First entry!

Hey all,

As most of you probably know I'm in Europe for a couple of months travelling. It starts out as a family vacation/graduation present from my parents before I head off on my own for a little while. No definite plans right now but I'll hopefully wander my way along the mediterranean going eastwards. I'm going to try and keep a travel blog so I don't pester the beegeezes out of you guys with mass emails, so hopefully this works out!

So I'm about ten days in and most so far it's all been in the homeland (Portugal - actually my parents homeland). After a suprisingly pleasant overnighter from Vancouver and a stopover in Heathrow I arrived in Lisbon with my sister. Lisbon itself is a gorgeus city. I had sort of been told that in Europe the city's are almost museums in themselves but I couldn't wrap my head around the concent until I actually saw firsthand. Practically everywhere you go downtown there's a castle, monument, charming street - it's almost sightseeing overload really. Did the tourist thing for the first few days in and around the city, played some golf, relaxed on the riverbanks. I think we may have gone overboard on the castles to start - one thing I've realized is that you sort of have to pick and choose the ones you really want to see - I hate to say it but it really becomes just another castle after you've seen a couple in a day! I also managed to take in a football game - we watched Sporting (one of the big three clubs in Portugal) play in an domestic match. The stadium was built for Euro 2004 and the atmosphere was something even though you weren't allowed any beer in the stadium! I was a little shocked at that at first but I think it's because of all the fights afterwards.

After a few days in the city we flew to the Azores. It's an island chain in the Atlantic and where both of my parents were born. This part of this trip has easily been my favourite so far. The islands themselves were gorgeous - apparently it's the law for all the buildings to have the same colour scheme which makes for a really nice setting. I got to meet family from both sides who I had no idea that existed. I think after a few days I became an expert in carrying a conversation with my relatives through much hand waving and facial expressions! The younger ones speak english well though - I ended up playing some racing games with my cousins and heard a lot about 'North American cars? bad on fuel' and how I needed to 'brake more and show some European handling'. Wish I could have spent more time there but we had already booked flights for this part of the trip ahead of time.

As far as the people go, everyone has been really friendly so far. I don't think I've ever quite seen so many faux-mullet mohawks in my life though. That and I think the Portuguese are single-handedly trying to bring back in those shaved lines on the side of you hair back. Oh and the sheer amount of people who smoke, and the fact that they smoke everywhere is still taking some getting used to.

In terms of the travelling itself I feel a bit more of a tourist than a traveller at times. Sort of a different way of seeing a country and while I am looking forward to getting back into hostels (my liver is in embarassingly good condition for this point of a vacation) the nice meals and a hotel bed aren't too bad either.

So right now we're just waiting around for a day before we fly to Rome tomorrow morning. We're there as a family for a few days before my sister heads back home, my parents fly to France and I continue on to Northern Italy. I'll try to update this semi-regularly and hopefully my blogger ability improves. I've included some photos from our trip in and around Lisbon - I'll get the ones from the Azores up soon hopefully!

Cheers,

Jon