I've never been to Portugal, but Portuguese people are supposed to be really friendly. Come to that, some friends of mine visited New Zealand a few years back - I believe that was the height of your journey "around the world" - well apart from Western Samoa. The place they hated was Mexico.

I learnt a bit of Spanish - good to know when you're stuck out in nowhere and there's only this old man to ask for directions.

How tragic with that Danish woman, I hope she is doing better now!

Sirrahsim, I agree that German is difficult. In my case it's because of the grammer. I do understand a lot, though.