For one-quality ham and cheese on offer. I'm not sure ham and cheeseget much better than Spain and Italy
And for all days to come, I will plan my beach vacations where going topless is asnormal as picking sand out of your belly button
It's of course a requirement that the location have statues to pose with
Give me your landscapes and we WILL frolic with them, sheep or no sheep
giving you any more details so that it stays undiscovered
Enjoying Gaudi's finest at Park Guell, on the longest bench in the world (use your NZed voice)
I didn't think I liked paella, but Spain has convinced me.
And while she won't admit it, Spain also convinced Steez
on tapas
Anyone remember when I was a vegetarian? Wild boar in Tuscany - yes please
Yes, of course there was gelato eating
The Palio in Siena, just like going to Del Mar growing up, except 500 more years of history. I did however manage to relive my childhood by still picking the underdog/horse with behaviour problems
Pyramid on top of a castle - check
And we even managed to squeeze in some exercise with all our eating and drinking
Making friends at Freixenet cava factory, hard not to make friends with cava
I will also only take vacations where I get taken on a boat, ideally to a place as picturesque as Monte Argentario, Tuscany
And while we're at it, I would like there to be a castle at all beaches I go to
And yes the Tuscan sun never gets old
**Dance party pic missing, still pending, the Germans stole it
People often ask me if I get homesick, and frankly I don't, I know the U.S. isn't going anywhere; but I do get friend/familysick. Having gone around the world now, there's no one like you guys back home, and lucky for me so many of you keep visiting me. Someone recently told me, just move to Africa and you'll see the visitors dry right up.....but till then, here's a bit of an update on my latest visitors and a little prelude to my next visitor to come......
Not only did I get to see two of my besties, but these ladies planned it so that I got alone time with each of them, and had company for 2.5 straight weeks (I've actually had straight visitors now for 5 weeks, but that's a longer than this already extremely lengthy blog post is going to allow).
-Flipping trips: I went to Tuscany with both these ladies separately, to two different locales, and my only regret was that in each weekend I could see how much the other one would have loved the other weekend. Example - all Steez wanted was to get some dudes to take us on a boat somewhere - Spain, Italy, she didn't care and Eroc is obsessed with vampires. Well on Eroc's weekend on the Tuscan coast we got a catered boatride complete with dance moves from Tony, Tony's world famous risotto salad, and champagne. On Steez's weekend in the hilltowns of Tuscany, we visited not one, but two towns that were the setting of Twilight's New Moon. Lesson learned ladies: don't be selfish and demand alone time
-Navigating: Of any two people I know (other than maybe my sister), these two ladies love maps AND being right. Remind me that for our next trip this combo doesn't work so well with me at the wheel. We got lost a few times in Spain, one time because of Erica hoarding maps, another cause Erica and Steez wouldn't consult with each other on their varying directions, and one time because Spain's road signs are garbage. So just as a tally that equals fault 1 Steez, fault 2 Eroc, fault 3 Spain, plus 5 for ME for driving amidst this mayhem and only freaking out/getting into a near accident once, and one freakout for no one else speaking Spanish, so I guess I'll minus one for me
Fear factoring - One lesson I learned well in NZed was conquering fears. On board for this trip we had Erica's claustrophobia to conquer, my newfound vertigo, Steez's fear of missing a moment of fun, and all our fears of showing our boobs first to each other, and then to all of CDP (as our unknown beach town will be known by). Luckily we had Jesus on our side for the first three in La Sagrada de la Familia in Barcelona where He rewarded us with awesome views and an invite to a VIP Barcelona pub crawl. For our boob fear we were assisted by the many pairs already free on the beach of all ages and sizes that we could stare at instead of each others, and again we were rewarded with tan breasts and awesome freewheeling boobs floating in the Mediterranean. Steez and Erica summed it up best by just yelling -
"THIS IS SO AWESOME"
Dance parties - As you know, one of my criteria for an awesome vacation is a solid dance party, and ideally parties. I had little fear of that not happening with these two ladies and Spain on my side. However, I was worried about my ability to execute some of my fav moves, given their lack of use over first, too cool NZed, and now conservative Italy. Well, I should have realized that signature moves are just like best friends - even with the passage of time and less attention, they come back with no effort and are better than ever. And or course all dance parties are made better by the arrival of a bachelor party, especially of the German variety. These two ladies made fun of me for demanding a terrace at every place we stayed, but they soon saw the logic in my adamance when we were able to choreograph a dance complete with jumps and body rolls. This year's theme/choreographed dance = Tonight
Maturing - On that note, as you know we are 30. Yes, 30 and yes we are still making up dances like we're 11. Check back in a year and I promise (or at least hope) we are still doing the same. However we are maturing in other ways....When we came to Italy two years ago we ran ourselves all over the country while pulling two suitcases each. For this trip, we were content to spend a few days in Barcelona and then relax on the beach, with Tuscany on either side and leave it at that. In CDP, we were the only single ladies amongst a sea of couples and families, where we spent each day waking up at 8 to eat, bronze our nipples, frolick in the sea, and then do some more eating = all grown up.
Hopes and Dreams - As you know, I spend alot of time alone (although not this month), and relish my visitors for actually having a human to speak to (in English). On this trip we solved the long debated question of whether Teen Witch or Mary Poppins is a better movie, how the internet works, figured out how electric current travels, developed a career path for each of us, and planned the life of Steez's not yet (but soon, fingers crossed) to be born child, Monti.
Drinking and eating - two things I do best with these ladies and luckily for us both Spain and Italy also specialize in three of my favorite things - hams, cheeses, and bubbly.
Spain: When we decided to go to Spain months ago, I had read that south of Barcelona there is a big cava region, figuring that it was some kind of wine. However I had no idea that cava was champagne until we arrived and my cup literally runneth over - especially when we found a local place with 60 cent glasses and 1 euro meat and cheese snacks; and then also subsequently found the oldest cava vineyard/factory in the region. A few other eating highlights from Spain 1) we were worried how Stephanie (the tapas hater) would handle it, but slather some spicy mayo on potatoes and throw in some baby squid and her defenses fell; 2) the bikini at Tapas 24, its still unclear why it's called a bikini but it's basically a melted ham and cheese sandwich with TRUFFLE oil; 3) eating our weight in pan con tomate, I even stealthily stalked some grannies to figure out how they smush the tomato on the bread (rocket science here).
Italy: Even though I live here, I never cease to marvel at the food - it's so simple and yet luxurious and delicious at the same time. Start my meal with three bowls of olive oil that I eat with a spoon - yes please. I brought Eroc and Steez to Tuscany on their two solo weekends and on both occasions we somehow got invited to feast on local specialities with locals (the latter being harder to come by). A theme of both weekends - wild boar. With Eroc, we went to a wild game reserve where we ate at a big picnic table with a huge Italian family and stuffed ourselves with wild boar sausage, wild boar ravioli, gnocchi, and more and more. The following night we ate in the middle of a countryside soccer field at a local sagra (where they have a different food for each week to raise money for local sports) where we gorged ourselves on salted cod of a million varieties. With Steez, we had more wild boar ragout with a steak braised in wild boar and red wine. Then at our huge family dinner (of the farm we were staying at) we had a series of penne with 17 local spices, panzanella, 8 kinds of meats/sausages on the grill, the reddest tomatoes I've ever seen, and three kinds of cake.
As you can see, I've been working hard on that food baby I promised you.....
Home Sweet Rome - And finally, these two ladies each had three days in Rome while I worked. As much as I lament my job, it is why I am here and why we could all go on this vacation, so for that I am eternally grateful. While both Steez and Eroc had been here before, we were all a little unsure of how their days alone on the rough streets of Rome would go. I tried to equip them with maps while encouraging them to just get lost and stroll, and to always use caution and confidence. It goes without saying that they both dominated the streets and revisited all of Rome in a whirlwind pace. Some things they both mentioned a) how walkable Rome is, and b) and how they were going to be in better shape going home than they came in. I am pretty sure these are not normal impressions of Rome and might be my fault. Normal people use the public transport system. And they both decided that the Eternal City is the best city in the world. I'm glad home sweet Rome was on its best behaviour
So with that, I can't thank you both enough, I love you and will travel the world over making up dances, dominating the streets, and stuffing ourselves with food and wine.
The hardest day for me is the day visitors leave and I think wait what do I do now, what did I do before them came? I often say that having so many visitors keeps me from actually living a 'real life' because I'm either on vacation or working extra hard to make up for always being on vacation. I've recently realized that while I keep saying I don't have a 'real life', I can only say that for so long until I have to admit this is my real life, it doesn't get realer.
So in this real life, my sister and Pete arrive in less than 36 hours - let the ride continue, the Tuscan sun calls
