We left our job in sabina in the beginning of august and went back to the chaos of rome, only to be joined a few days later by my dear friend amanda! with amanda we traveled, first to tuscany where we stayed with our replacements for sabina (ever seen under the tuscan sun? well this british couple is living that movie, and we caught them at their villa before they moved to sabina to start working after we left) they have an amazing property and new life in the beautiful tuscan town of castiglion fiorentino, and it was a perfect start of our tour of tuscany. of course we went to florence to hang out with the david for a few days, i opted not to go in the museums and pay all over again since i'd been there before, so nate and amanda became "museum buddies" while i enjoyed some alone time- for the first time in a long time! and somehow we were able to connect with one of amanda's friend's cousin, simone, who ran a bed & breakfast in the hills, where of course we stayed for a wonderful night! and the tuscan tour wouldn't have been complete without stopping in pisa, which we did for a few hours and had way to much fun taking silly photos of the tower.
After returning to rome we decided to continue on and found ourselves couch surfing in pescara, on the eastern coast of italy. we stayed with a guy through couch surfing who showed us the town and nearby beautiful beaches and introduced us to many of his friends, we enjoyed it so much that we stayed an extra night! he and his friends cooked us the best meal i had in italy this summer, squid risotto and an assortment of other seafood, so fresh and soooo mouth-wateringly good. i literally still daydream about this meal.. i never would have gone to pescara if we hadn't found someone to stay with there, and i'm so glad we did, it was so non-touristy, i couldn't believe we were still in italy. and we attended a couch surfing dinner where we met a very nice couple from munich, and we ended up staying with them during oktoberfest! amazing.
after pescara, the museum buddies "did" rome for a couple days, and then my parents arrived! we rented a car and all 5 of us went to the amalfi coast for 3 days, stayed in maiori, visited capri where we swam through beautiful grottos, bussed to sorrento, and of course enjoyed the scenery of windy roads and cliff towns.
On the way back north we stopped in pompeii to see the ruins and the bodies that the eruption of mt. vesuvius left behind, and of course, we went to naples- in search of the best pizza in the world! if you've read eat, pray, love, then you know which pizza i'm talking about, and yes, after having to ask several italian men and getting pointed in all different directions, we fatefully ended up right in front of l'antica pizzeria da michele. got there just in time, because shortly after our arrival, a line began to form at the front door. we hungrily and savoringly ate the best pizza in the world while taking in the surroundings of the amazingly simple yet famous napoli restaurant. and this was just the beginning of our travels! we spent one last night with friends in rome, and then amanda left us for spain and we continued north to cinque terre, stayed in a camp ground, i had mentioned how much we missed camping, this was the closest we got and it felt sooooo good! we visited the 5 towns, picnicked on the beach, hiked up to corniglia to eat an amazing seafood dinner overlooking the sun setting on the sea... ate blueberry gelato on the beach (possibly my new favorite) and of course had our fill of pesto and focaccia (local to the area). after our "last days of summer" we headed north to lake como, OH MY GOSH why did it take me so long to go there!? it's really breathtaking, a stretch of lake surrounded by tall mountains, the weather was much cooler, and overall it was a very refreshing experience to get out of the heat and be in a new (and such a beautiful!) place. to top it all off our balcony from our hostel was facing the water, with amAZing views. we ferried across it, oh how i love lakes and mountains, and continued on to venice, only to return the car and be on our way to AUSTRIA!
My dad really wanted to go to salzburg and do the sound of music tour, so that's just what we did! what a beautiful town salzburg is, and the sound of music tour was definitely a highlight of the trip. we saw the von trapp mansion, the lake, gazebo, tree-lined alley, the cathedral, the abbey, the mirabelle gardens, EVerything, and we SANG! it was corny and touristy and so much fun. i highly recommend it:) we followed that up by going to the augustiner brau biergarten, a truly amazing place. the best beer i've ever tasted, right from the old barrel, walls covered in steins, the garden covered with tables full of happy people, and the smell of meat in the air, YUM! we stayed for four very happy hours. short and sweet was the stay in salzburg, for then we were on our way into germany, for a very important date. my parents were about to meet the parents of my german sister lydia, who lived with us for a year in high school. it was a sweet reunion and such an exciting meeting for all the parents! we all stayed at their house that night and had a big family dinner, lydia doing a lot of translating for them:) the next day we continued on, this time with lydia, to berlin! my favorite thing about berlin is the sandeman's free tour of east berlin which i raved about in a previous post from last year, and i happily did that for a second time. it was as amazing as the first one, a storybook come to life. we spent 4 days in berlin, during which lydia left, my parents left, megan came, and daryl also came! so finally, when it was just the four of us (me, nate, daryl, and megan) we started the BEGINNING OF THE END of our travels.
Our first stop was poland! luckily i was able to get a hold of a dear friend of mine from tahoe who is actually from poland, and he put us up and introduced us to his country! in 4 days we saw szczecin, poznan, krakow, and auschwitz-birkenau. POLAND= beautiful people, a tragic and depressing history, a crazy language, and dangerous vodka. na zdrowie! i think everyone should go to auschwitz, the "death camp", it was a very chilling experience learning about the horrible mistreatment of the people, and seeing it all still there is unbelievable. it should definitely never be forgotten. poland was an experience in itself. from there we took a bus to prague, czech republic. prague was amazing! we arrived on the first day of the wine harvest, so there was a festival going on in the town square, with little huts selling amazing-smelling food and drinks, people dancing, horses pulling buggies, parades, etc. there is an astronomical clock that puts on a show every hour, and it's just a very comfy and cozy place to be. we actually did a pub crawl one night and it was really fun, but the best part may have been the food! i had the best cheeseburger i've ever had outside the states, and the next morning we went back for a big american-style breakfast, something at least 3 of us were really missing! kudos to prague for quenching our cravings. there's a lot of history there that i knew nothing about, actually it was really interesting to have gone from the walking tour of berlin to the concentration camp in poland, and into prague because it seems to make the history of the area really come together. this is my favorite european city thus far, we spent 3 days wandering the streets and enjoying the sights before taking a deep breath and heading to munich, and you all know what that means- Oktoberfest!
Here we met up with our friend frances that we knew from rome, and like i mentioned before we couch surfed with the nice couple we had met in italy, they were so accomodating! they cooked for us and drove us to and from the train station and gave us comfortable beds to sleep in and a really nice shower! it felt good to be taken care of, and was SUCH a needed change from our first experience at Oktoberfest last year. we spent one entire day at oktoberfest, a TUESDAY, which meant we walked right into the tents at 11am and commenced the drinking. it was just what it should be- a band, people singing and dancing on tables, ladies carrying 29 steins, platters of meat, giant pretzels, and new friends everywhere you look. plus we couldn't stop eating, the food was too good. SO MUCH FUN, eventually we ventured outside and rode a roller coaster, the ferris wheel, the bean bag racing slides, and the drop tower, and the whole day went off without a hitch! and most of you know what i mean by that! thank god:) until we lost megan, but then we found her and all was well. and with that checked off the list, the last stop on our list was istanbul, for which we bought tickets all the way back in april i think. so the 5 of us went to turkey and stayed with my ever so kind and generous friends blake and liz in their tiny apartment. in the next 10 days daryl left, my friend michelle (from florida, texas, ohio, and costa rica) came, megan left (so weird! after all this time, she went back to the States), and frances left, which left just nate and i, michelle, and blake and liz. we ventured to the black sea one day, went to asia twice (across the bosphorous canal), ferried to the princess islands, and went countless times into the old town and the bazaars. my favorite was the spice bazaar, talk about overstimulation! istanbul has a population of about 18 (give or take a few) million people. it's literally shoulder to shoulder walking in some of the places in that city, and there are just people EVerywhere, it's really overwhelming. but the food was tasty and the people were really nice, and we learned a few things in turkish. it was good to see michelle again after so long, it's been since new years 06 in spain! it was challenging to be in a world ruled for and by men, when i'm so used to being treated fairly and even with chivalry in the US, and elsewhere. i saw an old woman on a bus actually get up so a younger man could sit down, WHAT!? and once i saw a man run into a woman on the street and then actually have the audacity to yell at HER for his fault. it's definitely different there, and after such a long time away and such a whirlwind of travel, i was so excited to be returning to the states after turkey. for me, there was only one foreign country left to visit: a place called minnesota.
We went "home" and surprised nate's entire family, his mom screamed so loud that both his little nephews started bawling. we went back for a wedding, so we spent the next 2 weeks visiting friends and family and seeing some of the sights of minnesota, a BEAUtiful place, before finding a ride (craigslist- love it) across the country (with a bonus layover night in Bozeman) back home to tahoe. where we are now, finally settled in truckee and just awaiting the winter season. i'm thinking about taking a bit of a break from traveling and enrolling in a program next fall that will prepare me for taking the translator certification test for spanish/english. what? me? career? yeah maybe, we will see what the next year brings! oh and i'm thinking about writing a book... so thanks to all who actually read my stories, and stay tuned:)
j
