Buttercup is marrying Humperdink in little less than half an hour.

So we left Portugal behind, and I don't want to face that I have to head back to real life in two days.

I need to live in Europe. I long to live in Europe. I want to marry a European boy, with European style, European romance, and a European accent. I want to have a European life, with a value of culture, and where the streets are small, the buildings beautiful, the travel made easy, and adventures are like banks--around every corner. Please let me live here. I need to find a way. I will miss Mexican food, my people, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the American music scene, but I will have good wine, new people, and dancing all night.

::this is long, fair warning::

Thursday night took us out again, we found our new friends, and finally made it out to a disco, which was eh. The music was bad, and we were not drunk enough to make it work, but we danced and it was fun, a bit of a bust, but it ended with more wine and good conversation and a lively time until after dawn once again, complete with a little tipsy off-roading in the Jeep. Going to bed when you usually get up means you lose daylight, but we made it to the beach in time for some sun late Friday afternoon, an almost swim (just too cold to go past my thighs, even if it was my last chance to swim on that beautiful beach. Shi and I felt like spectacles for the day, like Sex and the City coming home, and then attempting to take jumping pics on the beach. You'd think that generation would know by now that ours is picture crazy, and we aren't about the portrait.
We had some errands to run in town, and decided to finally go to out to dinner in Albufeira, try and find something Portuguese, maybe a little peixes, and ate way too much of a delicious meal out. We came home to find that we'd missed the boys on their way home to Lisbon. They were so sweet, stopped by to say goodbye, and left us a cd of their favorite Portuguese singer Mariza--which Sheila and I listened to in the car on the way to the airport, and is beautiful, I recommend looking into it. Plus, from the album cover, she has cute hair and amazing cheekbones. --Those boys made our trip, I am glad to have new friends, and hope they will remain so and some time come visit us in the City.

Then we packed it up and said our goodbye to our Praia Oura with a bottle of red Portuguese wine and a clove out on our patio under the stars.

The thing about travelling, is that it's not always going to work out as planned, and not being the most flexible, it's good for me to get this practice. We had a 6am flight, and a 1/2 hr drive to Faro, so we left our hotel at 4:30am. THAT is an early hour, and one we had already been seeing the past few mornings. Our flight from Faro for some reason left a half hour ahead of schedule, I guess if everyone was there and on board, why not?? which got us to Lisbon early, but Lisbon was having some computer issues, and our flight was delayed boarding and on the runway for an hour and half, which caused us to miss our connection in Barcelona. I have done a ton of airport hopping this trip, man oh man. Well, there were no more flights to Bilbao, and TAP said there was no other option of getting to Bilbao, so they'd get me a hotel and I would fly out in the morning. I'LL TAKE IT!! Unfortunately, TAP took three and a half hours to do things, so I didn't get time in during daylight or buisness hours, but I saw Barca, ate and drank, made friends with the kindly young bartender at Cafe De L'Opera--who hopes to see me again, wink-- had a hot shower and a nice bed, and was put in Business Class on both the flight to Madrid and to Bilbao, it was quite okay. I'm sad Sheila missed the amenities --I even was given sipping chocolate from Spanair, and my Coke Light came in a real glass on Iberia-- but she went off to Rome directly from BCN, and had planned on skipping out on the last leg anyways. PS--snow all over Basque country, and it is raining and muy frio in Bilbao. Grr.
I found my way home to Sheila's with only a few hiccups, and releived some stress by cleaning her kitchen and cooking myself a little Easter dinner. I have done too much traveling in too little time, with too little sleep, and my body hurts all over. I have not made plans for tomorrows hopefull trip to the Bay of Biscay, whether I see it in Spain or France, and how and when to get there, but it has rained all afternoon and is not at all pleasant outside. I wonder if it will even be worth it.
At this point, I'm very uncertain what the next two days and my night in Barcelona will look like, pray for nice weather please! Cold could be okay, I brought warm things and while I brought a raincoat and umbrella, I have little desire to wander around in the rain too much.
Heres hoping for some deep sleep, pleasant dreams, and waking up refreshed at a decent but early hour.
With sweet love from Spain on a tired and lonely Easter.