In London

I decided that instead of staying in chronological order, I'm going to jump ahead so you all know where I am and what I'm up to. I will eventually go back and update you on my last two weeks of traveling in Germany and Belgium, but for now, here's whats up:

I arrived in London on the 24th on a superfast Eurostar train from Brussels. Even being all alone with all my luggage, which practically doubled after Belgium, I managed to get off the train, get onto the correct Underground line, make a transfer, get off at the correct stop and make it to the hostel. Ok I wasn't completely alone... when my luggage got stuck behind the fast closing gates leaving the underground, a handsome Brit lifted my huge bag straight up over his head and over the gate to me. I know how heavy my bag is, not to mention my computer bag with all my travel books was on top of it too, but he made it look effortless, graceful, and masculine. Welcome to London!!

My hostel is right in the center of everything. I am in the West End near the British museum, for any of you who are familiar. The hostel itself is not that great, but the people are very nice and they are all in the same program that I am in. At any given time there are about 3000 students from around the world working in the UK through the Bunac program. For Americans, you get 6 months to work; the Aussie's and Kiwi's get a little longer. Then a few of these students stay at the Bunac hostel. Its a week by week place, although some people reside here the whole time. I have met lots of great people that have helped me get acquainted real quick. My favorite part is the community kitchen: although it is a sauna, it has been nice chatting with the different residents during mealtimes. Its so neat to hear everyone's different stories.

My second day here I joined a group of people going to the Notting Hill Carnival. Now when I told my family about this, they all assumed I was going to some quaint little festival in the Notting Hill we all know from the movie. Well, not exactly... this carnival was in the same neighborhood, which I truly do not understand, but it is a cultural festival celebrating Jamaican heritage and music. There was insanely loud music with thumping bass and the craziest costumes I've ever seen. There was a parade that went on for a while, and lots of food booths with Jamaican cuisine. I saw a lot more bright colors and flesh than I wanted to, and it was way too crowded. So not exactly what you would think of when you hear Notting Hill, and not exactly the most traditional activity to celebrate reaching London. But it was interesting nonetheless, and I really enjoyed getting to know the girls from my hostel better.

The next day I set out to look for jobs. I have been in contact with a few wine shops for a while, but none of them have been giving me definitive answers. And knowing how daunting the job searching can be, I decided to just take an early stab at it and at least get to know my way around. I looked up the Top 10 Wine Bars in London online and mapped out their locations. Out of the first three I visited, two offered me jobs on the spot! One even chased me down the street to avoid losing me. The company I have decided to accept is called El Vino (www.elvino.co.uk). They are the oldest wine bar in London and they have 5 different locations around the city. I will be working at the New Bridge Street location which is near the river and in the heart of the financial/business district. I will start serving, and then consider the trainee manager position that becomes available in two weeks. The woman that hired me said she feels it would be a great fit if I can commit to more time here, so we'll see. As for now, it looks like I will stay until just before Christmas, and then be home for the holidays.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets and exploring the other wine bars and shops. It was a very gratifying day all together; I felt like I really got to put myself out there to see what I was made of, and I literally prepared myself for the worse, and it turns out I've got just what London is looking for! I have been walking the streets of this noisy, gray, cold city with a huge smile on my face and a warmth in my heart knowing that I am in the right place. The woman who hired me shook my hand and said, "Everything happens for a reason, I'm so glad you walked through the door."

I start my job tomorrow, so I will let you all know how it goes! Thanks for all the emails and little notes here and there. I really enjoy them so keep 'em coming. Oh and if anyone can help me find a place to stay for the next four months here, let me know quick!! And if anyone wants to mail me anything, the address for Bunac will receive mail and packages for me, no problem (any courier except Fed Ex). The address is 16 Bowling Green Lane, London, UK, EC1R 0QH.

Germany... blog to follow soon

Italy

Italy: Rome to Venice... and everything in between

6:15AM the morning of August 3, 2008: Ryan and I are in Girona airport preparing to check in for our flight to Rome. Things started smoothly, we had more than enough time to check in, and it wasn’t too crowded yet. We knew the rules for flying with RyanAir were pretty strict as far as baggage weight and we were already feeling hesitant about even taking this flight, but we went thinking it couldn’t possibly be that bad, right? We were not at all prepared for how much it would cost us, financially and mentally. When we reached the check-in counter we were already feeling sick and nervous about how much our bags would cost. We were allowed 15kg, and anything over that would be 15 Euro per kilogram. We didn’t even have time to decide if we wanted to go through with it, because they sent our bags down to the plane and handed us a slip to go pay our fees and come back to get our boarding passes. My bag was 22kg, so I owed 105 Euro (that’s approx. $185). Ryan’s bags were over too, plus although they told us we could have up to 3 bags, they charged him 20 Euro extra for having two; he owed 115 Euro. We paid the fees, got our boarding passes, and headed to security. This is about where I lost it.

I hadn’t realized I forgot to put my brand new Spider knife and my personally engraved Swiss army knife in my checked baggage. Both being gifts, I was really upset about having to give them up. We walked back down to the line where we checked our bags and asked if we could out them in our luggage. Nope, out of luck (and you can imagine they were really nice about it too). I handed Ryan my knives and started crying in the middle of the airport. I just wanted him to throw them away without me looking. He tried to calm me down and after thinking about it for a moment we decided to ask someone else in line if they would stick them in their bags. Not exactly an easy thing to do when you don’t speak the language and you’re walking up to people asking them to hide knives for you. Especially since one of the knives is pretty knarly and big, but it does have a pretty and bright pink handle to make it less scary. We got a few no’s, but eventually found two American girls who seemed semi-ok with the idea. We offered them 5 Euro since they were already worried about their bags being heavy. They finally agreed and all I could say was thank you and if I never saw them or the knives again, at least it was better than them being in the garbage.

Back up to security. I was feeling pretty good at this point, because I had at least avoided throwing more money in the garbage. I made it through fine, but Ryan got stopped. As they pulled his bag off, he remembered he had a multi-function bike tool in his bag that his dad had given him. The only tool on there that they didn’t like was the screwdriver, so after arguing and throwing a pen at the security guy, Ryan gave up and let them take it. We were both completely shaken and exhausted. I have never felt worse about a traveling experience ever! I couldn’t even get Ryan to speak to me for the next 40 minutes before our flight, which was fine, because anything either of us had to say would have only made us more upset. By 8:15 we were boarded and ready to go on our crappy little plane that was smaller than a sardine can with the way they crammed people in. We didn’t realize the seat numbers on our tickets actually meant nothing either, so we had to find any seats we could get. It was a fairly quick flight and other than a huge bounce when we landed, it was ok. Everyone clapped, which I hate, especially since there was no turbulence or anything. Then they played this silly recording over the loudspeaker saying “Congratulations, you’re on another RyanAir flight that’s on time!” All I could think was ‘who cares about being on time’. We got off the plane, walked a few feet from the plane to the terminal, and 45 minutes later our luggage showed up. So much for being on time; what’s the point if it takes 45 minutes to move luggage 20 feet!

Moving on… yay we’re in Rome!!! Time to enjoy ourselves! We walked to our hotel which ended up being a really cute B&B on a small little street. It was 5 flights of stairs up, which was fun with all of our luggage, but it was air conditioned, so by the time we made it up there we didn’t care how high it was. After cleaning up a bit, we went out to get pizza. We made it less than a block when we found a place to stop, and during our lunch we realized how tired we both were. That’s one of the funny things about traveling, you’re always tired, but you’re always somewhere new, so it’s hard to justify a nap when you feel like you’re missing out on seeing everything around you. Well, we justified it anyway. After 4 hours of sleep we woke up ready to go, and it was only 5PM. We decided to walk to the Colosseum, and then along the river to the Pantheon. It was great going out later in the day, because the sun was low in the sky and it made Rome look amazing. I had a lot on my mind while we were walking, because it was the day before the one year anniversary of Chris’ passing. I think I am getting better about dealing with the emotions that are stirred up by these thoughts. I find it very easy to go to a very dark place in my head, but I am trying to let that happen less and take control over it. So I tried to focus on happy memories. For the most part I did ok and I didn’t let it change the outcome of the night.

We ended up at the Pantheon by dark and it was beautiful! I think I am really drawn to that type of architecture; it was so large and unique. We had dinner at a great place just around the corner where our waitress turned out to be the most entertaining part of our trip so far. She was joking around with us and being super sweet. It was a nice change from some of the other people we had been dealing with. I did find it interesting that out of all the places I have been, they speak more English in Rome than anywhere else. Even just walking down the street, the restaurants call out to you in English to try to get you to come eat there. How do they know? Is it that obvious we’re American, or is it just that everyone else in Rome is an American tourist? I didn’t care that much, in fact I kind of enjoyed not struggling to understand what I was about to eat. The best part of Italy was definitely the food, which I have been anxiously awaiting since our first visit with the Swiss group. I could eat pasta and caprese salad for the rest of my life with no problems.

The next morning we decided to dedicate the whole day to the Vatican, since I wanted to see that more than anything. On our way there we got solicited by a tour company that offered a guided tour of the museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, plus through the tour you got to cut in line past the people that were wrapped around the entire block. It ended up being more than worth it to pay for the tour. We had a great guide who led us through the museum with interesting facts and tidbits about pieces I would have otherwise completely overlooked. I was not a huge fan of the Sistine Chapel however. Not to say I didn’t like it, but my super high expectations were hard to meet with it being so insanely crowded and everyone was talking loudly and taking pictures (which meant all I heard the whole time were security guards yelling at people “No photo!!!”). I think it would have been nicer if we had just had a bit more room to stand and look up and enjoy it, but oh well, maybe next time. St. Peter’s on the other hand was spectacular. It was so big and you could take your time walking around and seeing all the details.

Afterwards we walked along the river again while making our way towards the Trevi Fountain. It was pretty hot when we got there, so it was pretty crowded with people trying to get a splash. We found a nice spot to hang out in the shade and chatted with a family from Portland, OR. It was all slowly sinking in, that I was in Rome, that I had just seen the Vatican, or that I was at the Trevi fountain! Pretty cool realizations. After a nice rest, it was time to head to the hotel to get our things and get to the train station.

We had a night train from Rome to Verona, which was a little rough since it was our first one. It was late when we got on and the other two men in our cabin were already asleep, so we just had to lay down and be quiet. It was a nerve racking trip and neither of us got much sleep. We arrived in Verona around 6:30AM, and took the bus to the airport where we had to pick up our rental car. This actually worked out great cause we went to the arrival terminal and there was no one there, so we took the opportunity to use the bathroom for sink showers.

When we go our car, we headed to Masi, an Italian wine producer that specializes in Amarone. This is a dry wine, meaning no residual sugar, but it is made from grapes that are dried out like raisins. It’s a really fascinating process that has a lot of history behind it. Last year I was lucky enough to meet Rafaele Boscaini who is the 5^th generation of the family business. With the help of him and his US distributor we were able to get a personalized tour from a wonderful girl named Anna. She took us all around the facilities and did a tasting with personalized tasting sheets and a powerpoint presentation with mine and Ryan’s name on them. It was fantastic. Then we went to the neighbors place, Sergo-Alegheri. This is a royal family that has a partnership with Masi, since as royalty they cant exactly make the wine themselves. The place was stunning, and I don’t know if I have taken so many pictures in one place this whole trip. The buildings were really old and overgrown with vines, and the gardens were done in an elegant English style that made me speechless. We got to see all the facilities here too, and one really cool thing they have here are Cherry wood barrels. They still use oak barrels, but they also throw the wine in the Cherry wood for 4 months of aging to give it something extra special. I’ve never smelled a barrel room that was so unique. On this property they have the wine shop where regular customers can go taste and buy. We stopped here and Anna gave us 2 bottles of their wine from Argentina, which is a blend of their native grape Corvina and Malbec. At Masi they are really focused on research and development, and they are trying to bring back some of the native grapes from their region and put them into use again.

After here, Anna drove us to lunch at a little pizzeria. I had the most amazing calzone ever, along with mozzarella and dried tomatoes from the local area, and prosciutto and melon salad. And of course everything was served with Masi wine. We really enjoyed our time getting to know Anna, and I don’t think Ryan or I could get over what a treat we were being given. Anna drove us back to our car, where we exchanged emails and said goodbye. We also gave her a bottle of wine from Burgundy that used the Caesar grape, since it is the native grape in Burgundy and we thought it was fitting with all Masi’s research. What an truly amazing visit; thank you Rafaele, John King and Anna for making it so memorable.

From here we drove to Padova where we would stay the night to be close for our appointment the next day. The hotel ended up being not so great, so we decided to get in the car and drive around in search of a nice place for dinner. We were driving along a small river and got to see some of the nicest homes that looked like palaces. After 20km or so we stumbled across a town that had a big event going on outside next to the water. We parked and joined in on the fun. We had drinks and appetizers at an outside restaurant where we got to listen to the music of an Italian band that played all American music (quite entertaining). Somehow though things got rocky between Ryan and I and the conversation went to not so pleasant very quickly. Despite the great surroundings, the night didn’t end well. It’s become clear to me now that it is possible to go a little crazy after sharing all your personal space with one person for so long. More than anything, I think we just needed a little breather from each other. After all, no matter how big Ryan and I have been this year by becoming friends and work partners, we are still ex’s who drive each other a little nuts.

The next day we visited Vignalta winery. I know the owner Lucio Gomiero who lives half the year in California as the Radicchio king, and the other half in Italy producing fantastic wines. Unfortunately he wasn’t at Vignalta when we visited, but his cellar master, Michele, toured us around and we did several barrel tastings. Although Michele didn’t speak very much English, we had a great time and left with a parting gift of two of their bottles.

We headed back to Verona for the night. I was really excited about this because I had been looking forward to a smaller town that had such fun history behind it. Ryan wasn’t in the mood to join me, so I decided to walk the city myself. I got to see the Castelvecchio and Casa di Giulieta. I went to a great modern bar for dinner where I had a steak with potatoes. It wasn’t exactly American steak and potatoes, but it was fantastic nonetheless; plus they gave me all the free bread and raw veggies I could eat. When I got back to the hotel Ryan told me he had been reading our Eurail book and found out there were boats we could take from Italy to Greece. We both knew that our appointment with Vignalta was the last definite thing on our schedule, and we could pretty much go anywhere we wanted after that. I wanted to go to Germany and Paris, but Ryan had gotten pretty excited about going to Greece and then traveling up through Eastern Europe. He decided to take a train to the port the next day when I would take my train to Venice. I was pretty upset about this. I wanted both of us to be able to travel on our own, but it was so sudden and such a big change, I just wasn’t handling it well. I was almost mad at him for being so nonchalant about it, since I guess to me it seemed like the end of a long road for us.

The next morning I had some trouble booking a place in Venice. I knew I had one night there by myself, but the next night I would meet Leilani and stay in the hostel she had booked. But I couldn’t find anything decently priced for a single; everything was nearly 50 Euro a night for just one person! Plus we couldn’t get internet to look for more options, because wireless internet is nearly non-existent in Italy, or if you can find it its 8 Euro an hour. It was getting closer to our train departures and I was stressing more and more. I thank Ryan for seeing this and deciding to get on the train to Venice with me. I just needed a little more time with him and to make sure I was properly prepared to be on my own. It was a nice easy ride to Venice and when we got there we used an internet café to find a place for the night. We got really lucky and got a great deal on an apartment for only 55 Euro. It was in close walking distance to the train station which was good with all the bridged in Venice, plus it had a full kitchen with a washing machine!! We needed to laundry really badly, so it was perfect to cook dinner and do our laundry while watching MTV. By the time Ryan had to leave the next morning I felt a lot more ready to say goodbye. And although it was tearful, I think we both felt more ready to let go and move forward as individuals.

After Ryan left, I had to get all packed up and go on a search for the hostel I was supposed to stay at with Leilani. I had thought she was arriving in the morning, but when I found out it wasn’t until after 5PM, I decided I would just go to the hostel and put my luggage there for the day. It ended up being the worst 3 hours ever! I hauled all my stuff through the labyrinth that is Venice, up and down bridges, hitting dead end streets, and running over people’s toes with my bag several times. When I finally found the place I thought would take me an hour tops, they didn’t even have a reservation for us, and they closed the window on me so they could go to lunch. So I had a little pity party for myself outside in the courtyard, and tried to figure out what to do next. After I wiped away the tears and sweat I pulled my crap to the nearest internet café. I didn’t know if Leilani would be ok with it when she arrived, but I decided to book a hotel for the both of us, and somewhere as close to the train station as possible! I made it there eventually and crashed on the bed for a couple hours. This was another day where eating got overlooked, because through all my trekking around, I couldn’t stop for food since I was trying to reach the hostel before 1PM before they closed. So by 4PM I was pretty hungry. I went to eat at a place next door to the hotel, but once I was there I couldn’t eat anything. I think I was exhausted and upset and suddenly food was the last thing I wanted. I just went back to the hotel to wait until I could meet Leilani at the train station. It worked out well though because as I was flipping through Italian TV stations, I found the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. That really helped me to feel more connected to the world, which was much needed at the time. It also got cold and started raining outside right after I reached the hotel, which explains why it was so muggy!! At least I didn't get drenched in the rain.

In a couple hours when I met Leilani, everything felt a lot better. Plus I can’t think of anyone better to help me find my way through a bad mood or rough patch. Thanks Leilani for being a light when I feel like I can’t find it anywhere else. After catching up, we went on a boat tour of the city, following along with Rick Steve’s as he pointed out all the great buildings I had passed twice already earlier in the day but didn’t even notice. We found a great little restaurant that was off the path of tourists. I had the best meal of polenta and shrimp with homemade marinara sauce; it was a Venetian specialty! While we were walking home we watched the coolest lightening storm over the Piazza San Marco. It was constant flashes of light every few seconds, like a non-stop camera flash. It was neat to watch and we reached our hotel just as the rain came down.

The next morning we went back to Piazza San Marco to visit the Palazzo Ducale, the Correr Museum, the Basilica and the Campanile. In the Piazza there was music playing almost all afternoon, which we could hear as we strolled through the different sights. We hit about 7 major sights in one day, several of which we 3-mountains from Rick Steve's, in fact we broke Mike and Leilani's Paris record of total 3-mountain sights in one day. We strolled along the canal and walked on the Rialto bridge (another sight I had lugged my bags over the day before and cursed for being so many steps) and enjoyed the beautiful view. Most of the houses along the canal were once painted with colorful frescoes, and you can still see hints of them now and then. We strolled though the Mercato di Rialto (where I had been running over people's toes) and bought some world famous Murano glass pieces, and found a nice cheap place for dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel to pick up my bags and put me on a train to Munich. We took our time and enjoyed the cool evening air. We stopped for quite a while on top of the Ponte Scalzi bridge and watched the moon over the canal. I tried to absorb everything I had learned throughout the day, which was actually quite a bit!

I feel that although Italy started rough, it ended wonderfully and I have some great things to take away with me.

Dislikes: Bridges (with luggage), ladies that work in hostels, humidity, loud/crude Americans in nice museums, being lost, flying, pushy Americans and children crying in Italian ("Oh Mama Mia!!")

Likes: Bridges (without luggage), boat tours, live street music, Murano glass, fresh fruit stands, Leilani having the Rick Steve's guide to Italy, Venetian specials, Italian cops, Italian countryside vineyards, royal houses with gardens, hanging laundry outside to dry, free wine, and nice Italians!

Spain

Spain

Oh Spain, what an adventure you have been. I left off with my last night in France in Montpellier. The next morning we had a reservation for a train at 7:26AM, which we made with time to spare. It was a 4 hour train to Barcelona, then two more non-reservation required trains to take us to Logrono where we would rent another car and start our Rioja to Priorat trip. Our train was a little over a half hour late coming into Barcelona due to border control issues, so we missed our connection train. No big deal, because I had written down the other train times in case we missed that one. So we get to the station and go to the boards to look for our next train and can’t find it. We go to the ticket machines, can’t find it. We find the hard copy schedules of departing trains, finally find a train that stops where we need to go, and it is reservation required! Ok, no big deal, we will just get in the insanely long line and get a reservation (because the automated machines only sell Metro tickets) and we have a couple hours before it leaves. Finally make it to the front of the line, ask for the train to Logrono and get “Sorry, not today, all full”. Ok, so we go to the line for tickets for trains any day other than today. We take a number and realize there are 400+ people in line in front of us, no joke. There were people camped out on the ground sleeping because they had been waiting so long. At this point it was about 1:30PM and Ryan and I had both not had anything to eat since our little croissants on our first train. We weren’t thinking very clearly, which is a given, but we rallied and I decided I needed to find internet and book us a room in Barcelona for the night, and cancel a bunch of reservations in Logrono. After much scavenging and sneaking into a hotel and using their guest’s only computer, I was successful. We grabbed a quick bite to eat in the station (only 300 more people in front of us in line), and I decided to go to the hotel and check in and drop some of our baggage. I was thrilled to see that my budget priced hotel was in a great area and had a rooftop pool! When I made it back to the station to get Ryan, he informed me that the only train he was able to reserve was for the following night at 10:30pm and we would arrive in Logrono at 4am!! We didn’t say much to each other then, because I think we were both just too tired and discouraged. We went straight to the hotel and jumped in the rooftop pool. Almost immediately we decided not to go to Logrono, but to stay in Barcelona and relax. I had already cancelled most of the reservations, so it was an easy decision. We went out and had a Spanish style meal of tapas, and crashed early (midnight is early by Barcelona standards).

Well now the fun part of Spain began… Ryan and I spent the next 2 days seeing all the major sites in Barcelona. We visited the Plaza d’Espanya, the Columbus Monument, the Picasso Museum, the Olympic Stadium, the marina, the Parc de la Cuitadella, and the Castell de Montjuic. We walked so much I thought my legs were going to fall off the second night. We had many little adventures cruising through the city, because for the most part we had no real plan or itinerary. It was great to just roam free and discover lots of different areas of the city and small little corners of town that were really special and unique. I particularly enjoyed the Olympic Studium in the Montjuic Park. It was so large it was like a monument in itself. My imagination was running wild picturing it full of athletes and fans from all around the world. I have learned so much about the Olympics on this trip, which is something I didn’t expect. After the Olympic Museum and headquarters in Switzerland I was really excited about the start of this years games. And I will also be visiting several more cities where the Olympics have been held. I find it fascinating how one of the largest goals of the Olympic committee is to unite people from all around the world for the ultimate competition. And for the most part, it works really well, and nations come together to compete and celebrate. Amazing!

The other place I really enjoyed was the Picasso Museum. I was very fortunate to see a lot of Picasso’s more famous works when I visited New York in June, but this museum was more about Picasso’s life and the history behind his style and art. It gave detailed descriptions on what was going on throughout his life, and the art that corresponded to all of the major changing points in his life. It was amazing to see the evolution of his art, and to see the talent behind what is sometimes seen as just strange and nonsensical.

All of the places were really great here, but my favorite was the Castell de Montjuic. We took a tram from the marina area up the hill towards the castle on the second evening. There was a gondola that went all the way up, but we figured it wouldn’t be too long of a walk, plus we didn’t want to pay for the gondola. Well, it probably would have been worth the 5 Euro to get to the top, because it was quite a long hike. But the view from the top was worth it. It was the highest point in the city by far and it gave a 360 degree view of everything below. There was a big draw bridge over an old moat, and there were huge cannons and guns that had been up there for years! It was a wonderful way to look over everything we had seen over the last 2 days. The walk down was absolutely miserable, and although we were ready to pay for the gondola, we couldn’t take it down because it went the opposite direction of our hotel. Oh well, our walk led us to the Olympic Stadium, so not all was lost.

The following day we decided to rent a car and drive to Priorat, one of the places we had planned to visit on our original itinerary. It was only an hour drive, and it was incredible! Priorat is a very small, special wine growing area that is high up in hill and mountains about 30km inland from the coast. We visited Clos De L’Obac first, which was a great treat. They have a small winemaking facility that we toured with the winemaker, and then we got to taste 4 different wines which were all phenomenal. It was a great treat too because we didn’t know anyone there, but I had sent them an email 2 days earlier requesting a tour, and because we were wine students, they welcomed us like we were friends and didn’t make us pay for anything. Afterwards we drove to Scala Dei which is a small village built around a very old monastery. We were supposed to tour the winery called Scala Dei, but we arrived during siesta and everything was closed. We decided to take advantage of the GPS and go exploring, mainly to find the old monastery. We found it and many other fun things along the way. The car we were in was even tinier than the first one, and even more like a toy too. Nevertheless, we decided to go off on dirt roads up the hillsides behind Scala Dei. Since our GPS dot told us we were still on some form of road, we just kept driving. Nearing the top of the hills, we came across a small vineyard. It was completely isolated which made us feel like we had discovered a special secret place. That’s one of the things that makes Priorat wine so amazing; there are several tiny vineyards all over the hills and in the valleys that are planted in specific areas that have the best terrior that produce great wines. After a few scary turns and rolling backwards down the hill more than once, we found our way back to the main road and to the winery Scala Dei. While this time they were open, they unfortunately did not speak English, and didn’t understand who we were supposed to be meeting or for what tour. And I couldn’t get internet to find out anymore information that would help us. So the cellar worker took us over to the wine shop around the corner and set us up there. The man here also didn’t speak English, but Ryan managed Spanish pretty well and we had a nice tasting of 7 different wines from Scala Dei and one other Priorat producer. It was another great day, although it was also another day without any food between tastings!

After Priorat we drove to Reus where we were staying for the night. Reus is a very interesting little down. It is very small, but quite busy with tourists and shoppers around every corner. There was lots of traffic on the little streets, and we even got rear-ended by a little old Spanish man. We just parallel parked on the street and he came up behind us and tapped the bumper. When Ryan got out to look at the car (which luckily had no damage) the old man shook his finger at us like it was our fault! We pulled forward when the car in front of us moved and the man pulled behind us in the spot we had been in, parked his car and walked away. We were a little stunned by this. A few minutes later when we had our bearings and started driving through town to the hotel, we stopped at a crosswalk to let pedestrians pass, and the old man was walking right in front of us. Ryan was really tempted to give him a little tap with the bumper, but he decided honking at the guy was better (which the old man didn’t even seem to hear).

After settling into the hotel a bit later, we headed back into town for dinner. We found a great place for tapas and shared some wine. I think Ryan and I had finally relaxed because this was one of the first nights we had a real conversation that didn’t revolve around school or our trip or anything specific. We were able to just chat about family, friends, future personal goals and other things we never get to talk about. It was really nice and refreshing.

The next morning we headed back to Barcelona to meet Leilani and Marium, the girl from Bolivia we had meet the week before in the Rhone Valley. We returned the car and found ourselves in a part of town we had not yet explored on our previous 2 day journey. And when we made it to the hostel, we felt like we were in an entirely different city because it was so different than the Barcelona we had experienced before. The hostel was near Plaza de Catalunya which leads to the street Ramblas. This street is the biggest tourist trap I have ever seen! It is full of street performers, souvenir stands and all the major fast food restaurants you could want. It was really weird to be so close to where we had spent 2 days, but feel like it was so drastically different. We walked through Ramblas and then through the La Boqueria which is a traditional Catalan market place that sells delicious fresh fruit juices, and the scariest animal parts you’ve ever seen. It was definitely an experience walking through here; at first I was thrilled about the fruit and nuts and other treats, but when I started seeing huge tongues, brain and whole heads of animals I couldn’t even identify, I could barely maneuver my way out of the market maze. Yikes, creepy!

Later that night we wandered through a courtyard where we heard 3 Spanish guitar players. Their music was wonderful, and we even got to see two very, very old men getting giggy to the music. One was so happy he wasn’t even using his cane while he danced! For some reason that scene made me smile a lot, and kept me smiling most of the night. We stopped for Sangria before dinner which was fantastic, but then somehow got roped into one of the big tourist restaurants and paid way too much for our not so tasty dinner. Oh well, it ended up being a great night for the 4 of us and we got to catch up on travel stories since we had been apart since France.

The next day Leilani had to catch her plane to Milan so we had a quick lunch and sent her off on her way. Ryan and I decided to book the same hostel for one more night since our flight was early the following morning. We headed down to a coffee shop to use the internet and confirm all of our flight details, and that’s where things started to go wrong again. We had booked our flight from Barcelona to Rome months ago through RyanAirlines. What we didn’t realize was that because RyanAir offers such cheap flights, this means they don’t fly out of Barcelona’s main airport. No that would be too simple if they did, too boring to write about. Instead, they fly out of Girona-Barcelona which is an hour and a half away by train. Ok, so our flight is at 8:20AM the next morning and we have to arrive at the airport by 6:20AM to check-in for an international flight. That’s all good except there are no trains or buses going to Girona before 6AM, and that would make us miss our flight. Now what? After a little yelling and scrabbling, we book a hotel in Girona and rush back to the hostel to get our things and get on the train to Girona. We had already paid for a night at the hostel and it was close to 5PM, so we begged for any kind of partial refund. They were nice enough to give us 50% back (probably because Leilani had made the initial reservation and they loved her). We headed to the train station and somehow managed to get on a train (I hate Barcelona train station!!!)

When we got to Girona it took us a little while to figure out how to get to our hotel. We had picked one that sounded closest to the airport, which meant far from the train station. We also found out that in the time it took us to figure this out, we missed the last bus of the day that went to the village where we were staying. Ok, plan B, or C or D by now, I don’t even know… A taxi will cost us 35-40 Euro, which is more than we paid for the room itself. So we decided to take a bus to the airport and then see if we can call the hotel for a shuttle or something. We wanted to call from the train station, but we could never figure out how to make the phone work. We got the bus there, not too expensive, but had no luck with a shuttle. So we hoped in a cab that we assumed would be much cheaper because we were so much closer to the hotel now. Nope. The cab driver attempted to rip us off like we were stupid Americans, but I was onto his scheme way ahead of time, and I argued the price from 30 down to 25 Euro. He grumbled at me in Spanish but eventually drove away.

Finally, our hotel in Figueres, 20 minutes outside of Girona in case anyone ever needs that info. (Anyone picking up by slightly bitter, sarcastic tone?) Our hotel was a wonderful 3 star resort with a restaurant. We started gulping a bottle of wine as soon as we checked into the room, and when we went down to dinner they let us bring the rest of the bottle to drink with our meal. The hotel and dinner made up for an awful day, and although we didn’t know it then, it helped prepare us for what would be an even worse day starting at 5AM the next morning. I’ll save that for the next blog entry…

Rhone Valley

The Rhone Valley

So it’s been a while since I last wrote and I sure have a lot to say. I am currently in Reus, Spain which is a little town about an hour south of Barcelona and north of the wine region Priorat. I’m sitting in a hotel that I specifically booked because they offered free wireless internet, but it of course does not work, so I’m once again writing offline to be posted later. I guess this is about where I would be if plans had worked out the way they were supposed to, however plans haven’t meant anything the last few days and me and my travel partner have been flying by the seat of our pants since Monday. So where do I start? Let’s go back to where I last left you…

I spent a total of 3days and 4 nights in Belgium, and another 23 hours traveling there and back. On my second day there Lies took me to one of her uncle’s two restaurants. He and his other niece have taken sommelier courses and have a wine list that’s not too shabby. I got to sit down at their “Green” restaurant and taste 8 different wines, including at Muller-Thurgau from Belgium. It took me a while to decipher some of the wines and places off their list, including “Elsaz” which took me 3 days to figure out meant “Alsace” in Dutch (duh). It was a great experience though and I was really happy to share my wine passion with Lies and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend Bart doesn’t speak much English but he managed to tell me that after watching me taste the wines he now understood that it was not just my career and school choice, it was my “obsession”. Haha, I’ll take it!! Later that night we went to see the Sex and the City movie (finally) since all the movies in Belgium are in English with Dutch subtitles. So day two was fantastic. Day three I spent mostly alone which was really nice. I was supposed to meet a friend that I haven’t seen since last time I was there 6 years ago, but he never showed up and Lies was working so I spent the day planning my travels and watching Harry Potter. I also visited the local butchery, produce market and pastry shop so that I could make dinner for Lies, her brother and her boyfriend. It was a nice evening and I got some much needed rest while I was staying there.

The next morning I was ready to travel to Lyon, France to meet up with the group and travel to the Rhone Valley. This trip was a little rough since it was 11 hours long and when I transferred trains in Metz no one spoke English, so for the first 2 hours I wasn’t even sure I was on the right train. I arrived to Lyon around 10:45pm and had a nice dinner with Ryan since we had no idea where the other pair of our travel buddies were. It was about this time that I started to get a little frustrated with some of the minor bumps we seemed to keep running into; little did I know those bumps would only get bigger. For the most part I have been leaving out those details and telling all you people at home only the good stuff. But I’ve gotta be honest and say I have wanted to rip my hair out several times on this trip. I can’t believe how difficult, exhausting and completely lacking control traveling can be. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I wont hold back sharing some of the other escapades I have endured, if for no other reason than to let someone else find amusement in them the way I’m sure I eventually will.

Thursday July 24: Wake up, grab a croissant, take the metro to the train, pick up the rental car, then pick up our travel buddies and hit the road to the Rhone. Sounds simple enough right? Let’s just say right now, it is ALWAYS worth investing in GPS in a rental car, unless you want to absolutely kill the person driving for making you drive around in circles for hours before asking for directions, which inevitably wont make sense either. So we eventually found our meeting spot, picked up our travel companions and hit the road, just a little later than planned. We also didn’t realize that while we may all fit in a tiny little Pugeot, all of our crap might not. Needless to say it was hilarious seeing Mike and Leilani in the backseat with all the bags piled on top of their laps; we looked like 4 huge people stuffed in a tiny clown car. On our way down the highway, we heard the song “American Boy” a few times, and it quickly became our theme song for the trip. I'm sure that song will bring a smile to my face for many years to come. What was even weirder was listening to such a silly American pop song while driving through the Northern Rhone region, passing famous vignerons I have only read about or seen bottles of that I can’t afford. Still can’t believe some of the things I’ve seen on this trip, just amazing.

Our first stop was Yves Gangloff in Condrieu. Finding this place was a little difficult because it is at the end of a tiny little road between buildings that you don’t even think a car can fit through. But when we arrived we were silenced by how beautiful it was. Yves and his wife Mathilde own the property that you can see in the pictures. The winery is at the base of three intersecting hills and next to a creek that runs through the middle. Their house is just about the winery and the whole property is covered with vines, flowers and palm trees. It was their little oasis. The winery was small and very personal; we got to sample several barrels and a couple bottles. Yves sells out of his wine every year, so it was a treat to try all the amazing wines that we probably won’t ever get to see in stores. The best parts of the visit were the personal details we learned about Yves and his wines. First, all of his labels were painted by his brother, which are mostly female silhouettes that were very elegant and engaging. Second was learning that Yves is a huge music fan and plays the guitar. All of his stainless steel tanks are named different songs such as “Voodoo Child”. He also has a Fender Stratacaster that was made just for him with his label on the bottom and the plate on the front is made from one of his stainless steel tanks. My brother would go nuts to see this guitar; great combination of music, art and wine. Then there was the winery dog “Zen”. He’s the scruffy, super friendly, golden haired dog in the pictures. Lastly, (I’m sure I’m forgetting something) there was his wife who makes wine soaps. She took notes all year about the wines and then worked with the “nose guy” for a perfume company to develop the scents: Viognier, Syrah, and an exfoliate made from grape seeds. These were our gifts since he had no wine to sell us, and we have smelled like wine since.

As we were finishing up at Gangloff, we were met by Elise Gaillard and her friend from Bolivia. Elise worked a harvest in Califonia with Qupe winery and lived with the Carroll family who are the organizers of Hospice du Rhone. Vicki Carroll was an angel helping us plan our Rhone visit, and put us in touch with Elise and her family for a place to stay in N. Rhone. The six of us grabbed lunch in the village and then Elise took us on a tour of some of the vineyards. We drove up the very steep roads to the tops of the vineyards overlooking the Rhone River. It was beautiful and refreshing at the top. The vineyards were also really interesting to see up close; they were planted on slopes like others we had seen but they were planted on a slant with the slope of the hill instead of on cut terraces. Very neat looking but very hard to work with (that’s why I'm on the Business side of wine).

After the vineyards we headed to Malleval which means “Bad Valley”. The village is at the bottom of a very steep crevice and has a river running right through it. It is a very old village that is almost completely cobblestone. Our apartment was a great surprise though: newly remodeled with a full kitchen and plenty of space to spread out. We had picked up a few things at the grocery store so we made a great meal to enjoy between the four of us. It felt so good to cook for everyone again! It seems like every time I get to cook I get right in my element and it makes me so happy. Cooking for the group in Belgium was nice but I couldn’t find garlic at any of the stores! So in France I went to town and everything was covered in garlic and really yummy olive oil that we had picked up in Italy. My fingers have to smell like garlic, and then I feel right at home. It was a good night to relax and catch up with the other three, especially because Mike was leaving to go home the next day, which is something I have been dreading for weeks.

The next morning we went to the Gaillard’s family winery up the hill from Malleval. They are a fairly large producer with 27 different wines, and they were one of the first in the area so they have a well established relationship with many of the top producers in the area. We got to try several of the wines from Cote Rotie, Banyuls and Condrieu. Almost too many wines for the morning, but not quite (we are professionals J).

Then came the sad part: piling into the car to take Mike to the train station. I have talked before about how I have not wanted to say goodbye to any of my friends, and until that day I still had my three best friends with me. It was really hard for me to say goodbye because I know I am not going back to SLO and I don’t know how much I will see him after this trip. Mike has become one of my closest friends this past year. He endearingly calls me his “non-sexual soul mate”. Last year when we were still just getting to know each other, we had planned to get dinner one summer night. About an hour before we were supposed to meet I found out my best friend Chris passed away, and I was an absolute mess. I wasn’t sure how to communicate this to Mike, since I barely knew him and I couldn’t even hold myself together long enough to form sentences. Mike showed up to meet me anyway because he had just come from work where they had had a winery event and his car was full of potted yellow and white daisies he had taken for me. He insisted I take the flowers to fill my home with warmth and life. It was one of the sweetest things I can imagine anyone doing for me in a situation that is almost impossible to deal with. So we all said goodbye to Mike, which I spent the rest of the day being a little sad about. Just as a side note, I hope my friends know how much they mean to me; I have moved around a lot and have had a hard time finding true friends outside of my family. Other than Chris, I don’t have any friends from my childhood, so the relationships I have developed in my last 2 years at Cal Poly are invaluable to me and I feel so lucky to have found such great people, and I want those relationships to last well beyond my college years.

After dropping Mike, we headed back to the Gaillard’s winery and home for lunch. They have a large property where their house is across from the winery with a large pool and garden. They made us a meal with grilled sausages, potatoes and a fresh salad picked right from the garden. We tried several more wines, including a few that were produced by three of the top producers in the area as a collaborative effort. After lunch we went to two different wineries: Domaine Clusel-Roch and Yves Cuilleron. Both places were really nice and at Clusel-Roch we sampled several barrels along with the bottled vintages, so we were pretty wiped out after that. It is hard not to write more about each of the wineries we visited or different wines I tasted, but I already write so much that if I went into detail about those, this blog would never end. Guess if you want to know more you will have to hire me to be your wine educator J.

That night the Guillard’s were hosting a party at their house for some of the local wine industry folk. Unfortunately it rained on us, AGAIN, so the party was moved from the garden to the wine cellar. The cook a whole sheep on a rotisserie which was a little scary to see, but it tasted amazing. There were about 75 people there, and although I couldn’t understand what everyone was saying in French, it reminded me a lot of an industry party in Paso Robles. There were hundreds of bottles of different wines covering half the tables and the other half of the tables were covered in food. I wish I had been a little less tired that night, but after saying goodbye to Mike and then drinking gallons of wine all afternoon, I was a little out of it. Nevertheless, it was a fun night of getting to chat with the locals and getting to try some wonderful wines. Pierre Gaillard, Elise’s father, was very gracious to us by letting us stay in his guest home and for letting us join their private party. It was a wonderful experience that we were all very lucky to have.

The next morning we set out to Cornas where we had an appointment with Domaine Clape. Their winemaker is the boyfriend of one of our friends from school, so he wasn’t too mad when we showed up two hours later after getting severely lost. The winery was really small and the barrel room was underground below the main street through town. While the wines were some of the best I have ever had, I could not believe how moldy the cellar was. They had wines in the bottle from 1964 that were covered with 5 inches thick! Towards the end of barrel tasting I could barely smell anything and my throat hurt just trying to breath. I don’t know how that guy works in there everyday, but its definitely not uncommon to see places like that all over Europe. The one wine I purchased here was for my parents. It is a Cornas that should be laid down for 25 years, so it is my gift to them for their 25^th wedding anniversary which is in September and they are to open it 25 years from now on their 50^th anniversary. Mom and Dad, the bottle is in the mail on its way to you. Happy Anniversary, love you both!

After Clape we drove to Chateauneuf du Pape for our next appointment, which, big surprise, we couldn’t find. We decided to stop at the Chateau on the hill which overlooks the whole valley, and we were all very pleased with the unexpected detour. I spent a few minutes alone sitting under one of the huge, half broken walls, reflecting on different feelings I’ve had on this trip. There is so much about myself I am starting to see more clearly, and I feel like this trip is such a great opportunity to work on all the things that are important to me in becoming the person I want to be. My biggest goals recently include taking more risks and being less afraid of what I look like to other people around me. When I was younger I used to do theater, dance, singing, sports and playing instruments. But in my teenage years I became much more self aware, and I stopped doing the things I felt I was not able to do perfectly, which pretty much includes all of those things. Lately however, I have had the desire to try more things and take more risks, despite the possibility that I might screw them up or embarrass myself. I want to branch out and be less shy around new groups of people. I want to be myself all the time so people really get to see who I am, and I want to have confidence in what they see. This feeling is one of the reasons I am so excited to start my own business when I get back to California; I feel so confident and in my element when I am teaching people about wine, and it helps me to express myself as an individual more than anything else I do.

Well moving on from that side note… after the Chateau we accidently found the winery where our appointment had been, but it had already closed. Fortunately next door there was a great wine museum that we perused and enjoyed the air conditioner at. We were booked to stay in Avignon that night, which was about 40km south from where we were; 3 hours later, we found the hotel. I’m going to leave out all the awful details that occurred during those 3 hours, and just say that we made it safely. By the time we arrived we were so exhausted and hungry, so we decided to go to the nearby KFC for dinner. The three of us split a bucket of chicken, fries and a bottle of Pepsi and watched Dirty Dancing. It was on of the best meals I have had this whole trip, and spending the night in relaxing was much needed after a stressful day.

In the morning we ventured to Gigondas and Vacqueyras, which are small regions just north of Avignon. I absolutely loved Gigondas and think I could stay there forever! It was a small town with amazing old buildings and vineyards, and lavender plants everywhere. I took a ton of pictures here so make sure to look at them. We arrived during siesta hours, so not much was open, but we hiked up the hill to a church and garden area. At the top we were looking over the whole valley and it was truly a one-of-a-kind experience. This was another unplanned stop that turned out to be one of the best treats. After our adventures it was time to take Leilani to the train station and Ryan and I to drive to Montpellier. This took another couple of hours of driving in circles, but by the evening, everyone was where they needed to be. It took us so long to find where to go to return the rental car that they almost made us pay for a whole extra day, but when the lady at the counter saw me about to lose it completely, she said she would forge the paperwork and let us off the hook. Thank goodness!! What a nightmare. A nice dinner in Montpellier followed, and I had my last salad ever with French dressing. That stuff is disgusting and they smother everything with it. Yuck!

During dinner Ryan and I had a long talk about our friendship and relationship. We discussed how whenever we are “just friends”, we get along so much better and have a lot more fun. But for some reason whenever we think maybe there is a shot at a relationship, we screw it up and end up driving each other crazy. So we agreed to once and for all stick to our friendship. I think that is ultimately what is most important to both of us. Plus for the first time Ryan seemed to process the fact that he is just not a “couple” person, because he is too selfish to want to make compromise for another person. I think him realizing this out loud helped me to let go because now its not just that I think he is that way, but its confirmed even by his own statements. Since Montpellier we have been having a great time together and there is no more negative energy keeping us from enjoying our valuable time here.

To wrap up France:

Likes- wine, Rhone river, the hills covered by vineyards, KFC, Gigondas, the people who hosted us, and the weather (most of the time).

Dislikes- French dressing, spontaneous rain storms, lack of gas stations, all roads/highways, ants, rude French men, and getting lost.

Thank you to everyone in the Rhone Valley for putting up with us and giving us a truly remarkable and unique experience that none of us will ever forget.

Now onto Spain… what a mess!