Been There, Done That

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been a while but it's been tough to get to a computer the last couple of weeks. I think I left off in Spain the last time I posted though so that is where I'll pick things up from...

Barcelona started off really badly but it made up for it the longer we were there. Our first night there we had to take a night bus, which should have only taken an hour at most. We missed our stop though, so the driver pointed us in the direction of another bus stop that would get us back to where we needed to be. The bus that came however drove right by us and didn't stop. This was at 2am! So the next bus that came 20 mins later was our original bus driver, who basically just shook his head at us like 'you've got to be kidding me with these two...'. We totally didn't get back to the hostel until 4:30am.

After that fiasco things got much better. Barcelona is definitely a city I could live in. It was easy to get around, I understand enough Spanish to know what people were saying to me, and when I didn't I had Jill to translate. The weather was really nice so we walked around most of the days we were there. We saw the Gaudi house La Pedrera and we saw La Sagrada Familia, the cathedral that to this day is still unfinished. We also took a Tapas Y Flamenco tour, where we got to have an arrangement of local tapas specialties at a local restaurant and then see a flamenco performance at a local club. The music was awesome and the dancer was unbelievable!

My favorite thing though was learning to make sangria and paella. Jill and I got a private lesson at a local restaurant. The sangria was super easy so I'll be drinking that all the time when I get home. The paella was fairly involved and complicated but it was soo good that I'm going to have to attempt it at home. And Dad, you'd be proud - it was seafood paella with prawns, squid, fish and mussels and I actually ate and enjoyed them all!

After hanging out in Barcelona for a few days we headed south to Morocco! We took the ferry over to Tangier from southern Spain. When we got off a man named Cherif approached us and offered his guide services. Apparently it's not safe for two girls there alone..... I pretty much hated Morocco. The men were vulgar and looked at Jill and I like we were on the menu. They would follow us, make cat calls in Spanish because they figured we were from Spain, and openly make suggestive gestures... It just really creeped me out. I truely didn't feel safe at any given moment, even with our guide. All in all it was highly over-rated and I don't recommend it to anyone. That being said, there were some good points like scoring some cool things like spices and blankets, and we rode camels along the beach. My camel was Sabrina and Jill's was Ali Babba and they were sweethearts. It was pretty fantastic!! We also got some cool henna tattoos on our arms. Now that we're in France people give us strange looks because of them but cest le vie!

Hi Everyone!

It's official - Jill and I are cowboys lol! After spending two days in Rome, visiting the Vatican and Trevi Fountain and mangia-ing lots of pizza and gelato, we headed to a small town about 2 hours south of Rome called Sora and we hung out on a family run farm for a couple of days. The farm is run by this guy Antonella and his mother and father and assorted volunteers. For those JWU people reading this - picture Spencer and you have a good idea of what Antonello was like.... For those non-JWU people, just picture a crazy, dirty hippie. Voila!

The first day on the farm we had a traditional European breakfast; bread, cheese and meat, coffee and my favorite thing yet, homemade pumpkin jam. So yum! After breakfast we hiked into town to get some supplies. We stopped at the pharmacy where we met Giuseppe and Mario (or Luigi Mario.... we're still not sure what his actual name is), two little old Italian men. They speak no English and we speak no Italian but they thought we were the best thing since sliced bread. They invited us to lunch the next day which was just too funny to pass up, but more on that later...

When we got back to the farm we headed to a ranch with Antonello and Gunther (a volunteer from Austria) and Christine, one of the other guests for some horseback riding. My horse was all white and her name was Mary. We rode for about an hour throuh the countryside. Along the way we forded a river twice that was deep enough that we all got very wet and very cold! The only casualty to the river was my sunglasses when Mary stumbled - a small price to pay to have not fallen into the water myself!

On the drive back to the farm Jill tried her hand at driving a stick shift. Unfortunately, the police didn't think she was doing a very good job and they pulled her over after about 10 minutes lol. It didn't help that she only had one shoe on (the other was soaked from the river still) but luckily Antonello somehow talked the officer out of giving her a ticket. We think that's what happened anyway. We really have no idea what was said since we speak no Italian.

When we got back to the farm we got cleaned up and then it was time to learn how to make egg noodle pasta. I'll totally try to recreate it when we get home. It was super easy, just a little time consuming. Very yummy though! We toasted our accomplishments with farm fresh limoncello by the fire. It was a pretty perfect day all in all lol.

Our second day on the farm began at 5am with a trip to the local sheep farm to learn how to make Peccorino and Ricotta cheeses. It wasn't a factory set up, it was literally a cellar-like room with a fire, a sink, a couple calderons and the sheep milk and rennit (don't look this up if you have a sensitive stomach). Once the curds were ready the farmer's wife put them into the forms and then Jill and I pressed the cheese in the forms to create the wheels. It's a super easy process but my stomach hasn't recovered enough to eat Peccorino or Ricotta just yet!

We spent most of the day on the farm soaking up the sun and seeing the property. Then we headed back into town for our lunch date with the litttle old men. We were totally hoping there would be grandsons present but alas, no. Giuseppe cooked us pasta and we spent the afternoon trying to figure out what they were saying and laughing over the situation in general. It was a very interesting afternoon to say the least...

We headed back to Rome the next afternoon. Antonello basically assaulted Jill when we said our goodbyes. Apparently he had a little crush on her lol. We got to Rome later that night so we kept it pretty lowkey. The next day we did some more sightseeing though at the Colisseum. We caught a train to the port in Civitavecchia to catch the overnight ferry to Barcelona, which is where we are now.

I'll write again in a couple days when I've had more adventures in Spain!

Hi Everyone!

Carnivale in Venice was AMAZING!! It was coincidence that we were there for the first day and it couldn't have worked out better. We saw the flying of the Angel in St. Mark's Square. I've got video so you can all see when I get home but basically they lowered someone dressed as an angel on a cable from this tower in the middle of the square. It was the coolest thing! Everyone was dressed up in masks and there was balloons and confetti.... the coolest experience ever! We went on a gondola ride and Jill got a lesson in being a gondolear from our driver Alessandro (who is Mr. May in the Venetian Gondola Calendar..... not even kidding).

All in all it was the best time! I wish I had time to elaborate but my internet time is running out.... I'll try to elaborate soon!

Hi Everyone!

Well, it has been a crazy week! It took a 15 hour ferry and a 5 hour train/bus ride but we got to Athens on Wednesday. We met this girl Amanda from Arizona along the way, who was just finishing up her travels and getting ready to head back to Doha, Arabia for school. She is studying Arabic and advised us never to go there lol. We all were heading to the same place, Athens Backpackers, so we buddied up. When we got to the hostel, we immediately fell in with our roommate Matt, and Aussie who is studying law in Graz, Austria. Unfortunately, Amanda had to leave the next day so we headed to the Acropolis (basically our back yard) and got some Gyros (the first of MANY). The Acropolis at night is truly something to see!

Once Amanda left we became a tripod. We stayed in Athens until Friday and explored the city. We had a picnic at the Acropolis (Angela - I have some sand from there for your Mom) and we met up with Jill's friend Alex who lives in Athens with her husband. We also shopped the Plaka and basically got to know every Gyro stand and side street in and around the Acropolis. Anyone who wants to go, just let me know!

On Friday the three of us took a 6 hour ferry to Santorini. I wish I could get photos uploaded because it was absolutely gorgeous!!! We rented quads and explored the island. There was rain, hail and finally sunshine before we got to Oia, which is where you will find all the white and blue houses on the hills that Santorini is known for. I'm not going to lie, driving on the cliffs was hella scary in the dark but getting to see the sunset in Oia was well worth it. The rest of our time in Santorini was filled with wine, gyros and Matt and I getting caught in a down pour.

We stayed in Santorini for 2 days and returned to Athens via ferry on Sunday. Jill managed to leave her daypack in Santorini somewhere but her passport and train pass were on her so all in all it wasn't such a disaster. We stayed in Athens for one more day before leaving for Patras, Greece. We were expecting to take a ferry to Bari, Italy from Patras but there was a ferry strike so we had to go further north on the Italian coast to Ancona, which was 6 hours longer than it took to Bari (21 hours on the ferry total). We finally made it to Roma yesterday though! Today we saw the Trevi Fountain and tomorrow we'll be going to the Coliseum and the Vatican before departing for a no name town in southern Italy where we'll stay on a farm for two days and learn how to cook Italian food, speak some Italian, go horse back riding, tour a cheese-making shop and drink LOTS of vino! I'll do my best to post an update when I get back to Roma after our farm experience!

Just a quick update because I love our lives - motorbikes in the cliffs of Santorini in a hail storm. :o)