The big picture
Arriving to Tallinn
Hitch-hiking home
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Returning back home
After almost two months we had arrived back into Estonia. Hitch-hiking to Tartu was fairly easy and it was great to see our little town again.
Days in Milano
Greetings from rainy fashion capital =)
Our road to Milano didn't go as planned, but it most certainly was interesting. We decided to take a cheap train out of Genoa, to get a better position for hitch-hiking to Milano. It took us to a small town on the national highway heading from Genoa to Milano. What we didn't realise before heading out, was that the road was actually in a valley. So it was really narrow and didn't have much of room for cars to stop. After standing besides the road for some hours, we took a very short ride to the next town, which was a bit bigger than the one we started off from, but even from there, hitch-hiking was a difficult task. Mountain roads aren't made for hitch-hikers ;)
So as we seemed to be bit stuck in those little villages, we walked to the railwaystation nearby, to see if there are any trains heading to Milano. When we got to the station, we found that the ticked office was closed and the self service terminal was out of order. There was a train coming from Genoa in 30 minutes and going to Milano. Simple decision was to hop on the train and go as far as we could. It took us all the way to Milano and we had no issues with the ticket inspector, as she didn't ask anything from us. In the end getting to Milano proved to be easier than expected =P
When we arrived in Milano it was raining fairly heavily and it didn't stop for pretty much rest of the day.
Our road to Milano didn't go as planned, but it most certainly was interesting. We decided to take a cheap train out of Genoa, to get a better position for hitch-hiking to Milano. It took us to a small town on the national highway heading from Genoa to Milano. What we didn't realise before heading out, was that the road was actually in a valley. So it was really narrow and didn't have much of room for cars to stop. After standing besides the road for some hours, we took a very short ride to the next town, which was a bit bigger than the one we started off from, but even from there, hitch-hiking was a difficult task. Mountain roads aren't made for hitch-hikers ;)
So as we seemed to be bit stuck in those little villages, we walked to the railwaystation nearby, to see if there are any trains heading to Milano. When we got to the station, we found that the ticked office was closed and the self service terminal was out of order. There was a train coming from Genoa in 30 minutes and going to Milano. Simple decision was to hop on the train and go as far as we could. It took us all the way to Milano and we had no issues with the ticket inspector, as she didn't ask anything from us. In the end getting to Milano proved to be easier than expected =P
When we arrived in Milano it was raining fairly heavily and it didn't stop for pretty much rest of the day.
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| Milan Airport |
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| Greetings from our headquarters |
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| Enjoying an espresso |
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| Sightseeing |
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| Hanging at our HQ again |
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| Doodles |
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| Good morning from the airport |
At Piazza del Duomo
Morning greetings
Lunch in the rain
Milan Bergamo Airport
Getting to Italy and Genoa
Finaly in Italy, faster than expected =P
After parting from our french friends near Montpellier we decided to try to get to Niece by the end of the day. Started off with a short trip to toll booths close to Nimes. From there, we got another ride to toll close to Arles, where we actually were rained out for an hour or so. There was a wall of rain approaching the spot where we were dropped off, and it most certainly delivered all it got once it reached us. But as soon as we got back on the side of the road, we were picked up by a nice guy who was driving back to his home town close to Saint-Tropez. He dropped us off at a gas station next to the speedway to Niece.
In that gas station we met another traveler, who was waiting on a truck driver who had promised to take him to Austria. He was very friendly and helpfull. In the end, he helped us to get a ride with two americans, Chris and his mother Claudia. They were actually trying to reach Venice on that same night, mind you it was 8pm at that point. After talking with them a bit, they were nice enough to take us along for the ride and take us as far as they went. Chris tried to push his driving abilities as far as he could and in the end, he had to stop in Genoa. There was a small problem in a gas station and trying to fill up the car, but we probably would have stopped there with or without that stoppage.
Genoa will leave a permanent mark to memory from this trip. We walked to the train station and decided to spend our night next to it. Erki made a mistake of leaving the wallet and smartphone in the pockets before snoozing off, and the result was that a passing by pickpoketer snatched it and ran with them. Bonehead move, but we were fortunate as nearby people saw that happening and were able to retrieve the wallet and the phone to us. We did loose some cash, but got back all the cards from the wallet and the phone as well.
In the morning we took a train out in direction of Milan, to start hitch-hiking there.
After parting from our french friends near Montpellier we decided to try to get to Niece by the end of the day. Started off with a short trip to toll booths close to Nimes. From there, we got another ride to toll close to Arles, where we actually were rained out for an hour or so. There was a wall of rain approaching the spot where we were dropped off, and it most certainly delivered all it got once it reached us. But as soon as we got back on the side of the road, we were picked up by a nice guy who was driving back to his home town close to Saint-Tropez. He dropped us off at a gas station next to the speedway to Niece.
In that gas station we met another traveler, who was waiting on a truck driver who had promised to take him to Austria. He was very friendly and helpfull. In the end, he helped us to get a ride with two americans, Chris and his mother Claudia. They were actually trying to reach Venice on that same night, mind you it was 8pm at that point. After talking with them a bit, they were nice enough to take us along for the ride and take us as far as they went. Chris tried to push his driving abilities as far as he could and in the end, he had to stop in Genoa. There was a small problem in a gas station and trying to fill up the car, but we probably would have stopped there with or without that stoppage.
Genoa will leave a permanent mark to memory from this trip. We walked to the train station and decided to spend our night next to it. Erki made a mistake of leaving the wallet and smartphone in the pockets before snoozing off, and the result was that a passing by pickpoketer snatched it and ran with them. Bonehead move, but we were fortunate as nearby people saw that happening and were able to retrieve the wallet and the phone to us. We did loose some cash, but got back all the cards from the wallet and the phone as well.
In the morning we took a train out in direction of Milan, to start hitch-hiking there.
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| Gas prices |
Getting some rain
Camping in Marseillan and learning French customs
Other two days of our camping experience in South of France was spent in a small town called Marseillan. Highlights were the beaces there and some truth or dare with guys in the evenings.
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| Eric building me a nice body from sand |
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| Having dinner in Marseillan camping |
Enjoying the beach
Lunch in town
French dinner at camping
Lunch in town
Beziers, Cap d'Agde and awesome friends
Back in France!!!
After spending about 3 weeks in Spain and Portugal, we returned back to France. Raphaël, our CouchSurfing host from Tours invited us to camp with him and his friend Eric for few days in Cap d'Agde area.
Getting from Barcelona to France was actually fairly easy. We used inner city transport tickets to get on the edge of the town and then were fortunate to get a ride all the way to Narbonne. The driver was a young french guy who, by his words, was actually a truck driver. He most certainly had different kind of driving skills.
We spent our first night in a town called Béziers. For france, it seemed to be a small town. Unfortunately we weren't able to locate the McDonalds where our GPS program said to be, but fortunately had a chance to recharge the phone in the train station, next to what we eventually ended up sleeping. In the morning we did a small hitch-hiking trip to reach Cap d'Agde, where we met Raphaël again.
Once Eric arrived, after driving two days in a row from Portugal, we looked for a camping site and settled in there. In the evening by accident we actually ended up in the neighbouring campsites foam party. A fun night, counting out the punishment on smartphones and one hat.
On the second day at the camp we went on a wine tasting trip through local vineyards. Truly once in a lifetime experience. We ended up buying couple of wines from two different spots and headed back to camp to enjoy it next to some frisbee throwing.
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| Sucking on a smurf in Beziers |
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| Rock massage for Raphaël |
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| Foam party |
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| Camping in Cap d'Agde |
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| Eric and his precious |
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| Erki putting up the tent |
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| Raphaël putting up the tent |
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| Our camping companions |
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| Wine tasting trip |
Night at the "lovely" little town Beziers
Camping with Raphaël and Eric
Wine tasting trip
Results of the wine tasting trip
Doing some sightseeing
Wine tasting trip
Valencia, Tarragona and finally Barcelona
After spending about 5 days in the amazing little house in the hills of Beas de Granada we started to head out to Barcelona. It was going to be a long trip, as Barcelona was about 800km away from us. Two Polish girls who stayed at Tom's place on our first days there actually started on the same journey couple of days earlier. They were fortunate enough to get a ride all the way to Barcelona with a Romanian truck driver. Although we didn't expect to have as much luck, we wouldn't have minded to get fairly close to Barcelona.
It actually took a while to get moving from the gas station we started of from. About 3 hours before we got a car a bit away from Granada. As usually, as soon as you get moving, things start going well. When hitchhiking on the side of the speedway we were able to get a ride with a cool guy named Jorge, who was driving from South of Spain to Valencia. He was very helpful and interesting person to be on the road with. With 500km to go to Valencia, we had a great chance to get to know him more and talk about Spain, spanish people and share some insight of Estonia.
When we got to Valencia, we were greeted by unexpectedly high humidity. It was totaly different climate compared to one we left from in the morning. Temperatures may not have been that high, but it felt fairly hot. Fortunately the airport had a good airconditioning system, so sleeping through the night wasn't too difficult. Our stay in Valencia was extremely short, as we even didn't see the center of town. Being back besides the road early in the morning.
Our first ride from Valencia took us to a small town past Castellon called Benicàssim that hosted a reggae festival at that time. As the town was filled with all kinds of reggae lovers and otherwise travelers, we fitted right in. After stopping for a small breakfast break we tried to move on closer to Barcelona. It was tricky getting cars from that point on, as we actually hitchhiked twice on a car that took us about 10 km to next closest town on both times. There also were couple of drivers who promised to take us all the way to Tarragona, but dropped us off half way there or so. But in the end we made our way to Tarragona, which was about 100km from Barcelona. As the daylight had dissapeared by that time, we had to leave those for the next day. Our night in Tarragona was spent in the local bus terminal, which was fairly ok for sleeping.
In the morning we decided to let our legs and mind rest a bit and take a bus all the way to Barcelona. It was fairly comfortable ride after couple of wearing days behind us. Once in Barcelona we set out to find tourist information point. They fortunately had McDonalds maps as well, just like in Madrid. So finding wifi wasn't that difficult, just had to find a spot to charge the phone as well. Once we got that, back to hostelbookers we went. It was our main site for finding hostels over the trip. Took a hostel that was located bit outside of the main area of Barcelona, but it was cheaper because of that and it gave us a chance to sleep in a bed for a change and take a nice shower.
The hostel did have its shortcomings, so our second night ing Barcelona was spent in the airport. Also we dropped our bags off in the airport early in the morning, so we had a whole day to discover Barcelona, without having to carry around our big backpacks.
The city of Barcelona was just as great as expected. There were long beautiful beaches to relax on and mesmerizing palm tree avenues. On our way back from the beaches we also took a look at the Sagrada Familia church, which was fairly interesting to see, with its unique architecture and high focus on small details.
It actually took a while to get moving from the gas station we started of from. About 3 hours before we got a car a bit away from Granada. As usually, as soon as you get moving, things start going well. When hitchhiking on the side of the speedway we were able to get a ride with a cool guy named Jorge, who was driving from South of Spain to Valencia. He was very helpful and interesting person to be on the road with. With 500km to go to Valencia, we had a great chance to get to know him more and talk about Spain, spanish people and share some insight of Estonia.
When we got to Valencia, we were greeted by unexpectedly high humidity. It was totaly different climate compared to one we left from in the morning. Temperatures may not have been that high, but it felt fairly hot. Fortunately the airport had a good airconditioning system, so sleeping through the night wasn't too difficult. Our stay in Valencia was extremely short, as we even didn't see the center of town. Being back besides the road early in the morning.
Our first ride from Valencia took us to a small town past Castellon called Benicàssim that hosted a reggae festival at that time. As the town was filled with all kinds of reggae lovers and otherwise travelers, we fitted right in. After stopping for a small breakfast break we tried to move on closer to Barcelona. It was tricky getting cars from that point on, as we actually hitchhiked twice on a car that took us about 10 km to next closest town on both times. There also were couple of drivers who promised to take us all the way to Tarragona, but dropped us off half way there or so. But in the end we made our way to Tarragona, which was about 100km from Barcelona. As the daylight had dissapeared by that time, we had to leave those for the next day. Our night in Tarragona was spent in the local bus terminal, which was fairly ok for sleeping.
In the morning we decided to let our legs and mind rest a bit and take a bus all the way to Barcelona. It was fairly comfortable ride after couple of wearing days behind us. Once in Barcelona we set out to find tourist information point. They fortunately had McDonalds maps as well, just like in Madrid. So finding wifi wasn't that difficult, just had to find a spot to charge the phone as well. Once we got that, back to hostelbookers we went. It was our main site for finding hostels over the trip. Took a hostel that was located bit outside of the main area of Barcelona, but it was cheaper because of that and it gave us a chance to sleep in a bed for a change and take a nice shower.
The hostel did have its shortcomings, so our second night ing Barcelona was spent in the airport. Also we dropped our bags off in the airport early in the morning, so we had a whole day to discover Barcelona, without having to carry around our big backpacks.
The city of Barcelona was just as great as expected. There were long beautiful beaches to relax on and mesmerizing palm tree avenues. On our way back from the beaches we also took a look at the Sagrada Familia church, which was fairly interesting to see, with its unique architecture and high focus on small details.
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| Valencia Airport |
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| On our way to Barcelona |
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| Hostel at Barcelona |
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| Hostel at Barcelona |
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| Enjoying the city of Barcelona |
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| Being hobo in Barcelona Airport |
Night at Tarragona bus station
Getting hot in Barcelona
Barcelona metro
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Days under the sun - mountains, grapes and fun
Greetings from Beas de Granada
This is the evening of our fifth day in Tom's house, and the last one.
Note of the day: ...
This is the evening of our fifth day in Tom's house, and the last one.
Note of the day: ...
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| Check this out |
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| Eating bicycles for lunch |
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| Vromm vromm |
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| Having a fast lunch |
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| On top of the mountain |
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| Nice view from up there |
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| Want some sun? |
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A bit of work to get up there |
The house
Next to Buddha
Friday, August 17, 2012
Beas de Granada
Hola to all the great people that read this. Yeah, if you're reading this, you're awesome ;D
Anyways, today on Thursday we left Sevilla and made our way to Beas de Granada. We spent last two nights outside and didn't really get enough sleep and were a bit tired, so the idea of standing beside the road for hours in the hot sun again didn´t seem very appealing. So sitting in the railway stations McDonalds we decided that it would make more sense to take the bus to Granada.
From Granada took another bus to get to Beas de Granada, the little town where Tom lives. He is a great guy how is really open and likes helping people. Got here in the evening and after hiking up a hill we arrived at his place. This is how he describes it: "It's a house in a small pueblo 18 km to the east of Granada. The "finca" is a little less than a km from the pueblo center, with the house set up on a hill. There are amazing views in every direction. There´s also a pool and around 4000 sq. meters of olive trees, almond trees and grape vines."
And all he said is true, it´s an amazing place to live at and to visit. Tomorrow we are planning to go hiking in the hills and climb some mountains, also take some sun and enjoy the pool. So it's going to be a fun day. We'll try to keep the blog updated as well and add some pictures and videos :)
Note of the day: It's okay to take a bus once in a while, at least when the other option is hitch-hiking in Spain with 45 degrees!
And all he said is true, it´s an amazing place to live at and to visit. Tomorrow we are planning to go hiking in the hills and climb some mountains, also take some sun and enjoy the pool. So it's going to be a fun day. We'll try to keep the blog updated as well and add some pictures and videos :)
Note of the day: It's okay to take a bus once in a while, at least when the other option is hitch-hiking in Spain with 45 degrees!
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| First person view of the pool |
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| Got to love the pool when it's 40 degrees outside |
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| Tom cooked an awesome lunch |
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| Hiding from the sun |
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| On top of the mountain |
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| Nice view from up there |
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| Cross Mountain =P |
Chilling at the pool
Cannonball
Sunset from on top of the mountain
Travelers on top of the mountain
Tom making some great music
More of some Tom's performance :)
Thursday, August 16, 2012
South-Portugal and back to Spain
Hey everybody :)
On Tuesday we left Lisbon and started hitch-hiking to south. We picked Faro as our destination since it's the biggest city in that area. Spent the first half of the day in the hostel online, so got to our hitch-hiking spot quite late in the evening, at 5 o'clock, but we were optimistic since Faro is under 300 km from Lisbon.
First ride we got was with an older couple who were going to a camping trip. As thought they didn't speak any english, but that wasn't a problem. Second ride was with a cool guy with an airport shuttle who was on it's way back to Faro from Lisbon. He dropped us off at his hometown Albafeira, a little nice tourist city on the coast, about 30 km from Faro.
By the time we got to Albafeira it was dark already so we decided to spend the night there. Slept on the beach next to the ocean. It was cool :P
On Wednesday morning started hitch-hiking early in the morning and, after getting a few awesome drivers, got to Sevilla. Looked around town, but there wasn't much to do since 15th of august is a national holiday in Spain and most of the shops are closed. Found out that even big food stores were having a holiday so couldn't even shop for food. But luckily McDonalds is run by slaves who don't have any holidays, so it's always open (atleast from 6am to 1am).
Later in the evening we went to a CS event and met some cool people there. After that made our way to the railway station and had a good night =P
Today, on Thursday, we'll head to a place near Granada where Tom, our first host in Spain, is waiting for us. Can't wait to meet him, so have fun and we'll see you there :)
Note of the day: Almost being run over by a tractor on the beach in the morning is not the best wake-up call!
On Tuesday we left Lisbon and started hitch-hiking to south. We picked Faro as our destination since it's the biggest city in that area. Spent the first half of the day in the hostel online, so got to our hitch-hiking spot quite late in the evening, at 5 o'clock, but we were optimistic since Faro is under 300 km from Lisbon.
First ride we got was with an older couple who were going to a camping trip. As thought they didn't speak any english, but that wasn't a problem. Second ride was with a cool guy with an airport shuttle who was on it's way back to Faro from Lisbon. He dropped us off at his hometown Albafeira, a little nice tourist city on the coast, about 30 km from Faro.
By the time we got to Albafeira it was dark already so we decided to spend the night there. Slept on the beach next to the ocean. It was cool :P
On Wednesday morning started hitch-hiking early in the morning and, after getting a few awesome drivers, got to Sevilla. Looked around town, but there wasn't much to do since 15th of august is a national holiday in Spain and most of the shops are closed. Found out that even big food stores were having a holiday so couldn't even shop for food. But luckily McDonalds is run by slaves who don't have any holidays, so it's always open (atleast from 6am to 1am).
Later in the evening we went to a CS event and met some cool people there. After that made our way to the railway station and had a good night =P
Today, on Thursday, we'll head to a place near Granada where Tom, our first host in Spain, is waiting for us. Can't wait to meet him, so have fun and we'll see you there :)
Note of the day: Almost being run over by a tractor on the beach in the morning is not the best wake-up call!
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| Getting train tickets to get out of Lisbon |
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| Gas prices in Portugal |
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| Want to go see a bullfight? |
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| Just hitch-hiking |
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| Erki eating square magdalenas |
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| Wieners in a jar - sorry but that's just cool =P |
Albafeira nightlife
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Lisbon
Arrived on friday to Lisbon from Navalmoral. That was our longest and fastest hitch-hiking leg of the trip. From Navalmoral we took a hiking trip to find a spot where to hitch-hike at, but once there, it didnt take too long to get a ride. A guy who works in marketing for a chemical company picked us up and actually was going to Badajoz, which is a city on the border of Spain and Portugal. He had to drop us off 40 km from Badajoz though, as his plans had changed and he didnt have to go there anymore. But to our fortune, it didnt take tool ong to get another car from the gas station he dropped us off at. Driver of that guy was actually originally from Lisbon and was heading there for the weekend holiday. So with two cars we got to Lisbon in about 5 hours or so.
Saturday was Erki's birthday and got him some cake and an awesome hat :P
First two days in Lisbon we spent walking around town with our backpacks and sleeping in the Airport, very interesting experience, but now going to airport is definitely our first option once we find ourselves on the street. After second night in the Airport we thought about going out of Lisbon and go somewhere else in Portugal, but as the local bus system was too difficult to figure out and there was a room open in a cheap and apparently nice hostel, we decided to stay for another night. After getting to the hostel and walking around town a bit we actually decided to stay for one extra day in the hostel.
On the second day in hostel, we decided to take a walk around town to find a hat and dress for Katrina and then hit the beach. Our selection was Guincho, one of the best surfing beaches in the world apparently. Had a great time there, swam in the ocean and built some sandcastles. It took the metro, a train and a bus to get to the beach, and the same to get back, but it was worth it :D
On Tuesday spent the morning updating the blog and doing some other neccessary stuff online. But now we will start hitch-hiking to South of Portugal and then back into Spain. Have some cool people from CouchSurfing waiting to host us as well and can't wait to meet them, so things are looking good :)
Hope you're having an awesome summer and enjoying every minute of it :)
Note of the day: Good to chill out at a hostel and get the bags off the back once in a while!
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| Typical Lisbon architecture |
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| The view from on top of the mountain |
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| Erki and birthday cake |
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| Sending out postcards - keep an eye on your mailboxes ;) |
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| Just a cool train station |
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| To the beach :) |
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| Building sandcastles |
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| Being weird at the beach |
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| A long wait for the bus at Guincho |
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| Hostel |
At the awesome beach
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