Lam Unfiltered

My second day in Portugal I had to travel by train from Lisbon to Porto. This could be a 2.5 hour trip, a 3 hour trip or a 3.5 hour trip depending on whether I chose the fast train, the slow train or the bus. I chose the slow train. I had to take the metro to the train station, which was so beautifully easy, the subway system is excellent. One travel source called it tired, but they have obviously never been in Toronto - which I consider properly tired in comparison. I should have bought my train ticket in advance, because I had to wait from 9:30am until around noon for my train. When I arrived in Porto at 4ish, the rain was cascading down - causing all the people to stay squished in the station - and block all the maps. The maps would not have helped me because I had not obsessively researched Porto like I had Lisbon. I should have. If I had known which direction to turn - to walk toward the Cathedral - I would have found it in the rain, and I could have started walking on Satur...

When I landed in Lisbon I was very prepared. I picked up my backpack from the luggage carousel, removed my pack and poles from my cheap zippered Ikea bag, folded it, stored it and walked with confidence out of the airport and onto an Aero-bus. Well, almost that effortlessly. The ideal weight for me to carry on my back was 15lbs, and my backpack was closer to 20. No matter how hard I tried, when packing and re-packing at home, I could not cut any more items to make my bag lighter. I felt I really needed those 10 packs of organic oatmeal, the collapsible travel bowl and thermal metal drink container. I also had my travel purse, which only weighed 800 grams, but how to stuff it into an already full pack? I had not trained with my pack very much, and the first time I put it on at the Lisbon airport, I realized that I was going to have to get stronger, very quickly. [Later I found out I could store some of my unnecessary items at my pension for 3 weeks, which helped my pack weight immen...