Airfares are depressing

When I started planning this trip in my head a few months ago, I had planned on getting a flight for around $1000. I started looking at airfares in October and they were around $1500-1600. As my trip go closer, I figured those airfares would go down...at least a couple hundred or so. I may have been deceiving myself. If I get a flight to Lisbon for $1500, here is my general budget:

Airfare: 1500
Train: 200
Room and Board: 450 ($50/day for hostel and food)
Miscellaneous/Souvenirs: 150 Total: $2300

 As I have the Eurail pass already gifted to me, my initial budget was $1600. Jumping up $500 is quite the difference. Oh, how I miss the days when I could backpack around Europe for $1200 (~$550 airfare). I knew that Portugal would cost more to fly to than other cities, but when I had looked before, the difference wasn't that big. Now other cities (Paris, London, Milan, Barcelona, Frankfurt) are down to $1250-1300, which is what I had been hoping for Lisbon. This is a bit depressing. Maybe I need to take a couple days off from looking at airfare.

I do have another option, which will add another leg to my trip, but it could save me up to $200. I could fly into one of the cities listed above and then fly RyanAir or EasyJet to Lisbon. Those flights would average around $110. Last option would be to take the train from Madrid to Lisbon...the 7 1/2 hour overnight train. That is only about $85. But it would take away an entire day going there since I wouldn't arrive until the following morning. And I won't have been able to shower for nearly 2 days at that point. As I write this, I'm thinking that maybe option 3 isn't such a good idea at all.

 While I stress about airfares and my expanding budget, I've just ordered a language learning program to add to the mix. It's called the Pimsleur Approach. It is a set of Audio CDs that promises to teach you the basics of the language in 10 days. This is not meant to get your fluent, but good enough to speak most of the language and converse with locals. It was only $9.95, so I figure I have nothing to lose. The only problem is that it is Brazilian Portuguese. I know there are some differences, but I'm hoping they are minor enough that I will still be able to get by and not say something stupid. I also have a very short attention span, so listening to audio CDs might be difficult. I am very much looking forward to starting it when it comes, though. I will be sure to write all about the experiences with learning a new language at 32 years old.