Bajamos!

Hola friends and family! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the warmer weather. I currently hate you all as the forecast for the next 10 days in Caceres is rain, rain and more rain. Last weekend I went to Lisbon, and I leave for Paris tomorrow. I thought I would update this before I leave so I don't get behind. Now, Lisbon:

Freaking fantastic city. I LOVED it. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm. I went with my friends Steph and Kayla and we could not have picked a better weekend. I am currently rocking an awesome farmer's tan. (Yeah. You know you're jealous.) We only had a day in Lisbon because the bus schedule to there from Caceres is really crappy, but it was definitely worth it. For those of you that don't know (I sure didn't anyway), Lisbon is known for its pastries. And now I know why. A-MAZ-ING. Seriously. So good. We didn't get real meals. We bought pastries. And no, we did not feel guilty.

We did a lot of walking around and sight-seeing. We went to the Torre de Belem

and the view from the top was amazing. It looked out over the river and the ocean. Very cool. The staircase to the top was tiny and narrow and winding. Which was interesting because Kayla is claustrophobic. Plus people go down and up the same staircase because it's the only way to the top. So we're going up and all the sudden we hear these little old ladies yelling from above us "Bajamos! Bajamos! Bajamos!" Now they had the right idea. It

was just this constant stream of one word- bajamos! It was hilarious. You kind of had to be there.

We went to the castle too, and oh my gosh. It is impossible to find! Seriously. It took us forever. The thing is on a hill, you wouldn't think it would be that hard to find, but oh no. Turns out they purposely made the damn thing hard to find in case of an attack. It was ridiculous. You could see it. You could look up and see the stupid thing looming over you, but you could not

find the street to get there to save your life. But we did find it. It was like a grown-up playground. Lots of towers and passages and stuff. Very fun. And there

was a wedding! It

was so pretty!

New life goal: get married at a castle in Europe. Oh, it'll happen people.

So basically Lisbon rocked. We had like 4 hours to kill at a park in Badajoz between buses so we played a Spanish card game called Jota Be. I intend to teach you all. It would make an awesome drinking game. We had a blast. It was only one day, but it was so worth it.

However. Getting there almost didn't happen. So I had emailed mine and Kayla's bus tickets to Kayla's host-mom Esther to print off. There were 2 attachments because we needed 2 sets of tickets (we had to take a connecting bus in Badajoz to get to Lisbon). Well Esther didn't see the second attachment so we just had our tickets from Badajoz to Lisbon, but not our tickets from Caceres to Badajoz. Which isn't a big deal. We can have them printed at the bus station. So we go to give the guy our names and passports and he tells us he can't print them off without our confirmation numbers. Which is a LIE because we've done it with just our names before. Several people in the group have. But the guy decided to be a total doucher and insisted we needed the number. Well we didn't have computers or internet access. Problem.

Solution. Hey! There's an info desk! So we go ask them if we can use their internet. They're like uh, can't he just use your names? We're like yeah apparently not. So they're like well we can't let you use the internet. Eff. Problem.

Solution. Call Michelle! So we call our friend Michelle and beg her to go into my email and find the ticket numbers. At this point our bus leaves in 7 minutes and there isn't another bus we can take. I give Michelle my info and she tries and tries and it won't let her log in. Turns out she thought I said B when I said D. So we figured that out. 5 minutes till departure. She's searching and can't find the email. It's in my trash. She finds the email. 4 minutes. She opens it and can't find the second attachment. She's looking and she can't find it at all. I know I attached it, I know I did. Well Michelle, thanks for trying but we're going to have to buy new tickets.

3 minutes till departure. We have our money out. Doucher (as he will from now on be known) keeps waving people ahead of us from the line. So we're like nu uh. So we ask to buy new tickets. The bus is full. FULL. The last 2 seats on the bus are ours that we don't have the numbers for. We can't buy new tickets. Kayla and I are freaking out because at this point we've both spent 65 euro to get to Lisbon. The guy behind doucher just keeps saying "Tranquilo! Tranquilo!" Calm down, calm down!

0 minutes until departure. Michelle calls. She found them!!! I'm scribbling numbers furiously on paper and Kayla is whipping them at Doucher like it's her job. And he printed our tickets. And they held the bus for us so we got to go to Lisbon. So yay. Happy ending. I'm paranoid now, though. We'll see how Paris goes tomorrow. I have the correct plane and bus tickets, and they are printed and in my bag. I'm telling you, one of these days I'm going to have a trip go smoothly...

Steph, me and Kayla