostel should be, go to check in. We can't, so we decide to drop off our bags and check out the ocean/river. It's right where they meet, so I say it's the ocean. We got distracted by a market with a bunch of cool handmade stuff. It was good times. It also became a frequented location for us during that week. This market was also very close to the water. By that time, it was pretty much downpouring and very, very windy. It was still very pretty.

 

first view of portugal

plaza and the view of the ocean

the plaza

the ocean!

So after our rainy adventure, we decided to head on back to the hostel to check in. The man working just laughed at us. We were still an hour early, because our watches were still on Spanish time. So yes, in case you were wondering, Portugal and Spain are NOT in the same time zone. So we had to go back out into the Portuguese streets to find something to do. Somehow we decided it would be a good idea to stay OUT in the rain (although there was an amazing market where I bought the coolest scarf ever) and basically turned into drowned rats before ducking into a restaurant for some much needed gofres (or waffles). It was also at this time when we did some tourist shopping before deciding that the weather was too disgusting and thought it best to go to the aquarium. We had to hop back on the metro (this thing became our best friend, I swear) to get there, and then we still had a ways to walk. It was fun, though. We got to see these cool fountains and just wander until we finally get to the aquarium, which really looks more like some floating science lab. It was built for the world fair when it was there however many years ago. I don't actually need to know this stuff.

Anyway, the aquarium. I really enjoyed it. Not only were there awesome mosaics outside, the inside was pretty amazing. The center was a huge open aquarium filled with a bunch of different kind of fish- like sharks! We kept coming back to this as we moved our way through the different oceans of the world. They had penguins and sea otters! They were absolutely adorable and probably my favorites. I got some videos of them playing in the water. As far as wildlife went, nothing was that out of the ordinary, but it was still a nice break from the gross weather. Also, never saw somewhere themed like that. You go from a room with giant fake glaciers to one filled with a humid mist.


We actually killed a LOT of time in the aquarium, but then after we wanted to go in these gondola/basket things that brought us along the coast. Let me clear this up first, I HATE BEING ENCASED OVER WATER! Yeah, that's like my biggest fear. Some of you may understand my hatred of bridges. It's really not bridges that I'm afraid of; it's being stuck in a car going over a bridge because that car can fall off into the water, I'll be trapped and I will drown and die! Okay, that's a little dramatic, but that was also my sentiment towards these stupid gondolas, and everyone thought it was hilarious to push this fear to the end. I mean, yes, the view was spectacular, but when fear is creeping in the corner like the most magnificent creep of all times, it kinda kills the full WOW factor. I survived it, though.

Once we were done with these shenanigans (including some ice cream buying and puppy playing), we finally got to check into our hostel. About damn time, right? Well, it didn't matter much because we wanted to go out and explore more. There was a castle in Portugal that we wanted to see during the day, and by this time it was night. Lemme explain something about old castles. They are on top of hills. I was sick of hills, so I was kinda not in the mood for going to see a castle at night when we couldn't even get inside. That being said, we split up and Emily Kurmis, Andrea, and I went down to the beach again and had a nice little chill time talking and walking through the (freezing ass cold) water. We waited forever for the adventurous crew to return before meandering our way back into the hostel to get organized for dinner making- YUM!

Steven was our trusty cook once again. I was the shopper helper along with someone else... like I can remember now. I guess that means I should be better with this? Probably. Anyway, we went to the grocery store. Wow... couldn't find like anything we really wanted. Also, in Portugal, not only is the time zone not the same as Spain, neither is the language! It was hard finding the food we needed, but eventually we got it down (and some personal little wine boxes) before we headed back to the hostel, but not without being offered pot like 5 bazillion times (okay... like three times). It was dinner time, then- naturally. The hostel was pretty bustling at that time because there was a dinner that they were putting on. That meant we had to wait for the kitchen, but it also meant we got to mingle and social drink a bit before Steven made our huge feast that we were unable to eat. We ended up pawning it off on some large group of drunkards that were from everywhere and silly. In general, the night was full of drunkards and silliness. We made friends from Brazil who tried to read our fortunes and teach us sassy things in Portuguese that I can't remember, but that's life. It was just a really fun night in general, though. The lounge felt more like a big international party, and it was really a shame that we were only there the one night.

The next morning was our Monastery/market day. We had breakfast in the hostel, which was nothing spectacular, before we made our way to the bus area. We stopped at the market again. There were just so many cool handmade things, plus some homeless man with the most adorable puppies on the face of the earth. We played with them; it couldn't be stopped. Then we got on our train/bus/whatever mode of transportation to the Monastery. We luckily got in for free (unlike the bus which was rather expensive). I really only liked the Monastery because it reminded me of Harry Potter, but do you really expect anything else from me at this point? Good. So when we were done wandering around the Monastery, we wanted to check out this market that we saw on the way over. It was like a giant farmers market. There were some cool things and dumb things as any market goes, but it was fun. I ended up lusting after this leather purse and splurged on it. Shoot me. Then it was time to leave, and Steven thinks he can run down to the coast really quickly. WRONG! We ended up waiting for him FOREVER and then it was pretty much rush central to get back to our hostel to get our stuff and back on the metro to get to the train station, and this is where the fun ensues.

So we get there, and we're looking for our train... we don't see it anywhere. We think... hmm, that's odd. It was. So we ask. We are then told that it leaves from Platform 1. Awesome. We go to Platform 1. Our nerves are high because Steven stopped to buy postcards and we're getting pretty close to the leaving time. We want to ask someone to calm said nerves. There is this nice older gentleman that takes a look at our ticket. He tells us it's not right. The train coming in isn't international. Commence major freakout session. We go tearing off down to ask someone. We say don't split up. What do we do? Split up. We are literally running everywhere, only to find out we WERE in the right spot. Our train was moved back a few minutes, and it was right all along. Life was fine and dandy, besides the fact we were convinced we almost missed our train. Something must always go wrong, though, right? Right. At least when we travel. So I decided to relax by reading pretty much the whole way home. It was perfect.