In Portugal!

I arrived safely into Lisbon yesterday afternoon after a long 19 hour period of bus rides and waiting around in random places in Madrid (like sleeping on the cold hard tiled floor of the Madrid airport and thinking wow this is actually comfortable). Vitor and his family are very nice and I am having a blast so far. Lisbon is a very pretty city and the surrounding areas are also pretty. I am staying in Venda do Pinheiro, a small village northwest of the city, in a house with AC and a bed that I actually fit in! That is the first time I have been to say unless, except my hotels, since I left the US in June. We took a trip along the coast near Lisbon to see some gorgeous landscape, including the western most point in continental Europe, cool huh? I have many great pictures and videos from here and from my last weeks in Spain that I have not uploaded but I hope to do so when I return to Raleigh next week. I know I am truly blessed not to have any transportation issues so far on this trip. Some of my friends have had disasters on their trips including the Lufthansa airline strike during their flights back to the US. I am trying to soak up everything Europe is throwing at me so far, but there is so much to learn: language, culture, history, food, etc. You name it. Even though it is inspiring, my brain will enjoy resting and hearing familiar words all the time in English.