My majestical day in Florence

I'll have to fill in the missing dates sometime in the near future but for now want to describe my perfectly beautiful day in Florence today...

I slept in today which in my dodgy hotel room here at the Hotel Piccolo is both not surprising (think windowless cave) and also a miracle (think really hot room with allegedly working AC and paper thin walls). First stop today was to the train station to get my ticket to Venice tomorrow - talk about memories from the numerous times I was there during the 9 weeks when I studied here 12 years ago! After successfully getting my ticket at the self-service machine (I hope!) I then rented a bike and headed out of town on a route the bike company (Florence by bike - highly recommend) suggested to a town called Fiesole. I think it's just over 5 miles outside of town but about 1000 feet high so it made for a challenging ride for this recently inspired but still novice bicyclist...

It was hot and I was drenched by the time I made it to the city square but holy cow, it was gorgeous! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but the mental images will stay with me forever. I had gorgeous views of Florence and the Tuscan countryside - I could even see a storm approaching (and could hear the thunder) so I knew to keep my stay in town short and ride back before I was drenched in the middle of nowhere. I also found a park with a few swings and was "caught" by a couple of people walking by and as I swung like the happy little adolescent that I still am at heart!

I relaxed in my cubby hole room for a while when I got back as the "storm" hit Florence (don't have any clue how much it actually rained since I was secure in my windowless room here) and then headed back out around 6:30. I wanted to pick up a few things and then hopefully make it to one of my favorite parts of town the Piazza Michaelangelo at my favorite part of the day (dusk!). For those of you who have never been to Florence, this piazza and church is across the arno (river) and nestled on a high hill with absolutely gorgeous views of the city and Tuscan hills. Needless to say, the pics speak for themselves and once I post them you will see exactly why that area of the city is a little slice of heaven. Absolutely spectacular...

I was then going to go to dinner at one of my old favorite spots (Aqua al 2) that I randomly remembered after googling recommended restaurants but once I finally found the restaurant it was getting late, the line was long, I was hungry and just plopped into a piazza nearby for some food. I was a little frustrated, wanting my last meal in Florence to be spectacular BUT, within a few minutes of sitting down at this random restaurant in one of my favorite piazzas (Piazza dela Signoria), I heard some live music from around the corner and low and behold, the man was playing a VERY special song to me - Father and Daughter. What a moment! I was almost in tears and knew that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. So, after an average meal, some limoncello and gelato, I am "home"...feeling extremely grateful to be here, sad to be leaving tomorrow and yet again reminded that life is the journey, not the destination. Just finished web camming with my sis and precious nephew Casey who I will be seeing in Boston in a mere 4 days - kinda crazy to even think about!! Now for some shut eye, I hope and plan to get up "early" (as in maybe around 9) to enjoy my last few hours in this beautiful city that will always hold a piece of my heart.

I'm still alive!!

...for any of you that may have been wondering, yes - I am still alive! There is so much to catch up on that I don't even really know where to begin...it may take a few posts but I'll give it a shot to get as much in as possible (I am in Florence right now and trying to cram in 20 things I want to do into 2 days so...)

Let's see...I think I left off at the end of July when I was nearing my time in Barcelona and preparing for Walt to visit. He came to town on July 31st, miraculously making all 3 of his flights and arriving to Barca on time. We had a really fun 5 days together in Spain - a perfect ending to my time there. Par for the course, we spent a lot of time on the beach, even more time eating and drinking our way through the city and also running almost every day on the beach. We also rented bikes one day and headed to my little beach town Badalona. Had a minor glitch when I biked over a tack that popped a tire - oops! Thankfully it happened near a train station which got us partially back to the city. Channeling Lance and being the rockstar cyclist that he is, Walt managed to ride home the rest of the way in spite of the flat tire (shh...don't tell the guy we rented it from!)...

On August 5th I packed up my things (after 5 weeks it was a little bit of a nightmare), we went to the airport to pick up our rental car and started driving north to France. My friends Jim & Meri had recommended a B&B "La Dolce Vita" in a town called Azille where they had spent a few days of their honeymoon a few years ago (Jim is related to the owner Natalie, a very interesting woman who is originally from Seattle but has lived in numerous areas of Europe for many years). It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Barcelona but felt like an entirely different world - going from the madness of "barcaloca" (as we somewhat affectionately nicknamed it) the tranquility of the French countryside. From the first minute, we absolutely fell in love with France. I can't begin to describe the sense of peace and happiness I felt instantaneously in Azille. It's a tiny town in the middle of the Minervois wine country. There is one restaurant called "Bar" and finding an open store for cold water in the middle of the afternoon was nothing short of a miracle.

We had 2 nights there but really only 1 full day - we first went running through the vineyards and then went back to enjoy their products - amazing French wine! We also had the most spectacular meal in a town called La Livierne which is a few km from Azille. It was a great story - the owner of one of the wineries had recommended it to us but when we arrived, they were completely booked for the night. One man at a table overheard our plea and somehow convinced them to set up another table from us - there was one table not being used inside the restaurant so they brought it out to the courtyard and set it up for us. We were in shock at our good fortune and kindness of the staff. They were so friendly and our 4 course meal was fabulous. The experience overall was truly magical! If you're ever in the area you MUST go to the restaurant - Les Meulieres.

Natalie only had room for us for one night so the 2nd night she hooked us up with a room in another woman's home - she isn't technically a B&B but could accommodate us. And, we loved this place even more. This old French woman had recently restored this mansion and randomly rented out rooms when needed. Her son and his family was visiting and overall the family was so welcoming and contributed the peaceful, loving feeling we had in the town. Truly unforgettable.

On Friday August 7th we headed up to Nice, France - about a 4 hour drive from Azille. I had been there once on my other trip to Europe 12 years ago because my good friend Suzanne was studying there. It was just as beautiful as I remembered and we had a wonderful time! More amazing food, beautiful views and kind people everywhere we went. I will go on record to debunk the myth that French people are snobby and rude - every single one we met was genuinely kind and so helpful. Unfortunately we were both lacking any sense of direction in Nice and spent much of our time in the car making u-turns and backtracking but while frustrating at the time, we can both laugh about the numerous detours and debacles now.

After 2 nights in Nice we headed an hour south down to Saint Raphael, a beach town just outside of St. Tropez, which is where we were originally going to go but due to a lack of lodging ended up nearby. Which, as we had somewhat become accustomed to, was a blessing in disguise. St. Raphael was beautiful and yet again, we enjoyed amazing food & wine and very kind people. Thank goodness for our nearly daily runs otherwise I'd be need to buy a whole new wardrobe upon my return to the States!

Well, I still have some exploring and reminiscing I need to do in this amazing city of Florence before I take the train to Venice tomorrow so I'll pick up where I left off as soon as I can (hopefully later tonight). Ciao for now! I hope this finds you all happy & well!!

Where to begin...

Sorry I've been a little MIA on the blog front - having friends in town has made my life a little more hectic (and a lot more fun!)...Erin arrived without a glitch on Tuesday and we spent some quality time on the beach followed by a tasty tapas dinner of mussels, tuna and a goat cheese salad. And cava, of course. Kristen arrived Wednesday only missing one minor thing - her luggage! Flight delays caused a tight connection (and by tight I mean she was the last one on the plane as they were closing the door) which then led to quite the "adventure" getting her bag at the airport the following day (I'll spare the details as it was not one of my finer moods/experiences of this trip)...

We've had a wonderful time catching up and keeping up with the Barcelona night life. There is something about hanging out with friends that have known you for over 20 years that just refills the soul. We have danced on tables, laughed so much we've cried, reminisced about old memories while also making new ones that we'll cherish as if we're 15 again. We've spent a lot of time on the beach - shocking, I know - I was just thankful we shared the same intent of the trip - RELAXATION (and "socializing")...on Saturday we took the train back down to Sitges, the beach town I had gone to with Ramey. There is something about the cute town and its narrow streets that I just love - kinda reminds me of the place I fell in love with on my last trip to Europe - Capri!

We did manage to check one thing off the tourist to do list yesterday when we walked to the Sagrada Familia. I am definitely glad I toured it while here and learned more about Gaudi's background and inspiration for the structure and his other works (I was definitely clueless prior to this trip). We had our 2nd attempt at seafood paella last night which was really good - at a cute restaurant in Port Vell, which is the beautiful port of boats near my flat in Barceloneta.

Today we took a train out to the wine country (the Penedes region) to do a biking winery tour. It was beautiful out there! Unfortunately I am fighting a bit of a cold (I guess that's what happens when at 33 I try to act 23 again!) so it wasn't quite the perfect day for me to enjoy wine and or bike on gravel roads in 80+ degree weather BUT, I am still glad we went and I learned a lot about the process of making cava. Definitely fitting since many of my memories of this trip have involved cava. Our guide was an Irish man named Paddy who is married to a woman from Chicago and they have lived in Spain since meeting in Barcelona 14 years ago.

The first winery was called Mas Bertran Viticultures and it was a tiny, family run winery that produces cava (I got some great pics that I'll have to upload this week!). We walked in and the main guy (Santi) was releasing sendiment from capped bottles, the mom was using a device that looked like a hamster water feeder to refill the bottles to the top after the cap has been released and the sister was monitoring the machine that corked and put the cap on the final bottle. The room was barely big enough to fit the 7 of us! Apparently Santi used to work at major wineries and distributors across the world but decided to branch off and make his own specialized cava - one special batch of just 30,000 bottles had already been completely sold to Japan. I purchased 2 bottles to drink on a special occasion (I may have one or 2 in the near future) for a whoppin 5.50 euro.

After some lunch and biking to the next winery I decided to skip the tour and instead nap on a bench under a tree at the winery so, Erin or Kristen would have to fill you in on the 2nd location - though from what they told me they also learned a lot here and had some wonderful wine and olive oil.

Erin leaves tomorrow morning and Kristen the following day - I am sad to see them go but am just so grateful to have shared this experience with them. Though I originally planned this trip to spend a few months alone I have certainly realized that my favorite memories will be those that I've shared with people I care about. I have been reminded several times on this trip that it really is not where you go but who you are with that really matters. And, on that note I am going to give a belated shout out to my pops who turned 65 yesterday. I am really sad that I was not with him to celebrate his big day but sounds like it was a great day. Dad, without your love and support there is no way that I'd be where I am today so for that I say THANK YOU and, I love you!!!

Benicassim!

I most definitely had my biggest adventure of my trip this weekend when I spontaneously decided to go to this music festival on Saturday called Benicassim. Well, to give you some background, it wasn't totally spontaneous...I read about this festival 5+ months ago before I ever really knew that my plans to come to Spain would materialize. It's this 4 day music festival in a beach town, Benicassim, that is about a 4 hour train ride south of Barcelona. With some of my favorite bands playing I knew that if I were here, I'd have to go. That being said, I didn't make any plans for tickets, transportation or accommodations. For all of you that know me so well, that's pretty shocking, I know...

A few weeks ago I read that one of my favorite bands of all time, Elbow, was playing and I knew then that I really couldn't miss it - at least Saturday. Tickets were sold out and accommodations were totally booked. Fast forward to Saturday morning, where I left for the train station hoping for the best but really not having a clue what I was getting into...4 hours later (I was just thankful I got on the right train) I showed up in Benicassim and started walking toward where I thought the festival was (still pretty clueless though). Ended up at the festival and asked if they were selling any tickets (I was planning/hoping to scalp a ticket) and, go figure - they were. So, 2 hours later after waiting in a loooong line, I got a ticket - SCORE!

A few hours later, the music started and I was a happy little chica rockin out. At 11pm Elbow came up and I managed to be right up front in a sea of thousands of INSANE festival goers. (I will spare you the details of the insanity but I will say that I felt way too old - and sober - to endure the insanity). BUT, when Elbow came on, I felt like it was one of the happiest moments of my loooong concert-going "career" - truly in the top 5 of any concert I've ever seen. I was nearly in tears and moved to my core by their amazing set, especially the finale which is a very special song to me...

Following their set, it was getting late and I was exhausted. Franz Ferdinand was next which I also love so I rallied through but midway through the set was at my wits end. I was surrounded by thousands of wasted Brits (most of the concertgoers were British), getting doused with beer and other random liquids (don't even want to know) and was wondering how the heck I was going to survive the next 10+ hours until I could catch a train back to Barcelona. Then, I sit down in a patch of grass to eat some food and out of nowhere a British girl sitting next to me starts talking to me. Within 5 minutes, Georgie was my new best friend and had invited me to stay at her apartment about 1o minutes away with her friends. SERIOUSLY?!?!? I felt like Georgie was my little angel and 2 days later I am still in total shock as to how it all worked out. But, it did...Serendipity? God? Peg? I don't know but I will never forget their generosity and will most certainly play it forward the next chance that I can!!!

I couldn't get a train out of town until about 6 last night so I was "stuck" at the beach for the day (it was very pretty!) and got home around 10:30, exhausted and ready for the best shower of my entire life. I wouldn't trade a minute of it for the memories and am so very glad that I took a chance and somehow had the faith that it would work out. That being said, the experience definitely made me appreciate my typical anal planning skills where I actually feel 33 instead of 18...

Now, I'm getting ready for my two best friends from high school to arrive this week. Erin gets here tomorrow and then Kristen on Wednesday. I cannot wait! Now that I feel like I know this city I am SO excited to share it with close friends and know that we are going to have a blast. AND, I will finally be able to take some pictures with people in them - haaaa!

But, speaking of pictures - I think I missed a post from Friday before I left when I toured the FC Barcelona stadium. I can't really even describe the experience. The stadium was pretty cool in and of itself BUT, even more amazing - the number of people there to tour it! I'm not kidding there were probably 150 - 200 people there every 30 minutes to take a tour. Of course I knew that "futbol" was huge here in Europe but holy cow. Very glad I experienced it and, for my fellow futbol fans, here are some pictures - enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cricketBBC08/FCBarcelonaCampNou?feat=directlink

Here comes the sun

Well, the sun decided to come back to Barcelona on Sunday which means I don't have a lot of exciting news to report since I have spent the majority of the past 4 days on the beach - and loving it! I decided that since this is my last full week solo (thank god!) I would make this into my own little personal beach week. Only MUCH tamer than the ones I had 15 years ago!

On Sunday I took a train about an hour north to a town called Sant Pol de Mar which had been recommended by the owner of my flat. It was nice to be at a beach that was much quieter than Barceloneta (though still plenty of people) and the town was cute, though I didn't do a ton of exploring. It started off as an interesting adventure when I went to the wrong train station. Thankfully the kind attendant instructed me on where to catch a train to the correct station and then which train to take from there. Pretty sure I've nailed down the metro system and hopefully the train system will be next.

On Monday I rented a bike again and peddled back up to Badalona (the right name of the town I've mentioned previously). It was fun - a nice sunny day for a ride and I found a quiet spot on the beach to relax. And when I say "quiet" I should clarify that it's all relative - I am not exaggerating when I say that at any given time of any day of the week there are literally thousands of people on the beaches here. Very entertaining, if nothing else.

Yesterday I had a fun experience figuring out how to do laundry here. It actually wasn't too difficult once I located a laundromat but it was expensive - 7 euro for one load! That's about 9 bucks. Now I can see why most people around here do their laundry the old fashioned way in the sink and hang the clothes out their window. Worth every penny though to have clean clothes!

Spent the majority of today on the beach outside of my flat. Started the day with a cappuccino at the restaurant next to my flat and then went to my local bakery for my bi-daily baguette (thank goodness I am walking everywhere and running a fair amount b/c it seems like I eat a lot of baguette!!). I am eating my now somewhat typical lunch as I type - a tomato and goat cheese in olive oil & balsamic and some baguette. Yuuummm!

I may actually try to take a break from the beach tomorrow (TRY being the operative word there) and then would hopefully have something a little more exciting to report other than my endeavors to work on my tan...

Le Tour de France - in Spain!

Well, the highlight of the trip (so far) came yesterday and the day before when I got to see le Tour de France come through Barcelona! It was the first time it's been here in 44 years and lucky me, I was here for it. It was SO cool! I am not the hugest cycling fan but to witness such an important world sporting event was truly remarkable - very moving and inspirational. And, they just so happened to be cycling through an area about a 10 minute walk from my place. They spent the night here on Thursday so I got to see them ending on Thursday and beginning their day on Friday. Unfortunately, I didn't have any clear Lance sitings but I was sporting my USA wristband yesterday to give him some mojo. I did take some pics but they are on my old camera (it was POURING when I left the flat on Thurs to watch them so I didn't want to risk my fancy camera) and I don't have the cord to download so...

It's been a little rainy and grey the past 3 days so that has limited my beach time but given me the opportunity to explore other parts of the city. After watching the tour yesterday I went to Las Ramblas to pick up some flowers. Everyone that talks about Barcelona mentions that area of town - basically it is a 1 mile walking street with random vendors and some performers and TONS of people. Personally I don't see the lure of the area but I suppose it is entertaining for people watching - as long as you don't take your eye off your valuables (apparently it's the worst area for crime).

I had a fabulous day today started off by going to the local mercato (mainly for water - I am going through 5 liters every 2 days!) and then the local vegetable/fruit stand and bakery. The girl at the bakery now recognizes me (since I'm there almost every day to get a baguette) and makes me feel a tiny bit like a local. I was then really excited to make my way to a bookstore I had been told sold books in English only to be slightly disappointed that they only had about 15 books in English. Not a huge deal since I'm not a big reader but I picked up the Divinci Code since it seemed the most appealing & I've never read it.

I then trekked to Montjuic - which is the area where most of the Olympic games were held in 1992. I had been there on Thursday after watching the tour since that's where they finished and knew there was a botanical park there that I wanted to check out - so I did! I took a TON of pictures so rather than try to describe it you can check them out - I absolutely loved the area and have a feeling I will be back often! (you'll see pics of some cable cars which run right from Barceloneta near my flat to the area - apparently beautiful views on a clear day)

http://picasaweb.google.com/cricketBBC08/Montjuic?feat=directlink

Now I'm settling in for a quiet Saturday night making dinner (veggie fajitas-ish) and watch a movie - I figured out how to rent movies on iTunes - verrrry exciting! Oh the little things...

PICS!

So, I'm pretty sure there's a way for me to post pics through the blog but...being a tad technologically challenged, I am just happy I figured out how to download the pics from my new swanky camera. Here's a link to my picasa album - I hope it works and if it does, enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cricketBBC08/SpainPart1?feat=directlink

Since I still don't really have a map I don't know what a lot of the pics are and haven't labeled them yet but will shortly - for the ones that I know. A lot of them are from today when I walked to this really cool park north of the city - Parc Guell. It's a Gaudi inspired/designed park, as I'm sure you'll be able to tell from the pics.

I also wanted to mentioned that today I starting reading a book that my dear friend in Seattle Traci gave me for my birthday called The Alchemist. I am only halfway through it but I honestly cannot tell you how amazing it is - HIGHLY recommend you getting it. The main lesson is about following your "legend" and it's told through a man's journey to follow his legend. It talks about the transforming power of our dreams and listening to our hearts. My favorite quote so far - "when you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it."

I am truly grateful for Traci introducing me to this amazing book. I don't think I could possibly read a book that is more appropriate for where I am in my life and is echoing the things I have been feeling since I've decided to make this major career change and take this big adventure. When I first decided to make these big changes, it wasn't my intent that it would trigger a huge transformation in nearly every aspect of my life - but, it has! Not to get too mushy but I'll end this post with another quote from the book that really reflects what I have felt in the past few months - "When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision." I am literally and figuratively in a place I could have never dreamt of - and, I have never been happier!