I've seen this room: Lisbon, Portugal

First off, I would like to say that the last post was originally slated for deletion by me, but the comments made me laugh, so I'm just gonna let it sit there. I could have just added content to the existing entry, but then the comments would be out of context. I don't like things which are out of context. I prefer to leave that to those who do, such as our quality politicians, news reporters, financial forecasters, bell curve using mathematicians, and members of extreme feminist activism (I couldn't help it). All jokes aside, I sat down yesterday with the intent to write something of great quality and character. After about 25 minutes of intense writing (managed something like four and a half sentences), I looked over at what I had and made note of its terrible quality. At that exact moment, one of the hostel employees asked if I wanted to go see some interesting bars and DJ's--simple decision there.
Faro didn't have internet, Porto was a single day excursion (no time to spend writing), and now Lisbon has been keeping me extremely busy. If you've got a problem with that, I might just give some random dog posting rights for my blog. Then you can enjoy such epic blog titles as "USFUfbaelkOGFwetyJLB" and the ever popular "pv59pb9a3478BOY D."

Secondly (something completely random), I was in Porto and saw this sign. Considering my current location, all I could think of was this. I'm not sure what it is, but the ORLY bird will always crack me up.

Third-uh-ly, I have a (late) gift for my sister. Nuff said.

Alright, enough of that.
Sometimes I even amaze even myself, where I've re-read everything I've written five or six times, and still have managed to laugh out loud each time. I sometimes wonder if anyone else understands my layered humour in its full glory. In person, it's quite obvious if someone finds something funny or not, due to the laughter (or lack thereof in many cases). That being said, my strategy has evolved to "if I can make myself laugh, that's good enough." My point? Nothing really; just mindlessly typing as my brain thinks of things.

My last day in Madrid was a mixed blessing of sorts, in the form of white fluffy snow. On one end, it's snow (weeee?). On the other end, I get to see a local population explode into giddy snow ball fights, and snow man races (there was not enough snow on the ground for everyone to make one of their own). News crews were out in force, and every last soul roaming the city park had a camera in hand. It was quite interesting to see the effect of something I consider fairly tame, on a non-so-tame city.

Faro was nice (scenery wise), but kind of a bust. Not only did I visit a beach city on the off season (the weather was still amazing though), but I also managed to somehow land there one time for Saturday and Sunday, also known as the "nothing is open, and nobody is doing anything" days. My hostel was decent, but due to the lack of activities, I just kind of loafed around for the duration.
Ever since the start of my trip, I've always taken advantage of tap water and its low price tag (works well for budget travel I must say), but I think that may change from now on. I'm not sure where it all began (Madrid, or Faro), but when people say "don't drink the water" and I say "pfffft, that only applies to wussies!" They. Mean. It.

I never paid any heed to the ancient prophecies. Like a fool, I clung to the old methods, and drank water as I had for generations, until the day the sky rained fire and a new enemy came among me.

I may have only been in Porto for a single night, but I had two daylight filled days to discover what was there to see. When planning for a visit to Porto, I didn't know that the city is from which "port wine" is developed. I had plenty of wine in Porto to be sure, but I would have to say it was a wee bit strong (19.7% strong). Porto is an incredibly steep city (similar to Bergen), where many of the buildings defy the great force of gravity. Much like Madrid and Toledo (I see a pattern here), the old town road system is without any form of intelligent city planning at all. This caused me to retire my map again, which makes me sad Don't get me wrong, I love getting lost in an unknown city, but I spend a lot of time downloading proper maps for these places (yea yea, I know--complain more can I?).

Porto affirmed a theory that I had originally developed in Bruges, which is that Dutch girls are a poor influence on Canadian boys. Here I am, ready for bed (early enough to get a good start in the morning, and make use of daylight hours), when I ran into three solo-travelers from my hostel. Didn't take much to persuade me, and off we went for some bar hopping (to some spectacular bars, wow), and we eventually got back to the hostel at 03:00ish. I crashed on the bean bag chair--but not for long. In 15 minutes we were back out the door (they were the biggest cigarette addicts I've ever seen, haha), and headed out on a "whatever is open" quest. We came to a pool hall, and spent the next three and a half hours mingling with the locals. I'm going to be honest here, I just can't do this like I used too (oh how I wish I could). Like a cat with nine lives, I only had a pre-set limit of "stay up till 07:00 and sleep for 2 hours" tokens to make use of. I spent all that currency "back in the day," and only get a new one every few weeks or so. I may have been dead tired for an hour or so, but it ended up being way more fun that I anticipated. Besides, once my second and third winds came around, I was doin' fine.

My Hostel here in Lisbon is about as good as it gets. It has everything I like (free internet, breakfast, well informed employees, no hidden costs, well designed social area, comfy rooms, security lockers, bean bags, proximity to public transit hub, proximity to main sights, 24-hour reception desk, and pre-assigned evening activities to participate in), and I'm extremely impressed. The general feel of Lisbon is quite similar to Porto, but with a few, much more impressive sights to take in. The ones which I have visited so far have been Jeronimos Monastery, Belem Tower, St. George's Castle, and the (suprisingly good) Berardo Museum of Contemporary Art. The monastery had a manueline feel to it, and had a seriously shocking interior. Belem Tower is a super small castle built suspended above the water (which was super cool to see). St. George's Castle is the first proper "castle" I've taken in, and ate up a ton of my time just wandering around the turrets, walls, and courtyard. Oh, and if you're wondering why I keep subjecting myself to contemporary museums, it was free. I'm glad I went though, and was 100X better than any other contemporary museum I've been to.

Kyle-best blog ever'ing-out