will be reading a novel. Also, its late and I am tired with papers to write all day tomorrow. Now, as a quick recap I began my travels on March 27th and have just returned on April 21st. I traveled to Porto, Portugal, Marseille and Nice, France and Monaco, Monte Carlo with a slight detour to Biot, Cannes and Mougin.( I wrote this is my notebook to relay back)
Time is a funny thing. If i have mentioned this before its because this trip just keeps reminding me of this simple concept. This trip is taking forever yet flying by. Each place I go it takes hours and hours to get there and even when I am there its slow and I find myself wondering how on earth I am going to last and be entertained for however long I am in that place. Then, I blink and that time is over and I am wishing I were back there. I am currently sitting on a beach in Nice in the wind and cold. The waves are intense today and you can tell the weather is changing, for the worse. I figured I should start catching up on my blog now that Makenna has left and I have 2 weeks of events to recap.
Porto, Portugal
First, we start with Portugal. I started here in Porto, which is the second largest city in Portugal and is in the northern part of the country. I arrived there on Sunday the 28th, exactly
2 weeks to the day from when I am writing this. I got there in the fabulous company of Clarissa and Sabrina and we had a hostel room all to ourselves. The place we stayed was dubbed "oriental" but was very much a kinda Indian themed place with low tables and pillows to sit on along with hookahs and intricate plates and other artistic accents.The first day we got there it was sunny and beautiful! we figured out how to catch the metro from the airport (with some difficulty) and got off at the closest stop to our hostel...which was not that close. Especially with all our luggage. We started walking....in the wrong direction so we could orient ourselves on the map. Finally, we figured it out and of course the way we needed to go was straight up the giant hill. the one hill turned into more like three hills and by the time we got there we were all sweating and hot as hell. We got there and as we checked in they gave us some port wine to drink. It was the first time I had had it and was quite surprised by how thick and liquor-y it tasted. Anyways, so we unpacked and just sat around for a little bit getting comfortable. We headed into town and spent the first day walking around taking pictures and just seeing where we were. We figured out dinner by more or less just randomly picking a place and everywhere we ate was delicious. This was the one place that I was a true tourist. As a group the next day, as it was down pouring rain on us, we went to the tourist information center and bought this 3 way ticket that got us the hop on hop off bus tour, a tour and wine tasting at the cellars, and a boat cruise up and down the river of the six bridges. All for only 19 euro! it was such a good deal! So we got on the bus while it was on its last run of the day and just rode it around to see where we were planning to travel the next day. Lucky for us, the rain stopped and the next day we did the bus tour and got to see most of the city and its beautiful places including the water and beaches. It was beautiful!!! The only downside was as we went and walked down on the beach, Clarissa decided it was a good idea to put her toes in....so she took off her shoes, set her purse down and went to put her feet in. In a matter of seconds a wave came together with a group of other waves and all the sudden rushed to shore! Picking up her purse and turning it upside down, capturing her boots and socks and forcing her to run after them. Now it was actually quite an entertaining site. However, her Ipod and phone died in the process. We spent about 35 minutes laying her stuff out trying to let it dry in the sun. It was still funny....she embraced the accident whole wholeheartedly and it has become an ongoing joke :)
After the bus tour we ended up doing the boat cruise and then getting dinner. The next day we were leaving so we woke up early and planned to do the wine cellar tasting and tour. Did that, it was fun, the tour itself took about 5 minutes and we waited for nearly 2 hours. no biggy. we thought we left plenty of time to get to the airport but the metro ended up taking FOREVER to show up. Seems like the timetables posted are more guidelines. Worked on not freaking out the whole time with Clarissa.. it didnt totally work. we got to the airport, left sabrina and booked it to the counter. Unfortunately there was a huge line and we were really in a panic now as we literally had 15 minutes to get there. Luckily Clarissa cut in line, asked the lady at the desk and she let us to the front, got through security nearly running, ran to the gate panting, got there.... AND the plane wasn't even there. the line was huge and no one was moving. haha fantastic. all that panic for nothing. BUT thank god, we got on the flight ordered their "mini pizza" and were on our way to Marseille! That story in a couple days :)
