Trouble in Paradise

There we were. Eating cold pizza on a curb in a thunderstorm in the dark. How did we get there you ask? Let us explain. 

We spent Saturday hiking through vineyards and up and down old stairs through the mountains of picturesque Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre means "5 towns" and we had set a goal to hoof our way through all of them in a day. It had been a truly gorgeous day.

Our legs were sore from the eight hour hike but we were feeling good about surviving various lizard attacks (okay... sightings) throughout the day.

We were more than ready to eat dinner, climb the 356 stairs to our hostel, play some cards (which we later found out is illegal in Italy- google it!) and go to sleep.

As we were waiting for our take-away pizza, we were approached by the hostel owner who had led us up 356 stairs (emphasis on this number... remember the eight hours of hiking?) the day before. In his broken English, he half explained-half acted out the message that we needed to immediately go get our bags and move out of our room to the dorm at the bottom of the hill. Confused and frustrated, we took our pizza to the hostel office and attempted to get some clarity on the situation. They had put us in the wrong room which was now double booked, hence the need for us to move... right now. 

After about half an hour of broken English and less than polite tones (cough cough... Olivia...) we concluded that yes, both parties were frustrated and what was done was done. Up the hill we went, pizza boxes in hand, to gather our belongings and trudge back down the hill on trembling legs. 

When we arrived at our room, we discovered that they had taken the liberty to gather our belongings for us and the new folks had already moved in. Our things were mixed together in a small room, so we did our best to sort our stuff into the correct bags as the hostel guy waited. Jill was doing fine until she picked up her new shoes that were mysteriously soaking wet. "Why are my shoes wet?" she asked with her very best I'm-a-teacher-and-I- mean-it voice. He didn't seem to understand her question so naturally Olivia repeated it slower and louder: "Why. Are. Her. Shoes. WET??!" Surprisingly, this didn't help his comprehension, nor did it dry her shoes, even when repeated in slower, various forms. (Water on her shoes... WHY?? They are WET. Not before, but now... WATER...)

Balancing two boxes of lukewarm pizza and carrying our ever-gaining bags, our legs quivered as we walked down 356 stairs (remember, we had just hiked up and down stairs for the past 8 hours). Just to spice things up, Olivia's sandal came undone and Twyla got in the way of a defecating bird as we took the walk of shame to the other side of town for people who ordered "dorm room- not private room." 

We arrived to our new abode and quickly told hostel man "yep, we get it" as he explained how to open the doors and told us not to throw trash out the window. Clearly, we didn't really "get it" about the doors, as we couldn't figure out how to open the double door in order to fit the pizza out so we could enjoy our (less than piping hot) Italian pizza outside. The hostel man asked for "attention, please" and he opened it for us. As we made our exit, Olivia exclaimed, "I'm just going to throw this pizza in the ocean!" (She refrained.) As we sat down to eat, the skies darkened, the rain began to come down on us, lightening illuminated the skies just enough to tell if we were eating the margherita or Hawaiian pizza, and thunder echoed loud enough to drown out our sighs of discontentment. 

So there we were, eating cold pizza on a curb, in a thunderstorm. 

Segovia

Segovia. Every time we see or here the word we cannot help but to break out into song. (It reminds us of the Genovia song from Princess Diaries). The views in this enchanting town were incredible. And following our rules from Madrid, we quickly found something to climb. The tower in the castle. It was as if Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and all our childhood dreams came to life. 

One evening we set out to walk along the river after shopping and eating all day, but we made a wrong turn and ended up following dirt-biking path through a field. Little did we know that this would lead us to a field of poppies and a view of the castle. So very beautiful! After we finally made it to dinner around 10 and as we were finishing up we realized that the last bus was about to leave soon. So us being us, we practically sprinted through the streets as the locals enjoyed the circus show. (It probably didn't help that we were hysterically laughing and dropping things as we speed- walked). We got into view of the bus and decided we better run for it. "Run, run," a local girl shouted. It didn't matter we missed the last bus and had to walk back to our hostal. 

We also discovered that Spanish food is not Mexican food. There are no enchiladas, nachos or burritos here; only half cooked pig cut straight off the leg hanging up in the restaurant, hard as a rock bread, and luke-warm cheese. Needless to say, we finally found an amazing Italian restaurant that we ate at three times in two days accompanied by chocolate desserts each time. 

The day after, we had planned to go hiking in the next town over because it had been recommended to us. We were dropped off the bus in the middle of nowhere and had to ask 3 times were the hiking trail was. Each time we were given different directions and we set out on which we thought would lead us to the top of a mountain and give us incredible views of the local towns. We started out walking on a paved path that seemed to be winding up the mountain side. We were in the thick of the forest and so it was hard to tell how high up we actually were. We kept going although we probably discussed half a dozen times if we should just throw in the towel and turn back. We finally saw blue sky and assumed that we had reached a clearing to see below. To our amazement, it was a clearing in the middle of the peak... For logging purposes. We had climbed up a logging road and our grand view turned out to be a big pile of logs. Well we didn't get the magnificent view we were hoping for but I guess we got in a good work out to equal out all the Italian food we've been eating. 

We managed our way back down and had to ask the locals were the bus stop was. We waited... And waited... Contemplated hitch-hiking.... Waited.... And finally the bus driver traveling in the opposite directions waved at us... Then after 20 more mins the bus finally picked us up and headed back to Segovia. And as you could probably guess, we went back to our favorite Italian restaurant for the third time. 

We are off to Pisa today and are excited to eat some real Italian food :) 

On another note:There is a little game we like to play called "most likely to...." Here is our list so far. 

Most likely to: 

Buy everything they see... Twyla 

Never write in their journal... Jill 

Pack Everything in a Baggie... Jill and Twyla 

Fall off bike while taking a selfie... Twy

Get pick-pocketed... Twy 

Ask for directions... Olivia 

Scare strangers with her sneeze... O

Have strangers laugh at her because she stepped in a mud puddle... Twy

Dominate the game of nerts... Jill

Always know exactly where we are... Amanda 

Always convince us to buy more ice cream... Amanda 

Shatter a glass water bottle in a resturant... A 

Pour water in her lap every time she drinks... Twyla 

Run after the bus and never catch it... Everybody, everyday 

Ride the bus for an hour in the wrong direction... Everybody

Most likely to order two cheesecakes, a brownie and a cake... O 

Most likely to wake up early and wake up everybody else... Jill 

Spill ice cream all over everyone else... Twy 

11 Lessons from Madrid

Don't let our post fool you we LOVE Madrid! Here are some things we have learned in our first two days here. 

11 Lessons from Madrid:

1. Just let Jill cook. It's faster, it's better, and it's safer. 

2. Eat ice cream when you see it, not when you want it. 

3. Well dressed men are not necessarily well-intentioned. Guard your bags! 

4. Get as high up as possible. The sights are unbelievable. 

5. Don't even think about getting dinner before 8:30. The restaurants are not open.

6. Do not let the dreamy blue-eyed Spanish speaking young man draw you in and feed you disgusting olives. 

7. The rain in Spain does not stay mainly in the plain. 

8. Water is not a human right. If you don't want to pay for water you have to specify you want free water.

9. Open roofed buses are not a good refuge from a rainstorm. 

10. Beautiful buildings do not always hold beautiful things. (Aka- what the heck is modern art?) 

11. The palace is not open after 7 contrary to popular belief (even though the sign did say till 8). 

Here's to another five days in Spain! We are older, wiser, and ready to take the bull by its horns!!! (Get it?) 

England

We have had the best time staying with Jill's parents in Long Whittenham in their beautiful 235 year old home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hammack have been beyond wonderful in letting us be a part of their family and community for a week. From the fabulous food to the personal tours around Oxford, Bath, and London, they made our time in England unforgettable!

The first day we went to Oxford and learned that Oxford in fact is not just one college but is rather many colleges within the town of Oxford. We wandered through shops and enjoyed hanging out in some old pubs. The buildings had our mouths hanging wide open due to the intricate designs. 

Our second adventure took us to Bath- yes there are Roman baths in England, who knew?! We toured the ancient bath house built during the Roman conquest on a natural hot spring. The bath house served several purposes including bathing, social activities, and pagan worship. We enjoyed a stop at Sally Lunn's Buns and ate a scrumpdilliumptious breakfast from a recipe dating to the 1600s. 

Our third day was spent in poshe London. (We kept hearing that word although I'm still not clear on the actual definition of the word. )We were able to see the Royal Crown Jewels at London tower and learn a little bit of England's dark history. 

We went back to Oxford for our fourth day and took a tour of the Bodlian library (where Harry Potter was filmed). Apparently Oxford has 11.5 million books and they receive 5,000 new books, articles, and magazines each week! IWe also took a tour of Christ Church College (as our tour guide Kevin called it "Jesus college.") 

Our last full day was spent at Blenheim Palace where the current Duke and his wife reside. Winston Churchill was also born there. We caught up on our history lessons and tried to follow the royal family lines throughout our tour there.  

Real mature grown-up teachers right there. 

As you can see we have mastered the art of packing light. 

Now we are in sunny Madrid.