Bavaria, Germany

I can't believe it. We're on our way to Bavaria right now to see some castles, and it's been cloudy and foggy the whole right out to Munich from Salzburg. After we switched trains, the sky cleared up and I started to see just how colorful it is right now!

The hills that go for miles are as green as Kelly green, and the farm houses are absolutely gorgeous!  The sky is soo blue and is incredibly compliments the insanely orange yellow and red trees!  They must be at their peak right now with fall because it looks the most colorful I've seen yet. The mountains are in the distance and covered by haze, but you can still see the silhouettes it's absolutely stunning!

I wasn't expecting it, I was told to hike around in Bavaria, but I did not expect how beautiful it is right now!  We visited Schloss Hohenschwangau, one of the castles, and toured it, but just looked at the other, Schloss Neuschwanstein. After, we decided to hike around. I have never seen fall this beautiful.

I love how in Spain, I was soo excited to see a yellow tree, and in Switzerland I was excited that I got to see multiple yellow and some orange trees on the mountains, and now I'm getting to see fall in Bavaria, with castles, surrounding a lake, with mountains, and at it's peak color!  We hiked down to the water because we were up a little bit on the trail, but wanted to get a more open view. And there sterner little houses, or old cabin things sporadically along the water. They're pretty cool. I haven idea what they were used for but the one had a bunch of water in it and the other, I couldn't get to because a fence was blocking off.

We're now just sitting by the lake, listening to all the birds and ducks.. some of the ducks keep going after each other; biting each other's feathers and stuff!

This place is beautiful, I really can't say it enough. The water is that blueish green color, the trees surrounding it are incredibly bright fall colors, layers of mountains on front of me and behind me, and the brightest blue sky.

I couldn't ask for more today.

<3 M

Munich!

In Munich, we are staying with a friend, Philipp.  He is great, and took us all around the city our first night here. We probably walked for about 2 hours in full, and got to see much of the city by night! He gave us quite the tour!  The English Garden, which is bigger than central park, ice river, fire river, and the Angel of Peace statue, which had a gold angel on the top.  When you looked down the column, Leslie noticed that the statues at the bottom, guarding it, had wine bottles in their hands!  Hah!  It was soo funny!  By the end of our walk, I felt like I should've tipped Phillip, it was soo good!

The next morning he made us brezls, it was soo nice! They are pretty much hot pretzels to us back home, they have it here a lot for breakfast on the weekends. We took a free walking tour at 10:45. Our guide was hilarious!  He was Brittish, and told many jokes.  We watched the Glockenspiel at 11, which is very overrated lol. It's these statues of people that move in circles up on a tower of I think city hall? It's on Marienplatz square. We walked all over, through the market, which unlike many other cities is actually expensive, saw a cannon in the side of a building still from WW2. They actually still find a bomb somewhere in the city about once a month. That's soo crazy to think about. We also learned that Munich has 0% crime. The guide took us around different pubs that were famous in the city. And told us a lot of history of Munich. He actually used to be a history teacher he said.


It was incredibly cold and Leslie and I still wanted to go to Dachau Concentration Camp.  So.. we were rude and left the tour early:( and it was hard to make the choice because we were really enjoying it, but it was just so cold and we needed to get to Dachau before they closed at 5.

When we got out to Dachau Concentration Camp, it was.. just like all the horrible pictures.. there was a gate that said "Arbeit macht frei" which means work will make you free. Thus alone was incredibly hard rivalled through, knowing this wasn't the case for the people in this camp. They still had one set of buildings that the people stayed in, they had torn down the rest. In the buildings, they had what the prisoners used to sleep on, their toilets, and where they could wash.  They also had the bunker where they put prisoners (who may've actually done something wrong).  The Crematoriums were open too, that was especially hard to see and imagine what once went on there.  It was incredibly emotional experiencing everything today.  They had a museum there too, a really big one. It was very hard, but very educational. I can't say I liked going through this concentration camp, I don't really think anyone can say that, but it was a really good experience, and I think everyone should experience one.

It was quite a sad last day for Leslie!  Bit when we went back to Philipp's we made dinner, Pasta Carbonara! I am getting much better at cooking and learning soo much because of this adventure!  I'm pretty pumped about it. I'll be expanding from salads and sandwiches when I come home now!

Today I packed up and headed out to walk more around the city during the day.  I am leaving leaving for Stuttgart tonight, and I must say, I think there's much of Munich I did not see.. I'll just have to come back!
Staying with my friend Nadine who I met when I was in Australia, and have not seen her since our holiday in Cairns!  I'm soo excited!!

<3 M

Ps - I really wish I remembered my German from high school and college!

Salzburg, Austria!

We arrived by train. One of Leslie's friends, Loui from back home, met us at the train station and hung out with us for the night. He took us around Salzburg, by the river, and through books streets on the way to our hostel.  Our hostel is seriously the nicest one we've stayed in yet! There were fluffed pillows, the bed was made, towels sitting out on our beds...  WITH MINTS ON THEM!  Also, they upgraded us from a 16 bed female dorm to a 4 bed room! It's seriously like a hotel!  There is a bathroom in here too.. AND a hair dryer!  I wasn't going to shower today.. until I saw that hair dryer Hah!  After we dropped off our things we went and got some sushi, and just hung out for the night.

Out first day, we got a little tour from Loui's dad, Joe!  He took us all around Salzburg; to the cathedrals, platzen (plazas), bier gardens, and some sound of music sights!  It was great!  Then we had lunch in a market; cheese sausage, spicy mustard, bread, and a Salzburg bier!!

He took me on his bike to Augusteiner where we got our first real biergarten experience... This was seriously a culture blast. And it was awesome.

We learned that to be a real bier garden you need to have chestnut trees in it. They allow just enough shade in the summertime, and when it rains there's enough leaf cover to not allow water to come through for about an hour. 

Now, to get an actual bier, You have to first decide on a size, and get a mug, which were all lined up the wall when you fist walk in. Then you wash it off in a fountain (a statue fountain). They were washed already, but the reason you rinse them again is to get them cold on preparation for the beer. Then you pay, keep the receipt, and when you get to the beer guy hand in the receipt, slam down and slide your mug over to him, and He fills it with beer!  From A BARREL. Loved that part... There were 2 lines, 2 places to pay, and 2 beer guys, and 2 taps.. one on each side of the barrel. It was great. I've never been served beer that way before!  Then they slam and slide it back down to you.. and it overflows a little, and the ground is all wet because of it. It's great. They have little market places inside the building too for food or other liquor. Places to buy food, such as sausage, fish on a stick (& I'm not kidding.. it's literally a fish on a stick.. and still looks like a legit fish), little bottles of liquor (Joe bought us apricot schnapps), pastries, and many other types of food! These little places are in Augusteiner, but they are not required to buy from. They don't bring in any money for the bierhaus, they are just there as an option. You may also choose to bring your own food, which is absolutely fine, the only thing that is required in order to be there, is buying a bier!  Then you go out into the garden to enjoy!

Loui met up with us after He got off work and we walked around town again, and stopped to get something to eat. Not sushi this time though.. something a bit more substantial.

We met in the garden, the next say, that Julie Andrews and the kids were filmed seeing "doe a deer!" It was very exciting.  After lunch we went past the Sound of Music house!  We were on our way to visit the school Loui works and hung out there awhile. Then he had to work.
Came back later on that night, and we watched a bit of the Sound of Music (our hostel plays it every night night lol), then Eurotrip! ...Amongst stopping it and chatting quite a bit.  Then we had to say goodbye.

We were heading to Munich in the morning.

Another bittersweet goodbye.. I thinking this will be a constant occurrence throughout this adventure..

<3 M

Zurich, Switzerland

We stayed with my CouchSurfing  friend Dariush in Zurich. He took us around the city last night and showed us all the nice view and told us about places to go, to spend the next day in Zurich.

Before we left Dariush's this morning, we got to shower and put on newly cleaned clothes!  He had a washer AND a drier.. which has been unheard of this whole time I've been traveling.. most countries hang dry their clothes. So I smell So good now! And I'm truly clean!  This is a whole new happiness I haven't had for about 2 weeks! Oh!  I forgot to say that I got to DRY my hair too!  He had a hair dryer can you believe it!? I also had tine to pluck my eyebrows AND put on makeup before we headed out!  I was soo dang happy this morning...

We mainly just hung out and walked around Zurich all day after the most lovely morning:) We first ate lunch on a little bench along the river, then walked to this wall in the city that gives you a nice panoramic view of Zurich, walked along the river, shopped around (which means we walked in and out of shops, never actually buying anything lol), and went to Lake Zurich. 

Now I'm on the way to Austria!

And Awe Mann!  ...I'm on the train now to Salzburg, Austria and I just saw someone walk by with a snowboard and all his gear.... Soooo. Damn. Jealous!

I love all these mountains, but it's killing me knowing I'm not going to be able to board this winter:(  I would love to hit up these mountains, but my budget just can't afford them... one day I will though.

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe!

This is my longest entry.. and no photos because my phone ran out of batteries this day.. but it has DEFINITELY been my FAVORITE experience thus far. 

:D

We stayed at Happy Inn Lodge last night in Interlaken and woke up really early this morning to see the sunrise!  We got up at 6:30 am, put on all our clothes (not lying, I literally wore all my clothes Hah!) and headed out to walk toward the east lake. Well, it was a much colder and longer walk than we expected, and we got lost and went the wrong way a few times, but made it in just the nic of time! The sunrise it was beautiful. The water was that greenish blue glacier color, and the mountains surrounding the lake were stunning. When the sun started getting higher I got to see the mountains on my left start to light up and the trees really begin to show their color change!  I got to see a little bit of fall after all! The reflections of thw mountains on the water were amazing too. We stayed there for quite a bit just thinking and enjoying, then started heading back into town, for Jungfraujoch!

Next, we headed up to the TOP OF EUROPE!  The trains were AWESOME!  A very steep ride up. On the last train up, I sat across from this couple from California!  They were incredibly awesome. The conversation never stopped and they seemed to really support all that I was doing with travelling. I was intereated in them, they were interested in me, we were all just so interested in each other! It was nice:)

We were in the mountain for about 30 minutes on the last train up. And when we finally got there, we had to walk through some mountain tunnels, to get to where we wanted to go, it was pretty cool. There was an ice cave, a 360° movie, a little Switzerland, lookout points, and a plateau for us when we got there.

We started by taking the elevator up to the lookout. It was soo funny, we were in the glass elevator, which was surrounded by walls on the outside, so we couldn't see anything, when all of a sudden, all around us, a view of snowy mountains appeared!  Hahhahaa funny thing, the entire elevator gasped in Awe. It was great. I laughed pretty dang hard.

It was beautiful, very majestic, and caused a lot of adrenaline in me! 

There was a lookout area at the top, where we could go outside, look out, take photos, or just enjoy. So we did!  On one side it was all snowy and mountainous. The sky was blue that day so the colors were soo vivid and beautiful!  When I looked in the other direction, there was a lot less glaciers and snow on the mountains, so they had a blueish color to them. Sooooooo beautiful!  The sky really enhanced their color too, and were insanely gorgeous!  On one side of the metal holed platform there was no wind, but as soon as I stepped toward the snowy mountain side, my hat almost flew off!  It was soo cold!  Soo beautiful, but soo cold!  It's a good thing I like winter!  Leslie had to go in to warm up for a bit, but I wasn't that cold, so I stayed out for as long as I could. Probably because in used to it being that cold with boarding.. plus there were mountains all around me, so I had to take it in naturally for as long as I possibly could, before returning the warmth inside.

We ate our lunch inside on a bench facing the view on the other side of the lookout building.. I don't think I will ever get a better lunchtime view for the rest of my life...After taking as long as we possibly could to finish our lunches, we headed to the other things Jungfrau had to offer (none of which we expected.. I thought we were just going up the mountain and seeing the view from the lookout on top of the mountain.. but nope! There's more!)

We started walking toward the ice cave! And we ran into a little Switzerland area inside the mountain! It was kinda fun, there was a big snow globe, a wooden train conductor, a dude sitting on a bench, a cow standing up giving a thumbs up lol, and a little boy with 2 goats.. all of which, if you know me at all you'll know,  I clearly got photos with them!  Next we saw the highest cave in a mountain. Not sure if this is just in Europe or compared to all the mountains on the world. Then were got to the ice palace!!  The walls and floors were completely covered in ice!  Totally cool, AND I didn't slip at all!  Though I was kind of hoping to, cuz it would've been fun:) It was pretty cool, though other kind of seemed like it was something they just added as just a little something extra. That's OK though, we just had a little mini photo shoot in there!

Next...
My favorite part of the day..
No,
of the week..
No,
probably of my whole trip so far...

We got to walk outside and on top of the mountain. It's probably one of the coolest things I've ever done, EVER!

I had gloves on, I had leggings on underneath my pants, I was also wearing 9 shirts and my winter boarding hat!

And yes it was cold, very very cold.
And no I did not have boots or waterproof shoes on by any means..

...but I didn't care.
I was on top of a mountain!! 

And not just any mountain..  the highest mountain in Europe! 

The top of Europe!!!

So did my shoes get wet? Yes. Was I cold? Most definitely. Did I care? Absolutely not. I was on top of Europe.

It's crazy, because I was not expecting it at all. At the beginning of the day I just thought I was taking a train and cable car to the top of a really high mountain that would be really pretty and where they'd have a gift shop and a lookout area.. and now I'm walking on it!? It was surreal.

After we were don't hanging out on the top of Europe, we headed down toward Grindelwald. That was a beautiful little Swiss town in itself!  And can you believe it!?  I barely could...  Swiss houses really do look like the ones we think they'd look like. The houses/apts at the end of my street back home.. just like those!  Long of like chalets. All of them in Grindelwald looked like this.

After Grindelwald, we headed all the way back down to Interlaken. Next stop, Zurich!

"Take it in but don't look doowwwn!
Cuz I'm on top of the world hey! I'm on top of the world. Been waiting on this for awhile now, paying my dues to the dirt. I've been waiting to smile hey! But holding it in for awhile. Take it with me if I can, been dreaming of this since a child..
I'm on top of the world!!!"
     -Imagine Dragons

<3 M

Ps - Ok, I'll add one photo... but the quality is bad, because I took a  picture of the picture that was on my camera screen. 

Luzern, Switzerland

We got to Luzern and spent the day here.. I have 7 shirts on, the sun is shining.. and I'm flippin hot!!

The first thing that we did was eat lunch with a fantastic view of mountains on the other side of the lake, then we went to figure out if we could get on a ferry for cheap (the Max we were willing to spend was 10).

We waited in line and finally got to the window and asked:
"Do we get a discount with our eurail passes?"
"Yes, it's free."
"Which one?!"
"This one." (Points to dock directly next to us).
"Whens it leaving?"
"Now."
"Thanks!"

And we basically ran to the ferry and as we were walking on, the boat left!

We have had such luck in Europe!  I love this Eurail pass!  The ferry was great; beautiful views of the city and the mountains!

So we're doing the city walking tour on our own right now, because we only have one day here, and we just wanted to see the must sees.... We walked along along the river for awhile, and the buildings are soo cool!  A lot of them have points at the top, they're really pretty sweet lookin.  The water is sooo greenish blue, o seriously love it!  After we walked on some wooden bridges, we headed on the other side of the river to see the wall.

So we were walking along the Musegg Wall, along the top and went into a tower (later we looked it up and found out it's called the Zyt Tower).. and it had tons of huge machine looking things, then i realized they were cogs, we also kept hearing a click, a tick tock! It was a clock tower! The clicks were the second hand!  There were steps to go further up, so we went all the way up along these old wooden and rock steps (they switched back and forth lol) and there was a huge bell at the top and as soon as we looked out, there was a beautiful view in every direction of the mountains on top of the city next to the water.. beautiful!  On our way down we heard a big giant click and all of a sudden the bell above us started ringing! Scared the crap out of us, and then we realized it was 3:00! It felt soo serial.. it was insanely cool.

After walking along the wall, we headed toward old city Lucerne.  There is soo much shopping there.. VERY EXPENSIVE too! So clearly we just browsed. We may or may not have gotten chocolate too........ After walking around there, we went to see the Lion.. it's a statue of a lion in the side of a rock. & it was probably the least exciting thing all day lol.

We walked around Lucerne a bit more.. that city really is awesome, and has lived up to what everyone has said. Now we're on a train to Zurich for the night and tomorrow!

Typed on a Deutsch keyboard today.. and it may've been the hardest thing I've ever done... The Z is in the Y's place!

First day in Switzerland

We flew from Madrid to Geneva today.. Hahaha funny thing though... I wanted to be sure that my bag would be the right size, because the airlines are cheap here but also very strict! & I didn't want to pay 50 euros to check it, so I wore 11 shirts and 2 pants!  Tehehe :) Aside from that though, it was probably hands down, the most beautiful airline flight I've ever been on.. seeing the mountains as we were decending was amazing.

We decided last minute to take the scenic train down to Brigg through the Alps. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the town before continuing to Interlaken. It was awesome. This one mountain was literally filled with pine trees, half of which were snow covered.

After we got to Interlaken, which is where we are staying tonight and tomorrow night, we walked around the town, mountains in literally EVERY direction!

Tomorrow we will be spending the day in cable cars viewing the mountains..  it's going to be expensive, but soo incredibly worth it..

This is incredible...

We flew to Switzerland this morning.. arriving in Geneva was probably the prettiest flight experience I've ever been through.. the view of the mountains from the sky were incredible. it was soo awesome seeing soo many and all full of snow and ice. I started to worry about the temperature a bit, but it's not too bad.. about 50-60 degrees. I may have to buy a jacket once I get to Germany in a week though...

We decided to head right toward Interlaken by train, and instead of getting there quickly, we took the scenic train. It is amazing how big and how close we are to there mountains!  Best spur of the moment decision, by far!  Sometimes the longer route is the best one to take.. and it certainly was in this circumstance.

The mountains are literally all around the train, towering toward the sky. It is one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen, reminds me of Alaska quite a bit.

I was listening to Sigor Ros on the train and found myself coming to tears earlier, because I just could not believe how blessed I am to have been able to do something like this.  To experience such beautiful things, to recognize the beauty in them, and to have the courage to come see the world. I am soo humbled when I am in nature like this, it really helps me to recognize just how small I am in a world so big, but with feelings and emotions that are so good and feel like they are sky high.  It truly helps me to see God when I am traveling and learning about this world he created for us. I can't believe there are such beautiful this out here that so many won't see in their lifetimes, but I sure pray that they do. And that they are able to see the beauty in the world as it was meant for us.  Of course maybe others see beauty in other things, the way I see it in the world. God I hope so, because this is incredible.

At one point we were going past a mountain and all of a sudden I saw a waterfall shooting out the side of it!  It was the coolest thing, it wasn't coming from the top or anything.. it was literally just jetting out of the side of it!  And as soon as I think there can't possibly be more mountains around me, I look ahead and there's a million more!   Some with ice and snow, some with trees, some with just rock.. always surprising me!  This is incredible.

I really wish I had a better vocabulary, so I could better put into words the amazingness of what I am seeing and experiencing right now... Breathtaking...

There are now hills leading to the mountains on my left, and on the hills are little villages, churches, houses, farms, and vineyards..  beautiful!!  I am beside myself...

I wrote this blog sporadically throughout 4 hours of train riding through the Swiss Alps..
Soundtrack of the day included: Sigor Ros and A.R. Rahman. 

Madrid!

Madrid is soo big compared to the past few cities I've been to! It's the capital of Spain.

We met up with my friend Pedro and he showed us the nightlife of Madrid  on Saturday night. & mann does it go late!  Yesterday we slept in, and had lunch in the city around Plaza del Sol and just walked around and did a little shopping.  Plaza del Sol is a huge popular square where they would have protests, it's in the center of the city with restaurants, stores, and many buildings surrounding it. It's where they do new years eve like in time square in New York from what I understand. There is a tradition that when the clock strikes midnight, they eat 12 grapes and make 12 wishes with each grape for the new year!  I thought that was pretty cool. Maybe I'll try to do that this year! 

While we were walking around and going into shops, there was one where the worker came out and gave us a free flower they had made out of what looks like recycled paper. It was soo simple, but soo sweet and made my night!  We went in and the store was filled with hand crafted jewelry. It took soo much for me not to buy anything. It's truly been my most favorite store I've been to yet. Then it started to rain on us, so we headed back to Pedro's.

Today we woke up and joined a free walking tour that met in Plaza Mayor, which is the old main plaza. It's a big open area with buildings surrounding it, and a statue in the middle. And it's only meant for people!  Not vehicles, which is very nice. We saw someone dressed as spiderman.. and its funny because this guy was not skinny or built, by any means so it really made us laugh (photo at bottom). For the tour, we walked all around and learned a lot about the history of Madrid. Our tour guide was Irish, and suuper awesome. She was so theatrical and animated that even if the subject was boring, I wanted to hear about it.  So I've decided that I think it would be very beneficial to my teaching, that when I come back, or over the summer, I take an acting or theater class! To help me to be more animated in the classroom for my students. During the tour, we learned a lot about the past kings of Spain & the Spanish Inquisition, and different buildings, and places around town.

After, we got lunch and I finally got a salad!  It was wonderful!  As dressing they give you olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and you just put it on as you like. Also, on the salad had pickled asparagus on it! Soo interesting, and really good actually!

As we walked around more we headed toward the palace, cathedral, and these statues near it. the statues were meant to be on the palace, but the queen at the time was afraid that they would fall off the roof and kill her, so they placed them within view of the palace instead.

We then went to the Congress building.. beautiful, and the park across the street!  The leaves changed a bit and we got to see some fall!!!  It made me feel soo happy! And the sky was soo blue, so it made the leaves pop even more! It was such a beautiful day!!

As we were walking through the park, we saw a building made of all glass! And there was a lake outside ignore where there were the biggest ducks I've ever seen, aaaand sunbathing turtles!  Made me miss my little guys at home..

Also.. I've seen more buckeyes in Spain than I ever have back home.. and Ohio is suppose to be the buckeye state!!

There is soo much music everywhere!  As soon as I stop hearing one saxophone player, I turn the corner and there's an accordion player, then after the next turn there's a guitar player then a trumpet player! it's kind of like a soundtrack to the city!

On our way back to Pedro's, we went past the Prado, which is an art museum.. we didn't go in though, our budgets can't handle that lol, and went to see some statues around the city of Roman Gods.

Lisboa, Portugal ...Lisbon!

Lisbon was great.. it was like a bigger, more pastel, Porto. The streets were wider, buildings bigger, and still colored, just a lighter color. 

In the morning we took a free walking tour around the city.  Then we headed toward Belem, to have their famous Pasteis de Belem! They are these little pastries that are layered with crunchy goodness on the bottom, and egg/custard on the top.. they were fabulous!  I ordered one.. then ordered another because they were soo delicious!

Next we walked around the monastery there and across the street to see a fountain and further on to visit this monument on the water. We walked a bit down from the monument, and when we did, we found this castle boat thing.

When we headed back toward the city, and did a little shopping. My that I mean we went into stores, tried thing on, but did not buy anything lol.. our 25euro a day definitely wouldn't allow buying anything... After, we went back to the hostel to cook dinner and wait for our train to Madrid.

Lisbon was awesome.. but I do like Porto better. I will say though.. they certainly have the most good looking  cops I've ever seen. That was a nice welcome when we got there:)

The weirdest, most interesting, and intriguing experience so far.... Passport Lisbon Hostel

Lisbon, Portugal.
Passport Lisbon Hostel.
Gattaca?

First off.. To find the hostel, we walked around the city for about 45 minutes to an hour at around 11:30pm when we got into Lisbon...  Just to find that it is right on the main central square of Lisbon... then we didn't know how to enter.. it's literally an unmarked door on the front of an old building. There was a little square sign to the right of the door. We looked around for a way to get it because when we turned the door knob it felt like it was going to fall off lol. There was a key pad to type in a room number to get buzzed in, but we didn't know what to press, and I continued looking around when all of a sudden o spotted a little Passport Lisbon sticker next to a botton.. I pressed it, and we were buzzed in!

When we were finally in the building, I closed the door and it was pitched black hah!  There was no light!  I was looking for my phone to use as a flashlight when Leslie got it to work.. but really she didn't do anything, because they're senser lights!  Awesome!

I saw a sign that said, "Passport Lisbon Reception 4th Floor," so we headed up there and half way up Leslie noticed an elevator to our right.. but it wasn't a normal elevator.. it's like a slide the door open - slide the door shut elevator lol. I didn't take it, but when Leslie got to the 4th floor she said there was no door.. it was just a platform that moved up and down the wall, and there was no barrier keeping you separated from the wall... Hah!  

4th Floor Reception: 
The woman at reception must be the most unorganized woman I've come across yet lol. It was hilarious. She took my information, and wrote down our check in and check out times on a sheet of paper that we were to tag our beds with (first time for everything)! 

Then she took us up to our room. To get into our rooms, you use your fingertip and swipe it across a pad.. Sweet! I felt like I was in GATTACA! It didn't read her fingerprint though, so she ran upstairs to get a key and directions to get our fingerprints to work. She messed with it for about 10 minutes, and it wasn't working correctly, so  she just gave up and took us in the room.

There's an AWESOME little community room within the 2nd floor rooms once we got passed the fingerpad.. it's like a really big apartment with a lot of dorms/rooms throughout. There's a flatscreen TVs, leather couches, a guitar, speakers, a stereo, encyclopedias, books, bathrooms and showers for girls exclusively, and another keypad to get into our actual dorm.  It is sweet!

When we got into our dorm (the part with our beds), there was a guy laying on his bed just listening to classical music.. it was a rather nice and hilarious soundtrack to this experience haha.  When the receptionist told us which beds were free, she pointed to different ones each time lol. So we just put sheets on the ones that looked free.

I may not have explained this to the degree it deserved and maybe it doesn't sound weird when I put it into writing, bit it was literally hilarious.. the most unique hostel experience I've every had. With all the fingerprinting and codes and buzzers, I can't help to thing GATTACA lol it's great.. weird, but awesome.. we're only spending one day in Lisbon.. but mann.. after this experience I'm pretty pumped to see what other experience will be had here.

<3

Oh.. I also keep forgetting to add: university students in Portugal wear long black capes like in Harry Potter.. like Hogwarts students without scarves! It's awesome!
Aand I will try and get better photos of them, this one is from far away.. and also I'm throwing in views of the square from my dorm too. :)