Torre Velha Albufeira

... on North Brazil......in fact I think I am rapidly running out of time and will have to be dragged away and on to the plane soon!! <br><br>Thanks to airmiles/lots of travel we're flying Business, so not dreading the 12 hr (ish) flight ....can't wait to tuck in to the free champagne and relax in bed seats etc.....it really is the way to do longhaul travel.<br><br>See you in Brazil!<br>

... like the good students we are). We left Madrid early on Saturday and had all day to explore the city. After checking into our hostel, we tried having lunch at the Barrio Alto. Of course, the tram was broken so we had to hike up the largest hill of my life to get to this area of the city. Of course the view was gorgeous, so it was worth it. Nothing was open when we got there, so we ...

... each other. We walked around and saw a few churches, and the local castle and rode a street car. I read that Lisbon is called "Eurpoe's San Francisco", and I see what they mean! Lots of hills and lots of street cars--all in the same condition from years and years ago. One of our stops was a Cathedral that had the reminants of St. Bart? Barn? Again, I make a horrible travel reporter. Normally, I would not take ...

... walks with me back to the street I should have taken. I find out her name is Maria Helen. She has 2 kids, her husband passsed away a few years ago. She has a car but she prefers walking. I like her. She sends me on the right street for Jesus. Of course there are no directions but I do finally make it there. Dude, he's huge. I figured as much but seeing him up close and personal. Crazy. I walk around and everything smells of church. You know ...

... way, but didn't quite have the affect on me that the one in Athens did. I think that's because it was so abstract and non-human. Next we visited an old fortress that had been built in the middle of the river (we're docked quite a ways up a river, not actually in the ocean) to defend Portugal in the colonial days. Now the river has shifted and it's up on the bank, but the story still applies: at one time there had been a ship that was docked and anchored in the middle of the ...

... sao goerges, un chateau qui a ete commencer 600 ans avant jc.. cetait vraiment special regarder les photo vous aller voir. en soiree cetait happy hours a lauberge de jeuness que je peux vraiment apeller une maison, je me sens comme si jetais chez nous les gens ici sont hyper chaleureux on dirait une maison de hippy mais moderne jadore vraiment ca en tk. on a jouer a un jeux de combat de sumo, avec un bean bag cetait ...

... of course that it was anything but. The attendant at the museum laughed a knowingly laugh that confirmed our suspicions, but seeing how poor and bedraggled we appeared said with a wink and no request for ID "But it is no problem, as it is free for students". A nice bit of PR from a man realising the damage done by their Tourist Misinformation service. We have seen a great deal of Lisbon simply by wandering to all points of the compass through ...

... seems like such a harsh, two-syllabic word. However, in Spanish, it morphs into a much softer, smoother, more romantic three syllables - Sevilla. I definitely smiled as I thought about this later, and it´s true that "Sevilla" is a word that almost demands to be whispered. Real proof that almost everything sounds prettier in Spanish! Sevilla, for me, definitely lived up to the beauty of it´s Spanish name. I can best describe it ...

... Vratili sme sa preto do kempu, zlozili stan a hodinu po nasom rozhodnuti sme uz boli na dialnici do Lisabonu. Prisli sme tam vecer. Nebolo tu velmi teplo, ale boli sme radi, ze nemusime tuto cestu absolvovat zajtra rano. Obzreli sme si aj miestne plaze ale bolo priliz zima na kupanie sa.

... A couple of hours later, I awoke and then headed down to the Expo 98 site, to the North East of the city, to watch the opening games of the tournament. I watched the first half of the Portugal v Greece game on the roof of a restaurant, overlooking the big screen in the official Fan Park. For the second half, I actually sat outside the restaurant, where one could still see the big screen. Obviously the game didn't go as planned for the hosts, going down to a 2-1 defeat to the un fancied ...