Sep 2007

From lagos we headed to the Portugeuse Capital of Lisbon, which was just the right mix of seedy and nice. It was quite pretty with a gritty edge, an old castle overlooking the city, cool student area up the hills in the Bairro Alto (where we were staying), old yellow trams shuttling through the tiny streets and the best custard tarts in Portugal in Belem next to its iconic cathedral.

From Lisbon we did a few day trips to towns in the area including Obidos and the fairy tale like town of Sintra with its Moorish Castle high on the hill overlooking this cute village.

While in Lisbon it was also Leons birthday (the big 23!) and even his parents managed to be there to celebrate which made it even more of an occasion.
We all headed out to a famous local restaurant for a nice sit down dinner and later headed to the hostel which had hosted a little party for Leon.

After a hectic time travelling through Spain we took the bus to Lagos on the Algarve coast of Portugal for some time to chill out and rejuvinate.
Its true what they say of the place, come for a day and stay for a month, fortunately we managed to escape after 4 relaxing nights of rest and days spent at the many beaches.

In fact the only vaguely touristy thing we managed to accomplish while there was a boat trip, or should I say a Swan Love Boat tour through the grottoes.

After a sad farewell to Liv, the four was reduced to three again and headed to Madrid, a beautifull city with statues, old squares, amazing parks and even greater art, with the worlds best post office:

From Madrid they did a day trip to the medieval walled city; Toledo, home to El Greco and famous for its marzipan made by nuns, which was rather tasty.

After Madrid, they took the train to Granada too see the Alhambra; an Islamic fortress and Palace. It really was quite incredible.

Granada turned out to be a bit of a favourite city amongst our travellers and after wandering around its cobbled streets and tiny market streets they headed out for a night of drinking with free tapas for every drink, yes thats right, Granada´s lovely bars actually give you your choice of free tapas with EVERY drink. This of course turned into a rather massive night of drinking and eating that shall not be forgotten.
From Granada, a very hung over train journey was taken to Seville. Where Charlie and Leon caught a bull fight in supposedly the worlds oldest bull ring (Charlie didn´t get it). Leon also took a trip to Cordoba as he had already been to Seville and Charlie and Woods walked around the city to see the sights including the worlds largest cathedral, a mini version of the Alhambra - the Alcazar and Plaza Espana.

From San Sebastian, Liv, Leon, Woods and Charlie took the train to Valencia to prepare for La Tomatina.
Due to late booking we sadly missed out on any available hostels and unfortunately had to stay in a hotel with not only a pool, free buffet breakfast and our own tennis court sized balcony but also our own kitchen, two bedrooms a sitting room and yes count them - TWO bathrooms. We were very sad indeed.
We had heard that la tomatina could get a bit rough so on the day we all donned our white shirts and strapped our shoes to our feet and headed off at 6am to get there early enough for a good spot.
Little did we realise that getting the good spot would soon be Woody and Charlie´s downfall. despite warnings we were not prepared for the mayhem that was la tomatina. After about 10 minutes of fun waterfights and throwing the odd tomato, the local boys got a little out of control, and after half an hour of pushing and struggling to get out, woods and charlie emerged, clothes and ego´s torn to shreds, tomato´d and limping went directly to the nearest bar, got 2 giant beers and collapsed.
Meanwhile Leon and Liv clutched to eachother to survive and watched the tomato trucks roll by as they were waterlogged by the firehoses just above them.

After spending the rest of the day at the pool recovering, the next day they all set out to see Valencia, which turned out to consist of a search of the Holy Grail (and not a whole lot else). The Holy Grail was made of amber and gold but as we all know who have seen Indiana Jones it clearly wasn´t the humble wooden chalice, shame catholic church shame, you have chosen incorectly...

In the eyes of Jesus, Woods, Leon, Charlie, Liv and Kate overindulged in the 1 euro 1.5 litre bottles of Sangria whilst in this cute beachside village.

When not lying in bed complaining of sangria induced migraines they headed to the beach (voted the best city beach by the lonely planet, go san sebastian) and soaked up the serenity with their el cheapo home-made bocadillos

From San Sebastian they also did a daytrip out to Bilbao which was filled with people for their local festival that none of us can remember the name.
We also checked out the famous Guggenheim while there and Leon and Liv even managed to fit in a bullfight.