24 hours

Jack Bauer can learn of a conspiracy, find a solution and capture the bad guys in 24 hours. I was able to write a letter of intent to be a TA next year, board 4 different planes in 3 different countries and ended up in Lisbon, Portugal. All in 24 hours.

As usual, I left too many things to be finished in the last day before leaving on this trip. Packing, running errands, baking chocolate chip cookies (they were much appreciated), backing up my computer so it could be sent in for repair and last but not least, writing an important letter right up to the last 15 minutes before driving to the airport. In a way, the flight was a chance for me to finally relax. The worst part about traveling alone has always been the airports. Just plain boring. In Paris I thought that 4 hours between flights was a lot of time, but I used up most of it just making my way from one plane to the next. I was really lucky to get a good window seat on the Easy Jet flight down to Lisbon. Flying into the city provided some of the best views. Rolling hills green from all the rain of spring, beautiful typical architecture and cool modern buildings, the ocean...Everything looked so inviting from the plane. It is my first time in Portugal and I already knew I needed to come back. There is a bridge here that was modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco--looks so similar that for a minute you forget you are in Portugal. It even comes complete with the line of cars waiting to pay the toll to cross. Even the big prison is a cool looking building from the sky--looks like a 6-point star.

My plane landed a bit late and I couldn't find my friend Christoph right away so I sent him a text after a couple minutes. He replied that I should walk outside and I would find him paying a policeman. Turns out he was late and thought I would be waiting, so he parked right outside the airport. Well, on the bright side I didn't have to walk far to the car. He took me into the city, I meet his uncle where Christoph works during the week, and we walked around the area they built for the World Expo. A little park full of cool buildings and sculptures with a marine theme. The ocean was bright blue and the sun was shining--unlike the Midwest where some parts got snow that day. Even better than being by the port is the apartment we are staying at outside of Lisbon. It is in a beach town to the north called Ericeira. Thbalconyey overlooks the ocean and the town is very picturesque. I could take a walk on the beach anytime I want. The photo with the high cliff is from the beach at Ericeira. The other shot is in the city center.