Portugal

Porto

          Two weekends ago (oops, I am behind on my blogging) I went to Portugal! I left early Friday morning and flew into Porto with a friend. We hopped on a metro/train and got off at downtown Porto. We spent a couple hours wandering around and taking pictures, it was fun but not very exciting to read about… we didn’t actually do much except explore. The pictures will help! We were able to find a restaurant open for lunch around 11:00 PM, we were starving. We both ordered from the tourist menu, 15€ for soup, bread, the main entrée, dessert, and half a bottle of wine. The wine was really good.
          After lunch we bought tickets for this… tram? I’m not sure what it’s really called but it’s kind of like a ski lift, it took us from the bottom to the top of a hill so we got an aerial view of Porto. After that we walked around more. So eventful, I know. After some more sightseeing we made our way to our hostel to drop off our bags (finally) and take a nap. It was a good nap. Upon my awakening, we set off again for some more walking! So much walking! We took the tram back down (we had two-way tickets) and while on the way we saw… something. I have no idea what was going on, it looked like a cult hazing or something. We heard chanting and below we saw all the people dressed in black suits with black cloaks and all these kids (or young adults, I guess, whatever) doing jumping jacks or something and chanting. I don’t think I want to know what they were doing.
          We got off the tram, avoided the cult, and found our way to the Ramos Pinto winery. For 5€ we got a museum visit, a cellar tour, and two glasses of wine to sample. It was pretty good wine! The place was cool too; they were one of the first businesses (wine businesses… I think, not businesses in general?) to have art for their goods, like marketing. Um, I’m totally doing a great job explaining this. I know. Anyway, the wine was good. We got to try a tawny and red wine. They had little booklets explaining each vintage; I’ll have to look it up to see what kinds we were actually given.
          After our wine tour, we walked some more. I think by this point we had seen all that was to see without paying. I was very tired. I bought some souvenirs (of course) and we went and had dinner. There was a cat at the restaurant and we became good friends. I fed it some tuna. Oops. Sorry I’m not sorry. After that we went back to the hostel to shower and get ready for bed. We went to bed early since we had a 5:45 train to catch in the morning.

Lisbon

          We made it to the train station on time! The train was about two and a half hours to Lisbon (the capital, by the way). So when we arrive, we go to our hostel there and drop off our bags, they had luggage storage, but we weren’t allowed to actually get our room until 3:00 that afternoon. So we wandered off and went downtown where again, we walked and walked. And walked some more. We ended up finding a small museum of Portuguese art and it was free! We spent about two hours there, it wasn’t very big. After that I was starving and getting cranky and I needed to eat ASAP. So thirty minutes later we found a place and had lunch. We ate near river/ocean in some square/plaza. While eating, they were setting up something in the square and more and more people were coming. When we finished eating, we walked around that area some and realized a demonstration was about to happen. Under our ISA contracts we are not allowed to participate, even accidentally, in things like this so we got the hell out of there. We climbed some stairs and hills to go see a castle and boy was it a hike. We get to the castle and… it’s closed. All that walking for nothing. So left, saw a nice cathedral, wandered some more and made our way back to our hostel. We had a nap and then decided what to do next.
          In Lisbon there is a statue, kind of like Mount Rushmore, people carved into rocks, of famous explorers. We walked around that area, taking pictures and just enjoying the view. It was starting to get dark though and then my camera died. So we had dinner! We found an Italian restaurant (whatever) where they were playing a football game (soccer, for you Americans) and my friend is a huge football fan so we obviously had to eat there. They had ice cream for me too! I deserved some after all that walking and hiking. I didn’t complain. Too much.
          After dinner we went back to our hostel. I know, we’re such bums, but we were tired. We got to sleep in a little, our train the next morning didn’t leave until 9:00! Sunday was a day of travel, we took the subway to the train station, took the train back to Porto, took the subway/train to the airport, and then a plane back to Madrid. Whew! I got home, had some lunch/dinner, took a nap and then did homework.
          This following weekend was a weekend of rest, I actually stayed in Madrid! I will write that blog post right now but post it later. So keep your eyes open!


¡Hasta luego!


P.S. YOU CAN LEAVE COMMENTS I WON’T BE MAD I WILL ACTUALLY BE HAPPY!

Geneva

          Hello again! This weekend we went to Geneva, Switzerland and wow, what an adventure. We left Friday afternoon and took a two hour flight to Geneva. We then made our way to our hostel which was actually in Voltaire, France, right on the border. It wasn't the greatest hostel/hotel in the world but it served its purpose. We wandered for a bit, trying to find somewhere to eat and then went to bed. We're so eventful. In the morning we took a bus to the train station in the middle of Geneva and had a small breakfast. After eating we found a map that had 12 locations on it that were touristy and worth visiting so basically we spent the whole day walking around Geneva with no particular plan. We saw some monuments, a cathedral, some art and fountains and more. We actually met a guy from Cleveland, Ohio and he walked with us too. He lives Lausanne, an hour-ish outside of Geneva, and studies/works.

Some pretty window flowers.

          So obviously Switzerland is famous for their chocolate so we stopped in several shops and bought some chocolate. I would've bought so much more but it was really expensive! Actually, everything there was really expensive. Around 3:00 we were all starving and trying to find a restaurant that was reasonably priced. Let me tell you guys, that was hard. We found one place but it was closing and we were getting desperate and cranky so we had to resort to McDonald's. I know. That was expensive too! Four pieces of chicken, french fries and a Coke for about $13. After eating we explored more, stopped at a little souvenir shop and went back to the train station to plan our next day.
          The next day was awesome, we bought train tickets to Montreaux and also tickets to visit Chateaux Chillon, a castle on Lake Geneva. We had a quick little breakfast again (I had an almond croissant and it was so good) and took an hour long train ride to Montreaux. It was chilly and cloudy at first but throughout the day it got warmer and the clouds dispersed. The weather was the same both days, both places. The locals said that walking from Montreaux to Chillon would take about 45 minutes. It took us longer; we had to stop for amazing picture opportunities every five feet! The walk was tiring and long but so worth it, the views were amazing! Chillon was pretty neat too, and cheap. Sort of. A train ticket from Geneva to Montreaux costs about 28 Swiss Francs. So two way equals 56. But we bought our Chillon tickets with our train tickets in a package and the totel was 55.40. Okay, whatever, works for me! We walked around Chillon for about two hours it seems and then made our way back to Montreaux, we needed to eat and catch our train back to Geneva. We arrived at the train station, grabbed our bags (we stored them in a locker at the station) and made our way to the airport with two and a half hours to spare.

Chillon

           This is where the story takes a turn for the worse, we get through security but our gate isn't posted yet so we go find a place to sit and get some free Wi-Fi. I had a little snack because my lunch wasn't filling enough. Having a small breakfast and walking for hours makes me hungry. So we're waiting for a flight info, we are supposed to depart at 8:55 and the ticker board said we would know where to go at 7:25. Something like that, I'm not sure if those are the exact times but you get the idea. So we wait, and wait, and wait. It's past the time the board said it would post info so we have to wait more. Alex, my roommate, mentions at this point that someone in our group posted on Facebook that it hailed in Madrid. We finally figure out that our plane has been delayed. Airport workers said that it was because there was no airspace. There was also a huge storm in Madrid so we have no idea what's going on.
          I think everyone on the Madrid flight ended up at the same place, all sitting together waiting for the gate to be posted. We met a group of American boys studying in Madrid while we were waiting and talked with them. Easyjet (that's who we flew) eventually gives us all a voucher for 15 Swiss Francs to buy food so we go buy some snacks for the long wait. Finally an airport worker tells us that our flight has been canceled. Now everyone is freaking out, the three of us have class in the morning and we can't miss it! We're tired, it's late, the airport is closing and we all just want to go home.
          So now we have two options, go to a hotel and wait for a morning flight (that's already fully booked) OR take a two hour bus ride to Lyon, France where an airplane will be waiting for us and fly to Madrid from there. Obviously we chose Lyon, we had to get home for class! So we arrive in Lyon around 1:30 in the morning and the plane hasn't even left Madrid yet. Sigh. So we wait, and wait some more. See a pattern forming? So much waiting... FINALLY the plane lands in Lyon around 4:30 in the morning so we finally get to leave at 5:00. We had a smooth flight (I think... I passed out for most of the flight) and landed in Madrid around 7:00AM. I have an 8:30 class on Mondays so I went straight from the airport to my university. I was ten minutes late and really upset about that. Easyjet gave us two more vouchers after landed, both for 4.80 Euros each, for a light refreshment. I didn't have time for that and they were only valid one day so that made me crankier. They told us that if we wanted to complain, to ask for a refund or whatever, we would have to go to the Ryanair desk and talk to them. WHAT!? We flew easyjet, why do we have to talk to Ryanair!? I didn't bother, class was more important to me.

Leaving this to go to class? Boo.

          Anyway, I went straight to school without showering, brushing me teeth, etc. I was a mess and I had my luggage with me. Here in Spain it's important to be on time for class so I was nervous that my teacher would be mad, I hadn't even gone to this class yet! Remember, I had issues with classes so even though this was day two of this class, it was my first time. Good news, she wasn't mad! That was a relief at least. More good news: I was NOT one of the people yelling at the airport staff in Lyon. A lot of people were pissed and yelling and I felt bad because they weren't even easyjet staff and they were just doing their job. I can understand being upset but I didn't have to energy to complain or get too upset. There wasn't much I could do except wait for the plane and try to get some sleep. But everyone handles their stress differently; I can't blame the people for yelling.
          It was such a relief to finally come home after school. I went straight to the bathroom and showered and rested until lunch, which was amazing… probably because I hadn't been eating well for the past 18 hours. Then I took a four hour nap and it was so refreshing, just what I needed.
          In conclusion, Geneva was so wonderful, flying home? Not so much. But at least I got a good story out of it! And now I have experience with canceled flights, so there's that too.
          I went to Portugal this weekend (Lisbon and Porto) so look forward to my next blog post about that!

¡Ciao!