Obrigado

Having been to Paris several times before, I got my fill of it pretty quick this time. I spent the evening of May 2nd hanging out with Tim from Australia and Mendes from Zurich (his family's from Argentina). We met in our hostel in the Latin Quarter near Notre Dame (it was really cool to be so central). We walked all over the city, had crepes on Champs Elysees, got kicked out of the cafe chairs at the cafe we BOUGHT food from because we didn't buy drinks and then we headed up the Eiffel Tower. It was like 11pm so the price was way cheaper than normal (11.50 Euros), so even though two of us had already done it, we decided to go up again. I don't think I'll need to do it again for at least 20 years.

Yesterday morning (May 3rd), the three of us headed over to the train station so Mendes and I could book tickets out of town (Mendes to Bordeaux and me to Madrid). As it turns out, in spite of my having a Eurail pass, they wanted almost 50 euros to take the train to Madrid. So I just booked a trip to the French/Spanish border (Irun) and decided to work it out when I got there.

I did head up to Monte Marte (or however it's spelled) and Sacre Coere for the first time before I left Paris and I really liked it up there. Very cool, quaint atmosphere with artists everywhere.

In the afternoon (yesterday) I jumped on my train to Irun and arrived at 10 or 11 at night. It took me all of 5 seconds to decide I didn't want to spend the night there, so I jumped on another train headed for Lisbon. As an extension of my original trip, the distance to the Portuguese border was free and then I had to pay 20 euros to get to Lisbon. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to Lisbon or Porto, but after VERY little sleep on account of roudy Portuguese drunks, I decided to just stay on the same train since it was already heading to Lisbon and we were already in the middle of Portugal.

On the train, I spent the first bit in a cabin (or whatever they're called) with two kids from Torino, Italy. They were way nice and hooked me up with some bread and ham for dinner. Then I got kicked out of that cabin, because apparently we had assigned seats (you'd never had known it). So, I went to my assigned seat in a cabin shared with three drunk Portuguese guys and a very friendly older guy from Southern England. Had it not been between the hours of 2 and 7am that we enjoyed each others' company I probably would have enjoyed it more. Alas, I was super tired. We rolled into Lisbon around 11 or 11:45 this morning. Maybe 10 or 10:45 (there was a time change). I caught the Metro to the Rossio stop in the heart of Lisbon (a very cool atmosphere) and got my own room with a balcony in a hostel run by a friendly family for 15 euros. Way better than the 28 euros I spent two nights ago to be jammed into a Parisian hostel with who knows how many 15 year-old French kids.

I just took a quick nap and walked around Lisbon for a bit. I'm in the midevil part right now about to head up to the castle. I'm trying to decide if I should spend more time here or Madrid, but I'll probaly spend another day or two here. I like the pace of things here.