This was the joke I had with the group of Anglos and Spaniards that I spent the week with in Salamanca on the last night of the program. Being that when you travel, sometimes meals take the back burner. It’s not like I starve but I tend to eat simply and sometimes only two meals a day. So, I have to say, in spite of the long hours it had it’s benefits (not to mention my own room, bathtub and wake up calls) and one of which was three meals a day and pretty good food in spite of being a buffet; it always had lots of fresh fruit and a great salad bar at lunch and dinner so I was a happy girl! And as some of you may know, I LIVE for my salads and since I’ve been away my servings of fruits and vegetables have been diminished somewhat. When your traveling for extended periods of time this feels like luxury.
So there I was enjoying my salad and fish (of course wine) thinking about the week. It was really a great experience. Even though my time wasn’t my own and I had to talk and listen all day long at great concentrations, it was really fun. I truly enjoyed meeting new people, having some great connections and learning so much about the Spanish way of life. I truly feel like I made some new friends. We had some funny activities as well, like skits and poems and presentations in the evenings. I even did a yoga presentation and had one man, Lynn, from Wales volunteer to let me lead him through the demo….what a good sport! The last night we had a fiesta with Sangria and lots of dancing and some sad goodbyes at the end of the night.
Once again the partying interfered with my sleep. I had to get up at 4:00am to catch a train to Lisbon, Portugal. At about 12:30 I was almost convinced to just stay up and go out with everyone but I figured a few hours of sleep would probably be a good idea!
I had the train ride from hell. My train left from Salamanca at 5am and it was 7 hours on the worst train I’ve ever experienced. We were squeezed into a compartment like sardines and it was loud, cold and dirty. This was the first time I had experienced a bad train so I was surprised. I survived and arrived to Lisbon at about 12:00 noon and made my way to the hostel. What was really nice is everything seemed a bit easier in Portugal. They actually listed English as well as Portuguese so I could actually figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next and a lot of people spoke English.
The hostel I stayed in was really nice and the people very friendly and helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 ½ days in Lisbon and got to see a number of sights like the town of Belem which is on the water and had a bridge that reminded me of the Golden Gate bridge. I visited a couple of castles, an old montassary and some great neighborhoods. Also a town called Sentra which was very magical filled with castles and amazing parks and more history then I had time to digest.
Currently I am sitting at the Salamanca train station in the café waiting for my next train to Madrid for a day to visit a friend and then head to Barcelona. I arrived at midnight on the “train from hell” (which wasn’t AS bad this time) and couldn’t catch another train to Madrid until 5:45am. So, here I sit writing about my experiences and wondering if I can curl up on the table and sleep for a few hours. The TV is blaring and chairs uncomfortable so I’m thinking not. Oh well, there’s always 2 ½ hours to snooze on the fast train to Madrid.
View my photos from Salamanca and Vaughan Town at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/SalamancaAndVaughanTown
Also view my Lisbon photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/LisbonPortugal
Another note: I posted the Madrid photos on my last blog entry so go there...Madrid
Thanks for letting me share!
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