más portugal y españa

as i left the hostel the other morning. i met marek.. a sweet candaian boy who asked if i wanted to go to the beach with him.. ok y not! my books and personal notes can wait a bit longer... so we met up with some more of his friends, carla another canadian/peruvian girl and an aussie girl as well from his old hostel and headed to the beach.. the beach was so beautiful and the sun in full force by the time we finally got there.. we stopped at the corner shop for some foods.. i picked up some pastries and fresh fruit and gobbled them up all too quick.. we sunbaked and fried until we were red.. and then carla suggested we head further down the coast where she went the day before.. so we trekked over.. following a local and found the most amazing beach ever! its like the great ocean road of australia meets the beaches of thailand..without the humidity. so beautiful. and a bit crowded. id hate to see it in the high season. but it was just so wonderful.. we swam around a few cliffs and i climbed up this rock, down a cave and out into the ocean and aroudn teh cliffs back to the beach. how cool. i like to believe i was the first to discover it.. much like everyone else.. but the worn out rope i used to climb suggests theres been many travelers down the same path before. we ejoyed the sun some more and then headed to another little market to make a group dinner. delicious pasta.. as opposed to my standard plain pasta that only has sauce on special occasions! we hung out on the hostel terrace, a nice little patio on the roof with the other crazy aussies and just relaxed. it was so nice. so great. so, just amazing! we went out that night with our monkey dollars (from the monkey house hostel) and had a good night out.. running into some crazy aussie smufs painted blue..and thus so was over half the town, and shared a fish bowl of jungle juice with some old dudes from extra long straws.. like 2 meters. i even rescued a boy off the street and drug him with the help of another guy into a hostel. good night! and just another standard day in lagos..

the next morning i got up too early.. went for a walk down to the grocery store at the other end of town (10 min) and bought an expensive mango and some milk to and chocolate vitamin powder to supplement my diet! ha. no worries.. im getting allt he vitamins i need now :) then as i was finishing, carla and marek came out to the patio with a bowl of pancake mix they stole from carlas hostel! bingo! so delicious! so i had a double breakfast, packed some leftover pasta for lunch and we headed to the beach again. yay! we went down teh coast a bit further.. trekking along the cliffs enjoying the amazing views and sauntering slowly due to the heat and the lack of motivation to move any quicker. eventually we spotted the beach after a little help from this local lady who told us all the beaches are just the same.. glad we didnt listen to her.. this one was even better! more crystal clear deep blue-teal water and yellow cliffs.. some out in a circle in teh middle of the ocean.. clearly a spot we had to swim to! we took in a little sun before swimming out.. o it was soo cool be surrounded by the cliffs on all sides. there were little coves to swim into where if you went through, you might find a beach or just a dead end.. you couldnt tell til you went! all was good... but it wouldnt be complete without an injury to remember it by.. the shadows in teh water made it hard to judge teh depth adn i wacked my foot on a rock. oops. so that gushed a bit for a while..just another ashley move. we enjoyed the scenery and the sun for a bit more.. then some of carlas friends came down to the beach and told us how to get back on the main road so we could do it in 15 mins instead of an hour.. o well. our adventure was beautiful. o i want to go back right now.. its freaking raining!!why did i leave portugal!?! we had a low key night.. joined a group to a cheap restaurant for a 4 euro meal.. i tried to be as portugese as possible with my seasoned prawns.. i spent so much time pulling heads and feet off.. and everyone else had these huge portions of real food. o well. i htink mine tasted better!

the next morning i got up nice and early and went for my second run in three months! it felt good..i ran to the end of the earth.. well.. thats where i was headed. it was a big discussion about how far it was to sangres.. the "end of the earth" back in the columbus days. i ran out to this point where there was a light house..and i could see where the end of hte earth was.. but im glad i didnt try to run there.. i might still be there.. o wait, that would be a good thing! it was prolly a 45 miles.. whoever suggested that was most right.. not a 45 min bus ride, bike ride, or walk.. next time! i had to get back to pack up to head back to lisbon to catch my overnight bus back to madrid.. yes horrible planning. i already know that. it all happened in those tired desperate days of madrid where i wasnt thinking clearly.. and now i haveta live with that. o well.. after i took the bus to lisbon and met my african/portugese boyfriend on the bus.. our conversation was o so throuogh.. ican see why he asked me out. haha. i caught the first train to sintra just outside the city. sintra is just another reason im now in love with portugal.. i met maria on teh train, she was a local med student and explained a lot to me about the portugese ppl adn whatnot.. and she gave me tips on what to eat and see in sintra.. not that its a huge town with so many things to see.. but it was good to have a direction! i first took the famous pastry suggestion at a little pasteleria.. it was alright. i wish i knew waht it was called right now. i have it written down cuz i couldnt remembre the name for hte life of me.. apparently all the english go there to get this one pastry. it was flaky and sugary on the outside, with some creamy custardy stuff cooked inside. really not bad at all..but ive been having a few delicious pasteries already.. so then i hiked to the peña castle.. passing by stephanie who i met in lagos along the way, no big deal... just another backpacker occurance.. i was hiking up the cobblestone path in these sandals i dont normally wear too much, but it was nice because they dont touch my boo boo on my foot..bad decision. they killed all teh way up and down. but the hike was soo well worth it! (OMG the roof is going to crash in in this littel internet cafe right now.) walking the walls of the castle is seriously like being in a fairy tale.. the walls are bright yellow and red, and there are colorful tiles everywhere. the view is just as magical with tropical plants that were imported from australia back in the 1800s. i saw a statue in the distance, and since i techinically paid to see the gardens as well.. well you better believe i walked all teh gardens! haha. i was the only one out there.. taking about an hour to wonder the queens throne and stroll by the little creek and up a hill to a big fat cross which wouldve been an amazing shot with my camera that i still miss so dearly! but i took a mental picture, and hopefully one with my crappy half working little camera! ok time to get back! i stopped in another pastry shop.. and had a little custard pie deal.. mmm my favorite now! i wonder why im still gaining weight even though i dont eat much.. devoured it on the walk back to the train station, and didnt think twice as i gave a french couple directions to the castle in french. haha. everyone approaches me in every language but english i swear. its fun when i can actually respond though! so the train to the overnight bus... great. free accomadation is how i see it. o yes. me and the bus man got in a bit of a bicker.. he wanted me to put my bag under the bus. i was like no way buddy.. ive already lost my camera, im holding onto this with dear life. eventually he won if i wanted on, so i took my time taking out my wallet, passport, and basically all my valuables..aka everything in the dumb bag so that i could board with my buldging pockets and the dumb bag was under the bus.

madrid at 6:30 am was special.. more drunk ppl than sober were out.. and more people were making out than walking around. aye yaye. caught my NEXT bus up to san sebastian where i hoped to lay on teh next beautiful beach for 2 more days! o wait. it was raining... why did i leave portugal again? so 5 hours later, i get there and trek 30 mins in the rain to my hostel.. apparently theres a huge film festival going on.. and brad pitt was there.. i didtn see him, but i wish he wasnt there so my hostel was cheaper! lots and lots of people.. made for a good night out hopin between little bars in the old section of town.. quite cute and full of stinky cigarettes.. my clothes have never smelt so bad. i made some new austrian friends, as well as some from paris, and as always teh next aussie handful. we had a lot of fun dancing and chatting and whatever it is you do til 4 am.. before we went out.. i decided to do something with my day even in the rain and hiked up to "the jesus on teh hill" it was cool and had some good views of the little beach bays of san sebastian.. and the fort or whatever on teh top was pretty cool.. and not so bad of a hike even though i was soo sore from my run the day before haha. i also popped into a bar for some world famous tapas.. and somewhere in translation i thought thez were 60 cents each.. which was a crazy deal, but they were really €1.60. good thing i only had two. they were definitely delicious.. a shrimp on top of this crabmeat mayonaise on a slice of baguette, and the other one was some sausage stuffed in bellpepper with bacon and some cheese to top off the heart attack! mmm. i picked up some bread from the panderia and veggies from the lil fruit shop on the corner.. where i was on top of my game.. he tried to gyp me 4 euros.. poo head. i wonder how many other times ive been ripped off and just went on with my life like a stupid tourist. i bet a few. im getting quicker... and better at quick math to keep these cheating europeans in line!

then the next morning we were all leaving, except one of the austrian boys was missing.. so we waited around with his friend alex, pondering where he went. i couldnt sit around anymore... so i went to go take care of photocopies and my dumb portugese phone that was out of credit in one day.. and to solve the mystery of andy the missing austrian.. iwent the police station.. la estacion de policIA no policia. omgosh. how a little pronunciaiotn makes a difference! well they suggested i go back to the urgent care next to our hostel and the guy said he had been tehre all night with this girl, but he left an hour ago.. so i figured o great. well at least hes ok and prolly back int eh hostel. in the meantime i lollied around and went to beach in the rain.. cuz it was there. i had to! and shopped around for some warmer clothes under €5..by the time i got back to the hostel, i asked if andy had come by.. but he hadnt.. and apparently the guy lied to me about him being in the waiting room.. or he was confused.. or there was someone who had the same features and clothes on in there too... we will never know! around 7 pm he showed up right before i had to leave.. apparently he was stuck in a town 30 mins away.. wow. i think ive about seen it all now. or so id like to think.. caught my next bus to the middle of nowhere espana for my bus transfer at 11pm.. its so sketch..and i was scared by bus wouldnt show up. theres nothing labeled or anything to confirm you are the right place let alone the right city except the bus drivers word. but what do you know.. it rolled up just 5 mins after its expected arrival. i climbed on for my nights sleep... well, whatever sleep you can get with 2 crazy girls screaming in the back of hte bus alnight long.. no one in spain sleeps i swear.