I never thought of how long the day would be starting the trip.

My journey from Vancouver to Lisbon first had a stop in London.   The flight from Vancouver to London was 9 hours – taking off at 7pm and arriving at noon in London.   By the time dinner was served on the flight I was tired but sleep was not within my grasp.   I, like many others, can’t sleep in a plane – I need to lie down and as classy as Club Class was – no beds to be found.

So, I landed in London for a 4 hour layover.   By this time I had been up for 24 hours and since I knew my next flight would land in Lisbon at 7pm followed by customs and then a metro trip into town – I knew my bed in Lisbon was still at least 8 hours away.   You can read about my lack of sleep in detail here.

Anyway, I did eventually get into Lisbon and like I’ve said before – the internet is your friend!   In the planning stage of this trip I went online to not only see how the metro worked and the route to get to my hostel but I also took advantage of the amazing Google Maps street view and actually traced the route from where I exited the metro station to the front door of my hostel.   Technology is pretty frickin cool!

It didn’t actually take long for me to get from the airport to the hostel – maybe 40 minutes.   Met a couple of people on the metro as well – amazing how the world opens up when you’re walking around with a backpack with a Canadian flag on it.

When I arrived at the hostel it felt like I finally got home and in many ways it’s true as this will be where I live for the next 8 days.   The hostel was only opened up just under a year ago and it looks shiny and new.   I know I’m going to experience the exact opposite down the road so I’m letting myself enjoy this while I can.

The staff are very friendly and helpful.   The location is central to everything and I feel very safe and secure.   The people staying here are really nice.   As I checked in I met Keissi and Johanna – both 20 and staying for a week on semester break from their university in Germany.   In the coming days we would spend alot of time together.

Of course, even though I had been up for about 32 hours at this point – there was no way I was just going to go straight to sleep so I unpacked a little and headed out down the narrow cobblestone streets to find a restaurant and to also find some wifi so I could let my mom know I had made it safe and sound.

After a nice meal and an equally nice Skype it was time to head to my new home and bring day 1 to an end.