Day 9: Barcelona

In Barcelona we have pretty much rented one room of an apartment so we have the chance to cook a few things at home such as breakfast.  It's nice because you don't already have to start the morning by figuring out where to eat breakfast.  After getting up a bit later than we had hoped we made some scrambled eggs with ham and red peppers to eat as we got ready for the day.  Once again a really great way to travel! Our first stop was going to be the Sagrada Familia.  The last time I was here we didn't go inside and I kind of regretted that we didn't then, but knowing that I would return this was on the top of my "things to do in Barcelona" list.  Pecis and Kaija were ready for the adventure.  It was honestly all that I had hoped for it to be.  Truly beautiful from the inside and out.  Just breath taking. The church it's self is still being built, it has been trying to be built for the past 100+ years and they hope to finish it by 2025 I think if anything 2026 because then it would be I think 200 years since they either began or since Gaudi took over.  (will have to look into that). I was even still able to get in other my university student card which luckily has no dates on it, but if anything it's worth the wait in line and the entrance fee. We spent quit a bit of time here and afterwards came back to our room to relax and re-energize for the afternoon.  It's not that things close down around noon but it is Sunday and a few things were closed, but having the siesta in the middle of the day helps keep spirits and energy going.   After our siesta, we had found a walking tour in our Spain guide book and decided to do that.  This led us up and down and all around the old part of Barcelona, which was nice because it even brought us to places I had not seen.  And there continues to be a lot that I have not seen.  A lot of cute small stores and open areas filled with people.  We even got to see some really nice churches.  Honestly Lonely Planet travel books have some really good walking tours.  I do suggest getting their books when traveling anywhere. With grey clouds forming above and rain starting to fall we decided to head back to our room to wait out the rain before looking for dinner.  We decided to drink one of the wines that we had bought the other night to pass the time.   For dinner we decided because of the weather that we didn't want to go too far and would just see what the local restaurants in our area had to offer.  We found this one place that had an offer of 2 tapas and paella for a price that we liked so we decided to stay there and eat.  The food was good and the area was great for people watching because we ate right on the main street called La Rambalas.  Stuffed to the gills we headed back to our room to write post cards and finally to sleep. Another day well spent in Barcelona, gosh I love this city!

Day 8: Barcelona

Ugh sleeping on trains in seats is really not easy.  With little sleep we arrived in Madrid again only to transfer to the other train station to continue on to Barcelona.  This has been the part of the trip that I have most looked forward to.  The first time I visited Barcelona a year ago I fell in love with the city and knew that I would return again.  It was only about a 3 hour train ride where we once again tried to catch some zzzz's.  It's good to be back because I know where a lot of things are and how to get to them.  Also they have s real apple store here so I could get my phone fixed and that was the first thing on the agenda after taking showers. The good people of the apple store, a kind young guy with decent English, were able to help me with my phone just by giving me a new one.  Once again connected to the world via phone we headed back to the center to find something to eat.  I had thought that the harbor places we had eaten at a year ago were closer but apparently not and we ended up spending a little more than we had hoped to spend on food.  But it was good and the sangria was very delicious.  Tired from the long trip we headed back to our hostel and prepared for tomorrow's adventures . . . Sagrada Familia.

Day 7: Sintra

Today was our final day in Portugal and we had decided that we would take a day trip to Sintra, a city filled with castles.  We checked out of our hotel and went down to the main train station to drop off our things in a locker for the day.  We then boarded a train to go 45 minutes out of the city to a cute little city closer to the ocean.  We had picked out two different castles that we wanted to see.  One was on top of a mountain and the other I had found pictures of via Pinterest.  So we decided to start with the one on top of the hill called Pena. We decided that it would be enough for us to just walk around in the garden and through the woods to different view points instead of going into the castle.  While still in Kuwait I had hoped to have the chance to walk in the woods for bit and this fulfilled that want.  Being among so much green really felt.  The views were also really nice. After walking through the woods we headed to the second point of interest that we had chosen, the Quinta da Regaleira.  My interest here was based on a picture that I had found on pinterest of a spiraling staircase that went into the ground.  I didn't know that this was found here but after Kaija's boyfriend tried to describe it I was excited to visit it.  This is a place that pretty much could have come out of a fairy tale, towers that I am sure Rapunzel would have been locked up in.  Even my found pinterest picture lived up to what I had hoped it would be. After wandering through the woods and through the fairy world it wad time to head back to Lisbon to find something for dinner.  In the end Lisbon was a very nice city. Only thing is it has very slippery tiles for walk ways and this made me nervous as walking up and down the hills because I don't like to fall.  Not sure how the locals do it.  Tonight we are off on a night train again back to Madrid and then off to Barcelona.  My favorite city.

Day 6: Lisbon

After a good nights sleep we were ready to tackle the hills of Lisbon again.  At this hotel we had breakfast included so we made sure to get to that.  It was a basic breakfast of bread and slices of ham and cheese.  Yesterday we had spotted a castle on top of the hill so we made that our destination.   We had checked out on a map how to get there so that we would have some kind of a sense of where we were going.  As we climbed up, we first came to a monastery with a really great view of the entire city.  The church on top of this hill also was very nicely decorated on the inside.  And just a little farther we spotted the castle that we were aiming for. After sitting on a bench to rest our feet and take in the view we were ready to make our way to the castle on the next hill over.  It actually wasn't as far away as we thought and not has up and down hill as it looked.  With a small entrance fee we were given the chance to have views that stretched as far as the eyes could see.  Whether it was over the water front or across the city, the view was spectacular.  You could climb up to the top of the castle walls to get an even higher up view that let you see even farther into the distance.  We spent quite s bit of time here climbing up and down, in and out of every place that we could get into.  Just as we had finished exploring, Kaija sent us a message about meeting up for lunch so we began to head down to the central area to meet up with her and her boyfriend. We had a light lunch and then planned to go out to the end of one of the metro lines where you could apparently see sea turtles and also climb a tower that was named after Vasco de Gama.  Well we did quite a bit of walking but did not find any sea turtles which was too bad.  The tower was also under construction so that one we couldn't climb, but in the end it was nice to get out of the city and walk along the water front. We then headed back into the city to find somewhere to eat.  After wandering for a bit we found a street that had the food we wanted at the prices that we were looking for.  Being completely exhausted we each headed back to our hotels.  Tomorrow we were possibly planning on going out to Sintra to see some really cool castles.

Day 5: Lisbon

Traveling can really be draining.  This morning we got up really early to catch our train to Lisbon.  We had to get a taxi because the metro only starts to run at 6am and it wouldn't get us to the train station on time.  Thankfully the hotel understood what we wanted and at 6:00 we were on our way to the train station. It was only about a 3 hour train trip but still I didn't get any sleep and through that I would be fine.  After all I spend most of the year getting up super early to go to work so why should this situation be any different.  We met Kaija's boyfriend at the train station  and he helped us navigate through everything and helped us find our hotel.  We weren't able to get into our room because check in only starts at 2 but we left our bags and began to wander around the city.  And good gosh does this city have hills!  We walked all the day down to the water front and then slowly worked our way up to find something to eat.  With food in our stomach and sangria to wash it all down, we were all starting to feel a little better. The only weird part about the sangria was that it had these little pieces of anis in them which gave it a slight licorice taste but Kaija and I quickly fished those out of our glasses and disposed of them into the bushes. But this time it was past 2:00 and we would be able to get into our room, so we made our way to the metro to get back up to our hotel.  There was no way we were going to walk all the way back up those hills, even after eating.  We got into the room and slowly started to get cleaned up.  Even after being clean we were still tired and proceeded to have a siesta.   Later in the evening we headed out to wander a little more around our area.  We found a food store to get some snacks.  We got a recommendation from the hotel of where to go to eat so we also found that place.  It was hard at first because they didn't have a menu in English but the owner was very helpful and he translated everything for us.  Some of the words he had to look up but he was very forthcoming to help us.  And the food was amazing.  This place is known for it's authentic Portuguese food.  Very simple food but filled with flavors.  By the end of the meal we were stuffed and came back to the room to pass out because of all the food we ate and from the long day of travel.  Tomorrow we are ready for touring around Lisbon.

Day 4: Porto

For this morning we actually had an alarm set, maybe that was decided after I had fallen asleep but anyway it was good to get up a bit earlier.  We started the day with what we thought was a breakfast for us.  Ended up we were suppose to sign up for breakfast instead of just show up.  Oh the things that don't get explained when there isn't a common language among hotel workers and us.  Oh well.  Feeling a bit bad about the situation we decided to leave and started to head our for our walking tour beginning point. Our first stop was a church that we had spent some time yesterday sitting on the steps trying to figure out where we were.  Today we climbed into and up the tower for a view of the city.  It was a nice view.  Not the nicest of steps to climb but was worth the trip up.   Next the tour sent us wandering through different streets and looking at different points of interest.  Some very nice buildings and finally leading us over the bridge t the other side of the river.  Here we took a short break to sit and watch a man deal with a box filled with bees.  It almost seemed like he had taken his bees for a walk down to the river, something happened and he dropped the box, and now had to figure out what to do with them.  Of course this is not the true story but the one we created for him.   From here we moved on upward to a port winery called Taylor's where we would go on a tour and also have the chance to sample different types of port.  Being in Porto it was a logical adventure for us to go on.  We arrived early and decided to do the tasting before going on the tour.  We were introduced to 3 types of port: a white, fruity red and a cognac-tasting one.  By now of course I can only remember that the white is to be served cold and the other two reds can be served either lightly chilled or not chilled at all.  My favorite was the white one but the other two were also nice.  As we finished pour three small glasses the tour was  going to begin.  On the tour we got to see where the port is put to age and how the different vats look.  Interestingly enough for one certain port, the vats that are used are first used for making house wine, then they are used for port and finally can be made for making cognac.  Our tour guide was filled with information and it was interesting to hear about all the different types. After the tour we decided to try a mixed drink that contained one of the red ports, tonic water, ice and mint leaves.  It was quite nice.  We sat outside in the garden and enjoyed the warm sun with this mixed drink.  After finishing our drinks we proceeded back down the hill to the river to find something light to eat.  Not being very successful we decided to return to the food store to get some lunch and then back to our room to relax and eat for a bit. Later in the evening we headed back down to the river to eat dinner.  We found this nice place that looked like all their tables were reserved but as the waiter noticed that we were going to stay he took the reserved sign away and he seated us there.  After dinner we returned back to our room to enjoy some port that we had bought earlier in the day and this massive cookie we had found in Coimbra.  It was a nice way to finish off our days in Porto.   It's a nice city that I would come back to in the future.  Tomorrow we have an early train back to Lisbon.

Day 3: Porto

After a good night sleep we were ready to explore Porto.  With our maps in hand a book in our bag.  We headed out the door to first find something for breakfast.  Store owners here really dent have good English.  We had to do a lot of pointing and attempting to pronounce what is written on the menu.  After successfully getting some food we began our wander around the city.  The city of hill exploration continued.  Every where we went it was either and up or down climb but we did find a funicular to ride up with at one point which was a nice change to walking.  By late afternoon we were a bit tired and decide to visit our local food store for some snacks and then to head back to our room to relax for a bit. In the evening only my brother and I decided to go out to look for dinner.  We decided to stay decently close to our area but soon realized that little is far away. Though the problem is that dinner culture in this are of the world is to have dinner late which makes it hard for tourists.  As we wandered around looking, we started to notice that there were a few other groups of tourists also looking for a place eat.  In the end we gave in to a decently priced place and started the trend.  Dinner ended up being nothing special but filling.   We returned to our room to plan out our final day in Porto which would include a walking tour and a Wine tour.