I did have a good month though. Thanks to the British policy of giving their university students the whole month of April off for a "Spring Break" type thing (for a reason I am not completely aware of, although I think Easter has something to do with part of it), I was able to go on a month long excursion on which I took 3 plane rides, 8 train rides, spent 9 days on a cruise ship, 4 days in a car in the highlands, multiple taxi and public transportation rides and put countless miles on my Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville boat shoes. I think what I'll do is break up what I did over the last month into several smaller posts, which I will try to do daily. I'll probably do a city or two each day, unless I am not really doing anything else, in which case I might end up doing some huge post. But I feel that would be less than enjoyable for everyone.
If there is anything that anyone wants more detail or information on, feel free to post a comment or email me at dgove89@gmail.com and I will either include it in my next post or email you back.
I also got a haircut!
I left on April 2nd from the Student Village in Swansea around 4 am via taxi with my three travelling companions: Alex, Josie and Kyle. Our taxi driver's name was Ali and he was a very nice man of middle eastern descent and he was going to LA to attend a wedding the next week. We talked about how cool America is. However, we got to the train station far too early and ended up having to wait outside for it to open for about a half hour. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful considering it consisted of a train ride to London that everyone slept on (I even drooled a bit and made a puddle on the table under my head); a long wait in the London airport where I bought a deck of cards, played solitaire while everyone slept and then lost the deck of cards before we got on the plane; and a flight from London to Lisbon, Portugal.
When we arrived in Lisbon, we didn't really know what to do. It was latish (the state of being fairly late, yes its a real word according to the internet) and our bus that we were supposed to take had stopped running.... so we jumped on a random one that we hoped would bring us into town, and we got very, very lucky. While my friend Kyle and I were talking a native Lisbonian overheard us and asked us, in English, if we needed help. His name was Bruno. He ended up not only telling us where to get off the bus, but walking us to our hostel, telling us the best places to visit, the best beer to drink, the best local food to eat and the best coffee in the area. What a guy! We tried to pay him and even offer to buy him a drink but he declined. I was very impressed, and I already liked Lisbon. Over the next day and a half we walked around Lisbon seeing a lot of awesome things including the Tower of Belem, the Castelo de Sao Jorge, Rosio Square, a bunch of Portuguese soccer (futbol) hooligans chanting in a metro station, and Sid Vicious' jacket at the Hard Rock Cafe (we didn't actually eat there, I wouldn't, but we had time to kill after drinking a Delta coffee- the best kind- and Kyle and I decided to look around inside because we heard they had a Cadillac on the ceiling... they did). After that it was time for the 4 of us to head to the marina, where we would be getting on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, "The Splendour of the Seas," which would be our home for the next eight nights.
As I said before, I really liked Lisbon a lot. The city itself gave me a similar feeling that Valencia did when I was in Spain so I was comfortable instantly. It was a coastal city with a lot of beautiful architecture and a rich cultural history. The people were friendly and you could buy great seafood at almost any place you went to eat and get a nice cold pint of beer while you were at it. There were little cafes with outdoor seating and shops where you could find almost anything you wanted lining every street . And, if you couldn't find what you wanted in the shops, the guys standing on the street corners wearing suits were almost certain to have what you were looking for (I can't tell you how many times I was offered weed, coke, opium, meth or pretty much any other drug by just random people on the street in that city, but no worries, I didn't buy anything and they were still nice when you declined). The same guys also sold roses at night and sunglasses during the day. My friend Kyle, bought a pair of those sunglasses, and it was very funny. He bartered the guy down from 25 euro to 5 euro saying he didn't have any money, and then tried to pay him with a 20 asking if he had change. It was probably the funniest 20 minute bartering sequence of my life and the man only had 14 euro in change, so Kyle had to pay 6 for the glasses. The Scottish couple next to us at the cafe also thought it was funny.
I think that is where I'll leave it for today. Tomorrow I will probably go over the cruise and the stuff that happened there. Here are some pictures of Lisbon for everyone to enjoy!
Sweet tree... I don't know what those wart things are though...
Proof I got a haircut, and a very nice lion statue at the castle.
A ghost knight and me at the Tower of Belem.
The Tower of Belem.
The Lisbon Experience monument.
A cool statue thing.
My feet. Get used to these.
Stuff at a random market by the Maritime Museum. I think there is a gas mask in the top one, and there is a statue of a guy on an elephant fighting tigers in the bottom one, and a dog face that I assume is a coat rack or something...
A very expensive hotel.
Some cool stairs at the Rossio Square train station.
A giant elevator that you pay to go up to see great views of the whole city... We paid.
Kyle with his new 6 euro sunglasses.
Jacket from The Who at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Sid's Jacket.
View #1 from the elevator. The castle is in the background.
View #2 from the elevator.
View #3 from the elevator. It is a pretty city.
European Union flag and Portuguese flag.
Classic Lisbon trolley.
Welp, another post tomorrow. And I am sorry for not having posted in so long. My parents told me when I saw them that there were a few people that asked about the blog and I didn't know there were many people following. Sorry to keep you in the dark!
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
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