A la Praia!

After a wasted day in Lisbon (got to the bus station only to find out there wasnºt a bus for 5 hours and I was just too lazy and tired to try and go back into the city and figure out something to do!), I headed to Nazare for a beach day. It was definitely a beach resort town, but a Portuguese one. A little overdeveloped for my taste, but a pretty beach, fun beach town, and some interesting Portuguese things.

Once we got to the bus, the little ladies in their traditional dress descended, "Chambre, rooooom, cuarto?" I wish I had a picture of the outfits they all wear, it has something to do with an old traditional of wearing 7 petticoats, but now itºs just ladies in bright short skirts with a bunch of layers underneath. Or in all black -- if my husband died, I would be cursing him every summer day! Apparently the ladies own ALL the real estate in this town and spend their days trying to rent their rooms! Luckily, I had met a couple on the bus who already had a place picked out so headed off with them...somehow the lady that we were renting from recognized us on the street and led us off to a very nice room - with TV!, well portuguese TV -- for 20€ a day, not bad. The city also has FABULOUS seafood -- all the restauraunts have the live or nearly live fish out front (and buckets of clams squirting you as you walk by). And there seem to be women with buckets of fish selling them everywhere and fish drying or dried fish for sale all over the place...maybe one day in my life I will try one...hmmm, next time!

Yesterday I hit the beach and got a horrible burn on my legs...am hurting today...I was smart enough to put sunscreen elsewhere, but didnºt remember that my legs havenºt seen the sun in a long while!

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I havenºt found as good of internet access in portugal and havenºt been able to get the pictures off the camera! I will post a new map of my journey though!

Today I am in Coimbra - portugal´s university town. Iºm really tired and loving spending some time on the internet, but hope to hit the sites here and then go to Porto tonight for some Port sampling...we´ll see, I might end up here!

I think that is all for now, thanks for continuing to tune in!