Friday, February 25, 2005

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAargh!!!!

Hell is a place called Bragança, not that the town itself is bad or ugly or doesn't happen to be surrounded by a few snow capped mountains. No Bragança is hell because I'm stuck here against my will and must stay till Sunday when the next Bus leaves for Spain. And that's not it. So after leaving Porto in the morning after a nice breakfast and send off from my wonderful hosts, I set off on a Bus for a ride through what was to be some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen thus far on my travels. Snow capped mountains, small villages, and winding mountain roads. Wow is all I have to say. My goal was to arrive in Bragança and catch a bus to Zamora in Spain where there are main vineyards I wished to visit. Well this was all good and well if we had mad it here by 1 pm when the last bus left. Ok, Ok so I admit during the ride I started to think one last night in Portugal would be nice and I even thought I might stay till Saturday if it was beautiful. But when I got to the ticket window I found out I must stay. No buses to anywhere in Spain till Sunday night! UGH, not only did I not want till stay till Sunday but I would have to spend 2 days worth of travel money waiting here with nothing to do. Well that's not true, if I had a car, the best national park of Portugal is right next to me right now, but as luck would have it, I would need to rent a car if I wanted to go! Oh well, at least the old standby is here, walled city, big castle and I'm sure a catherdral someplace. Though cathedrals are starting to creep me out, the last one I was in had more sculpture of dead, bloody, and decaying people than a Friday the 13th movie. Oh well, so off to the Tourismo Office, where a very nice lady who comiserated with me, called to check to see if I could rent a car and leave it in Spain, no luck! So I checked to see if a nice town on the Douro nearby would have a bus to Spain tomorrow, no luck. Though only 20km's to Zamora, not one bus to be had from there, meaning I would have to return to here to get back home! UGH!!!
So a hunting I did go for a room to stay in, oh I forgot to mention that 2 phones didn't work and an ATM so that I could call someone for suggestions. By this point I was very frustrated. So I stopped at the first place I saw, and when they said it was 10 euros I said I don't care what it looks like I'll take it. Unfortuanatly, no TV, I would have liked to veg out, but at least it's cold! Not to mention the bathroom is across the hall. UGH, but I think I'll check out the local night life if any, and stay out late fumbling my portuguese to some poor soul!
Oh and after the mess with Gab I still hadn't used my card to get money, so I go to 3 different places, all but the last one said that my card was unreadable! Finally after a mild heart attack and spells of dizziness, I found one that either didn't care that I had a card or didn't know that I was not supposed to have it easy today. I promptly removed a huge chuck o cash, and hid it about my body in various locations!
Currently I was lucky enough to find a CiberCafe and am now trying to catch my breath before going to find a very large dinner as I have not had time to eat all day save a bit of toast this morning, oh and an orange.
Hey to top it off, though I still have the night to have things be wrong, when I got here they gave me a bum card for their login device and I ended up taking forever to get logged in!
And now I go, if anyone who has my cell number wants to talk tonight, I'll be doing nothing much, call my parents if you want I think they have it. Oh and my cell phone is only recieving calls, because I need to wait to get to Spain to be able to add minutes to it! ANything else? Oh I'm sure there was more but my hands are tired of typing and I think I need a BOTTLE of wine!
Love to all, and till soon, Ryan

Oh and spelling/Grammar errors are well warrented, deal with it!;)

1 Comments:

At 2/25/2005 09:39:00 PM, Blogger benjaaron said...

Don't worry, Ryan, we're used to that! ;) I hope you're finding things to keep you entertained while trappped in Portugal on your forced stay. xxoo

 

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