Ciao Italia! (Italy)

My next stop was Italy.  I had two weeks left where Jared was still in French Polynesia, and I decided to do a homestay in Italy to learn some Italian and Italian cooking!!  Traveling through Italy would have been fantastic, but expensive, so I decided to find a family to host me.  After a lot of searching, I found a small family in a teenie town called Monte San Vito; the closest large “city” was Ancona.  Most people have asked me how I settled on the family and town, as it is really in the middle of nothing, with no major cities very accessible; the answer is easy friends: it was cheap.  Once I decided on the family and location, I focused the priorities of this part of traveling, less on tourism and more on learning.  I wanted to live with a family rather than in a hostel because I figured it would give me the best opportunity to learn the language and maybe get a few cooking lessons. 
Traveling to Italy got off to a pretty crappy start with the delays in Paris, but once I got on the plane, things went pretty smoothly.  I arrived into the Rome airport at about 11pm, and nestled up in a corner to spend the night.  I didn’t want to figure my way around Rome at midnight with my huge bag and limited mobility; the safest choice was actually to just sleep in the airport. 
The next morning, I woke up early and got on the cheap bus into the city.  I picked a hostel for that night really close to Roma Termini to make the whole journey from the airport and later to Ancona a bit more simple.  The hostel was easy to find after a short walk, but the hostel itself was pretty crappy and shaddy.  There was a ton of random people coming in and out, which always sort of raises a red flag for me.  Anyway, I was pretty tired from a restless night at the airport, so I just decided to take the day slowly, grab a coffee, study some Italian, and use the good internet at the hostel to chat with my family, whom I had not Skyped with in months!  That night I ended up going to bed really late after having bank account issues and trying to internationally Skype my bank, ug, followed by one of the most awkward showers, in what felt like a coffin, before getting into bed.

The next morning, early, I set out to the train station to catch my train to Ancona.  It was a short trip across from the west coast to the east coast of Italy.  The matriarch of the family with whom I was staying, Francesca, picked me up at the station right on time.  Right off the bat, she was incredibly friendly and welcoming.  She spoke English very well, which helped a lot.  We were both a bit nervous; I was only the second person to stay with her.  She had been a member of the website I used to find a homestay family for two years, and the only other person to stay with her was a 17 year old guy from New York about a month before me.  She was around 7 month pregnant, so I would be her last visitor.  She drove me from the station to her home in the country.  She lived with her husband, Danielle, and seven year old son, Davide.  All of them were very welcoming.  Danielle was a bus driver in the area and a great cook; he didn’t speak as much English as Francesca, but did speak more English than I spoke Italian.  It was good to spend time alone with him, because I was really forced to learn new Italian words to communicate; Google Translate was a God sent for that.  Though after a while, he seemed to be more interested in using me to learn English than help me learn Italian, but it was still helpful.  Davide never really warmed up to me too much, but I could tell her starting taking a liking to me when he would ask me to help complete building his train tracks with him; he was a sweet little boy.

Most of my time in Italy was dedicated to menial things.  I ran often, which allowed me to get a good look at the neighboring towns.  The area where I was actually staying was completely surrounded my farm country, so there was absolutely nothing within a 30 minute walk of the house, so unless I wanted to pay for the buses everywhere, running to get to know the town was my best option.

One day I took the train inland to Genga to see the Grotte di Frasassi, which were limestone caves, much like the ones we saw in New Zealand, which was neat.  Natural wonders are always interesting to see.  The family introduced me to something called BlaBlaCar, which was a website to organize getting a lift from a person with a car driving from one location to another.  One day, I used it to get from Ancona to a town called Macerata a bit south of us.  The whole trip cost me $7 (euro), which was a lot less than the train.  It was a great idea as it’s cheap and allows you to meet new people, and especially for me in that situation, learn a bit of Italian.  My ride, named Andrea, picked me up in the morning and we drove to Macerata for the day. I arrived early and walked the town, including the old city inside of the Roman established city limits, which was kind of neat.  I went to the Sferisterio, which was the Roman amphitheater, and a few museums, lots of churches and town squares.  However, I think I got there around 11:30am and we left at 6:30pm, which was wayyyyy too much time to visit such a small town.   The last two hours I spent at a café sipping coffee and reading my book, but it was still nice to get out of the house and see something different.  Another day I rode with Danielle on the bus he operated.  He drove me around his bus route and I hopped on and off at different town centers to walk around a bit.  I liked that some of the towns still have remnants of Roman architecture that have just been incorporated into the modern town layouts and edifices.  I visited two towns and the whole thing probably took about 3 hours, before I headed back to the house. 

Both Francesca and Danielle worked full time, so I was able to have a bit of quiet time, but Danielle’s shift schedule also allowed for time to cook together and learn Italian.  One night, they treated me to dinner at a great local restaurant for Danielle’s mother’s birthday.  There was a big groups of us, wine, great food, and a good atmosphere, until things got straight up Jerry Springer.  There were these goofy MC’s running around, I think because there was a huge group of people there for a birthday.  We called the MC over and when the MC asked how old the birthday girl was turning, Francesca's mother blurted out "82", at which time Danielle's mother SMACKED her in the face.  Wow, just wow.  Anyway, Danielle’s mother initially seemed cordial to me, but after hearing story and story of her over the next few days, she sort of sounded more like a nightmare, but Francesca has been able to take the high road with her mother-in-law.  I went out with the family twice more, once to a small town called Osimo and then to dinner at a pizza place and again another night to Danielle’s brother’s home for Sunday dinner.

The rest of the time, I spent relaxing, socializing with the family, and doing prep work for a particularly annoying future leg of our travel plans, Papua New Guinea, and other internet-requiring tasks that are especially difficult when on the road. 

Overall, my stay was really enjoyable.  The family was very welcoming and Francesca was such a wonderful breath of friendly fresh air.  I learned a few new recipes I’d like to try and I think my Italian improved quite a bit! 

 

Whey Whey! That's so French! (France)

The day we left Spain, Sam and I travelled to the airport together, but she actually left a couple hours before me, which ended up being good, because I was finally able to finish my Oz blog entries!  Turns out though that Sam didn’t arrive too much before me, because her plane sat on the tarmac for ages.  The flight itself was easy, though I got into the airport after the trains shut down, which I was not banking on.  Luckily, there was a bit of internet, so I could message Sam about my delay, and I found a bus headed to the center of town not far from our neighborhood.  I was also at that time, hit by the rude realization, that I could not speak any French!  Ug, Lord, I’d hear myself massacre just a few words, and want to apologize profusely for even having opened my mouth.  Anyway, I did finally make it to where Sam and I were staying.  She had again set up a swanky Airbnb for us in a great neighborhood.  Walking into the apartment, Sam reassured me of the fact that the apartment itself was a gem compared to the completely ram shackled entryway into the building.  After the 5 story walk-up, we made it to the apartment, which was in fact very nice, and settled in for bed, as it about 1am at that time.

The next morning, we decided to just aimlessly walk around.  We headed toward the Notre Dame/Ile de La Cite area, taking any street that caught our fancy, and stopping into lots of little stores and boutiques.  We stumbled up Centre Pompidou-Musee National D’Arte Moderne and Hotel de Ville, both of which we could tell were “something”, but had to consult our maps and books to figure out what we were look at.  We walked across Pont d’Arcole to Ile de la Cite, and all the way around the small island before popping into, you know, Notre Dame.  We skipped the guided tour, because I had actually taken the free tour years before and finally had to walk away, because there was only a certain amount of factoids I could absorb for one cathedral, and it was a 2 hour tour.  After using the tourism books as our guides of the cathedral, we set back out, crossing Pont Saint-Louis over to Ile Saint-Louis, apparently the oober swanky hood.  We meandered through the three main streets of the island, and picked up some savory crepes along the way.  We finished up the small island, and crossed the Pont Sully back over to our side of Paris, and slowly made our way back to our apartment.  After the late night, early morning, and all the walking, we were happy to rest for a bit before dinner.  That night, we met up with two of Sam’s friends from San Francisco, who were also visiting Paris at that time.  We got ourselves ready for the evening, Sam generously dolling me up with her jewelry and shawl, and we headed over to her friends’, David and Daphne, Airbnb apartment before dinner.  We had some appetizers and wine and chatted, before dinner, where we went to a great restaurant, had the best chicken salad ever, with pate, then roasted lamb, froie gras and dessert.  While at dinner, we met two men at the table next to us and after chatting them up a bit, invited them to join us when they were done, at a bar not far from the restaurant; both men were very nice, and we spent the rest of the night trying to figure out if one of them was gay or just European.  After dinner, we went to a questionably gay bar, and met two new people, of course inviting them along with us, before that bar closed, and we went to a seriously gay bar, where half the group felt uncomfortable and we finally decided on a nice French restaurant drinking bottles of wine before 3:00am came around. 

The next morning, we felt a bit rough, but wanted to make the most of our time in Paris, so we rallied and put on our red lipstick, which we discovered is a 24/7 staple in Paris.  One of the guys from the night before worked at the Musee Pompidou, and said he could get us in for free, so we meandered that way.  On the walk, we strategized the best way to hit up Paris.  Sam had done a bit of research on a ticket called the Paris Pass, which gave us free entrance into a lot of museums, a night boat tour and a Hop on–Hop off bus ticket.  After a bit of on-the-go planning, we realized that if we were going to make the most of this type of pass, we had to buy it and start using it ASAP; despite having wasted half of the day hungover, this would still be our best chance to use the tickets due to commitments we had made to people over the weekend.  So, instead of lazily meandering the streets and heading to the Pompidou, we bee-lined it to Notre Dame, where we knew for a fact these Paris Pass tickets were sold.  As we were walking, we made a plan for the day, so we could fit in as many sights and museums as possible…which all went down the crapper, when we got there and they only had one Paris Pass ticket left.  Not a problem though, we were told there was another Information Site close, and we could buy another ticket there.  I bought the ticket and waited in the line of Notre Dame to walk up to the roof, while Sam walked just over the bridge again, to Hotel de Ville, to grab her pass; all would be ok, and we wouldn’t lose any time at all…until, about 30 minutes later when Sam came back over the bridge to me, stating there was not now, nor had there ever been, an information sight at the location we were told.  STUPID information site lady!!!  Ok, now we were losing time.  The next “closest” Information Site was by the Louvre, so we hopped on the subway (the Paris Pass gave us free unlimited use of the subway, which I shared with Sam) and made our way to the Louvre.  Upon exiting, right inside of the Louvre, clearly we were bombarded by people and shops; not knowing exactly where to go, we started asking directions.  After about 3 different people directing us, we found out the closest Information Site to the Louvre, was not really anywhere close to the Louvre.  What kind of major tourist attraction doesn’t have a tourism desk!?!?!?  Uggg, frustration!  Our feet were already tired and we had only walk BY two major tourist attractions!!  We finally walked in to the stupid information site, thoroughly pissed, and got Sam her Paris Pass.  Sam and I had discussed some of our travel preferences and decided that Sam would buy the 5 day Paris Pass, whereas I only bought the 3 day pass, but low-and-behold, we found out you could only use the Museum Pass portion of the Paris Pass for 2 days with my ticket; the Museum Pass portion covered pretty much every major Paris attraction.  I was so frustrated by that point with this whole stupid Paris Pass thing.  Sam and I sat down with a map and our museum directory and came up with a new plan, now only having about 4 hours to actually use our Paris Pass benefits for that day.  We made our way north, walking into the gorgeous Opera building.  Unfortunately, the main building was closed to tours, so we meandered through the next best thing…the gift shop.  We looked at all the little trinkets, as well as the photo book to get an idea of what we were missing.  It looked pretty amazing; then and there we decided we both really wanted to go to Versailles.  After the Opera, we walked all the way up to Moulin Rouge, and through Montmartre.  The little area of Montmartre was alive with children’s tour groups!  Either that or we were walking around there right as a school was getting out, I don’t know.  There was a small art square, where artists were painting pictures to be immediately sold, including kitschier tourist portraits.  We popped into the small Gaudi museum, which was a highlight for Sam, but to be honest kind of scared me, and up to the Sacre Coeur cathedral overlooking the entire city.  We both noted, that Paris is lovely with all of its old architecture and small boutiques and shops, corner bistros and small streets, but honestly, from the view, it kind of just looked really cramped and dirty, as most low-lying cities do.  I guess it was just such a contrast for us; normally a crappy looking city looks crappy from a distance, I think we sort of assumed Paris would look elegant and antique from a distance.  Anyway, the view was still great, and the cathedral with very grand.  After walking all the way up, we made our way back down through some of the most comical clothing shops I’ve ever seen, full of super sparkly outfits; if there wasn’t sequins or beads, you wouldn’t find it.  We hopped on the subway and decided to get off a few stops early in an area we hadn’t seen yet, and just walk back.  About two stops early, we hopped off, into an area we definitely had never seen before…the red light district…at about 5pm.  We were meandering through the streets, taking notice of the clothing shops, when we spotted a woman, very….I’m not sure how to phrase it…”dressed up”?  In all black?  With heaps of bad makeup?  I don’t know, but we both looked at this woman and at each other with the same thought, but sort of blew it off as a bad fashion choice.  Then, a few meters down, we see, across the street another woman, this time with a super super short skirt, head to toe in black, compete with thigh high stockings…and handcuffs.  YESSSS!!!! Omg, they are prostitutes, we stumbled upon prostitute lane!!!  Bahahah!  We both had a bit of a giggle and gawk.  We saw a group of women, all similarly dressed in all black with tons of bad makeup, put the grand finale was yet to come.  O Lord help us!  Creeping around the doorway of a building was…omg, it’s tough to even describe.  Basically, the first thing we noticed were her GINORMOUS, I dunno maybe like FF boobs.  They were out of control!  And all the way up to her neck.  Again, all in black, with massively blown up lips, and tons of makeup.  Now that I think about it, she actually looked like a caricature of what her real self looked like.  Anyway, we were both in stitches over what we had inadvertently discovered.  After a bit, we arrived back at our apartment with sore feet and pretty exhausted, so we decided on a bit of a rest/nap.  After our nap, we got ourselves up for round 2 of touring.  We set out that evening for a night boat cruise of the Seine River.  I had taken a boat cruise on my first visit to Paris, and getting to see some of the most beautiful buildings in Paris all lit up, was probably one of my favorite things, so I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into our ride, it started raining; not buckets so we were ok with Sam’s small umbrella and my rain jacket, just enough to make us slightly uncomfortable.  Still though, Paris, the City of Lights, has earned its name well in my eyes, which I’m sure is very important to Parisians of course, but despite the crummy weather, it was still a very pretty boat ride.  We started close to the Eiffel Tower, went down past Ile de la Cite, around Ile Saint-Louis and back up the way we came, past the Eiffel Tower, and around to dock again.  By the time the tour was done, we were happy, but cold and hungry.  We made our way around looking for a restaurant with a nice view of the Eiffel Tower, but all were predictably expensive, so instead we waited around until the hour changed to see the light show of the Eiffel Tower, which was really beautiful.  After the show, we hopped on the subway, back to our neighborhood, and stopped in at a great bistro for some delicious onion soup, escargot, and salad; exactly what we wanted to warm up in that weather!  After dinner, we made our way home and passed out from fatigue and satisfaction. 

The next morning, we woke up determined.  We had a quick breakfast, and dolled up with our red lipstick; no I’m not kidding, it was always worn.  Our first stop that day was the Louvre promptly when the doors opened…ok maybe like 15 minutes after that, but we definitely beat the crowds.  The Louvre can be incredibly overwhelming, taking days if not weeks, to view everything you might want to see, so we had to be pragmatic.  We had scoped out a few of the gem pieces, and gotten a map to format our plan of attack.  We were thorough and efficient and bee-lined through area of less interest to us.  We didn’t really hit any large tourist groups until the Mona Lisa, which you would practically have to beat a few old Asian woman (I’m not being racist, we must have just come during a tour of primarily Asians) to be able to see well, so we sort of just stood back while throngs of people elbowed one another for the best view.  All-in-all, we hit every main attraction that we wanted to see in a grand total of 3 hours, not too bad.  After the Louvre, we walked just down the block to see the Espaces Mode et Textile and Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, which showcased fashion and décor respectively, and then stumbled into the Espaces Publicite, which was in the same building on the top floor, so we figured we’d have a quick look.  The space was designated for modern art, and it was probably some of the strangest art I’ve ever seen.  By the end, we were actually lying on some sort of ramp that looked like it belonged in a skate park (no it was not part of the art, at least according to the man sitting by the door), and watched an especially, awesomely weird video of some….people…moving.  Honestly, I’m trying to come up with words for what we saw, but I’m not quite sure how to describe it.  It sort of looked like a group of people had simultaneously taken a hallucinogenic and just sort of started moving around slowly and…and like, I dunno, changing clothes, grabbing someone’s foot and putting it into their armpit, then shoving their head in someone else’s crotch, while another person tried to climb the human pyramid taking shape.  Lord, I don’t know, super weird.  It had both me and Sam in stitches, which I’m sure was very uncouth, but gave our feet some respite.  After we were museumed-out, we grabbed a quick bite and headed to the Jardin de Tuileries, in front of the Louvre to eat our lunch by a fountain.  After lunch we walked around the area a bit before getting back on the subway home for our scheduled afternoon naps.  After a few hours, we woke up to get ready for dinner.  Sam had some family friends who lived part of the year in Paris, and they had invited us to dinner.  We arrived perfectly on time and met them just as they were arriving.  Dinner that night was great, with a huge seafood platter, sole, more escargot and froi gras, and dessert!  That night, we went home again stuffed to the brim!

The next morning was the last day of my Museum Pass, so we wanted to see the last few major museums on our list.  We again had a quick breakfast before heading out toward Ile de la Cite.  Our first stop was Saint Chappelle, but we apparently got the opening time incorrect so, we showed up before the doors actually opened.  Not a long wait though, we made our way into the church, known for its magnificent stained glass windows, which were wonderful.  There was a bit of construction obscuring the main rose window, but the panels lining the transept were still amazing.  After spending a bit of time taking all the colors in, we walked a few blocks over to Notre Dame to go to the roof.  When we got there, a line was already forming, but the doors had not actually opened yet.  We didn’t have to wait an exceedingly long amount of time, maybe 30-40 minutes, before we started the long, spiraling ascent up the ancient stars to the roof.  Though Norte Dame is not the highest building in Paris, we had an unobstructed view of the wonderful architecture in the area, and could see all across the city.  We also got to see the great gargoyles with their demonic faces looking out over the roof.  After we snapped a ton of photos, we went back down and crossed over to the other side of the River Seine, which we had not explored yet.  Walking along the banks of the Seine, we got to see all the stalls lining the street with their books, souvenirs, and accessories.  We were headed for the Musee D’Orsay, which was an old train station, where we spent a few hours looking at the art pieces, then the Musee Rodin, in what used to be a gorgeous private residence, featuring the works of Rodin, including the Thinking Man and Gate to Hell.  We stopped in for a bit of lunch, before finally making in to Musee de L’Armee, where we saw Brad Pitt.  …no, I’m not kidding, he was doing a promotion for his new movie, so yea we chatted, made out a bit, no big deal.  Haha yea right.  We also got to see the tomb of Napoleon, which as you might imagine was exceedingly huge and ornate.  It looked like a small RV rather than a tomb; apparently, there are about 6 coffins inside, but we’ve all heard about Napoleon’s…you know…Napoleon Complex.  At that point, we were supposed to head back toward our place and stop at the Musee Pompidou, but we were so spent, we decided to instead run home for our naps, and then try to make it to the Pompidou that evening.  We rested the next few hours, and actually had a pretty rough time getting ourselves out of bed again.  In the end, we rallied, and got to see the Musee Pompidou, which, after the fact, we realize would have been a true shame to miss.  The Musee Pompidou was the modern art mecca, including some incredibly weird/slightly uncomfortable/supremely comical video exhibits.  We had two hours to see the all the exhibits, so we had to rush a bit, but getting into the museum at 7pm was actually a great time to view everything as the crowds had left ages earlier.  After the museum, we walked around our neighborhood before settling on a lovely corner bistro, theater street seating and all, and had a great dinner of scallops and duck.  After dinner, we walked to a smaller bistro closer to our apartment for chocolate mousse, a bottle of red wine, and some good people watching, before returning to the apartment for bed.

The next morning was Sunday, and we had arranged to meet Sam’s family friends again to shop at the city market.  The market actually had some pretty high end items mixed with some knockoff items as well.  We meandered through the stalls for several hours, before I finally gave up, realizing that walking through tables full of things I couldn’t buy, was in fact a form of torture.  After the market, we went to a Swiss restaurant close by for fondue, cold meats, salad, and wine, the cheese fondue sufficiently putting all of us into a pre-comatose state.  Sam and I could not stand the thought of being super touristy and decided to return to the apartment a bit early for our much-needed afternoon nap.  That evening, we met up with Josh, a friend of Bita’s (who had just gotten married in Spain if you recall) from NYC that we knew.  We organized to meet at his Airbnb down a few blocks from us, where we had some wine and snacks before heading out.  Josh had a few places he had researched, so we spent the night scouring the city for a bit of an underground scene, including one place accessed through the fridge of a restaurant.  Needless to say, that night ended a bit late.

Monday was a bit of a lazy day.  We laid around eating and resting, and I used the day to finalize some plans for later on my travels.  The big event of the day was dinner; we went to a restaurant called Le Suffle and had an entire dinner of suffles.  Sam had a froi gras suffle with mushrooms and I had a chicken and cheese suffle with a creamy chicken sauce.  The second course I had fish and veggies while Sam had another delicious suffle and dessert was a banana suffle with Nutella sauce.  Holy suffle it was all delicious!
Tuesday was my last day in France; I flew out in the evening and Sam the next morning, so we didn’t want to waste the day waiting.  I mostly packed the night before so we were able to wake up early and quickly get ourselves ready.  That day we planned on spending at Versailles!  We hopped on the train out of the city, and got to Versailles just after the gates opened, with a huge line already formed, which only got bigger and bigger as we waited.  We got audio guides, which were great; I always enjoy knowing little details about what I’m looking at.  The whole palace was really impressive, with goldleaf, rococo decorative styles, frescos, and basically elaborate everything.  The curtains matched the furniture upholstery, matched the bed covers, matched the dining ware; apparently, twice a year everything was changed to reflect either the winter season or spring.  The only issue we had was all the tourists.  Apparently, Mondays are the most popular days to visit, and occasionally it was like Rumble in Versailles to get from room to room.  We walked through the gardens and to ??????????????????????? and over to Marie Antoinette’s private chalet and farm, strikingly contrary to what you might imagine and the rest of Versailles.  After about five hours of walking around, we made our way back to the train station to get me ready for the airport.  That was sort of when things started to go sideways for me.  The station we needed had shut down train access, apparently due to a tree that had fallen in to the tracks, so, not to worry, we had plenty of time, we walked to a different station a bit away, along with a mass of other tourists.  There, we waited for ages with delayed and cancelled trains before finally being able to board a train for Paris.  Getting back to the apartment at that point was fine.  I packed up the last few things I had and said my sad goodbyes to Sam.  We were lucky that we got to spend so much together.  I walked out to the subway…at 5pm.  Once I got to the station with my huge bag, I had to miss two trains because they were so jam packed.  Finally, I could squeeze onto the third train, apologizing as I knocked people around with my bag, but desperate to get on.  I was supposed to transfer to another train, but at my transfer point, I realized I had wasted too much time initially waiting for a train and was really cutting my time thin.  I ran out, caught a cab and easily made it to the bus station.  The buses for the airport left every so often, so I ended up leaving the bus depot a bit later than I had hoped, but still optimistic…until we hit traffic.  The one hour bus ride took over two hours to get us to the airport.  When we finally unloaded, people grabbed their bags and started hauling A to the check-in counters.  I arrived at the airport for my international flight 20 minutes before the plane was departing.  By some miracle of God, and the fact that the bus carried several people on the same plane, we all made it through and onto the flight, and only left 10 minutes later than scheduled.  Hallelujah!!!  I never thought that I would make that flight.  Huge sigh of relief.

Spanish Wedding Bliss - Love NYC (Spain)

Getting to Spain was a bit arduous.  I said goodbye to Jared and hopped on the train to the airport early in the morning.  I gave myself plenty of time, as I hate rushing with the huge backpack.  First, I flew to Bangkok, had a 6 hour layover there (with only 15 minutes of wifi), then to Zurich, where I had almost no layover, then to Madrid, where I had another 6 hour layover, and finally to Barcelona.  By the time I arrived, I was tired, stinky, and hungry.  I had booked a hostel for one night, so when I finally I made it there, I grabbed a quick cheap bite at a cafeteria (not the American kind), hogged the shower for much longer than I should have, and got into bed extra early, well like 10pm, so not all that early.

The next morning, I woke up incredibly excited!  I packed up the few things I had used for the night and went to meet Samantha and Nicole, two of my best friends from NYC, whom I formerly worked with at Mount Sinai Hospital.  Yes there were tears.  Sam had arranged a swanky Airbnb for us, so we piled inside with all of our stuff and unpacked a bit.  There was a washer and dryer, so I immediately started hogging that.  A few hours later, we headed off to meet our other friend from Mount Sinai, Bita, and her future husband Chris.  Their wedding was in Spain, partially because Chris had lived there for years, and because they had actually met when Bita took a little vacation to Spain.  Chris knew all the ins-and-outs of the city, so he had arranged a small food tour, where he took us all to some of his favorite eateries.  We showed up a bit early, so we grabbed a nice glass of cava each, before some familiar and not-so-familiar faces started trickling in.  Our meeting spot was a great ice cream shop, so we grabbed an ice cream and coffee and waited for the rest of the group to show.  Spain has what we endearingly like to call “Spanish time”, which means that when someone is told a time to meet, they actually show up about 45 minutes after said time.  So, right on “Spanish time” schedule most of the people whom had flown in arrived and, we all started our walk.  Chris took us all around some of the major neighborhoods and into a few eateries, notably the jamon serrano shop where people stocked up on jamon to smuggle back to the US, and we got to have some cava and samples of the meat, yum, and lastly a small café in the old town district, lined by small streets that brave drivers attempt to maneuver around pedestrians who rule those alleys, where we munched on some traditional Spanish tapas.  By that time, it was early evening and Sam and Nicole’s jetlag started setting in, so we made the walk back to our place for a quick siesta before that evening’s event…the bachelorette party! 

After a quick cat nap, and some much needed coffee, we beautified, and I put one of the few dresses that Nicole has received from my mother so I didn’t look so much like a backpacker, but more like a well put together adult.  Sam had arranged everything for the evening, and we started out at a fantastic Spanish restaurant called Arcano Restaurante in a private, cavernous room.  We actually lost count of the different appetizers, or tapas, all of which were amazing, from a crostini with whipped blue cheese, to marinated green little peppers (be careful, one in every 10 or so [I think] is incredibly hot), to pan tomaca, Spanish meatballs, queso fundido, patatas bravas, croquettas, and so many more!!!  And that wasn’t even the end of it!!  Throw in the main course of fish or meat, unlimited bottles of wine and then dessert and you basically had to roll us out of the restaurant.  The dinner, of course, included great conversation, meet and greets, and little bridal games, but suffice to say, apparently, the nurses may be a bad influence.  There was a particular story from the bride, regarding her first meeting of the groom’s mother, and going out with the nurses afterward, ending in a lot of apartment toilet time with thin NYC walls, and morning pain killers; apparently, the groom had said the night before something along the lines of, “please, do go out with the nurses, you know what happens…my mother is here!”  It was clearly just a boyfriend-fulfilled prophecy.  Anyway, after dinner, we were supposed to meet up with the groom’s bachelor party and all go out together.  We were in the old part of town again, with the small alleyway streets, so we meandered through the streets sniffing out the men’s party, stopping in along the way at suspected bachelor party locations; we knew we were close on their tail when are barman said, “they were just here”, and pointed in the direction of where to find them.  After a bit, we finally joined them, and the rest of the night was full of shots, general debauchery, and possibly (I’m not saying it definitely happened, just that it possibly happened) a sweet and slightly awkward pole dance show FROM the groom and bride.  The end of the night came around 3am I think, at which time, we all piled into our respective cabs and made our way home. 
The next morning, we woke up shockingly well humored and hydrated.  We met up with the bride-to-be for a little brunch.  After filling up on good food and coffee, we made our way back to our place, where Sam hung around and napped, and Nicole and I packed up a bag for the beach!  We didn’t have much time to play at the beach, so we just hopped in a cab, and said “a la playa, por favor”, to which he replied, “which playa?”, and we both looked at each other unknowingly.  He took matters into his own hands, and we ended up at a great beach a bit away from the touristy hubbub.  After a few hours sunning and swimming, we set off back to our place to shower and get ready.  That evening we again got ourselves looking nice and made our way over to the rehearsal dinner, at El Velodromo, which was less of a rehearsal and more of a people-who-have-flown-in dinner.  We again had mountains of great food, an unaccountable number of tapas and bottles and some great toasts from the groom-to-be’s family, counting in at a total of six hours.  We needed to be up early in the morning to help attend to some last minute wedding issues, so instead of going out that night, we made a small house party with a few of the NYC wedding guests whom we knew from back home.  I guess it would be considered a bit of an early night, but around 1:30am we made it to bed. 
The next morning was the wedding day!  We got up and made our way to meet up with the groom’s sister who took us to all of the flower shops on the Rambla de Flores (Flower Street) where the flowers had been pre-ordered for pick up that day.  Looking like beauty queen rejects, with our mountains of flowers and sunglasses to hide our faces, we piled into a cab and headed to the wedding/reception venue, which was a gorgeous old Spanish-style building, the Casa Cortada.  There we met up with the other NYC girls who had been commissioned to complete the setup of the venue.  Once our duty was completed, Sam, Nicole, and I made our way back to our place, squeezed in a quick preparatory nap and started getting ready.  Bita wanted us to help her get ready, which I always find to be such an honor, so we packed up a few things and walked over to Bita’s swanky hotel.  When we walked in Bita had just finished getting her hair and makeup done and pulling on her gown.  She looked just stunning; radiant as a bride so often does.  She then took off the gown to be more comfortable.  We ordered a bottle of cava, which the nice young gentlemen very much seemed to enjoy delivering to a room full of beautified girls giggling and listening to music.  Bita then happened to mention that she and Chris had decided to recite their vows “on the fly”, to which we all concurred that it was a terrible idea, despite the fact that she reassured us Chris was not preparing his.  We grabbed a sticky note and got down to thinking about what a girl does (and does not) commit to in a marriage…it was slow work.  When the bottle was done, and few profound and not-so-profound ideas jotted down, Bita put her wedding gown back on, we made a few makeup touchups and headed out to meet our BMW chauffer.  Bita was so excited, as were we all, as the minutes went by…and by…and by.  Where was the chauffer, we asked?  THIS IS A WEDDING!!  Turns out, the car was late, because it had gotten into a crash on the way to pick us up.  Luckily, we were all savvy NYC women, so we hiked up the bride’s wedding dress and made our way to the corner to flag the first van taxi we could find.  Quick and easy, we made our way toward Casa Cortada…until the cab driver drove us to the wrong location.  He did not in fact know exactly where he was going…and decided to stop and give a man directions…and then ask a woman for directions.  We ladies finally figured out where we, and all started yelling and pointing and directing until, elated, we found the building.  Once all that was over, we calmed the trying-to-stay-calm bride, and escorted her into her bridal salon.  A few quick photos, a few oohs and aahs from the family, and she was ready to go.  The ceremony was beautiful, small, and Persian, which I had never seen before, so that was neat.  The two mother’s officiated the ceremony, and the vows went off without a hitch, by the way, the groom whipped out his own little cheat sheet on that one, so we were happy we had prepped.  I also got a shout-out for being the guest who traveled the farthest; woohoo, wedding shotout! At the end of the ceremony, we started the party!  Can you guess?  Yes, massive amounts of amazing food, wine, and a bottle of whisky per table (which all shockingly disappeared [were drunk] over the course of the night).  The end of dinner segued into dancing, with some Persian songs in there and some Spanish hits.  Suffice to say, we are all Persian pop stars now.  At the end of the night, we grabbed a cab and headed back to our place.  Oh God, no that’s not what happened!  Haha  We went out!  Yes, we hopped in cabs and went out to a club.  Some of us lasted many more hours (one person straggled home at 7:30am), and some less hours (me and Nicole).  THEN we headed home!
Nicole had booked her flight home for that morning…early.  So on about two and a half hours sleep, I got a knock on the door to say goodbye to my bestie L, and then passed out again.  Later that morning, Sam and I woke up, and made our way to lunch with some of the wedding guest and the Mr. and Mrs!  We met up, Spanish time style, at a large café, pumped ourselves with coffee, and made the world’s slowest walk to a paella restaurant along the water; some people would stop and look into shops, and want to grab this and that, which by the end, with about 10 hungry, hungover adults, made for a cranky walk, with some serious no-more-shopping rules being laid down.  Lunch was pretty hysterical, in a not-that-hysterical-at-the-time kind of way, in that the waiters were completely overwhelmed when our large group walked in.  We couldn’t arrange the tables together; then we did, but one table only had three legs (??), the drinks didn’t come for ages; the food orders confused them.  By then end, yes we were stuffed with some preetttyyy awesome paella, but we were also completely ready to leave the restaurant.  I think everyone there mentioned a desire to nap, but instead we walked along the beach for several hours before making our way back to respective apartments.  As we said our good byes, we all arranged to Whatsapp, Viber, call, message etc to arrange dinner and going out that night…that did not happen.  I think everyone was sufficiently beat, and just wanted a low key night. 
The next morning, Sam and I were pretty much the last two people standing in Spain as everyone else had, you know, jobs (Sam just finished her midwifery program in California and committed a bit of extra time to travel with me).  We spent the day leisurely with Chris and Bita, until that evening when they headed off to pick up a rental car and make their honeymoon in Menorca.  Sam and I had a nice dinner at home that night watching tv and playing on the internet, before calling it a night. 
The next day, Sam and I had a nice easy morning and packed up for our romantic getaway to…Paris!