We spent a week living in a restored 18th century fort, 15 minutes outside of Lisbon, in Oeiras. Our hostel was beach front, complete with a paved 2km boardwalk for morning runs, and evening strolls.

Our directions for locating the fort were sketchy. We got lost. But only after taking the train from Lagos to Lisbon, locating and navigating the metro, locating the inter-rural train station, arriving in Oeiras, and walking to within 15 minutes of the hostel. We were lost for a good hour, in the dark, with our backpacks on. As always: Good times.

The night train from Lisbon to San Sebastian was long, yet un-eventful. We shared our sleeping quarters with two Portuguese grandmothers, and one grandpa. They fed us, even though we insisted that we were full.

We'll be making a day trip to Bilbao soon, in order to visit the Guggenheim.

Both Bilbao and San Sebastian are in Basque Country. Yesterday, in broad day-light, we watched as two kids peppered the streets around our hostel with Basque liberation and pro-ETA graffiti. [More Basque info]

Yesterday, I bought a 4 CD comp of Spanish Hip-Hop.

Howie and Tania will be here in under a week. Excitement.

I just booked our accommodations for the Czech Republic. Our first 9 nights will be spent at Romatika Apartment C, (for nearly half the listed price). The following week at the Arpacay hostel.