I WANTED A STAMP.

I wasn't homesick for Toledo this weekend. Not one single bit. I could have stayed in Portugal for the rest of the semester, except my Portuguese is terrible, so I wouldn't have fared well. The only things I know how to say are "yes," "no," "how are you?" (TUDO BEM???), "I don't speak Portuguese" and "I'm really thirsty, would you buy me a drink?" and I don't think any of those phrases would get me very far in life. However, despite the language barrier and many thanks to our traductora Sofia, Lisboa and I got along just swimmingly.

The airport sleepover was rather uneventful. And by that I mean it lacked events. Including the event of sleeping...but it was nothing that a nap on the plane and lots of coffee for breakfast couldn't fix!

My bed in the airport. The Bacon Wallet slept fine on this bench. I, however, did not.

I think I have already discussed my fear/hatred of being labeled a tourist. But this weekend we did the activity that I would consider to be the EPITOME of tourism. We rode the red bus. Yes, the red tourist bus with the open air top level that drives around so nerds with cameras can take lame blurry pictures of random buildings while listening to an audio track that doesn't even work.

I can't believe I actually paid to ride in this thing...

And it was actually.........kind of awesome.

Since so many of the main sights in Lisbon are at opposite ends of the city, we got to see them all within a few hours, and afterwards we went back to explore the neighborhoods we liked best. It was perfect! But still, SO touristy. It took me a little bit to warm up to the idea and even the first few minutes on the bus were kind of painful, but I have to admit, it was cool. BUT my pictures were terrible! I thought I was getting better at taking pictures whilst riding a moving bus, but when I uploaded them to my computer...boy, was I wrong. They are awful so I'm only posting a few. I was going to put the link to the Facebook album on here but Facebook is being stubborn and won't let me post pictures right now. I will later, though, doooooon't worry.

After our bus tour we walked around what I think was the Bairro Alto and saw a lot of free things...the free outside of a castle, the free church, the free gorgeous view of the coast, the free view of the trolley most people pay to ride when they explore Bairro Alto. We did come thiiiiiis close to renting go carts to drive but it was getting late and we had already paid for the bus tour. We are pretty cheap, if you couldn't tell. We thought about splurging on a Cirque du Soleil show that night but it was sold out...darn.

Free views of Lisbon and the coast.

Saturday night was a true testament to our thriftiness. We went to a supermarket, spent 2 Euros each on baguettes, ham, cheese and sangria, came back to the hostel and hung out with the two Portuguese girls who worked there...dinner, drinks, BS, Portuguese pictionary, some sweet new dance moves, and of course, the Notre Dame game. Only the first half though, then we got...distracted. It was so much fun and it hardly cost a thing!!! Also another man who worked there brought out a bottle of vino verde for us and when we asked him where he got it he said, "Don't worry about it." Ok.....what does that mean?? His English was terrible though so maybe something got lost in translation but it was pretty funny.

Only negative part of this weekend: they didn't stamp my passport!!! I really wanted a Portugal stamp but I guess Madrid-Lisbon is a pretty common journey so passport control is zilch. Oh well, I'm mostly holding out for my stamp from AFRICA. Stay tuned for that adventure next month.....

Ok this is getting long and I'm trying to work on writing shorter posts (not working so far) but anyways Lisbon was awesome and I wish we could have stayed longer. Maybe when I get a real job and have real money I'll come back and go inside all the places we just looked at from afar.

ALSO.
It appears that the revelation of my family connection to Paris Hilton has caused some people (COUGHCOUGHSHEERINMEHDIANANDKATEO'CONNORCOUGHCOUGH) to question my integrity and the validity of my newest fun fact. So, just to prove you two haters wrong, here is the family tree:

Peter and Anna Laufersweiler had seven children when they came to America. Elizabeth and Conrad were two of the seven. Elizabeth Laufersweiler married Henry Kuhlmann Their daughter Mary Kuhlmann married Frank Depweg and they had Neoma, who is my great grandmother (my mom's grandmother). Conrad Laufersweiler married Caroline Wasen. They had a daughter, Mary Genevive Laufersweiler. She married August H. Hilton and had a son, Conrad. Conrad Hilton married Mary Barron. They had a son William. William B. Hilton married Marylin J. Hawley. They had a son Richard. Richard H. Hilton married Kathleen E. Avanzino. They had a daughter Paris.

So that makes Paris Hilton a 5th cousin to the great grandchildren of Neoma Wetzel (AKA, ME). HAHA IN YOUR FACE, SHEERIN AND KATE.