Athens, Greece 6/11 - 6/17

First day in Athens we went wandering and stumbled upon a huge protest rally(I think it was a union thing). These were fairly common in Greece, and looking at the news after we left it seems we got out just on time before their banks shut down.

Another thing we noticed in downtown Athens was the great amount of stray dogs running around. All were fairly friendly and its a sight to see when they known how to cross streets safely.

You can't throw a rock here without hitting something thousands of years old. If all we did was wander we would have seem plenty of amazing sites, but of course we did the acropolis and agora and it was so beautiful and very historic.

Food. We lived on gyros(called kebabs in most other countries). A piece of pita bread filled with meat and other trace elements for 2.00-2.50. Probably my favorite food of all time now, especially for budget backpackers. Next in line in awesomeness was that a kilo of cherries was 1.50euro. Worth every stomach ache. And next were the gigantic 1euro street donuts. I'll always miss the food here.

By far the most annoying thing about athens was the store hours. Very erratic. Posted hours are never accurate and some days they were shut down altogether for whatever reason. And forget about Sunday. Holy day means you better already have food or be prepared to find the few restaurants that stay open and charge accordingly.

After 4 days in a hostel we moved to the coastal area of Athens to a hotel and had a pretty good time with the a/c that we no longer take for granted. I'm not pointing any fingers but I think SOMEONE got us sick by setting the thermostat to 55f. Just kidding :P we were both behind that. Out previous hostel had been a sweatbox.

In the coastal area it was nonlonger strsy dogs, but now it was stray cats. Everywhere. So damn cute. We hung out at the beach a lot. Saw 2 locals teens get in a fight, that was pretty hilarious.

Flying out of Athens was the first time that the weight and size of our luggage awas actually checked which prompted some emergency reorganization to avoid a 50euro check bag fee. Budget airlines have their downsides.

Animal of note:

Name: chicken&bacon - kitten that screamed at us for food on at least 4 separate occasions at our favorite gyro place: PiriPiri

Places visited:
The acropolis and parthenon
The agora
Temple of haephestus
College of Athens

Barcelona, Spain 6/3 - 6/10

Really fun city with awesome public transit of course. Our hostel/hotel was just s few minutes walk from the coast which was very nayce.

Barcelona history museum had huge excavated Roman ruins that were pretty incredible to walk through.  You could feel the history there.

Lots of similarities with madridz, especially in the gothic quarter of Barcelona where the buildings are very detailed and beautiful. The people were very friendly and it was much cleaner than Madrid imo but all we saw was the downtown area. The views of the city were amazing and I did not expect it to be so large.

Probably the nicest city we have visited thus far, but still, on our last day was probably the closest we've come to being murdered in an alley so far during this trip.

Also, probably saw the most cats here of anywhere. Its like a couple cats claim each park and are super friendly and awesome.

Places we visited:

La sagrada familia
Park guell
Labyrinthe de horta
Barcelona history museum
Harbor cable car
Tora d'alta mar

Barcelona judgement: coo.

Madrid, Spain 5/30 - 6/3

Very urban. Very big city. We probably never went further than 5 miles away from the hostel and still saw so much. Bars open til 5am was nice.  Dogs off leash everywhere that are so behaved they just follow their owners in crowded streets.

The dog in the picture I named 'quanto' after his owner just said 'wait here' in Spanish and the dog just sat outside the grocery store until his owner came back out. Pretty damn cute.

Not quite as dense as Lisbon, but way bigger, and the people were definitely not as polite but weren't ever rude enough to bother us aside from the occasional guy/girl who wouldn't even budge from their line of walking so I had to give them a hard shoulder since I was already trying to make space but they were unwilling to cooperate. I hope I injured some of them.  I could also do without being accosted by prostitutes(decriminalized) and the constant harassment of people trying to sell you stuff. Happened at least 10 times a day. Whatever though, I just ignored the shit out of them or pretended to speak Russian.

I wasnt allowed into a casino cuz my attire was too casual :( but ya i guess i was in basketball shorts.

Public transit was so amazing. Constant buses with free WiFi, and cheap taxis made getting around so painless when we were too tired/lazy to walk. Same for lisbon actually.  I was also amazed at the amount of detail in almost every building. Pretty ridiculous that you can just snap a picture of almost any random building and it looks unique and like it was crafted by people with greater than average crafting skills.

Side note: the overnight train ride to Madrid was terrible. We had cheap seats but the coach was so sweltering hot it made sleep so uncomfortable. And outside it was still 50-60F so there was just no excuse for it. We also got kicked out of a food coach because that was only for the express passengers.  I give Touristas trains a 2/10 and the coach designers/engineers deserve worse than the swift death I will grant them one day.

Places we visited: 

Palacio Real

Plaza mayor

El retiro park

Naval museum

El retiro park

Madrid judgment: pretty coo

Sintra,Portugal 5/29

About a 30 minute drive away from Lisbon is a small town called Sintra and it is near some amazing palaces, mansions, castles, and gardens that are now for the public to see.

Very pretty, lots of green, but while Lisbon was around 90f every day, sintra is a higher elevation I assume and as such was so cold I was not prepared. I'd say mid 50s to mid 60s.

Pretty amazing views, and a nice little town packed full of tourists. Thank god we went on a weekday.

Sintra verdict: nayce.

Lisbon, Portugal 5/26 -5/29

Nice city. The people were super friendly, I can't remember anyone who wasn't very helpful. Lots of graffiti everywhere, and lots of condemned/very destroyed looking buildings. I was told a lot was bombed during some war so some culture may have been lost but was still a very beautiful place. 

I've never seen such dense stores. Most of them are the size of a single bedroom and jampacked with cheap goods because everything is cheap in Lisbon which is pretty awesome.

Places we visited:

Sintra

Jeronimos monastery

Belem tower

Jardim botanico

Lisbon judgment: coo.