Voy a España y Portugal

Yes peeps, as you may or may not have heard...lil' ol' Shila girl is going to Spain and Portugal next week and here's the interesting bit... she's going it alone.
Oh. Crap.
Yes, it was exciting at first, but now I'm just nervous. I'm trying to learn Spanish and Portuguese phrases that will help me while I'm there. I have also taken precautions I never would have bothered with if I was traveling in a group, such as paying more for a bus/flight than arrives in the day over one that is cheaper and arrives at midnight. But of course I did have to settle for night time arrivals at times.

Planning this trip was HARD. Harder than planning the Italy-Greece trip, because at least for that one I had people with me if anything went wrong plus Bryan speaks some Italian. This time I'm alone and I hardly know any the languages.

So why Spain and Portugal, and why now, and why alone? I feel the questions burning on your minds and tongues all the way from here.
Why Spain and Portugal: It's really out of the way (just like Greece) and if I were to use my rail pass to go there, I will be wasting precious days.
Why now: The week I'll be away (26Oct to 4Nov) is when all of my friends are going their own separate ways (except for Mel, who's staying put in Lulea). Vishnu's going to Amsterdam and Germany to see his dad, Song and Dale are leaving to I'm-not-sure-where, Bryan is going hiking in Germany. Its the one week buffer between quarters so we are all free.
Why alone:Song and Dale have been to Spain, Mel is going later once her boyfriend comes and Vishnu might just give it a miss altogether.

Basically I'm going to Granada, Lisbon and Barcelona. 2 nights will be spent on the road, but 8 nights will be spent in hostels or on the couches of some couch surfing member.

Websites that helped me with planning are:
1.Sleeping in Airports
2. Couch Surfing
3. Trip Advisor

Behold The Plan

I'm still undecided if I should bring my laptop or not...being connected for cheaper with Skype sounds really appealing...but I'm not sure if it is safe.
My thanks to Juan from Spain, who's also on exchange here, cos he allowed me to crash his lunch break to get some help when the spanish bus website was being difficult.

Warm weather here I come! Well...+13 degrees is very warm as far as I am concerned now =>