November 15 & part of 16th

November 15, 2005 7:30pm Lisbon time
Another great port today! Lisbon was beautiful! I woke up at 8:00am and went outside and the sun was just rising and it was incredible. The oranges and yellows against the new cities was something great to wake up to. When we pulled into Lisbon there was a large Christus statue like the one they went to in the amazing race. Right next to it was a big red bridge that spanned across the water. I loved it. After eating breakfast I went back to the room to try to get a little bit more sleep while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Luckily Susan came to the rescue and we decided to not wait for everyone and to just go into town. I hurried and got ready and we jumped onto the shuttle that would take us into town. When we got there we went shopping a bit then we started our trek up to the Castle of Jorge. We didn’t know it would be as uphill as it was. It was a beautiful day and the way the streets and buildings were set up, it reminded me of a mixture between San Francisco and Greece. It was good cuz then I sort of got my taste of Greece like I wanted. When we finally made it there we were panting and sweating because it was so uphill. And because we are both so out of shape. The castle was very interesting because almost everywhere we looked there was huge pictures of donkeys. It made us laugh. It was almost like a tribute to them. When we were inside the actual castle there were real donkeys inside. We became friends with them. We also named our two favorites. They are now Fred and Ginger. I never knew that donkeys were so soft. They were really cute. Near the donkeys was a staircase that went to the top of the castle. We went up there and the view was of all of Lisbon. It was perfect. We could even see our ship down at the port. When we were done at the castle we walked down to a church. It had a couple of tours that we could go on. One was of the treasury and one was of the renovations that they were doing of an old roman town. Up in the treasury there was such beautiful jewels. They also had the old outfits for their leaders. The fabrics were all so beautiful with maroons, greens and blues with gold designs all over them. They also had old crowns and scepters and I loved it! (it is now 12:45pm Nov. 16th, I had to stop writing for the night because the boat was rocking so bad I could not sit up anymore. It was horrible! I had to just go to sleep cuz I was so sick!) Anyways, we walked all the way back down to the shopping area and I continued my search for a charm for my bracelet. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I really wanted a charm of an old boat but couldn’t find one. All day around town everywhere we looked we saw roosters. I have no idea the significance of them. But I decided that I should get one. The guy at the store said that I will bring me good luck. Mom, you should be proud of me for buying a rooster that I am going to wear on my wrist every day. After I finally found my charm, we went back to the ship. On the ship we went to lunch and we were going to go swimming but we were tired from eating. So we went back to the room and The Notebook was on. We watched it then went to dinner. After dinner Sally and I went to the gym and did pilates. Then I came back to the room and the end of The Notebook was on again. It was at that point that the boat started getting bad. It was so bad that I basically crawled to my top bunk and tried to fall asleep. Eventually I had to take a second pill to get myself to sleep without heaving. Once I fell asleep everything was great. I woke up in the middle of the night like usual but made myself fall back to sleep. Now it is the next day and I am lounging by the pool. We all just got some ice cream from the ice cream bar. I had oreos and a cone in vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good. This morning I watched Sharks Tale. It was a cute movie. I ordered room service and had breakfast/lunch in bed. What a life I am living. The ocean today is so beautiful. Everyday I have to pinch myself that I am really doing the things that I am doing. I am going to go hop into the hot tub now. Love you!