Hola de Espana!

Hey Everybody! We arrived in Madrid this morning after taking a 10 hour train ride from Lisbon, preceeded by a 3 hour train ride from Porto. Steph and I slept soudly pretty much the whole way, so it didn't seem too bad, but poor Sheri-Lee had a long trip; she only slept a couple hours! The weather here was clear today and about 10-12 degrees, so cool for Spain, but nothing for us to complain about! We're staying here with Elaine and Brent Miller, connections of ours through friends in Saskatoon, and it is sooooo nice to be here in a home!! Brent is away for work today but Elaine was here to welcome us. Her condo is really big and nice- we're not even staying in bunkbeds!! One of the first things we did was put a load of laundry in :) Madrid has an amazing metro system, so today we made good use of it and found our way to Sol, the old downtown of Madrid. All of the buildings are so old and beautiful! Madrid seems richer than Portugal, but its still very much a different culture than North America. I love that the language here is Spanish, so I can understand some things, and communicate at least a little bit!! Portuguese, wow, it is so incomprehensible!
Have I talked about our time in Porto? I don't believe that I have. The best part was a boat trip down the Rio Douro. The sun was shining and everything was beautiful! A girl from our hostel named Claire made the trip with us, and so we got a 4 bed-room which was pretty fun, although compared to our amazing hostel in Lisbon the place wasn't very nice (after that and now staying at Elaine's, we are going to be completely spoiled!!)
Elaine is letting us use her Skype tonight, so I'll be calling home soon. We tried to upload some pictures earlier but they didn't work, so maybe I'll try again tomorrow? There aren't lots of people waiting for the computer here, or staring over our shoulders while we type, so I'll probably write on here again in the next couple days! We plan on spending 5 days in Madrid, maybe making a trip or two out to Segovia or Toledo. I'm getting excited to see the Prado!!!
love love love
Starr

"we're here for a good time, not a long time, so have a good time, the sun can't shine everyday...." (unless you're in Lisbon, where it does shine everyday!!!! YAY!!!) We are having the time of our lives here!! There is much to say, but I am just on my way to bed here, I just though I'd check in and tell you all that if you ever travel to Lisboa you absolutely MUST stay at the Traveller's Hostel on Rua Augusta! I feel like I'm best friends with everyone here, and I'm so sad to know that some of them are leaving tomorrow! We love it so much here, we decided to stay another night, so we'll leave here on Sunday and head to Porto. We were going to go to Lagos, but someone who has just been there told us that its really not very exciting, and quite cold. Porto is Portugal's 2nd largest city, and has quite a bit of historical stuff etc. We have booked 2 nights at a hostel there, and a girl we've met here named Claire is going to come with us if it works out. Hooray for new friends! That doesn't mean we've forgotten our old ones though, I wish you could all be here with me!
love love love
Starr

ps- i'll update you all on what we've done here when I'm not so tired. :)

So today we took a day trip out to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, which is pretty much the whole area south of Galway that is Co. Clare. It cost 16 euro, and was soooo worth it! We left at 10 this morning on a coach bus with about 25(?) other people. Our guide drove us around and told us about everywhere we went. We got to see castles, caves, dolmen (a 5000 year old stone tomb), and lots of adorable sheep, cattle, a billy goat, llamas. The highlight, however, was going to see the Cliffs of Moher! These 750 foot limestone cliffs drop straight down into the Atlantic, and they go on for.... I think 8 km. It is so breathtaking! On top, the green green grass grows and there is an ancient tower looking out over the sea. It all felt a little surreal to actually be there! Today was the first day in hasn't rained in who knows how long, so overall it was the ideal day! I finally feel that I have stood on Irish stone, walked on Irish grass, and breathed Irish wind... When you're in a city it would be easy to believe that you were in any other city on earth, but today there was no doubt that we were in Ireland! Sadly, tomorrow we have to head back to Galway to catch our flight to Lisbon which is very early Wednesday morning. You can pray that we will be able to figure out which buses etc. to take, and how to spend our day with our big packs after we check out of our hostel! The thing I am looking forward to the most about Portugal is hopefully not having to wear my long underwear to bed every night!

lots of love,
S
ps- i realize the pictures didn't work yesterday. these computers are very tempermental.

We're staying in Galway at the Claddagh hostel. We haven't gotten out to see too much of the city yet, because it has been very cold, but we did attend a little church this morning that's right down the street from our hostel. Then our little nap to warm up under the covers this afternoon turned into a 3.5 hour snooze! (oops!) But all is well; we feel that we've warmed up somewhat and we're getting used to our tiny little room. The trip to Galway yesterday was really good- it's so strange that you can cross the entire country in 2.5 hours! The train was comfortable and fast, and it was really good to get out of the city and actually see some green. The sheep are so cute!! :) Anyway, we're hoping to maybe watch a movie or something tonight, although there are 6 other ppl watching tv right now. Tomorrow we're taking a bus tour down the West coast, and I am sooooo excited for it!! It's an all day thing, only 16 euro so that's a steal of a deal (hopefully!). I hope these pics work; you should all check out Sheri and Steph's blogs for some different ones! (i can't wait to show them all to you guys with explanations!)
xoxoxox <- here's a backpack full of these (believe me, you can cram a lot into a pack)
Starr

I love Dublin

hey everyone!! Well today marks the 4th day we've been here in Dublin. It's been super fun!! Aside from getting lost alot on the south side of the Liffey river because none of the streets go north/south or east/west, our time here has been great so far! Its so much fun to just be able to do and see whatever we want! On our second night in Dublin we hung out in the hostel for a bit and played pingpong with a guy from Strasbourg named Matthieu. Then later on we went out to a pub in the Temple Bar area and heard an AMAZING little 4 piece band. (accordion, fiddle, guitar, boran!) ahhh they were so good. We went up and danced which was super fun, but unfortunately we didn't get there til later and the pubs close around midnight here so they quit playing far too soon!! (i think we heard about 25 minutes). Yesterday we wanted to go see some Irish dancing and live music, but the place wasnt' all it was cracked up to be, so we ended up going back to the same place to hear some music. We connected with my friend Riaz from Swift, who is going to med. school here. It was really fun to hang out, and he gave us some useful info like how to catch our train to Galway ( where we're going tomorrow!!!) He also got us in to see the book of Kells for free today-- so cool. During the days we've been checking out the sights (saw St. Patrick's cathedral yesterday). We've also just been buying groceries and making ourselves supper, which is super cheap and fun. Things are really expensive here, especially eating out (a typical meal costs arouns 15 euro, which is about 25 bucks. even a burger and fries from Burger King is like 6.25 euro!!) so its sweet that we can cook at our hostel. We're now staying at Abraham House which is on the North side of the river. It's really clean and our room rocks, we even have our own shower!! Must run, people are waiting for the computer....
xoxoxoxo
starr

Dublin, baby!

Well we've arrived here in Dublin! We're staying at the Avalon House hostel right downtown. This is a very cool city- kind of like downtown Vancouver except a few hundred years older. We took the bus here from the airport, and got to see a little bit of the city from the top level of the bus. We went for a walk this evening and got lost! :) We didn't mind the long walk though after sitting all day on planes and in airports. When we did find our way back, we were so tired we went right to bed (7pm) and now its 2:30 am and I can't sleep! Our room is very hot and humid. Once I got here I suddenly realized just how far away April is, and I'm a little homesick. When I think about it though, I still can't believe that I'm actually sitting in a little room in a cement basement that's painted bright blue in the middle of Dublin city!! I'm so blessed to be here, and I am excited to see how this trip unfolds. Tomorrow we're going to explore this part of the city some more, and also kind of figure out what things we want to do in the next week. We also have to find another hostel, as this one is only booked for tonight and tomorrow night and its too expensive to stay any longer. (we have a room all to ourselves, which is really nice).
Well I should try to get some sleep, I have a feeling my confused internal clock might be translating itself into a confusing and incoherent blog. :P
love you all,
Starr

5 days and counting...

I am ever so excited to head off on our journey! I have to admit I'm feeling slightly unprepared, as though I'm going to forget something crucial or do something completely dumb. I guess that's how everyone starts out though- as the inexperienced traveler. And the only way to become experienced is to just do it! Which is what we're doing!! Hooray!!! There sure is a lot to do to get ready to go, though, and lots of people to see and talk with. I know the time will fly by and we are going to have so many cool experiences! I wonder how I'll change...

~starr