Do many hostel on crawls argh. Luke, Vlada, Kyle and I are heading to the beach today to chill.
Hostel breakfast in Home Lisbon Hostel has eggs, finally a place with this!
Gorgeous day in the sea and on the sand with the crew, down at Caia de Carcavelos. Stunning and with great waves for our surfing trip tomorrow.
We had some nice dinner and plenty of cava sangria.
Tonight we’re taking it easy, dinner and wine with no pub crawl ?
This morning just lovely walk around Faro and using the rooftop sunbeds before heading to Lisboa to meet Vlada and Luke from the Nice Amigos ?. Mysterious Marlon from Florence may even be there, but who knows! He’s very mysterious haha
So I come to Lisbon, and met up with two friends I made in Nice 5 weeks ago–Luke & Vlada ?
Upon checking in, I bump into German Matt who I partied with in Sevilla…
Then, at a bar in town some girl taps me on the shoulder and goes “you’re Sean from Genoa right?! We had dinner together” lol
And to top it all off, in the same night I bump into Brazilian Marlon from Florence, who was just going about his business buying condoms in town
?????
Mama, who owns the hostel, cooked us all dinner last night and it was lush! Proper home cooked meal followed by a pub crawl a as usual.
Another late one with a great bunch, after a walkabout in Triana.
Caught the Flixbus to Faro Portugal for one night, I really felt like I needed the gym and a quiet night so booked in at the very fancy 3HB Hotel.a
A solid 1 hour session in the hotel gym then an awesome meal: trilogy of mushrooms and my first Amberjack fish which tasted lush.
Hot shower, chill time on the rooftop bar and a good sleep in a king-size bed, so much room after weeks of little hostel beds haha!
I had a nice lie in until around 9:30 then got up and made scrambled eggs for breakfast; lesson for next time is always grab some eggs and fruit on the first day in a hostel.
I went to Real Alcazar this morning, spent two hours walking around there and taking it in–it’s so unreal how beautiful that place is, I think it may be one of the best things I’ve seen so far.
Took a nice free walking tour around the city this morning with Florien and met some cool Canadian guys.
Followed that up with a canal cruise and generally enjoying this gorgeous city.
Went out for a big tapas meal with Sebastian (USA), my new room mate. Then it’s drinking games on the cool rooftop terrace that this hostel has.
Then finally off to a funky canal-side open air bar for a few more drinks and a little dancing.
I booked myself some tickets for Real Alcazar the next morning, it’s meant to be amazing + it’s a Game of Thrones filming location.
Travel day, here we go. 14:00 bullet train to Sevilla. The usual reading books & drinking wine to pass the time on the train.
Checked into Hostel One Catedral (very nice) and had a little walk around nearby, this place is truly gorgeous! The weather is still mega hot too, something like 34° whilst back home autumn is setting in.
A proper authentic local flamenco show, I didn’t quite follow it but it was cool to watch. Some good bonding time with the hostel chicos 🙂
We then hit up rooftop cocktails, then a few bars and did a lot of dancing in Bar 1987,a proper cool 80s bar–Barry Croston would’ve loved it
I did an Irish Exit, or Backdoor Breckers, and was in bed by 02:00
I was very tired this morning, but pumped myself up and went for a walk about. I checked out the Palace up close, and had a wander around the crypts.
Jeff from the hostel WhatsApp group shouted out for people to check out the cable car ride down to the huge Parque Casa de Campo. A little walk around with lunch and beers before getting the metro back, all of us pretty tired from last night.
And yes, here we go again: another night out!
The hostel folks made some really nice sangria for us, we played some drinking games and then went to Icon nightclub. I left at a very sensible 01:30 for a change
Mihaela from Tourstilla gave a group of us an excellent tour around Madrid this morning! Lots of great detail about the city and its history. She recommended a great barber shop for my haircut, and a great place to get a Boccadillo de Calamari. I tried one and it was lush.
Max (Montreal) and I went to the San Miguel Mercado for dinner and pre-drinks. The food there was top notch! Pricey but good, a fantastic market with good vibes.
Then a heavy night out in the bars, then with some of the guys to gay bar with a sick drag show. The drag queen pulled me on stage and we did Celine Dione Titanic, it was a whole crazy thing haha.
A super late night ?
Going to Madrid a day early, about a 4 hour train ride and only €10 extra for first class; I need me that extra leg room!
Spent the morning chilling with some folks in the hostel, talking about travel plans and the Camino pilgrimage routes. Then went down to the maritime museum, everything else is closed pretty much. There’s been a lot of public holidays wherever I go, looks like the UK is pretty short on those too ?
The train ride was pretty nice, watched the first few episodes of Rings of Power and had a couple of drinks.
Tapas with the hostel folks then a few drinks in an Irish bar, I opted not to hit the club today! Sungate One hostel is really cool.
A lot of people here are doing the Camino de Santiago hike across Spain, I’ve never heard of it before; it looks like an awesome mission and I’d love to do it by bike.
It’s a windy day but still nice out, I took an early morning light hike up to Magdalena Peninsula.
After lots of walking this morning, up the funicular too, and a few small beers (purchased en espanol again ?) I’m spending the afternoon with a very touristy bus trip. These are really handy for finding cool places to visit properly later on.
Ferry over to a gorgeous secluded beach, El Puntal I think. Clothing appears to be optional! ?
