OMG, Portugal is amazing. Ok, that was not meant to make anyone jealous, but omg Portugal!! My portugese sucks (nonexistent), the landscape is soooo hilly and it was a pain getting to where I was staying, not to mention totally lost, and somehow I am speaking french in Portugal??!!! I feel like I am in some Disney dreamland for some reason when I walk relaxed on the streets thinking of singing Under the Sea with all the seagulls and looking from this French girls apartment (was first hospital of Porto) that has an amazing view of Se Cathedral at night and thinking of Aladdin (yes I know none of those films were based from Portugal). Couch surfing has been an amazing experience. I am staying at this girls place named Stefanie, who is Austrian. Her place has this amazing view of the river (duoro). She had another couchsurfer stay there, Liza, and she is a crazy hitchhiking circus troupe street performer. She hitchiked from Poland all the way to Spain and did trapeze before the string broke and she hurt her spine. Today she went out to the streets as one of those statutes and it was really cool to watch her perform. Too bad the streets of Porto were not used to street performers since she didnt earn much.Today I think there will be another couchsurfer coming...he is an independent film maker from LA and works for MTV/HBO etc. I learned sooo much just being around these people!!So I am doing well, and I was a little sad passing by the Rua de St. Katerine because of all the Zara shops and I sooo want to shop since the prices looked reasonable (compared to London of course and it is Portugal is home of Zara I think). as much as I loved London and Netherlands visiting friends, this really is amazing seeing the hospitality of strangers!
