Ola

These past few days have been of some needed relaxation. I've caught up on all the sleep I've missed out on, and I've leisurely wandered around the city. I have even read a few books since I've been here (I'm currently on book 3, which is not so great yet. However, I highly recommend The Reader and Crow Lake.) Perhaps the small size of the city itself has lent itself to this laziness, or simply the closeness to the water. Whatever it is, I think it has done me some good and I won't be dead tired by the end of my trip.

I've been traveling for 15 days now. That sounds both long and short. I've only been homesick the day my parents left, when I was very tempted to follow them home, and this morning, when the people in my hostel were loudly talking about being in a new country and getting used to a bed that wasn't your own while I was sleeping. I thought about how I haven't been in my own bed, the one that means real home to me, in 3 months now. Then the people left, and I fell back asleep. So, just a minor missing of home. But I think it's healthy.

Like I said, I haven't done much these past few days. I went to Faro beach, where I was the only one on the beautiful white sand, except for a father and son taking a stroll. And I went to Lagos, to take a boat trip amongst the caves and cliffs formed by the literally crystal-clear ocean. The sun wasn't out for that, like I had planned for it to be, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful (and I still got a light burn). And I met a lovely German couple from Berlin who were patient with my German. The train ride itself to Lagos was lovely- with alternating fields of orange trees full of the bright fruit and fields of yellow and purple wildflowers. Today, I hope to take a boat trip on the natural reserve that sits off most of the coast of Algarve. If the weather cooperates.

Tomorrow, I leave for Sevilla, my transit stop to Barcelona. Which officially marks my return trip to Vienna!