Lisboa

At the airport before putting together the bike.
Ready to bike to the hostel
Riding up the hill towards Castle S. Jorge
Castle. sweet
Inside the fortress
Resting the bikes for lunch
View of the city from the castle
Remember the jesus statue? See the giant thing on the left? Yup, it really is that big.
View of some sweet garden.

Decided to start with photos because I didnt realize that photos upload to the top of the blog... Kind of new at this. But anyways.

Location: Lisbon Poets Hostel, Portugal (picture is the view from the hostel)

Total distance: Probably around 20 miles, havent set up the odometer yet. Tonights project.

High: Finding the big supermarket in town! El Corte Ingles. The language barrier was a bit harder to deal with that I thought it would be, and Dale and I had some errands to run today before really starting the ride tomorrow. One of those was groceries. The only people who spoke good English were the tourists who didnt know where any stores were, and the people who knew couldnt tell us. So frustrating.

Low: Dale and I were riding along and we saw a giant castle perched on one of the hills looking over the city. Obviously decided to ride up to it. The Castelo S. Jorge, built by the Muslims around the 11th century. Such a cool place. But the low... inside of the castle was, I kid not, a garden filled with sick and dying cats. It was the most depressing thing I have ever seen.

Old castle up high
ornamented with sick cats
interesting choice

One of the cats escaped from the garden...

Until next time,
MBG

Go Time

I'll be leaving Oxford in about 3 hours to catch a cab to the bus station, a bus to Gatwick Airport, and then a plane to Lisbon, Portugal. Should land tonight around 7pm, at which point Dale and I will have to put together our bikes and ride to our hotel. My biggest concern right now is biking on the right side of the road. Why does the UK insist on being different?

Decided to keep the posts shorter to save time for myself and others. Inspired by Overland, I'm going to include: high since last update, low, something I've learned, haiku I've written, and hopefully some photos.

So for today

High - Sealing my bike box yesterday afternoon. It felt great to know that all the preparation and hard work is in the bag and now I get to ride for the next 4 weeks and not worry about anything else.

Low - Running around Oxford trying to find duct tape to seal my bike box. Literally, not a single store in Oxford carries duct tape. And every store that usually does just so happened to be sold out. I ended up bartering with the owner of a local bike shop for his partly used roll of duct tape. Best 3 pounds ever.

Something Learned - Apparently, in the 1950's the President of Portugal thought it would be a good idea to build a giant monument of Jesus Christ looking over the city of Lisbon. It was meant as a thank you/plea to God for having spared Portugal in WWII. That's a pretty serious thank you present. Check this thing out:

The work has been done

So the hard work can begin

See you in four weeks

Cheers,

MBG

Pre-Trip in Oxford

9th week of Hilary Term has begun, which in Oxford lingo means only finals and papers stand between me and our 4-week long spring vacation. I'm lucky enough to have only one final paper - 5,000 words on the philosophical "problems" of consciousness and I'm home free.

I've decided to forgo the traditional "I'm a college student studying abroad in Europe" vacation in favor of the more adventurous, relatively expense free option. In my room I have a RyanAir confirmation printout of a one-way ticket to Lisbon, Portugal. No checked bags. 1 checked bike. I'll be joined by Dale, a fellow WEPO-ite (Williams Exeter Programme in Oxford), for the entire journey and the two of us will be meeting Amy and Bianca (also Williams) in Biarritz, France about half-way through the trip. Me and the ladies for 4 weeks, should be interesting.

As far as accomodations go we have a hostel booked in Lisbon, a hostel booked in Bilbao for two nights, and a campsite in Biarritz. The other 20+ days we'll be tenting wherever we see fit. Beaches along the ocean, the yards of generous strangers, general patches of shrubbery... the plan is not to have a plan.

Here is my best estimate of our route




I'm assuming there will be internet cafes along the road so hopefully I can post pictures and stories to let family/friends know that I am alive and well. Can't wait!

MBG