Catching Up

Written in the Independente Hostel common room on May 22nd at 11 a.m.

A lot has happened since my last entry: "Clean Socks" - about our day for recharging on Sunday, May 18th. It's now Thursday morning and we are back at the same hostel we started at in Lisbon. Let me backtrack a little bit to get you readers up to speed.

Monday, May 19th, was our last full day in Porto. We got a late start in the morning because it was pouring down rain. The rest of the day was quite nice. As usual, we did a lot of waling. Porto, like Lisbon, is set up along coastal, hilly terrain, that slopes from the highest elevation, furthest away from the coast, all the way down to meet the waters edge. The historical center of Porto is around the mouth of the Rio Douro. dallen and I walked down there, snapped a few photos, and then walked across the river to the neighboring city, Vila Nova da Gaia. This is where the waterfront and small, steep, back-alleys are lined with big stone wine cellars. Our Polish friends had given us some coupons for free tours and wine tasting here. I don't drink, so Dallen was able to enjoy a double dose of the famous Port wine. It is strong, with between 19-22% alcohol content, and I also hear that it's very sweet. The wine tour was okay, it smell good in there, and was somewhat interesting to learn about the history and fermentation process. Our tour guide was Portuguese, but had a red hair. He was squirrly, and reminded me of the artist brother in the movie, Wedding Crashers, who invades Vince Vaughn's room. We ran into our English and Chinese friends at a cafe, where we each had a bowl of hot soup for about 1 euro each. The scenery from the water, looking out across to the big metal bridge, tower, various cathedrals, and colorful buildings made for some real sweet pictures and memories we'll cherish forever.

The next day we hopped a train back to Lisbon. Dallen and I sat in separate carriages (is that what you call them?). I know I got some good reading and meditation in. Dallen met me for some potato chips and a bite of chocolate in a vacant pair of seats in my carriage. He had started reading some of my Earnest Hemingway collection of short stories. And he mentioned how surreal, or prototypical it felt to be reading Hemingway on a train in Europe. I said, "enjoy the feeling". He couldn't have planned it that way - I think it's as authentic as ever. Near the end of our trip, I heard the conductor say the next stop was Lisbon, so I collected my things and got off the train. I didn't see Dallen on the platform, so I imagined he was spacing out and would miss our stop! I rushed back into his carriage and yelled, "yo dallen, let's move!" He grabbed his things and jumped off the train. The lady he was sitting next to poked her head out the windown and said, "actually, your stop is the next one in the city center. You can get a metro train to your destination from there". Without a word, we scrambled for the door, as the train started to pull away and we made a running jump back onto our train, and on to the correct platform. I felt a bit like a fool but got over it soon enough. I guess it's true what my grandfather always says: "A man who gets into a rush makes a fool out of himself."

Later that evening, we found ourselves in the middle of 10-12 women, from various parts of the world, cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I didn't even get to cook rice to go with our pot of beans! We had been down in the restaurant with a pair of English girls who were staying in our dorm room. the restaurant has this deep ledge with comfy pillows where we were able to lounge. We conversed and relaxed as the rain poured outside. it's been so easy to meet fellow travelers here. Dallen is adept at starting conversations with strangers. I'm more reserved and dislike a lot of what I perceive to be trivial, small talk.  But, I do appreciate it when Dallen puts in that work up front to spark something with interesting people. I liked talking to these Brazilian girls at the dinner table that night. In this case, I was the one who started the conversation. Neither spoke English very well. They were both studying abroad in Europe. Anyway, we've met a lot of cool people, but I've been craving any opportunity to practice my Portuguese.

This post is getting a bit long, so i'll have to sign off and tell you about our day trip to the Moorish Castle at Sintra next time. we took a 30 minute train ride out there yesterday, May 21st, with the English girls we met.

Now, Dallen and I have the hostel common room to ourselves. Actually, he's gone out I'm not sure where. And I'm still here typing up this post! Truth be told, earlier we were jamming our favorite tunes from the speakers and working on our stuff! A couple of hours ago we took a break from our work to have an espresso down the street. for once, I initiated some small talk with a pair of young ladies from Vancouver, Canada. They're on a 3 month tour of Europe in between semesters at school! So, it was fun to chat. We exchanged contact details and think it could be fun to get together later for drinks of dinner somewhere.

I'm ready to have some lunch and exercise. Tomorrow, we're headed down to Lagos for some beach time! We'll be running away from soccer madness in Lisbon. The Championship League Final is Saturday.

Peace!

Silas