Lisboa, Portugal. Hashish anyone?

We have made it to the original destination point! After one hell of a fight against the universe. It seems the universe did not want us to bring our bicycles to Portugal. I'll try to explain this really quickly. We bought tickets to go to Portugal in Paris. We got to the train station with the understanding we did not need our bicycles in boxes. We did need boxes. So we got a refund because we would have missed the train. So we were sent to another train station for another train that we do not need boxes for. We got on the train and went to Irun Spain. Upon arrival, Steve goes to make sure we can get our bikes on. It seems you cannot take bikes or any oversize luggage on the train to Portugal. Nightmare continues. So after being severely frustrated, we get a refund and lose 10% of our money. The lady tells us to take a bus. The buses only go to local spots around Irun. So there is no bus in Irun for us and nobody speaks English and our Spanish is non-existent. So we decide to go chill out and breath and assess the situation. In the end we decide to go to Madrid and try our luck there. We wait until 10pm and we go to our platform to board the train. The conductor guy says you cannot bring the bicycles on the train after we were assured to the point where the lady who sold us the ticket even circled bicyclettas on the ticket. So I, Kevin am like, 'The bikes are coming with us. There is no way this is happening again.' Steve goes and speaks to a guy and he agrees. So we get the bikes on and get to Madrid. We go to the bus terminal and the bus company informs us no bikes are allowed after we called ahead and were assured very pointedly that we could bring the friggin' bikes. So Steve talks andd talks to this lady who speaks very little english. To make a long story short we find another bus company who allows bikes in boxes and we find out that Spain really loves Jesus and they are on a 4 day easter holiday where absolutely nothing is open and there are no boxes for bicycles or boxes period for that matter. Nobody knows where we can get any cardboard at all that we can tape together to make a box with. So we rent a car and drive to Lisboa with our bikes hassle free and breathe a huge sigh of relief. Unfortunately Steve has to make the 6 hour drive back to Madrid with the car and take a train back. Steve forgot his wallet with everything he needed and a 6 hour trip is looking more like a 12 hour nightmare for my poor brother. Everyone send Steve some good warm, I'm sorry the universe is against you feelings!

Ahhhhhh. So here we are in Portugal. It is warm and sunny and the people are very friendly and english speaking for the most part. This makes life a little easier even though I enjoy the challenge of the language barrier from time to time. We are staying at a super nice guy named Vasco's place for a few days. Intelligent fellow with lots of really amazing books I'd love to read. He lives near the university in a great apartment with the internet and nice big kitchen perfect for hungry cyclists to prepare meals of 6000-8000 calories.

We walked around downtown Lisboa yesterday and soaked up the sights and culture. Culturally it is quite a scene. Lots of cafes where they will bring you extra things that you did not order like cervesas(beer). You have to be careful about that. One also gets offered hashish at least once every 100 metres. Seriously. We got offerred hash at least 40 times yesterday from sketchy guys you wouldn't buy a match off to start a fire with let alone some nice smoke that could be a chunk of dirt or something cut with turpentine for all you know.

It is really cheap to live here. Wine is $1 Canadian a bottle. Seafood and other delicacies are pretty cheap. Not super cheap, but good enough for the shoestring budget we are currently on. After the financial kick in the crotch one experiences in Northern Europe, especially France, things seem cheap here. I'm seriously hurting from the prices up there. Number one rule when travelling to Europe. Always ask what the price is before ordering things. Especially litlle things like hot chocolate. We got gouged for a $6 canadian hot chocolate in France. It seems $5 and $6 is the norm for coffee and hot chocolate. Un-be-frickin-lievable. I wanted to cry for a moment. You can get a bottle of wine for $2 but hold the hot chocolate please, because I don't have my gold bar to stir the thing with. Ouch!

The Portugese are pretty laid back people. Except when they are driving cars. My goodness. You want to talk insanity. Everyone drives about 140-160km\h no word of a lie. I had guys and girls passing me at speeds in excess of 180km\h I'm sure of it. There are some very scary stats coming out of this country surrounding the car culture. Portugal fought 2 wars back in the 70's. I believe Tunisia and Morroco were fighting for their independence. More people died in Portugal on the roads in one year than the number of people that died in fighting those 2 wars on both sides, including civilians. Portugal is the worst place for car deaths in Europe and is 3rd on the world scene. So we have been told repeatedly to seriously, seriously, seriously watch out on the roads. The car is a symbol of status for the Portugese. Much like North Americans they identify it as part of there personality. Traffic jams are regular, as there are 750,000 people living in Lisboa and the population explodes daily, as another 400,000+ people drive in. There are 4 tracks of trains with a train leaving every 4 minutes to commute into the city, yet people still choose the car as the popular method of transport even though the highways transform into a parking lot on a daily basis. They also have 4 subway lines and old school trams that run throughout the city.

Agriculturally speaking, we are having a hard time finding organic food, but fortunately, food production to my understanding is not anywhere close to as chemical dependant here as in North America. Agricultural production in Potrugal is not set up for monocropping huge agribusiness where you always run into huge pest problems. Europe also doe's not allow any North American meat into the continent because of our gross production habits. They are intelligent enough to realize that pumping big amounts of hormones, steroids and antibiotics into animals is not only unecessary and disgusting, but it is unhealthy for human consumption. I mean we wonder why our daughters are growing breasts at 8 or 10 years old. We are what we eat. So all you non-organic meat eaters out there in North America, stop supporting this industry. Try writing a letter inquiring about this and check out the bogus propaganda you get back in return. The Portugese are still not however, anywwhere close to providing enough food for there own people.

So that's the scene here. We are going to start cycling from the most westerly point in Europe (that's 30km's outside of Lisboa) on Monday and we will keep everyone posted!

Is anyone actually reading this or are we burning up our money on overpriced internet shops?