3 meter waves...nbd

Today was quite the experience...

We had 3 meter waves which are roughly 9ft, craziest conditions so far. Our instructors told us today that they would be huge and they were not kidding. You would walk out into the water and it would be ankle deep one minute and the next it's way over your head. This morning was a little less big because the tide was just coming it but once we went back this afternoon the tide was all the way in. Which ment crazy rip tides and currents. It was even hard to stand up the waves were so strong today, you would see one coming at you and want to catch it but couldn't because you couldn't turn around in time. You know the waves are strong when they hit your rib and stomach area and it hurts.

I am continuing to love Portugal, the people here are so friendly and they ALL speak English! I will most defentily be coming back here in the summer, not that where we live is a boring town but there is so much closed for the winter season that it looks like it would be a very happening place in the summer. Where we live is full of houses but apparently they are people's summer homes, who live in Lisbon. It would be the best place to have a summer home, there are so man beaches and bars its crazy. There are 18 beaches in this area to surf at, so if the winds are not quite right at one beach all you have to do is drive a few minutes to another one where the conditions could be completly different it's awesome. So far we have only surfed at one beach out in Piniche which us 13km from where we live, even though there is a beach out front we could use. However those waves are usually if not always to big for beginner surfers.

Rainy day

For all you Nova Scotians the saying goes like this, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

Well I thought our weather changed in NS a lot but that is not thr case, here in Portugal the weather changes so often it's mind boogleing, today we surfed in high winds, terenchal down poor, sun, and fog. You name it and it happend today. The wind was good this morning because it was off shore, but this afternoon it switched to northwest which was not ideal for people who are beginners because the waves re huge. I got taken out by many waves this afternoon session because they were so big.

This morning session was fantastic, I got up in the board almost every time. We switched to smaller boards this afternoon and for some reason the afternoon sessions don't go well for me, I guess it must be because I'm so tired. I'm pretty sure our afternoon coach Mario thinks I can't surf because I always suck when were with him. Another positive note about this morning is we had our video correction, which was really cool because we got to watch our self surf.

The afternoon was a little rough because it was really cold and rainy, but a hot shower does the trick. However it would be better if the drain the the shower drained, you get half way done ur shower without shaving i might add and the water overflows into the bathroom floor.

Like i said the weather changes so much here that the picture I'm posting will look nothing like the rest of the day.

Surf camp adventure

Sorry guys I have been without Internet for a few days, out house was saposed to have it but doesn't.

We made it to Portugal safe and sound, we started surfing the day after we got here, and we booth stood up on our first day! It's really hard and tiring but it's so fun, I can see how people get addicted to surfing I love it.

A few down sides is that our house doesn't have heat, and it's not super warm here in Portugal I mean its 15 degrees but not warm enough to heat out house, we have two little space heaters that we keep in our bedroom but the rest of the house is freezing. We have a fire place downstairs but it doesn't head the house and only heats the room it's in a little, we have a little cushion and blanket nest set up in front of it so we can sit down there at night and not freeze. We also don't have a dryer and Olay have one towel and we surf 4 hours a day and shower...it's a little tricky and since there's t heat in the house our stuff doesn't dry everyday. We are also the only ones at the surf school right now I was kind of hoping I meet some new people.

On the up side we surfing is absolutely awesome, and our instructors are awesome. There not very much older then we ate if at all. The speak very good English here in Portugal, we have had no problems with communicating with anyone at all. We mentioned our hard time in Madrid with no English speaking people and the ppl here in Portugal said they are all like that and if they go to Spain and try and speak to them they can't. Which is pretty crazy since thy are the same continent. I can't believe how tired and sore I am from surfing, I have a huge bruise on my side and one on my bum from slamming into the sand, which happens quite frequently.

Tomorrow we start with smaller boards, still foam but a lot shorter which in hoping will make it easier for me to get my feet in the right place. They say it will help with where my feet go but it won't float as much and the big board which will be a little harder. But I'm up for the challenge, this is the first sport I've done where I haven't gotten crazy frustrated or annoyed that I couldn't do it. It takes a very high level of paticen waiting for waves, it's crazy how big they are and the water is warmer then our water in the summer time which is great! It's around 15 or 16 degrees which is cold but not bad. The wet suites we have are awesome so we don't get cold, except our hands and feet.

Barcelona in a day

Who says you can't see Barcelona in a day? We managed to fit in all of thr tourist things to do in one day. We left our apartment in Madrid at 3:30 in the morning and got to Barcelona at 7:45. 

We started our day off great despite having to be up so early, we got to the Barcelona airport and went right to the tourist desk, it's so much easier to fly when you don't have luggage to check and pick up. We asked how to get to the Sagrada Familia and they explained it very well in English might I add, so we took the airport bus and then took the subway and found it no problem. This church is probably the most imposing, beautiful, undiscrible structure I have seen so far. They were doing a ton of construction on this church when we got there, we just assumed since it was so old that it needed up keep, but apparently it was never actually finished. The construction begun in the 1800's and won't be finished until 2030! Talk about an on going project. 

After the church we decided we should go back to one of the stops we passed when we were on the bus, called Plaza de Espanya it had some really cool buildings, a huge art museum which we didn't go in but looked like it was once a  palace. We also seen the magic fountain but it was emptied for cleaning :( after this we went to find our hostel, that's right we stayed in a hostel and it was great! It was called the Sant Jordi hostel, I would recommend it to anyone. It was safe, clean, and had a great location. 

Once we were all checked in we went to our room which we shared with 6 other people, and mapped out our attack on the city. We picked three things we really wanted to do. One of which was the Casa Batllo, its a house designed and lived in by Antoni Gaudi, which was also the architect of the church we went to. The house was amazing, it was complete inspired by water and the ocean, it was the most original article the I've ever seen in a house. I might add here that it took us a good solid hour to find this place because we took the subway and then had to map it out, we stopped at the Starbucks so I could get something , we decided instead of walking around make we would ask the people there, we did and so we followed her directions which...weren't right. We walked back to our original spot and then low and behold we found it!

We were going to go to another church which also had gothic architecture but we didn't have time. So we went to the largest aquarium in Spain. It was pretty awesome we seen tons of fish we have never seen before. On the way to the aquarium we seen on a map that there was a cool monument and a few neat buildings not far from it so we did that first. All in all it was a great adventure to Barcelona! I might add here that a lot more people who spoke English in Barcelona, which was helpful when needing to get around. 

Another subway adventure

Today Kristy and I decided to go to this zoo called Faunia. All seemed to be ok we googled how to get there, got really good directions from this blog online, or so we thought they were good directions.

We took the subway until we couldn't take it any further.  We went to leave the subway and we had to pay to get out of the metro station! what the heck! so after paying 4 euros to get out of the station We went up onto the street to which looked a hell of a lot like the ghetto, it was pretty sketchy looking, but we went with it and decided to try and find this place. We read our directions but couldn't for the life of us find the street we needed. After walking around for an hour we decided to stop at the gas station and ask for directions. The women we asked didn't speak good English but seemed intent on trying to help us which was good. She wasn't 100% sure how to get there so she asked a customer. He knew but didn't speak English also, no big deal we've gotten pretty good at understanding things even if its not our language. It turns out we were not at the right subway stop. So we hoped back into the subway and got off on the right stop. We asked the attendant how to get to the zoo, he explained very well and we found it no problem!

We went through the whole zoo and it was a pretty big let down, we thought there was an aquarium but there wasn't. There was a few cool things about it but it wasn't as good as the other one. We got to see a manatee, and had monkeys just run around us which was pretty cool. And they did do a good job on there rainforest. We also seen a sealion show which was pretty good, they were cute.

After taking 4 different subways today to get to the zoo, and to get home I can honestly say I did not feel remotely sick or passoutish, I think it had a lot to do with the alcohol in my system last time, not that I had a lot I only had one drink but still, I feel as though since I didn't even feel a little sick today on the subway it had to be something like that. Rocking the motion sickness bands today.

Hard Rock Cafe

Kristy and I decided to have a lazy day yesterday, which is why I didn't write anything in my blog until today. We decided since we had a lazy day that we would go to the Hard Rock Cafe. We google mapped it and found out which subway stop we needed, all was well we got off at the stop and what was most defintally the most confusing stop we've been to so far. We even had a hard time finding our way out of the subway station. It was a huge, after we finally managed to find our way out of it and when we got above ground we realized it wasn't going to get any easier. 

The stop we were at was a huge high end mall complex that went about a million different ways. We figured we would walk around it and see if it the restaurant was around it somewhere. We couldn't get all the way around so we decided to go through the mall. We found an information booth, we decked to stop and ask for some help. We asked where the Hard Rock Cafe was and she directed us upstairs which ended up just being more stores. So we found our way out of the mall and walked around the whole thing which I might add was huge and took forever. At this point we still couldn't find it so we decided to stop at another information stop where he proceed to tell us we were not in the right place and needed to take a bus. We decided to give up for the night on that restaurant and go somewhere else. Which led us to TGIFridays...

All was well we ate then left and got on the subway, let me just through in subways usually don't brother me. We got on and I was standing there and all of a sudden felt like I was going to pass out. I told Kristy that's how I felt and so needless to say I passed out on subway...

I'm am completely fine and have no idea why the hell I passed out, the only thing I can guess was motion sickness. Everyone on the subway was really nice they let me sit down and someone gave me a bottle of water, then the same lady who gave me the water gave me this herbal thing to rub on my hand and smell which made me feel way better. Then I noticed she was also sitting there smelling it which lead me to think people must pass out on the subway all the time is she carries that with her. I also think it has something to do with the heat, it's always hot on the subway and sometimes I don't do we'll with heat. 

Chocolate galore

Kristy and I decided to go to this chocolate restaurant called, chocolatier valor, all was well we found it no problem. We ordered creeps, hot chocolate, and this frozen chocolate dessert. Everything looked so good. We eat our creeps and then went to try the frozen dessert. And to our surprise there were maggots    On top of it...that's right MAGGOTS!  Wtf how is there maggots in a frozen chocolates dessert with chocolate balls on top. I cut open one of the chocolate balls and there was another maggot inside it. There were inside all the chocolate balls.

Now at a regular English speaking restaurant his would have been no problem we could have complained and got it taken off our bill. But at last were in spain and everyone knows we don't speak good Spainish. But being the crafty ladies we are we took the dessert up to the the counter and shows the waitress. She took it off the bill and  apologized and told us she would look out for it again. So glade we did not have to pay for it.

So we decided we needed to turn our crappy day around, so we went to the mall...I am seriously disappointed by the fashion in Madrid. I thought Being the fashion capital of Spain shopping would be great. Every store we went into today was a mess, and everything was cheap material.  And for me to not find anything to buy at a mall is saying something.

We decided to quite while we were ahead and go home. We stopped at the grocery store and rice was one of our dishes tonight. I decided to get some soya sauce for a little flavour. I put it on my rice and it tasted like alcohol. Now I know what your thinking, how did she know it was soya sauce if she doesn't speak Spanish. Well it was the exact same stuff we have at home. I got Kristy to smell it and she agreed it smelled like alcohol. I guess it must have been bad I don't know.

On a side note Kristy and I ate officially addicted to greys atatomy.

Rainy day

Our first rainy day, we've been pretty lucky so far with the weather, although it hasn't been any warmer then 9 everyday.

We went to the largest art museum in Spain, it was called the museo nacional del prado. It was the biggest art museum I've ever been in, it's on the same scale as the museum of national history in NYC. In case anyone has ever been there. We didn't end up seeing it all because it got a little over whelming and all the paintings started to look the same after a while.

I can honestly say did not miss the smell of smoke being out near the mountains yesterday,as soon as we walked outside today low and behold people were walking in front of us smoking. Oh we'll thems the breaks of European life.

We are seriously getting good at use the subway, I can honestly say the subways here are a lot easier to use then they were in NYC, even though they are not in English. They are labeled better, the maps make more sense and the digital screens down by the subway tell you how long untl the next train which is awesome. And damn were good every time we get down to he subway it's usually no more then a minute wait,even though the max wait it only eight minutes.

We ate MacDonalds today for supper, man it is way more expensive here and they ration the ketchup! They only give you two little packets. Who can eat a ton of French fires with that little but of ketchup. We were going to ask for more ketchup but didn't know how and they didn't speak every good English and neither of us understood. At this McDonald's if you order your meal at the counter they only take cash, but they have the easy check outs where you order your own meal and you can pay with credit and debit.

Animal crackers in my soup

We went to the zoo today, def the best zoo I've ever been to. It was huge and had a ton of different animals. We got to see pandas,  giraffes, hippos, that's right hippos my life is complete! Oh and dolphins. We also got our picture take with the dolphin named angel. Probably the coolest things I've ever done. I also got slobered on by a sea lion, we got a picture with jones the sea lion  he was huge! We also seen sharks! And lots of different kinds too.

Officially become a greys atatomy watcher,it's the only thing on in English besides desperate house wives. And I'm totally getting sucked into greys, I never thought this day would come.

I really don't think I'm going to get used to the amount people smoke around here, you can't walk down the street without being chocked out by smoke, it's gross. However I'm going to have to try and get used to it because its a European thing, and its gong to be like that in every country we visit. It was nice to go out to the zoo and park with fresh air and no one smoking. Not only is the smoke a problem but the car exhaust is pretty bad too.

Kristy and I are finding it a little easier to get around and speak to people now, at least in our neighbourhood. The lady we buy our veggies from knows us now because we're there everyday and she try's to help us with our Spanish. She says things in Spanish then tells us in English and we repeat, I said to kristy today we should tell her we will teach her English and she can teach us Spanish.

Well I've finally broken down and eaten meat with ketchup, we didn't have anything to cook our chicken tonight so we had to buy ketchup to put on our meat. I can't stand the taste of naked meat. Or meat in general really so ketchup is always a must at my house, even on steak. I really don't even know why I bother to eat meat if I don't like the taste of it at all.

Sorry for the short blog tonight, I am pooped.

Egyptian temple

Today we went to an Egyptian temple it was called templo de debod, it was give to Spain as a thank you gift. However we got there today and Mondays is the only day it's not open, go figure. So after looking at that and taking some pictures we decided to try and find this other palace, which did not go so well. It took us a while to find it but when we did it was a let down. Not very impressive so we decided to look for something else to do.

We went on the subway for the first time today in Madrid, were pretty much masters at the subways going to NYC helped for sure. We had no problems it was super easy to understand and get around in, even though it was not in English.

After the subway we went to plaza mayor again where we decided to get some lunch. I had a random combination of eggs, bacon which I might add wasn't cooked, and French fries. Kristy decided to try Spain's local dish called tapas. She has a little more luck with her meal than I did. We have managed to order or meals with no problem both times we went out for food, although we don't know how to ask for the check and they don't just bring it you have to ask, what did we do when we got home? Googled how to ask for it in Spanish.

We're still finding it tricky to figure out what time the things are open during the day, it really varys between business's and what part if town were in it seems. Most business's shut down everyday anywhere between 2 and 5. It must be weird working from 10 to 2 and then going home and coming back in to work the rest of the evening.

The picture here is of the gas satiation near our apartment, there really good at saving space here, the gas stations are even under buildings. Car dealerships are also located under buildings like this gas station.

Largest flea market in Spain

Today we went to the largest flea market in Spain. There was so many people everywhere. One thing we have learned quite quickly was that there streets here make so sense at all. They go in every different direction and there not on a grid which means there all on diagonals. There are also a ton of roundabouts everywhere. Every plaza has one.

I wold not want to have to try and park in this city, every place to park involves parallel parking, and they park so close together I'm not quite sure how they ever even get out of the parking space, unless they waited for the other people parked near them to move. Although if you drive a scooter which the majority of people do, you can park right on the sidewalks. And in a few instances people even park there cars of the sidewalks. I might want to ass here that when I'm referring to sidewalks thru are the size of our streets on each side, so there is tons of space.

I am absolutely loving the amount of history in this city, every plaza we come across has some sort of monument or old building. The architecture here is so unlike anywhere in North America, it's so detailed and beautiful. Even the apartment buildings are pretty.

On another note I managed to find real milk! And it doesn't smell like feet or taste weird, which means I can have cereal with milk tomorrow morning. The last few days I have been eating dry cereal for breakfast. I mean its not the worst thing in the world but I'm pumped for real milk. We also found more grocery stores which look a little more appealing then the one we have been shopping in.

Adventure day!

Well today started of interesting, I was sitting here watching tv and Kristy was blow drying her hair...

Note to self breakers will trip if your doing two things and once. Apparently in old apparent buildings in Spain if your running to many appliances at one your power will go off...who knew?

Today even though I am still sick we decided to go adventure...

We seen lots of cool things today, and also encountered people who spoke English, apparently if you go more into the city centre the more people who speak English. Today we went to two churches and the royal palace.

The first church we went to was called catedral de la almudena, it was absolutely amazing.  We were allowed to take pictures in this one but not in the other one. The painting on the ceiling were breath taking and the size of it was incredible. This church is one of the biggest crypts in Madrid. The tombs were on the floor which meant we had to walk on top of graves. Something kristy nor my self was quite comfortable with. There was over 400 columns in this particular church. There was also a baptism going in while we were there. The picture is this church.

The next stop on our adventure was the royal palace, palacio real de Madrid. We were not allowed to take photos inside which we did not know until we got yelled at for doing so. The palace was huge it is hard to images people actually living in a place that size. There was a whole room made out of porcelain, I mean the walls were covered in it from floor to ceiling. We got to see where the king and queen would sit and tons of other cool rooms, and the explanations were in English!

Last but not least the last church we seen today was called, San Francisco el grande, it was beautiful the painting and detail were even more amazing then the first church, however the other one was known for its columns. We were not allowed to take pictures inside this one either. I wish we were because the beauty was indescribable.

On a side note we found a Starbucks today, and a bakery that was absolutely amazing. Best food ever! We will def be going back.

Bread and milk

After our walk to find milk we have finally concluded that milk here is not kept in the fridge it's kept on the shelf...

It's ultrapasturized which means it has a longer shelf life then milk at home. So far I have not been brave enough to try it, it smells a little like feet and apparently someone in the military called it dog milk which to me does not sound appetizing. I think I'm going to go through withdrawal because I drink a lot of milk.

We also went to find bread which is crustless and looks like cardboard. It's a little gray in Color too, so we continued on to find better looking bread. The other night while outside we seen a young girl walk by with a loaf if bread which looked like it was from a bakery which led us to try and find it. We found it but it was closed. Still in need if bread we decided t hit up a little cafe by the hotel we stayed in, which low and behold had baguettes!

On our journey to find these things we came across and gas station which was located under and apartment building. It was probably the strangest thing I've ever seen, talk about saving space. The gas station was open to the street so you could just drive in but it had apartments on top of it. Another strange site... Car dealer ships are also in apartment buildings on the bottom, who knew?

One good thing we did find at the grocery store....golden grams! Which I might add is my all time favourite cereal which you can't buy in Canada anymore. The only wish is milk that didn't smell like feet.

Apartment life

Well we made it to our apartment safe and sound. It's as nice as it was in the pictures and the people were very friendly.

Today we moved in and went for groceries  to find out the grocery store didnt sell milk, and the bread they sold was crustless and scary looking.  We bought a few things including pizza. We went to cook and low and behold we couldn't figure out how to work the oven...with a few attempts we finally realized we had to turn the timer on in order for the oven to turn on.

Our next task...find out where we can buy bread and milk

Wlcome to Europe

Let the good times keep comin

Well this has certainly turned out to be quite the adventure so far. Not only did every one of our flights get delayed but one so much so we had to rebook our flight.

Finically we have made it safe and sound to Madrid, Spain.

Upon arriving it took us a good hour to get to our luggage because the airport was so huge, although nothing compared to the heathrow airport we were at hours before. I'm so glade we didn't have to pick our luggage up until we got to our finial destinations.

Once done at the airport we contined on to our new home, with a cab driver that spoke no English. Guess who's doing a crash course in Spanish? Once we arrive to our apartment we wait around hoping the people show up that are renting us the apartment, but to our luck no one showed. We were in a pretty popuated area so I figured let's go ask someone where we can get wifi, but low and behold....no one spoke English. Needless to say I got really good at the phrase habla inglis? At this point we figure we better find some where to stay. We flagged down and can which did not speak English I figure by this me I wold have learned that its not going to be that easy. Just at the point of giving up And walking around until we found something we find a travel agency, yay someone spoke English. We found a hotel contacted our rapt meant people and now we are snuggles up in our room trying to get used to the time change.

Let the adventures continue!

Starting our adventure

We have finally started off on our adventure, we are currently sitting in the Toronto airport waiting for our connecting flight to England. So far so good.

Bring on the jet leg

Should be interesting getting used to a 6 hours time difference, how long do you think it will take?

There will be more posts to come, stayed tuned! 

Leaving on a jet plane

Leaving tomorrow at 3:20

I can't believe after a year of waiting my trip has finally come.

I am so excited for many adventures and life experiences.

Bring it on Europe I'm ready!

Yikes!

7 days!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap  I cannot believe that its only 7 days until we leave.

I started packing today however I feel as though I will have to pack and re pack a few more times before im set. I don't know how im going to pack for 6 months. It's going to be one heavy suite case. Lets hope I don't go over weight!

SO EXCITED!!!!!!:D