Portugal

I was originally going to write separate posts for every region of Portugal but I can't really be bothered doing that so I'll give a quick rundown of my whole week and a half or so in the country. The short version is that it's a really cool place. Being a little more off the tourist trail than say Barcelona means that you get a better quality of traveler there. It's cheap, really cheap. And the cities are really pretty. I'm pretty lazy with photos though and have like one shot from my whole time there, which I may or may not upload later.

I started my trip with a couple of nights in Lagos, in the south. I didn't know much about the place and was expecting a lazy beach town, but what I got was the most insanely full-bore party town I think I've ever been to. Some of the stories of degeneracy I heard there were pretty jaw dropping and don't really bear repeating on a public blog. I will however repeat them privately on request. Bit too crazy a place for me, but a spot to bear in mind if I ever feel like drinking myself to death.

Porto was quite a bit quieter, a very pretty city with a lot of nice architecture. We stayed at a great hotel and became pretty good friends with a couple of Slovenian girls who we met again in Lisbon (and I will probably meet one of them again in Croatia). Didn't accomplish anything too jaw dropping there though. On the last day Dane and I hired a car and drove out along the Douro, but had the misfortune to be given horrible advice by a girl in a tourist office who could barely speak English, which led to our wasting most of the day. On the way back into Porto we took a wrong turn and ended up in downtown Porto, which is one of those driving-nightmare European old towns, with a twisted jumble of streets, most of which are one way, with drivers who will cut you off given the slightest chance. Driving on the right in an unfamiliar manual car, I didn't enjoy this much, but we managed to get back to the car hire place just in time to return it and board a train to Lisbon.

Lisbon is a great city which I would recommend to anyone doing the Europe trail. There's a bit of something for everyone. A lot of great sightseeing to do, or so I'm told. I spent most of the days sleeping, having got home from bars at such hours of the day as 7am. The nightlife is excellent - the locals are friendly and, as I mentioned, the tourists are a cut above the type you get in places like Barcelona or Rome. While there's certainly Lagos-style degeneracy if you go looking for it, there are also classier clubs with an upmarket feel. I also managed to hook up with the first girl I uttered a word to in the first club we went to, and you have to love a city where that happens. Highlights also included hanging out with a couple of Australian guys who were complete womanizing, drug-taking, alcohol-swilling maniacs, but who also managed to be friendly, funny, intelligent guys, rather than jerks like most of that type are. Lowlights included Dane and I losing an absurd amount of money at poker in a 24 hour period. We were already up for the trip so neither of us are down too much but it wasn't much fun!

So that was Portugal... and today we flew back to Barcelona, where I am currently watching my laundry dry and stealing free wireless. We're staying only one night before getting the train down to Valencia. We have two nights in Valencia, but the first one will be spent at the Estadio di Madrigal in Villareal, watching Liverpool vs Villareal. That's if our tickets arrive safely at our Valencia hostel. Liverpool have just signed a new striker so we're hopeful we may get to see his debut game (edit: we just found out that he will indeed be playing his first game for Liverpool, so that's pretty cool).

Blog finally up to date!