Lisbon & Madrid in Adventures in paradise

I’m sorry I haven’t written. I’ve seriously been walking SO much since arriving in Europe and tend to wear myself out by the time I get back to sleep, so I’ve been showering, using wifi to upload photos to various different platforms (so annoying that different people use different social medias) and sleeping and doing it all over again. If you view my Snapchat story, you tend to get all the photos, but if viewing my Instagram or Facebook, they tend to just be my highlights.

I’m writing this on the train between Madrid and Barcelona, so naturally at this point in time, that means I’ve done Lisbon and Madrid. From Lisbon there were two day trips - one to Nazaré and one to Porto. Both were beautiful. Eurovision was amazing, of course. I had a bit of a hiccup with my semi-final ticket. It scanned me in at the gate, but not long after I sat down, someone else motioned that I was in their seat. Upon looking at each other’s tickets, it turns out we did have the same seat, but I was meant to have attended the show the previous night. LOL.
And yet it scanned me in at the gate AND the usher showed me to my seat. Go figure.
But then I was stressing out because the website was saying it was sold out, and I had nowhere to sit, so I went to the very front row and just risked it. I only had to move across one seat once. But man, that did my head in knowing I was an imposter at the semi-final cos I had my days mixed up LOL.

The final was much better. Thankfully my ticket to that one also let me in (I was afraid it could be a fake, but nope - legit! This time was a standing ticket in the area below where the seating area is above. It was cool seeing how it all worked and the camera flying around. I’ve yet to see the Eurovision final on a screen to see if I made it on international TV or not!

(I keep looking up from my phone at the stunning scenery of rural Spain. Just amazing. So green and so different to Australia. Although Australia doesn’t even have high-speed rail LOLZ-FAIL)

I was blown away by Nazarè. The VIEWS alone. It has the biggest waves in the world, and they sure we’re big when I was there. Crazy how it’s calm on one side of the lighthouse and then there’s 35-40 foot waves on the other. The walk up to the lighthouse was a challenge and there’s heaps of uneven surfaces. Even the streets of Lisbon are like that, since they are cobblestone streets.

Porto too was a stunning city. The GUYS 😍 So attractive! There’s something about non-capital cities that I visit where the guys seem to be 10-times hotter lol. It happened three years ago when I took a day-trip out of Amsterdam. Something in the water I guess. Porto had a stunning river and high bridge and lots of musician street performers. Loved it. How I looked at Porto in a mere 6-7 hours is beyond me. It was a 3.5hr train ride each way from Lisbon.

And of course I loved Lisbon. When I first tried to check in, the girl behind the counter said she didn’t speak any English LOL. So that was interesting. I came back a while later and the manager was on, who did.

My flight to Madrid was the early morning following Eurovision (doh!) but I just had so much to squeeze in. I’ve times my flights to my check-ins and checkouts and extra-time and daylight-hours as much as possible for this trip. So far, so good!
I caught an Uber, since thankfully Portugal has legalised it (Spain hasn’t) and it was so much easier than trying to figure out a 4am bus to the airport 😅
The driver spoke English too. He was adamant about his views of Australian’s driving on the left-hand side of the road. He reckons trying to change gears with his left hand would just be wrong. Righteo then mate 😅
Anyway, got there! Found where I was meant to be. Misunderstood the security lady when she told me to put my suitcase ‘in the box’. Cue me trying to shove my suitcase into the thing the trays come out of LOL. I was thinking it was a tight fit! I realised my stupidity right away and apologized and then couldn’t stop laughing at what I’d just done. I must’ve looked like a crazy person.
It was a shuttle-bus out to the plane, and it only had economy seats, which was fine, but I was confused because Air Portugal were hounding me with emails asking if I wanted to upgrade for a price. Had I upgraded, what would have that gotten me? Nothing, it seemed! It was only an hour flight anyway, which is why I didn’t bother, plus I’d rather spend the E$100 elsewhere thanks!

Arrived in Madrid and was immediately confused by the metro system and walked back and forth a few times before figuring it out. So fucking simple when I think about it. Found my hostel in no time and I was 4-hours early so just asked if I could leave my bags. Turns out the room was already free! Score!
And this hostel. Amazing. I haven’t seen a hostel that good since Cologne three years ago. It sure as heck beat the one in Lisbon, where I had to take a top bunk and it squealed like a bush-pig whenever I made the slightest movement.
(Funny story about the Lisbon hostel - one of the guys in there with me was also from Brisbane haha! Gay flighty also there for Eurovision. He tried making a move on me one night but he wasn’t my type unfortunately. He then apologized if he’d made me feel uncomfortable, which was nice, cos he had a little lol).

Anyway where was I? Madrid hostel, yes, amazing. It was a 10-bed room but each bed was spacious, comfortable and clean. It was weird looking across and seeing a girl in the room but I could only see her, noone else, as the bed was pretty private. Had its own shelf for devices and such. I had my long cord plugged in and realised that I could smell something. I realised it was my cord and ripped it out. Considering the beds were all made of wood, I didn’t feel like leaving it and setting the entire hostel alright. Not one that nice anyway.
Apparently there was breakfast offered, but I couldn’t find where the hell it was, so I just ate elsewhere. It cost extra anyway. The Lisbon hostel offered a very basic free breakfast, and it was perfect to keep me going all day.
Oh, and although Madrid was a whirlwind two-day trip, I managed to hook up with a guy who didn’t know a word of English! We were both on our phones Google-translating each other. Even in person, we had to hold up our phones. He was gorgeous and from Venezuela (I never seem to hook up with guys from their own city lol) and owned this gorgeous pure white fluffy cat with two different coloured eyes, one blue and one hazel. I didn’t even know he had a cat until she jumped up on the bed whilst he was blowing me. He just used one hand to push her back off and kept going LOL.
He write into his translater that he was off to work and I wrote that I was heading off and that was very hot, which it was.
So I guess yesterday I proved that you can hook up with someone without knowing a word of each other’s language! Crazy.
I sure felt better. I hadn’t hooked up with anyone in Portugal, but hadn’t really tried either.

Oh and the weather has been perfect. It got to 26 degrees today. Lisbon was a little cooler, around 17. It only rained for a bit in Porto as I was heading home.

No photos on here sorry, it’s too hard to link them from a phone.
I think I’m caught up! Barcelona next. I’m not expecting it to be as nice as the Madrid hostel, but will wait and see. Apparently it has a pool.

This mountainous scenery out the train window is soooo cool. I can’t wait to see what the Swiss train is like.

Europe has this law where they have to allow roaming in other countries. It’s been SO handy and I’m still using my Sim from Portugal. I’m hoping it lasts the whole trip.