Side note, photos are difficult to upload from hostels so this will just be txt, photos are on fbook or picasa albums.
June 30 – July 4
The flight from Philadelphia to Lisboa began with an extremely smelly, sketchy, and drunk Portugese or Latin American man sitting down in between myself at the window and a 20-something girl at the isle. I went from thinking I could talk a bit with her and have some extra elbow room from the empty seat, to realizing that she had been scared off to a new seat, and I was going to have to listen to this boracho grumble in broken English and shit-smelling breath.
Eventually I was able to convince him to move over to the girls now empty seat to get a buffer between us. Before I fell asleep for an uncomfortable two or three hour nap, I glanced out the window to see the second most interesting thing I have ever seen from a plane. We were over the atlantic somewhere and it was completely dark outside, and just as I was looking away, I saw a flash of light. Turns out we flew really close by and slightly above an intense lightning storm over the atlantic. This wasn’t like any storm ive seen before, the lightning was constant, with no more than like 3 seconds between strikes. The most interesting thing was a shooting star I saw from cruising altitude at night where it broke apart into several pieces.
Got into Lisbon, waited an hour and a half in a poorly ventilated line to get my passport stamped and then made my way into the city center and Rossio square. I was looking for some hostel to stay in, and all I knew was that at 87 Rue Agosta there was one called Traveller’s House that had good reviews. I managed to work my way through the crowds of people and fake hashish dealers to the hostel and met my first new friend in Europe while trying to check in. There was one bed left and we both needed one, but since she had been staying and I was already in transportation mode, I let her have the bed, but then lady luck smiled at me for the first time in a while and someone cancelled, so I got a bed anyway. Im pretty sure that of all the people I could have met first on the trip, I would have picked Karli. One of the more interesting and friendly people I’ve known, and according to another guy at the hostel, one of the most beautiful women he has seen on his trip. I don’t disagree.
As it turns out, traveller’s was rated like number one or number two at hostelworld.com for best hostel in the world, yes, the fucking WORLD, by people on these kinds of trips. Rightly so. The social atmosphere, the lounge style common areas, the breakfast, the accommodations, and the staff were above and beyond anything I ever expected out of hostel travel.
As an example, on the day that I arrived, I landed at 830 am, which for me was like 4:30 am I think. I had been up the whole previous day and only napped for a couple hours on the plane, and between the ridiculous customs line and the heat and the crowded bus, I was exhausted and fully wanted to get into a hostel and just pass out for most of the day. Instead, I checked in, put my stuff upstairs, and came back to the common room for some water, then met a bunch of really cool people that were hanging out down there, went to an amazing beach with a couple girls, had beers and dinner at the hostel, then the social event for the night was a wine tasting with local Portugese wines and some port. Then a bunch of the people were going to the bars, and blah blah blah I get home at 4 or 430 in the morning.
When I was at the beach, I swam in the Atlantic for the first time since I was un regazzo, and it was shockingly warm and pleasant. The waves were small and broke in about chest deep water so I did a little body surfing, super fun but I ended up ripping open my trunks right in the front : ) Also I didn’t have sunscreen till late, and ended up with probably the worst sunburn of my life on moth my shins. It seems fine now but was painful and really red.
The wine tasting was great, I had green wine for the first time, called green because it is made from young grapes. A bit carbonated, and fresh, it was pretty pleasant.
Must sleep now, more when I can, there is much to write about…
