First week in Portugal

Well we made it. We started in Lisboa and stayed in a youth hostel for the first two nights and explored the area. We´ve been walking about 2-5 miles a day and seeing as much as possible. In Lisboa we visited the world´s largest oceanarium similar to the Monterey aquarium. It even had a monterey section with otters and kelp and stuff. The area around the oceanarium is very developed with theaters and jetties and gondolas, cafes, natural parks, waterways, malls, and of course all stone roads. I think they´re alibaster stone but the color is yellowish white. This first picture is of Pink near the oceanarium connected to a sculpture behind him is a theater for concerts and flags of the world. The second picture is of PinkLes at the airport after Judi dropped us off at SFO. The pre-trip glow. We realized we have been doing lots of video and not enough digital pictures so hopefully the next blog will be more picturesque.

These Pictures are of Us at the Palacio de Pena. A castle originally built in the 1100´s and kept alive til today. We went on an extensive tour all over the grounds including the beautiful gardens. And just down the hill is another ancient castle the Moors built in the ninth century. This castle is the picturesque stone ruins of a castle after wars and lumps of rubble not as kept up as the Palacio de Pena. After leaving LIsboa we went to Sintra by train a little closer to the coast. This town is cute with narrow stone streets and cafes and shops, very hilly. The bus system and train system here is great and fairly inexpensive. The palace is high in the mountains with spectacular views of the city all the way to the coast. Our portuguese is terrible and just knowing spanish has helped little. Basically we try our portuguese and they immediately speak english because it is so obvious we are foreignors. We did figure out that o´s are pronounced u´s and s´s are pronounced szshhh´s. everything is szsshhh szsshhh szshhhhh, ooooooo then some more sszzzsshhhh... We have been sleeping 10-12 hours a night and today we decided to invest in an alarm clock. Perks to being unemployed.
Find Les below.
We are now in Ericeira a rad town on the coast known as the hub of Portuguese surfing. We stayed in Sintra for 3 nights and have been here for one so far but plan on being here a while. Thus far Pink has surfed Praia Grande, Praia Pequena, and Ribeira d´Ilhas. The ocean here is a lot like Monterey color and clarity and temperature bbrrrrrrrr. Muito Fria. It is colder here than we thought but we are more than prepared and might even send a box of stuff home as carrying our loads from place to place has presented to be the biggest burden. Don´t want to hurt anyone on the bus or anything. Desculpe means sorry, didnºt mean to take you out with my backpack. Yesterday on the way to the beach, an old woman sat next to pinkºs surfboard and all the old ladies were laughing about her riding the big ones. love yºall miss yºall.