A Warm Welcome

As I write this it is just after midnight in a brightly coloured hostel lobby and Michael Jackson is just singing away over the speakers. We just arrived back from a delightful birthday dinner...we took the opportunity to splurge on a real meal out at a nice restaurant for my birthday today. (This is Mel, p.s.). Anyway, we arrived in Madrid this morning at 9 AM after traveling many hours in a sleeper car from Lisbon, Portugal. So I truly rang in my birthday with style...some Mars bars, a bag of chips and some peach iced tea (which they still make in Portugal!) in our private little sleeper car. It was a good time for sure. We were in Porto and Lisbon, Portugal before heading to Madrid. I have to say that Portugal was my favourite country thus far...I know I say that about every country, but I really mean it this time. The people are soooo kind and hospitable, the weather is warm all the time, every city seems close to a nice beach. It was a fantastic place to be and I would definitly like to see myself making it back that way. When we arrived in Porto, Portugal, we were suprised by our accomodation. For 50 euros a night we stayed in a great guesthouse with two bathrooms, a huge kitchen, two bedrooms, right in the heart of the city, a 5 minute walk from the port. It was fantastic...if anyone is ever heading to Porto, stay at the Taipas guesthouse. Fantastic! and the kindest people will welcome you. We spent a day at the beach, swimming in the Atlantic ocean which was still completely bearable. It was absolutely amazing to be swimming in ocean waves again. I loved it!! From Porto, we took the train to Lisbon, where we explored their slick cobblestone streets and the beach which is just a mere 30 minutes from the hostel we were staying at. We went to church Sunday morning which was quite the experience. According to the website, the 11:30 service was supposed to be in english but we got there and everything was most definitly in portugese. I guess this was a special service, we found out after. The pastor came and talked to us early in the service, finding out we were from Canada and knew absolutely no portugese...he proceeded to announce our arrival to the rest of the congregation. Almost immediately two people from the congregation that knew some english came, sat with us and helped translate the service for us. Such kind, sweet people. That was true hospitable worship. They sent us out with blessings and promises of prayers and many invitations to return. I might just have to take them up on that:) After church, we spent the day wandering around in plus 29 degree weather until our train left for Madrid at 10:30 PM. So that's a bit of what we have been up to over here in the south. Hope all is well with you...whoever it may be that is reading this...