In good with God! But let's take it from the top.

I hearby give all the credit of my good fortune to the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is only by His grace and love that I am here right now and not stuck in Portugal by myself wondering how the girls will manage in Newerk airport without money for the next 24 hours alone.

I want to explain my entire trip to you in logical sequence, but bare with me...that will take a few posts and several hours (and days) of my time. However, I'm willing to do it so that I will have the history preserved as long as there is internet.
Furthermore, I will restrain my desire to describe what happened yesterday, and start from the beginning. Okay- here goes...

Saturday night; October 20, 2007

I picked up Kaytee in Georgetown from her boyfriend's homecoming dance and returned back to my apartment at 12:30am. Since the alarm was set for 3am, I didn't bother trying to sleep. I brewed a pot of coffee and finished wrapping up details for the trip.

6am, we flew Sacramento to Chicago. Waited for 1.5 hours and barely made it on the plane to Newerk, New Jersey. I had no idea just how close it is to New York and was surprised to see the Statue of Liberty outside our window just before landing. In Newerk, we took the air tran to the international terminal where I found the Continental ticket counter and printed out our standby tickets for Lisbon. I made sure to stop and exchange American dollars for Euros before leaving America, knowing that taxis and buses only take Euro cash and nothing else.
3 hours later we had NO trouble getting on the flight, as there was about 50 open seats. 6.5 hours after that, we arrived in Lisbon. It was 8:30 in the morning October, 22nd. I had not slept on the any of our flights. After 2 full nights and days without rest, I was exhausted.
However, we still had much to accomplish before I could colapse into some sort of bed. At the Lisboa airport, I found a tourist information desk and figured out how we could travel down to Albuferia which is in the southern region of the Algarve. My choices were catching a taxi to the bus station or taxi to the train station. I chose the train as it was cheaper and closer than the bus.
In portugal it is very easy to get a cab. At the airport you wait in line to catch a taxi, much like waiting for a ride at Disneyland, I was surprised that none of the cab drivers speak English very well. Only a little. I simply said "Oriente train station" and they took us there. Figuring out the train system was difficult. There was not anyone you could talk to. The station is 4 levels high, with the metro (subway) on the bottom and the train at the top. Shopping and waiting rooms existed on the 2 middle levels. Kaytee tried approaching a security gaurd to ask for help, but he only pointed to something, spoke in an annoyed tone and walked off.
I finally found a machine that I was able to purchase tickets from. We had to wait 3 hours for the next train to Albuferia. While waiting, Kaytee tried to lay down and take a nap on one of the benches, but a guard came by and poked her on the shoulder. He grunted to make her sit up and we understood that she wasn't allowed to lay down.
On the train, we learned that the seats were assigned when someone pointed out that fact that we were in their seats. 3.5 hours later we arrived in Albuferia. A cab was waiting only a few steps away. I got out my address for the resort my dad was staying at and showed it to the driver. Moments later we zoomed off for our final destination. It was 5:00 o'clockpm. 8 hours later than California time.
15 minutes later we pulled up the frount enterence of Balagia Golf Resort in Albuferia. My dad and his girlfriend Toni, were waiting to greet us.
I tried to visit, but my head was pounding and I couldn't stay awake one more minute. I fell asleep and didn't get up until noon the next day.