The Global Scavenger Hunt

Today is our last day in international territory. Next stop is New York. Not the biggest fan of NY, but hey there's cellular and that means more books whenever. Yay. I bet you thought I was going to say something a teenage girl would say. Nope. Anyway, first thing we did today was not sleep in. But after that, we decided to take a boat tour of the six bridges. Porto is beautiful and so quaint. The weather was great, the city was still waking up and the scenery was awesome. I would totally come back here. Anyway, on our way down to the docks, we passed a tourist shop, the only open shops. I learned that corks, as in wine bottle corks, are something that Porto is known for, so I got a snazzy sweater with writing made from corks. I am so wearing as many of the souvenirs to school as I can. I'll look like some crazy tourist who couldn't decide where to go. Very fashionable. While we waited for the boat tour, we saw that there was a huge pack of fish below in the water. It w

Today was our day in Sevilla. The bed was awesome and I slept so much better than usual and slept in kinda. It was very pleasant. It was about 9am when we left for breakfast, yet it was so quiet and deserted, I liked it. We couldn't find anything open yet since apparently in Spain everyone is laid back  and doesn't open up till late morning. Fortunately, there was one little cafe was open, but it looked like they were still setting up the cafe. Unfortunately, they didn't have much food options, so I just had a crispy croissant. Although the food wasn't top notch, it was a relaxing and peaceful meal. After breakfast we went to a nearby bike rental place to rent bikes, obviously. We wanted to rent bikes just explore by ourselves, but then they offered us a spot on a tour. So we decided, what the heck sure. We got our bikes, but mine was a little tall for me (which is a pretty common occurrence). Our guide spoke English and Spanish. We had five other people in our tour,

For those who doesn't know what the title means, it means the day of accidental hikes. Or I think it does, google translate isn't always right. Today we decided to go to the top of the Gibraltar rock. We took a gondola thingy up to the top, which was cloudy and chilly, but I prefer that over hot and humid any day. At the top, we just explored the views, cafe and gift shops. We sent some postcards, which I don't get why since we'll get home before the postcards. The view was amazing; we saw the boats, city and beautiful sunrise. Then we decided to take the nature trail. One tourist attraction on that rock is the monkeys. There are a lot of them and they are so cute and fluffy looking, Unfortunately, I was not allowed to pet them. I really felt a connection with them as a fellow monkey (chinese zodiac), so I was able to get close to them. They are cute from the front but their behind, not too pleasant. One monkey I called the Kardashian of the monkeys, cause his behind

Today was a travel day. Joy. We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel, with an indoor courtyard. I learned Dad loves indoor courtyards; he kept raving about how cool this was and how much he wanted that. Anyway after the yummy breakfast, we took our first mode of transportation: a taxi. I know that was a total build up then faceplant. We took the taxi to the train station. We got on the first class cart, so fancy, and got comfortable. We were six people so we took up the whole cart. Yay no sitting next to strangers; I'm not mean, just shy. Anyway, the train was actually pretty comfortable to take a nap on. Unfortunately, I drooled on my shirt and since I hate wearing wet clothes, I had to change shirts, which isn't horrible just not the best. After the train to Tangier,  we took a taxi to the ferry station, where we took a ferry to Algeciar (I think that's how you spell that). The ferry was super crowded and you had to be really pushy. I was not a big fan of that; to cla

Today we woke up at 5 am! So it was an early morning. We had to get up early so we could catch the driver that’s taking us to ballooning. So I’ve noticed that a lot of times in Morocco, the path or route to activities really give off a horror movie/murder vibe. The car ride was in the dark along a bumpy road that was in the farming fields and stuff. And not other cars or anything was around. To sum it up, very murdery. We got there around 6 and sat down in the tent and ate some breakfast while we waited for the balloons to get ready. They started blowing up the balloons, which were huge, but then the wind changed and it was a very strong change so everybody was scrambling to stop the balloons from being pulled away and avoid be smushed by the balloons. Unfortunately, due to the wind change we waited for about 45 minutes for them to blow up the balloons then make them upright. Once it was all blown up and stuff, we got in. The basket was split into four sections for two people and a l

Today we slept till 8:30! Well I did, Dad was awake at 8:00. It felt so good to be able to sleep in, even if the air conditioning in the room was no so hot. Well it was hot but not in the good way. At breakfast they had madeleines. And anyone who knows me well knows I try to bake madeleines, because I love them. Anyway, breakfast was hot in a good way. The meeting was a big one with the teams. It’s the big scavenge leg now. We’re going to four countries! Morocco, Gibraltar, Spain and end in Portugal. I know muy picante. After the meeting and a few hours of planning with Ali and Micheal (another team we’re traveling with) and Margo, we finally had a decently solidish plan. For today, we decided to go get a hamman with Ali, Micheal, Eric and Kathryn. We took a tuk tuk there, but the tuk tuk drivers and us didn’t know where to go. So first we got dropped off at this super nice hamman place with adorable puppies and a nice owner from San Francisco. Unfortunately, that was the wrong place s