Ola Portugal!

Hi, sorry havent posted for a few days, but have arrived safe and without-much-sleep in Portgual. I cant upload photos at this hostel (Bugger!) but will fill you in on Portugal craziness:

Porto- So I flew into Porto and couch surfed with a fantastic girl call Catarina, who also had a guy from Argentina, Joan, couch surfing with her, but kindly agreed to have me too! OMG she was SOO nice, cooking dinner for us on the first night while Joan and I went out to the nearby pub to watch the Manchester vs Porto football match that was in Porto that night! The next day was POURING rain in the morning, but fined up in the afternoon. Went to the local fresh produce market (becoming a regular habit of mine), then walked around the town for the rest of the morning. Porto is SOOO beautiful! Think winding narrow streets climbing up the hillsides form a blue blue river and think PIRATES!!! Full on, I had these fantasies of Johnny Depp sailing in all day!
On the other side of the river are HEAPS of wine cellars, the home of Port wine, so OF COURSE I HAD to do a tour. Was great cause I checked out a few of the cellars (they all offer tours and tasting, but at different prices and different lengths), and rather than going into the first and most touristy one, I went into Ramos Pinto, which I thought was the most beautiful (with wisteria all flowering around the doorway and a vast tasting room of dark wood furniture and deep green cushions), I paid 2 euro rather than 4, and got a 45 minute tour, rather than 20 minute, which included all the original offices of the excentric founder of the company, the underground cave cellars, an explanation of how port wine is made and the different types and tastings. AWESOME!!!!
So that kindov ate up, or drank up, my day. I met Catarina, Joan and Catarina's roommate, Bruno that evening for dinner, then stayed out drinking till about 4ish, watching the freshmen at Porto university run around and around. Actually, I should probably tell that by the end of the night, I was not feeling crash hot, not from drinking cause I didnt drink THAT much, but was getting a cold :(

Guimaraes- The next day I was feeling pretty crappy, but thanked Catarina for a great time and had planned to head to Braga for the day, then Guimaraes in the evening. Was pouring rain and I managed to get lost just trying to find the station OUT of Porto, not cool, and felt rather drained from carrying my huge pack, so decided to give Braga a miss and head to Guimaraes, a small town north and inland from Porto. When I got to Guimaraes, I was very happy to find that the dorm room I booked had no one else staying in it! Yay! So after walking around the town (lovely medieval town with a 10th century castle and 16th century palace, and craft markets) I racked up the heater, threw heaps of blankets on and had an early night.

Coimbra- Felt SOOOOO much better the next day and after walking around the town a little more in the morning, headed to Coimbra. Coimbra is the original university city of Portugal, built in the late 17th century, and still has HUGE uni student lifes! Again, it was pouring rain when I got there, so with wanting to go out that night (had been told that Coimbra has among the best nightlife in Portugal), I headed straight to the hostel, where I met Hal straight away, a mid-30s guy from the US who had hired a car, and was heading to Lisboa, or Lisbon the next day, so 15 minutes after meeting him, we organised that I would get a ride with him to Lisbon and split the costs for that day. Great, and cheaper than getting the train, which are actually rather expensive here!
Very soon after, met 3 guys from Portugal, 1 from Argentina and 3 girls from Lithawania. Hal had a guitar and sang quite well and the guy from Argentina had an AWESOME voice (we're talking spanish balads, girls... Hmmm...) so we all just hung out all avo, with the rain coming down outside, passing the guitar around and singing.
We did this threw till about 2am, with dinner thrown in there somewhere, THEN headed out to Tapas Bar, which was actually this fantastic bar/nightclub, which alternated between well known dance songs and Portugese or Spanish rock songs, so got a taste of everything, which was great! Danced the night away and got home about 5,5.30ish...
This morning I got going about 9ish, walking around the lovely town of Coimbra. The old university is STUNNING, on the top of the hill with views over the town and river. I went into the Library, built in the early 18th century. Gorgeous, with intricate gold baroke decorations EVERYWHERE! One interesting thing I read about was the ways in which the books (from 16th, 17th and 18th century) are protected from decay in the library. For instance, the walls being 2.11 metres thick and the wood of the shelves giving out an odour that deters insects, but the REALLY cool bit was that there is apparently a colony of bats living in the ceiling of the library, which each night fly about INSIDE the library and eat any insects that do manage to get inside. So EVERY evening, the caretakers have to cover all the furniture and carpets and each morning they clean the WHOLE library before opening. Apparently the library alone is heritage listed, and this is apparently what you do for love of heritage listed things!

Lisbon- So this afternoon I got a lift with Hal to Lisbon, a good 3 hour drive, and now I am sitting here writing to you! So thats my stay in Portugal so far. I should say that the countryside also is STUNNING! So green! And they people particularly have been SOO nice, like oh-you-look-lost-Ill-walk-you-to-your-hostel nice!
Tomorrow am TRYING to sort out some visa stuff (Yuck yuck YUCK!), then checking out the city. For those who dint know, Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and apparently has among the BEST nightlife in all of Europe (a BIG call), so may need to check that out, but tomorrow night, cause tonight I am DEFINITELY crashing early :)

Okay all my loves, sending endless hugs and love and hope you are all well and smiley and having fun in each of your varying lives. If people get time, please write me a comment, I LOVE to read them and hear about stuff from home. Even the most simple things are lovely to read about (these days I get excited about being able to wash my clothes! So Im easily pleased).

Love Love Love Love Love Love Love!!!!!!