Valéncia and Extremoduro

<- Valencias bull-ring

Last weekend I took the long bus journey from Salamanca to Valéncia (Via Madrid) which took nearly 6/7 hours, which was totally shit but it was certainly worth the effort once that I arrived.

Unfortunatly the first few days were spoiled by the weather but of course that meant a good excuse to go and watch the FA Cup Final in an English bar with English food, which was lovely.

I did many things in Valéncia, but being a massive footy fan the best thing for me was easily the trip to the Mestalla to see Valéncia V Atlético de Madrid which was the main reason I agreeded to go that weekend. Unfortunatly the crowd was poor as Atlético had nothing to play for (you could tell, they were simply shocking until el Kun came on, Valencia won the game 3-1 with a comical Own goal for the first and 2 from explosive striker David Villa. Other highlights included going to the beach, which cannot happen in Salamanca as I am totally landlocked, also a trip to the Zoo, going to see the arts and Science museum which is pretty breathtaking to be honest, also random wanders into the city center, if anyone is thinking of going to Valéncia, I would certainly recommend it.

I got back to Salamanca on Tuesday after getting my dates mixed up, and after another extremely long bus journey but could have been worse as I did manage to sleep for some of the way. Since then I have done nothing but go out and get drunk which is now getting extremely boring, but Yedra is coming to see me the next weekend and we're going to see Extremoduro (a old Spanish rockband from the 90's) think the Spanish equivilant version of Oasis (not in terms of music but in terms of the time they have spent touring, making new music etc).
Hopefully she's staying the whole weekend so we will have plenty of time to catch up and go out for dinner, I also want to show her Salamanca, the place I love so much, I know she'll love it.
I'm trying to think if there's anything else I need to report, but I can't think of anything at all, so I guess that will have to do for now, I will update soon.

Lisboa, Portugal.

As many of you know I spent the weekend in the beatiful Portugese city of Lisboa (Lisbon). It was a bitch to get there (9 hours) leaving Salamanca at midday and not arriving till half 8 (GMT) so to say it was a bitch would be an under-statement, however on arriving within a few seconds of just looking around me I realised it was going to be worth the long journey.
The city itself is pretty much brand new, there is such an amazing contrast between where the European Union money has been spent and how Lisboa probably was say 20 years ago, going into random streets even pretty close to the city center it was pretty amazing to see how under-developed some of the streets were, houses looking like they were about to fall down, glass broken, but everyone in these 'favelas' seemed so happy and kids were running about playing football, chasing one another, life for them seemed pretty perfect, also there was an abundance of Portugese flags everywhere you turned, they certainly seem a very proud bunch, especially seeing as their country has grown so much in recent times, but socially and economically.
Come Saturday night my feet were ready to fall off, I think I must have walked around 10km which is a lot for me considering I am the worlds laziest man, however it was certainly worth it.
After exploring the center, we headed up to the Castelo de São Jorge (god knows how many stairs they were to get there) and after that headed to Belém, went to see the Estadio da Luz (Benfica's ground) and passed by Sporting Club de Portugals stadium which looked mightly impressive. I bought a ulimited day pass for Saturday which included tram, tube, bus and I think I must have saved an absoloute fortune as I seemed to be on some form of public transport every hour ! I also found an excellent place to eat on the Saturday for only €6.50 which included ribs, chips, rice, salad, dessert, 1/2 bottle of wine, bread, coffee for about £4 which was beatiful and criminally cheap considering you are in the capital of Portugal.
Come night time I had an Indian, which is about as Portugese as Marmite but as soon as I was handed a leaflet in the street I got excited to have one especially after eating them so often back in Guisborough.... Right I will update about Sunday and post some photos tomorrow as I am cream-crackered, Goodnight.

Lisboa/Lisbon

I am going to Lisboa (Lisbon in English) this weekend and I'm very excited. Long bus journey! 9 hours WTF!? But my flatmate Léa went a few weeks ago and said it was very much worth the effort and her photos look really nice so it's all good. We found a cheap hostel in a good location and it seems fine, but anyway, we will only be sleeping there as I'm sure the weather will be fine with it being in the south of Portugal.
I will update when I get back, with photos and such.

What a shit week !

Here is an update as people have been complaining that I don't update often enough *cough cough yedra* so esto es para tí nena!

Terrible week, totally wiped off the calender due to illness. It all started on Monday night when I started to get a sore throat and then when I woke up Tuesday I felt like death warmed up! Could hardly move or anything, managed to eat about 10 bits of pasta and felt a lot better after, however come the night I made the mistake of thinking I was over it and headed out to watch Man USA V Barca which was a HUGE mistake! As afterwards I felt terrible! And I kept feeling terrible until Saturday which was when I could eat my first proper meal since Monday! No idea what was wrong with me, I was shivering one second, sweating the next, being sick of cups of tea, headache, massive sore throat. The only thing I can think of is due to the weather, at the minute during the day it is extremely hot, however with Salamanca being quite high up at night it can get quite cold and this is easy to forget and I think I made the mistake of going out on a night with only a top and no jacket and the cold got to me, esp come like 12 midnight it can be quite chilly and I think that is what happened to me, however on the plus side being out of action for a week let me crack on with y oral presentaton which is coming along and so it wasn't all bad.

The week before? Well it was quiet up until Thursday (my Bday) when Florent and Benoit (Léa's two friends who are on a work placement in Leiria (Portugal) came to stay and my god, are they obsessed with sex, Benoit is about 25 and was going around drawing cocks on Léa's bedroom door with shaving foam, which was funny at the time to be fair. On Thursday Malargey, Léa, Em and I went for a few sherberts but em went home so we went on to meet Tom, Kirsty, Matthieu etc and got quite wasted, I am shit with Tequilla and Mathieu kept insisting on me drinking it, however I was in no state compared to Tom, who after a while we had to take him home and nearly carry him up the stairs and put him to bed, the next day he phoned me wondering how he got home? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
More followed on the weekend, with Saturday being a big one, with everyone totally gone and a good night was had by all, until supporting Malargey she decided to fall over and I went with her and thats when everyone decided well we gotta call it a night, or it was going to get messy....
Sunday morning was hilarious as when everyone got up we were just sat in the living room without anyone saying anything at all, just looking terrible and trying to piece together the night... Thats enough about that as I'm starting to sound like an alcoholic.....
Anyway, that will do, me voy a duchar.