Madrid to Lisbon

Lisbon is kind of a magical place.  I think there is some kind of special feeling reserved for the first and last cities on a trip like this; Hanoi was incredibly enchanting, and will always remain one of our favorite cities of this trip whether is was because it is an amazing place (which it really was) or because it felt like the first day of school with our new backpacks, bright eyed, and ready.   If that was the first of school, Lisbon is definitely the last day of camp-- we're both feeling pretty nostalgic and reluctant to leave, because it feels like a very long time before we'll be doing this again, but we know it'll be nice to be home with friends and family and a familiar bed.

Packed up the Peugeot one last time and dropped it off at the airport 

We left Madrid on an afternoon flight, and landed in Lisbon about an hour later--we were sad to leave Monica and Dad, it was so great to travel with them.  We found our last hostel easily, and opted for the 8-bunk bed dorms having mixed feelings about potentially our last time in a hostel.  We had a great dinner of local food-- great grilled and braised meats, fresh lightly dressed salad, sliced of black cured pork, some delicious local cheese, and nice wine.

Our one full day in Lisbon was a perfect example of our favorite plan for when we only have one day in a big city-- we pick a couple of sites, completely ignore our map, and follow Elliot's compass around until we stumble upon the things we had set out to see, all the while getting kind of lost in the local neighborhoods and exploring side streets.

It seemed appropriate to have our typical Euro breakfast of cappuccinos and croissants on our last day

Lisbon

We ending our night fairly early as we had a flight scheduled to leave at 6:30am this morning.  After waking up at 3:30am and getting ready, we checked our flight status (Thank you, Francy!) to discover our plane was delayed by about 5 1/2 hours.  Since I was already dressed, I went downstairs to tell the cab driver who was waiting that we wouldn't need a ride, or rather, used my well practiced pantomime since my Portuguese consists of "Obrigado" (Thank you) and "Presunto" (Ham).  Not too helpful.

One last time packing

Figuring out our budget down to the final Euro

Ready to go home

We finally made our flight at noon and we're currently in the Ponta Delgada Airport in the Azores, on the largest island of São Miguel.  We're debating whether to leave the airport to explore the town, but don't want to risk missing our connection.  We're scheduled the now leave around 10pm Portugal time, and we'll get in around midnight Boston time.  USA, here we come.