Lisbon, primeira noite; estreia.

Plan for today's to pack things up and head out for Lisbon. I hanged around the common room for awhile and met more people. The Hostel was picking up again. New crowd was moving in. If you ever go Madrid, The Way hostel is good times. Steve-Yiota and I headed toward the station. We had a long night train ahead of us. Steve and I were in the same cabin and Yiota was booked in the one next to us. This was kind of weird since they both had requested to be in the same cabin. Once we got the station, we found out that we were on Jesus Express and that guys and girls actually slept in different cabins. Not to worry though, boys and girls both got to drink at the same bar.

We head out to the bar on the train along with two Norwegian girls who were cabin-mates with Yiota. We slammed back a few Portuguese beers and chatted away. I was impressed by the Portuguese and their openness to speaking English. The Spanish and the French are somewhat reluctant to the idea. We headed back to the cabins pretty late and passed out. Next morning we were in Lisbon.

We cabbed it to the Hostel. The city was quiet, it was still too early for the tourists, gypsies and the locals to come out. We made it to the Hostel, it was quiet and the staff were getting ready for breakfast. As I'm writing this I've stayed in more than seven different hostels and Lisbon Lounge is easily the best one when it comes to style, atmosphere, staff, breakfast and just being cool. After breakfast I moved in to my room and relaxed.

Around lunch time I came down to the kitchen and met Katy. A masters students from Montreal. She had been traveling through Portugal and was going to be in Lisbon for awhile. She too was a lone traveler and made a perfect candidate for my random adventures. After lunch we headed out, walking through the streets of Lisbon, dodging gypsies selling drugs, taking pictures, absorbing as much sun as possible and relaxing by the beach. After a long day of sightseeing we head back to the hostels, had a few drinks and chatted politics.

Great night in Lisbon.