Spring Break: Oporto, Portugal through Montpellier, Southern France...

Oporto, Portugal: March 27th 2009:

Friday morning was a busy one! Between running back and forth from the laundry room and getting my last minute stuff packed, I was already exhausted! I strapped on my over packed and over sized backpack and stood up. I looked in the mirror and could see my sleeping bag tied on the outside and my travel pillow hanging off the side strap. I looked like I was carrying my entire home on my back. I immediately knew that I packed way too much but decided to just go with it. Katie and I caught the 44 Bus down to New Street Station to catch an 8 minute train to Birmingham International to catch our flight to Oporto Portugal. At the airport we ended up meeting up with two kids from my SIE group, Nick VW and Claire. They were going to be on the same flight to Portugal.

Once in Oporto, after getting through costems, the four of us made it too the main part of the airport to find out how to get to the tram. After about 10 minutes of walking up and down the airport, we finally found the tram. Since Katie and I were couchsurfing, we got off two stops before Nick and Claire. It was dark by this time, so walking to the address given by our couchsurfer was a bit sketch but we found it fine. This was going to be our first couchsurfing experience and we were very fired up! People who have couchsurfed before told us that when you meet your couchsurfer, it’s like your ‘instant friends.’ That statement is one hundred percent true! Her name was Carmo and she was very nice. We got to her place around 8pm at night and she was in the middle of preparing food. We had a delicious meal and the best part, it was free! She told us stories and important cultural aspects of Portugal. She was very nice and hospitable. Our first experience with couchsurfing was a great one and it defiantly set the bar for the rest of our trip!

We weren’t the only couchsurfer’s surfing with Carmo, there was an older woman from Zurich there as well. She was weird to say the least. She wouldn’t stop talking and she snored very loud.

The next day, we headed to LISBON!

Lisboa, Portugal: March 28th 2009:

What a day! We woke up at 5:30am in Porto and got ready in a snap and headed towards the Metro towards the train station to catch the 6:52 IC train to Lisbon. Today was our first day using our Eurail so we had to get it authorized. 4 Euros later we on our 3 hour train to Lisboa, Portugal. I was exhausted from only sleeping 4 hours the night before so as soon as I was comfortable in my seat, I passed out. I slept for two straight hours before I woke up to the sun shining. I looked out the window to notice the most beautiful landscape and bright sun! The weather looked wonderful and it was finally starting to hit me where I was going. We were to get off at the S.A train station to meet Ana Pinho, who we met on couchsurfing. The train came to a stop at a major train station and everyone got off the train, therefore we did the same. My instructions from Ana stated that we were to meet at the subway entrance so we first walked there. It was a little after 10, the time we planned to meet, and she wasn’t there. We waited a few minutes before we decided to give her a call. Unfortunately our cell phones weren’t working properly so we paid 2 Euros to use the pay phone.

After some confusion and having the guy working at the coffee shop in the subway help us, we found out that we were at the wrong Lisboa train station. We were supposed to get off at the second stop but since we didn’t speak Portuguese, we didn’t get that memo so we were kind of stuck. Since Ana is great, she told us to wait there and she’ll come and get us. Finally after about 20 minutes, Ana was there and she was very sweet and understanding with our mistake. Our oversized backpacks are huge and so heavy that we got on the metro to get to her house so we could drop them off before exploring. We got to her lovely home near central Lisbon, dropped our luggage and freshened up a bit while she made us a wonderfully delicious lunch! It was a Russian Salad (potatoes, peas, carrots, and tuna), yummy bread and cheese, green salad, and cabbage soup. It was absolutely delicious and well needed. Since me and Katie hadn’t eaten since the night before, we pretty much shoveled the food in our mouths.

After lunch all three of us took off for Lisboa City Centre. We walked around for a few hours and saw some amazing sites. We stopped for legit Portugal coffee and some authentic Portugal cream cakes. We learned so much history and fascinating information about Lisboa that we would never have learned if we weren’t couchsurfing! Ana is an architect, so we knew the information she was giving us was pretty legit! She then took us to the proper train station so we could purchase our train tickets for the following night to Madrid and then we hopped on the Metro back to her place. She had a meeting at 5 for some work stuff and we decided we’d go back home with her so we could shower and rest up a little before meeting her at 8:30.
We were suppose to meet Ana at some shore in Lisboa, but Katie and I got turned around and ended up on the opposite side of town.

Since Ana is so nice, she told us to wait there and she’ll come find us. After Ana found us on the steps of some major government building, we went to Ana’s favorite local posh bar for a drink. She bought us some mulled wine and we chit chatted for a while before walking back to her place to rest up for a full day in Sintra! The other nice part about staying with Ana, was we got our own, nice bedroom!

Sintra, Portugal:

We got ready pretty fast and took off for a little bakery for some yummy breakfast and something to eat for lunch in Sintra. We spent 3.40 Euros for a 40 minute train ride from Lisboa to Sintra. Once in Sintra we paid 4.50 for a bus that takes us up the hill to the Palace and it was WAY worth it. It was an absolutely frightening ride up the steep, narrow roads. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to make it! We walked a little hike up the narrow road to the palace, but it wasn’t bad. Those stupid people who think it would be fun to hike up to the palaces….are dumb. We stayed at the palace for a few hours and it was absolutely beautiful and the coolest palace I have ever seen. We walked down through the garden to get back to the bus stop on the other side and that was a lot of fun as well. The huge garden of the palace was like an enchanted forest! After a full day at the Palace, Katie and I packed our bags and then her ‘friend’ brought us to the train station so we could catch our 22:30 train to Madrid.

Madrid, Spain:

At the train station, I went to almost every shop and café that was open to see if they had a plastic spoon or knife so I could use it to cut our cheese and spread our peanut butter but everyone was pretty rude or didn’t understand me because I walked away empty handed.

We boarded the ‘moving’ train and found that our seats were in the last coach. We were pissed. That night was horrible! Well at first it was okay because for some reason Katie and I couldn’t stop laughing about every little thing! But then, the people in the back of the coach we extremely loud ALL NIGHT and I was terribly uncomfortable. Since the seats we had were also facing two seats, we had very little leg room and it was very sucky! That night went by very slow and I thank God it’s over! Never again! I think we’ll buy sleeper’s next time….also, another thing that sucked was that our coach was the last one therefore it moved too much back and forth and was extremely hot for a little bit and then would get too cold.

When we finally arrived in Madrid, we were so anxious to get off the train I thought I was going to explode! I slept some, but Katie hardly slept, therefore making us both rather cranky. We first when to the toilets to put our eyes in and freshened up a bit. Then we walked over to the information desk to ask for the ‘left luggage’ area. The woman didn’t speak any English and was rather rude about it. Great, we’re off to a fabulous start. When we got to the luggage area, the man behind the desk kept yelling at us in Spanish and waving his arms….cool. Exhausted and sleep deprived, we exited the Madrid train station to go explore the city.

We were couch surfing that night, which was great, but that sucky part was that we weren’t meeting up with him till 11pm at night. It was about 10 in the morning, very cold, and rainy. Yay, just what we wanted when we decided to visit Spain. We walked around a bit and discovered that there were a few museums that would be good to see since it was such an icky day. Little did we now, all the public meusems and galleries are closed on Mondays. We found one, Renier, and got in on a student rate for 3 Euros and got too see Picaso’s Gurrinica! It was absolutely fantastic!
Then we decided we were pretty tired and it was still really early so we walked/ran over to the Starbucks across from the museum and got a 4 Euro coffee.

Katie and I have discovered that people in Spain are very forward and PDA with their affection towards there significant others and it’s very disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. We also found out that people pick/dig for
gold a LOT in Spain. We saw a total of 12 nose pickers with one eater. Sick.

After coffee we headed to the Biotanical Gardens and Katie found 4 kitties.

Barcelona, Spain: March 31st- April 2nd

We arrived in Barcelona at about 8pm and once off the train we made our way to the Metro to meet our couchsurfer for the night, Eli Gonzalez. She was very nice and sweet and she picked us up in her car outside the Metro station. She doesn’t live in Barcelona city, just outside and that was just fine with Katie and I. She had a very cute little house and again we had our own bedroom. Since we arrived late, we went straight to her house instead of exploring. After she showed us our room, Katie and I changed in our Pj’s and went into the kitchen to make a little snack before going to bed. Eli joined us and for the next hour or so we had a great conversation about Peanut Butter and how great couchsurfing is. Eli, like us, is very new with couchsurfing so she asked if it was okay that she brought us back to the metro early in the morning because she didn’t feel comfortable with leaving us the key. We had no problem with that, even though we were leaving at 7am, because we were just appreaciative to have a free place to stay.

The next morning we left Eli’s house at 7am sharp and made our 15 minute drive to the metro station she picked us up the night before. We went on separate lines because we were going to be catching a metro line to the train station to get our tickets for the next day’s train to Montpellier, Southern France. So we get to the train station that we were at the night before and ask for directions to the train station that our Eurail ticket works for. The man told us to catch the 8:10 train from this intercity line and we raced to catch it. When we got to the platform he told us, a train was just about to leave but it was 5 minutes past the time the train was set to leave…we jumped on any way. He told us that after three stops we’d be there….we’ll turns out the train we wanted did leave on time and this was a train that went to some random little towns an hour outside of Barcelona. To a very sketch area, yay. Katie and I were suppose to meet Ashley and Mindy for breakfast at 9am since they were also in town and at this point we knew that that wasn’t going to happen. We texted Ashley and said we call when we got back into town. After two hours on a train that we weren’t suppose to be on, we were finally at the right train station. We bought our tickets and headed to city centre to meet up with Ashley and Mindy.

We spent the day with Ashley, Mindy, Bradie, and Robbie. We checked out some cool sites and had a great day! It was a bit chilly, but still great.
The next morning, we were on our way to Montpellier, Southern France! Yay!

Montpellier, S. France: April 3, 2009

What a day! Last night we arrived in Montpellier at 1pm. We got off the train and it was pouring rain. Great. For some reason, when I put on my backpack, my straps disconnected from the bag and I didn’t know it. I was wondering why my backpack hurt so bad, turns out it was putting about 30 plus pounds of stress on my neck and shoulders…ouch. Anyway, we went outside to buy a tram ticket to her house but the stupid machine only takes coins which we found out AFTER we tried a credit card, debit card, AND cash…dang it. Finally Katie took a 5 Euro from me, because she doesn’t have any money due to her card being over drafted and she went up to a counter a bought a Pepsi so we could get some coins.

The tram was very nice, new, and clean and very easy to read. We were at the appropriate stop within minutes and exited ourselves into the pouring rain. Although we had umbrellas, they didn’t do justice. We had directions to get to our couchsurfing Lucy’s home, but we didn’t have a map. Katie tried to call her but again like Lisboa, we were having a lot of trouble. She got a hold of her but her phone doesn’t work very well and it was very hard to hear her so she tried to use my phone but for some reason it wasn’t working. Finally we found our way to Lucy’s flat! Soaked and tired. Lucy was very nice but she runs a small babysitting business in her home so we quickly and quietly, the kids were sleeping, got ready and went to walk around city centre. It was very nice because Montpellier is very small yet, charming. We had no itinerary and there are only a few things like the Opera house and the Arc that you need to see, otherwise it’s nice to just stroll around and pop into the shops. We chit chatted and munched on a yummy sugar crepes. Although it wasn’t the time we said we’d be home, we headed back early to go online and check email and just relax.

The afternoon was pleasant just chilling out and having nothing to do and not feeling bad about. Lucy made us some yummy beef and noodles with balsamic vinegar and we introduced her to peanut butter, and she was thrilled. Oh yeah, it was so precious, since we got back so early her babysitting kids haven’t left yet so we got to see them off and the one little girl gave me a cute little kiss! It was adorable! That night we went to bed at about 10:30pm. We turned on Hercules for the hundredth time, I took a Tylenol PM and we were out.

This morning we woke up at 8am to get ready for the day. It was really strange because in Lucy’s apartment, her toilet room is down the hall from the shower room. What I don’t understand is why in every country we have been to , they don’t put garbage cans in their toilet rooms? I mean what do they do when they have to throw away feminine hygiene products? Interesting to say the least. Anyway, the shower was going to be another interesting situation. She didn’t have a curtain and only fake ivy hung down in place of the shower curtain. Also, the shower didn’t have a hook, you had to wet your hair, set the shower head down on the ground, lather, and then pick up the shower head and rise, let’s just say my shower was a long process mixed with slipping and accidently spraying the entire room with shooting water.
By the time we showered and got ready for the day and had a quick bite to eat, homemade bread from Lucy, we made a few sandwiches and headed back to do some shopping in city centre again. Lucy walked with us to city centre with her babysitting kids and showed us the best place to go for a chocolate croissant and a espresso and the she went back home. We actually ended up going to a different place where we got to sit out in the sun and enjoy the scenery and listen to some music. Although they didn’t have our chocolate croissants, we did have pretty good espresso. We then decided that we’d better walk to the train station to book our reservation for our overnight train tonight. We grabbed a chocolate croissant on the way and we were at this point in a pretty merry mood.

After waiting in line for about 20 minutes it was finally our turn. Katie asked if she spoked English and she said ‘no’, great. Turns out all the Eurail tickets for the train we NEEDED were already booked and it was the same for the following day. Great. Now the thing is, is that we CANNOT have our plans changed because the previous night we booked a hostel for Rome and we didn’t want to lose that money and have our plans all mixed up. So we ended up having to buy 240 Euro tickets to get us to Milan today in order to catch our train to Piedmont. It’s absolutely ridiculous that Eurail doesn’t have a backup plan if their customers run into a problem like ours. For instance, shouldn’t we get discounted tickets or something like that? So we had to rush to Lucy’s place to get packed and back to the station to catch our 13:56 train. Well first we stopped at a fresh fruit stand and loaded up. Then we went to a grocery store and bought some banana juice and fresh bread, also two chocolate croissants. The line for the store took about 20 minutes so that put us in even more of a rush. We got to Lucy’s, explained ourselves and got to work to get everything situated. We said our goodbyes to Lucy and took a few pictures.

It was now 31 after and we had a little more than 20 minutes to make it to the train station. With our huge backpacks and food, we sort of ran to the tram stop. We made it just in time! The door closed part way on me and I kept going in and out not sure what to do and Katie just said to go in so we did. We made the tram just in time! We didn’t pay though; we just got on and found a place to stand and catch our breath. I was shaking on the tram and my heart was pounding. If we missed the train, we were fucked. When we got off the tram I raced into the station to find where to go and ended up ‘punching’ the wrong ticket. Shit. After much rushing and we made it on the train, although we got on the wrong coach. We ended up walking all the way from one end of the train to the next. Since there weren’t many tickets left, we had to buy first class tickets. Finally settled, we had some lunch and banana juice. We then switched trains at Lyon Part Dieu to get to Modane and then we’ll catch another train to Milan where we will be staying with Augusto, Katie’s father’s friend from high school. It’s going to be an interesting evening and I hope everything turns out okay.