No Madrid for You

Sunday, August 21, 2011 Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast with other hostel dwellers in the kitchen on the main floor. We had really nice conversations with two guys from the UK and one girl from Paris (redeeming on behalf of the group the night before who basically laughed in our faces). Checkout was at noon, so we kept our bags at the hostel and left for the beach, which was a 30-minute metro ride. The coast was beautiful (the Atlantic from the other side!!), but didn’t really hold a candle to the riverfront in terms of being picturesque. Still incredibly enjoyable, and we had a pleasant lunch at a café in the sand. Finally using the Eurail we’d invested in, we said bye to Porto and took the train to Lisboa, where we were going to get an overnight train to Madrid. But when we got to Lisboa, they told us there were only 2 seats on the train. And there are 4 of us. Which meant an impromptu stay in the capital of Portugal. …Life could be worse. Luckily the train station had wifi, so we found an affordable place near the city center and called them from a payphone. They had a room! We took a taxi to the Equity Point Hostel- Lisbon, which ended up being super swank and amazing. The guy who checked us in spoke perfect English and told us he spent a lot of time in California. Because it was 11 PM or so by the time we were settled, most restaurants were closed. So, we headed to a mini food mart, where we bought eggs, cheese, rolls, and fruit. We used the hostel’s kitchen, and I cooked us some eggs ☺. We chatted late into the night and enjoyed the beds we slept in and the perfect pressure of the showers.