Our European Adventures

PORTO 6/25-6/27 We arrived at the train station in Porto right at 7 pm. We planned to watch Portugal play Iran in the World Cup, which started at 7 pm, so we were rushing. The metro station was a little confusing, but we eventually got on and made it to our Airbnb. Our Airbnb was conveniently located 2 minutes from the square to watch the World Cup - Praça Amor de Perdição - so we dropped off our stuff and headed over. Boy was it crowded!! We made it right before the half and just in time for the first goal by Portugal! Ronaldo didn’t even score but the crowd chanted, “Ronaldo! Ronaldo! Ronaldo!” He is beloved here. We got some beer, the Sangres Portuguese brand, and made our way through the crowd, with people scowling at us for pushing through. We went as far as we could without feeling bad and then stopped. We still couldn’t see whatsoever. But the atmosphere was fun. Unfortunately they tied, so we didn’t get to see Ronaldo score (he missed a PK so now Messi isn’t alone). There...

LISBOA 6/22-6/25 We were literally running on fumes as we left Madrid (and Jackson and Nikki) for Portugal. We were back on planes after weeks of trains, and we know us + airports don’t bode well. But everything went smoothly since we decided to be on the safe side and taxi to the airport! We landed in Lisbon early in the morning with a time change and only 3 hours of sleep. We didn’t even go out and still only 3 hours. Man. It’s rough.  Anyway, easy flight and we land and take the metro to the Airbnb. Once out of the metro we find out that Lisbon is steep! There are cable cars to get people around like SF (someone from Lisbon went to SF and brought back the idea), but boy we are burning a ton of calories walking up these hills. Oh also there is literally a Golden Gate Bridge. We are not kidding. It was the same architect and built like 3 years later, so yeah, it's SF. But much warmer! Our Airbnb was in the Bairro Alto District (the nightlife area) in a single room with a commo...

MADRID 6/19-6/22 We arrived in Madrid and quickly got to our Airbnb for a free walking tour! The tour was led by a very energetic Jovan Gibson. He was entertaining and it was easy to listen to all of his information about Madrid.  First stop: Plaza Mayor - an area bordered by apartments for the rich in the 1600s to get them to move from Toledo (the old capital) to Madrid. There used to be bull fights here. In the center is a statue of a horse with a King (Phillip the lazy) riding it. The area smelled bad for years and the locals hated it. One day they blew it up in protest and found pigeon bones in the statue from over 300 years (because pigeons could get stuck in the statue through the mouth of the horse) ewwww. On another note, what’s awesome is that the government is planning to add trees to plazas to cool the city, make 70% of the city pedestrian only, and add more water stations. Woo! Next, we stopped at the oldest restaurant in the world called Botin. Apparently the ...

BARCELONA 6/15-6/18 Just another day in the life of getting off a train in a new country. And this time, Spain!! First city: Barcelona. We used the metro (it's really easy to get around Barcelona with the metro) from the station to get to our hostel, Yeah Hostel. It's popular and really nice, especially since we had a 4 person room to ourselves with us and our two special guests! We did get sassed a bit by the front desk when we asked if there was free breakfast and got the response "Why would it be free?", we asked if towels were included and got the response "This is a hostel," and when we asked for A/C, we were told "The window could be open during the day." But other than that, it was clean and pleasant! We met up with our first guest... drum roll please! NIKKI STEIN! After hugs and dropping off our things, we rushed over to the Picasso Museum for our ticket time, quickly grabbing small sandwiches before entering. We had paid for aud...