Filling my time without internet.

Living without internet is more difficult than I had imagined. Even here, the life continues moving around technology. You have to call here, call there, meet people through this, add their numbers. Which leaves me looking very isolated. This is why I bought a cellphone. So I can call the different places and make friends easier.

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time reading, watching Spanish movies on the television and walking. Yesterday, I tried going for my first run. I figured I'd wait until it had cooled off in the evening but while the sun was still shining. Well, I died. The hills combined with the heat, kicked my butt.

I sometimes laugh when I find places that have used English names. And I wonder if they meant what the english word means or if it has some other meaning in Spanish.

 Also, if you know me, you'll know I despise mist. In thanks to the movie based off the book by Stephen King, I hate it. It's silly and unrealistic but I am positive monsters will come out of it, and eat me. Did I mention the mist sweeps in from the sea almost every night in Vigo? Yup. Lovely.

 Vigo is known as a huge fishing port. It's specialty is seafood and I have heard that I will never like the seafood from anywhere else after I have eaten it here. Good thing I love shrimp.

 This is a bocata! Which essentially is a sandwich. This one has chicken, bacon and cheese. It was delicious and not that different from Canada at all.

 Me: Post run. Sweating buckets. "If you're going through hell, keep going"

 Here you can even see the mist rolling in during the day. Lock the windows and bolt the doors, and climb into bed.

Starting the life in Vigo

I have arrived! About time, in my mind. I was getting exhausted from the hop a plane to another plane to a bus etc. Within a few hours of getting picked up from the bus station, myself and the spanish student Alvaro had found an apartment. We looked at the first apartment and it was awful. Extremely stuffy, and I had a beautiful view of a plaster wall outside my window. After spending 8 months living in a basement, I was thinking no way Jose. For those of you that know me, at times I find it rather difficult to speak my mind and they just assumed this was the place to live for me. So I was pleasantly surprised when I told them I was hoping for something with a better view. Thankfully, speaking up paid off. I found a much better place in a different location but with a wonderful view. My room opens up to a balcony where I can see the sun set and I can tan too. As well, I've got a lovely view of the water and ironically it smells exactly (maybe a little less stinky) than the bay of St. Peter's. 

 Above is my suitcase. I wanted it to stand out from the rest. My only mistake was giving some paint to my mother. She wrote all kinds of embarrassing nicknames from my past on it. Thanks a lot Mom. Thank goodness most of the people here don't speak english.

 This photo was taken at 7:30pm and my back was sufficiently tanning from inside my room. The life is tough. I need to buy some sunscreen sitting in the sun as I write this.

 These photos below are all of the beautiful things I get to see from my apartment every day.

When it comes to the culture in Spain, I am surprised that it is extremely similar to that of Costa Rica. The people are similar, and the same to the shops and streets. I feel like I literally jumped right back into Costa Rica. Even my room is the same colour. The only difference is that I have no Costa Rican family supporting me here which is a little more difficult. Also I have no wifi. I am currently stealing a local cafes and drinking their coffee to be allowed to loiter for so long. 

Also I apologize if my grammar starts to get really poor. It was really interesting to see that as soon as I started hearing Spanish, my mind instantly starting thinking my thoughts in Spanish. And then I would have to translate my thoughts into English. It's wonderful that I can slip back into the process so quickly. But unfortunate for you guys as you will see my english become really poor very quickly. Perhaps when I get back, you will have to teach me english all over again. 

My few hours in Porto

Here are a few of the beautiful shots I took while walking around killing time in Porto. It's a very bright, loud fishing community with tons of transit types. Even a type of Tram car that goes over the water from a point up on the hill down to another part of the city. Next time I visit, I will be doing that for sure. 

 I just adore how they have painted all of the old telephone booths. They are incredibly colourful. 

Safe in Porto, Portugal!

I learned an extremely important lesson for my travels in portugal so far. Portuguese is NOTHING like Spanish. I honestly thought they were very similar, but boy was I wrong. And after Portuguese, the most common language seems to be French, so thats a miss too. Thank goodness a few here or there speak english.

This was the standard in the Toronto airport. EVERY seat had an iPad. I was flabbergasted. I must be a 60 year old in a 22-year olds body because my face displayed complete awe. Also, we could order drinks from the iPad too which came in handy waiting 5 hours for my flight.

Traveling overnight is definitely not what it's always cracked up to be. At least half of the five hour flight, was me harbouring all of my pleasantness not to yell at the three year old who was kicking my seat the entire TIME! I arrived on the Portugal island Ponta Delgada at 7am their time or 3am ours and had to wait an hour to get back on the plane. So by the time I got to Lisbon at 12pm their time, it was 7am our time and I had a solid two hours and was getting hallucinations so I slept on a bench in the airport for a few hours and slept 12 hours last night. So I am fairly rested for my bus to Vigo today!

 This is a view from the Lisbon Airport. It's absolutely gorgeous.

 After taking meeting a very kind, but very intoxicated man on the train, he helped me figure out how the train system worked. And after he left, I got on the wrong bus. Twice. But this is my walk to my hostel after I finally found the correct stop.

The two photos below are the view from my hostel. The colours are incredible.

 And here is where I crashed for 12 hours last night. I was so exhausted from my travels, and on my bed you'll see a beautiful sleep sack my mother made me and my beloved cow, Moo, who travels everywhere with me despite being 22.

On my way.. Almost!

Being the person I am, klutzy and blessed with unfortunate but sometimes hilarious bad luck, I knew that this trip likely would have it's fair share of bumps in the road. Currently, I should be sitting in an airport in Portugal but instead I am in a top end hotel in Toronto. I arrived to the Toronto Airport to find my flight cancelled until the next night. It threw off my bookings a bit, but I saw the silver lining as I might actually get a good nights sleep in an ACTUAL bed! Here's to hoping the rest of my connections don't leave me too frazzled and in a hyperventilating pile of Canadian tears in some foreign airport. Here of some of the sweet pictures in the Charlottetown airport and once I arrived in Toronto.

 Check out the corn twists! They became super inflated when we were up in the air. I now (after 22 years of flying) understand why they tell us that our liquids may explode. As Jesse Pinkman would say "Science, B*tch".