days 7 and 8/9: three sunrises, two surfers and five kings

day seven we got up early and watched the sunrise...three times! due to poor timing on our part, the first was as we drove to the beach. fortunately for us, the beach we went to had a huge cliff between it and the sun, so we got to watch the sun rise a second time. finally, since our campsite was located in a huge revine, by the time we got back to our camp the sun was rising there too! oh, lucky us.





we also went to the beach again and jozka and i surfed...



days eightandnine blend together really.

we left sw portugal at 530 am to drive to barcelona. we made it to barcelona at 8 pm, ate dinner and walked around the city.

barcelona has a lot of street artists



then left at midnight to make the 16 hour drive home.

needless to say, when we ate burger king at 3 in the afternoon on day nine we were a little kookoo...



we wore those crowns for the next five hours...literally.

days 5 & 6: tents, naked gymnastics, and psalm 19

this is the difference between morning four and morning five:





we were super excited when we got to the beach:



the beach also had quite a few naked people on it. now, i'm not just saying topless women (a standard at european beaches), i'm talking full on. there weren't a lot and fortunately they were on the other side of the beach, but at one time while jozka and i were surfing i saw a couple of guys doing round-off back handsprings and handstands! i'm including a picture of jozka and i instead to spare you. no one should have to see that:



this is the view i had from where i sat:



we went to a lighthouse last night to watch the sunset on the atlantic. it was the first time i'd seen the sun set on the atlantic...it actually doesn't set. the earth rotates giving it the appearance that it does set. so it was the first time i saw the earth rotate so that the sun appeared to go behind the atlantic:





bye bye sun:

days 3 & 4: lisbon, a banana, and ninjas

day three found us reaching our goal of making it to portugal:



lisbon was beautiful and em's parents hooked us up with a night at the (five star) Sheraton in Lisbon! We were going to fit all five of us in a room, but our consciences caught up with us and we decided not to break the rules (three to a room) and we bought another room...that, coupled with Em's speeding ticket, put us way over budget...

not to be discouraged, we set out for lisbon only to be distracted by rain and a banana:



after helping the banana cross the street we wandered the streets of lisbon and practiced our ninja techniques in case of attack:



more on days four and five tomorrow...

Days 1 & 2: Thunderstorms and Speeding Tickets

Kilometers driven: 2360
To go: 629
Cities: Barcelona (kinda) and Madrid

We camped outside of Barcelona.
It stormed.
We didn't get wet.
Thank you, good tents.
I realized that the level of enjoyment of a thunderstorm is directly related to what your sleeping situation is within the thunderstorm and how tired you are.
Tent and tiredness=low level of enjoyment.



This was the only part of France we liked.
It was too expensive.
Too far to drive through to get to Spain.
And we lost 90 Euros to the Frenchy (as Em likes to call them) Police...she was driving to fast. They didn't like it.







once we got to Spain we ate our faces off.
perviously we had only eaten bread and water.
not really, but close.



Our awesome host, Dawn, competes with Emily for the affections of Juan the Bronze man.
Dawn is a missionary in Madrid.
She is sold out for the Lord.
She invited us into her home without knowing us.
We even ate her food.
Used her shower.
I stole lots of electricity charging my
phone
ipod
computer
camera battery
palm pilot



Madrid has cool grafiti.

I'm going to drink Starbucks now...then its off to Lisbon.

blurry road ahead

i picked up our ride (opel zafira) earlier this evening



it is packed



in approximately six hours we will be on the road to ________

we really have very little planned other than

_seeing the southwestern most tip of europe
_eating seafood
_drinking great wine
_reading books

_surfing
_eating seafood
_drinking sangria
_reading books
_surfing

stay tuned (can you really tune in to a website?) for pics, stories, and an overall good time...

the players: an introduction

name: jozef
alias: jozka (pronounciation = yohsh-ka)
skills: flaminco dancing, growing handlebar mustache
role: cook


name: lucka (pronunciation = loots-ka)
alias: barbie
skills: horticulture, tractor driving
role: getting discounts from the locals







name: erin
alias: er bear
skills: popping collars, giving massages
role: nurse














name: emily
alias: pemily
skills: glamour shots, hair sculpting
role: making sure we look good










name: nate
alias: nate dogg
skills: directional orientation, blogging
role: photographer

to the left, then back to the right (a shorter, more intense trip than the longbrake)

my buddy josh is driving from from Ft. Wayne, IN to Seattle, WA.

he is doing it in 25 days.

he will see many states.

he will meet many people.

_________________________

i was supposed to go to greece on sunday.

it was going to cost 600 dollars for eight nights, seven days including airfare, breakfast, and dinner. good price.

but then, three of my friends cancelled.

two were guys.

i decided that i didn't want to go with three girls.

i've spent all summer with two girls.



i like girls, but i also like guys. so we changed our plans.

in order to get my friend jozka to come, we decided to drive to portugal and sleep in tents and buy food from grocery stores.

it will be less expensive.

we are doing it all in nine days.

tentative (and subject to probable change as the wind guides us):

[all dates are august]
twelve_drive prague to barcelona
thirteen_beach in barcelona
fourteen_drive barcelona to madrid (stay with missionary friends...hopefully)
fifteen_drive madrid to sagres (the southwestern most tip of portugal)
sixteen_read in sagres
seventeen_surf in sagres
eighteen_drive to lisbon
nineteen_drive to paris...yeah, the one in france
twenty_drive home

i know there are some people scattered over europe who read my blog. if you live in one of the afore mentioned countries and wish to allow 5 people to sleep for free, please email me at: nhughes@josiahventure.com.

124,274.24!

My sweet Ford Mondeo passed the 124,274.24 mile mark! That may not sound that exciting, but for those of us in Europe that is 200,000 kilometers! Yipee!

Here are some important facts relating to my ownership of the car:

_ 8: countries visited (czech, germany, austria, poland, slovakia, slovenia, croatia, italy)
_ 218: my top speed in km/hr (135 mph). location: italy
_ 41: camps visited
_ +3: new countries my car will be in over the next two weeks (france, spain, portugal)
_ 13: most amount of people in the car at one time



_ 1: blow-outs
_ 0: bible smuggling trips (it isn't illegal to have bibles in eastern europe, silly)

here's to another 124,274.24 miles!