Farewell Friends

We took a train to Cork Ireland this morning to meet up with the guys and we had a really good day even though they were on no sleep.  When we saw them they were all cross eyed and had stale breath.  Nothing too unusual.  None the less they rallied and we visited the Jameson distillery in Midleton, which is right outside Cork.  Poor dad was so sleepy he fell asleep doing anything, riding in the car, sitting down, even mid-bite on his steak sandwich when we went to lunch.  The Jameson distillery was pretty cool, glad we went to see it.  Getting to hang out with dad and the guys was the best, even if it was for a little while.  Driving was pretty scary being on the opposite side of the road but they did a nice job.  I just had to close my eyes a few times. 

               Taking the train back to Dublin was such beautiful scenery.  Another stereotype of Ireland being just farmland with sheep and cows and green as the eyes could see.  Yep, it’s just like that.  There are cows everywhere just roaming and eating grass with the wee laddies and lassies skipping about in the fields.  I wanna say “Hey Ireland, 1885 called, they want their way of life back!”  Maybe we should tell them that America has discovered a way more efficient process for raising cows.  Just squeeze 500 or so of them into a 10x10 steel prison were they can’t budge, inject them with hormones and feed them corn til they grow bacteria and then feed it all to us!  Duh, you’ll make way more money that way.  These Irishmen man, they just don’t get it. 

Laura and I in beer form

Temple Bar area, where people have been drinking pints since at least 1673

Meow

Two wild and crrazy guys next to the biggest still in the world- about 32000 gallons

               Well, this is our last posting from Europe, since we leave tomorrow morning to head back home.  :(  I’m sad and very happy too.  I miss you all and we are getting ready to be home.  Love you so much!

The Irish!

The last night we were in Seville we had one of the best meals of our lives, finally!  I must be honest, the food our whole trip has been just okay.  Maybe my expectations of restaurants in Europe were too high, maybe I’m too obsessed with food, or maybe I’m spoiled by our area having really good restaurants.  Either way, if we wanted good food in France or Italy it was few and far between and once you found it you had to PAY PAY PAY!  Most restaurants that were inexpensive (which would still be expensive in Portland) were rubbish.  However, the last meal we had in Seville changed my whole opinion.  We had a variety of gourmet tapas, a salad that inspired me and the best part was how reasonably it was priced.  Time flys when you’re having good food and the next thing we knew it was time to leave Seville.  A short train ride to Madrid had us on Ryanair flying to Dublin.

               Dublin.  Any stereotype you ever had of Ireland couldn’t be more correct, at least for us!  The hotel we’re staying at has a big show in their pub every night.   People were laughing, singing, clanking their beer mugs together, and dancing to a fiddle.  Next thing I know, two River Dance girls replaced the guy that was playin’ the fiddle.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  It was awesome!!!  The only time the pub went silent is when I walked up to the bar and said “Coors Light please.”  Jared ducked down and pretended like he didn’t know me.  I have to be honest, I so was excited to see a familiar face on tap.  But I was cut short from drinking my favorite beer, literally.  After that first ice cold coors, I wasn’t allowed to order anything else but Irish beer, so I stuck with Guinness, poor me!

Could Laura BE wearing any more clothes?  Piling on to save weight in her suitcase.  BTW it was 92 degrees in this pic!

Last night of Seville's week long Feria

Pub at our Hotel

The Irish.  Everywhere you go people treat you like family.  They are so overly nice you almost don’t know how to respond.  When we landed, our first thought was “Yay! People who speak English!”  Well even they’re hard to understand. They talk really fast and with that accent you’re like “…hu?”  It doesn’t matter because they are a most welcoming culture.  Even the customs and immigration officer was cool and they’re usually worse than people at the DMV.  He smiled with his snaggle teeth and asked if we had Irish roots.  Jared said we did on both sides, so he asked what they were.  Jared replied, “McNulty and Milligan (which is Jared’s birth name)” and as he stamped our passports he told us he had no choice but to let us into the country!

Oh Seville!

            We arrived in “Sevilla” (Sa-vee-yah) yesterday.  From Barcelona it’s about the distance from Portland to San Francisco.  We didn’t realize it was that far but we got here in 5 hours cuz we were on a train that goes about 200mph. Weee!

               Seville is perfect.  It seems completely unaware that it’s not the 16^th century anymore.  It’s everything we hoped Europe would be.  It’s all charm and romance here.  Emily, you were right about Spain all along.  It’s the gem of Europe, particularly Seville.  Mom, you would love this place.  You must have some Spaniard in you because everywhere looks like your house.  It’s all bright colors, painted ceramic tile and beautiful patterns on everything.  There were so many people that we’ve encountered on our travels so far that all speak so highly of Spain.  When we’d mention that we were spending the last week here they would grin and get a twinkle in their eye and say, “Ah Spain!”  They all love it and want to live here.  Now we know why.

               This time of year they have what is called a “feria.”  Well, they have many ferias all year, this is just the biggest one.  It started in 1847 as a livestock trading fair.  However, it didn’t take long until it turned into an excuse for the people of Seville to party for a week!  How we ended up here at this time, I have no idea.  Everyone dresses like the Chiquita Banana girl and they all arrive on a horse or in a carriage, except us because we’re poor peasants!  It’s exclusive and you can only arrive by invitation.  Well, the lady we’re renting from said we could use her invitation.  So I just bought my big fruit hat, some hula hoop earrings, bright red lipstick and I’m ready for the Feria! One, two, cha, cha, cheecha!  YIE!     

               The B&B we’re at is the most beautiful house.  It was owned by the famous Spanish dancer/choreographer Mario Maya.  His wife still lives here but she just rents out rooms because the house is too big for her.  If anyone ever comes to Seville they must stay here! Well, Jared just put on his bolero hat and spurs so we gotta go. 

This is as close as Jared get's to smiling Mom.  Sorry :)

The rain in Spain...

               Ok so, Barcelona is cooler than Freddie Jackson sippin’ a snow cone in a snow storm.  First off, in terms of architecture, I didn’t think it was possible to trump pretty much EVERYTHING we’ve already seen.  But what I didn’t realize was that Barcelona is basically the center of revolutionary building for the last 150 years.  Now I know that writing this may not seem that interesting to you, but guys, I’m talkin’ every single building has a complex and artistic design!  One of the reasons for the uniqueness of the buildings was the fact that Spain was conquered by the Muslim world for over 700 years!  So there are many old buildings that have some Muslim influence (aka mosaic tile and detailed patterns).  Then in the late 1800’s Gaudi comes along, who is this crazy genius.  He made everything look like you’re in an imaginary land far, far away.  Man I wish all you guys could see this.

               Yesterday we went to the beach and got caught in a torrential downpour.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky one minute, then the next thing we knew there was thunder and lightning all around and rivers of water running through the streets.  We came back to our little room we’re renting, changed and ate tapas at a local restaurant.  Our waiter didn’t know any English so he communicated by singing American songs to us like, “I want it all” by Queen, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Dust in the Wind”!  He had no clue what he was saying but he had us cracking up.

View from our balcony

Today we walked A LOT.  First we went and saw the Sangrada Familia which cannot be described by me.  We’ll post some pics but they will not do it justice in any way.  Then we went to a castle on the top of Montjuic, literally translated, Jew Mountain (aka Rachel mountain).  There was ivy ALL over the castle and we took LOTS of pictures of it…for Jessica;) Anyway, we’ll check back later.  As always, love you guys.

Just got to Barcelona

Our place has really good WIFI!  The B&B we're stayin at is owned by a guy who flys around the world doing computers so YAY.  Anyway, nothing to report yet, just posting pics for our last post.  Love you all.

Milan Kingdom Hall

Nigerian Brother and some black guy

One of the largest Duomo's in Europe

at night

Eeeekk!

Building being swallowed by ivy

Milan

Today was a real tear jerker.  First, I had to get up SUPER early and say goodbye to mom and Tauns.  Saying goodbye wasn’t so hard, but getting up before 7 was brutal!  Just kidding mom, I cried myself back to sleep after you guys left L.  Then trying to get Jared out of bed made him cry too.  We woke up today planning on going to the special talk here in Milan.  What we didn’t know is just how many Brothers and Sisters from Milan it would take to get two inexperienced tourists to a meeting!  So yesterday we called a local kingdom hall that we had googled and a brother told us the English meeting was at such and such location at noon!  That was just too easy, right? Right…  So today we get a cab and drive to the kingdom hall.  We didn’t notice a kingdom hall but, since they’re so easy to spot, we saw some of our Brothers and Sisters walking outside.  We approached them and they showed us and walked us right in… to the Chinese congregation!!!  Ahhh!  This kingdom hall had Italian, Chinese and Spanish meetings that day but no English.  A brother who spoke Italian (and I’m assuming Chinese) but nearly no English did his best to help us but we were getting nowhere.  Soon we were surrounded by half the congregation (meeting had ended) and everyone had figured out we needed to go to an English meeting.  People were pulling out their cell phones, getting out maps and compass’, telling us bus lines to get to other halls but no one knew exactly what hall or what time the meeting would be.  All of the sudden the Brother gets an idea and grabs Jared and pulls him into an elders meeting going on in the back room!  He had remembered that you can look up meeting times and locations on JW.org which they did by using one of the elders log-ins.  We now had the location and time of the nearest English congregation!  Everyone was happy!  The only problem was, it now started in 20 minutes and it was across town.  A young brother raises his hand and tells us he wants to drive us there (single tear).  We get into his 4 foot long car and make it to the English hall so fast (and a lil scary) I think we were 25 minutes early. 

The congregation was sooo warm (of course)!  I actually think every publisher came up and introduced themselves.  Many were from Nigeria, some from UK, some Italians, but hardly any from US.  It was funny how many people we had to explain where Oregon was.  The second we said “it’s above California…” they were like “Ohhhh yes! California!”  Ha!

             We’ve been in Milan since yesterday and we really like it.  It’s a great city!  Although, everyone here is dressed like they’re in a fashion magazine and wears designer clothing with designer handbags.  So…Jared and I fit right in with our Ross Dress for less bargain clothes.  We leave for Barcelona tomorrow night.  It’s about 14 hours, luckily it’s on a sleeper train.  We are going to try and see Lake Como tomorrow since it’s only about 30 min away.  We’ll see.  Love you guys! 


P.S.  For some reason the internet here blocks a ton of stuff including Google blog post pics.  It's just text today but well get some pics up later.

Got in to Cinque Terre last night and I have one word for you, OMG.

Before we left Florence we visited the Accademia Museum where Michelangelo’s sculpture of David is.  Honestly, since we’ve been in Europe we’ve seen more statues and sculptures than what’s necessary.  So we wondered what the big fuss was with “David” and what made it so special.  Well, when you see it, you realize how spectacular it is.  First off, it’s HUGE!  Way bigger than anything else like it.  We figured out an average person would come up to his thigh.  Second, the muscles, veins and tendons are so detailed and real!  We learned the piece of marble was given to Michelangelo by the church.  It was the first time a depiction of David was not in a victorious pose.  Instead, Michelangelo made him have a look of “intense contemplation” after his victory over Goliath.  It wasn’t that he was relying on his own strength to kill Goliath (like had been shown in previous depictions) but rather in his “intellect and innocence”.  Pssh! Bunch of dummies! They almost had it.

Three hours and three trains later (yeah, we prefer the most complicated route possible) we arrive in the Cinque Terre.  The second we stepped out of the train we wished we had come earlier or stayed longer.  This place it AWESOME!  But only if you like lemon trees, pastel buildings that hang off the side of a cliff, and the Mediterranean crashing below.  If you had one opportunity to visit a single place in Europe, I’d say visit the Cinque Terre.  Oh man it’s beautiful.  It was so warm today we all got sunburned, and it felt great.  The weather report said it was supposed to rain and it sprinkled for 15 seconds.  Ha!  The water is beautiful, the people are polite and we can actually understand the transportation.  Our apartment is the best place we have stayed and it came with a sweet old couple who hardly knew any English. They were really accommodating. I never thought I could appreciate good water pressure before today.  It will be sad to say goodbye to Mom and Tanya tomorrow.  Not sure where we are going to stay the next two nights before we head off to Spain.

Tanya: I have had a great time in Italy.  I’m so sad we have to leave so soon.  All I have to say is there is nothing better than family and good memories.  I will tell you all the details when I get back to the states.  Mom you better be there to get me at the airport or I will keep all you gifts for me!  XOXO

Teri: I can’t wait to get back to Baby Goo and Liam.  And to Billy, my beautiful husband, I have a turkey pot pie ready for you in my suitcase.

Just when I think Italy couldn’t get any dumber ...

               ...it goes and does something like this…and TOTALLY redeems itself!!!

               Italians man, we’ve finally met the good ones.  After much exploring and getting lost in the most convoluted city imaginable, we’ve discovered the allure of Italy.  It started out at an open air market that mom, Tanya and I were at when this young Italian guy came up to us.  He was charming, handsome and making us laugh really hard while hitting on mom.  Then we stumbled upon this wine bar owned by a young guy named Zeno.  He welcomed us in, sat us down and basically gave us the history of Italian wine.  He was so passionate and informative.  He even brought out a map of all the wine regions of Italy.  We just ate up everything he said and made him laugh so I think he liked us.  Therefore, he gave us tastings of the rarest wines Italy offers.  We’re talkin vineyards that produce only 100 bottles of a certain vintage a year!  He brought out rare foods to pair with the different wines.  We were trying to be adventurous so we just let him bring out whatever he wanted.  So, he brought out liver pate’, raw pork and beef tartare.  We also had his homemade ravioli that melted in your mouth.  Everything was superb…apart from the beef tartare.  Mom, Tanya and I each had two bites (and we were proud of those two bites) but the idea was just too much for us to handle.  However, Jared polished his off, he loved it. 

Later as he was explaining Italy’s best years for harvesting, I accidently burped with reckless abandon.  It was one of those burps you think is gonna be under your breath- but it wasn’t.  I was sure nobody noticed until I glanced at Tanya and saw her grinning at me.  I was so embarrassed. Then I thought maybe Zeno didn’t hear me until he paused, looked at me and said “everyone is human.”  At that point I felt like Barney from the Simpsons and I just wanted to die!  I guess I did my part to keep Americans reputation spotless and clean.

But literally the entire time we were there (4 hours) there was an Italian couple sitting about 6 inches from us, whispering to each other, being rude and just staring at our table - as usual.  It was so obvious, at different points in the night Tanya and then Jared turned to look at them and they would just stare and after a few moments turn to each other and bust out laughing!  So after they left I finally asked Zeno “What’s the deal???  Some of these locals look at us like we’re circus freaks and we have a kick me sign on our back!”  He laughed and apologized for them and said he noticed them doing it too.  He said “Those are the Italians I don’t like and I think they do it out of ignorance. They probably didn’t like that I was speaking English to you so they took it upon themselves to be rude.”  You could tell that he was annoyed but we’re still not totally satisfied with the answer.  Investigation is underway and the case is still open. 

               Today we finally made it out of Florence and went to the Tuscan Chianti region.  We went through a castle that was built in 1109 and get this, it was the place where the conspirators for Lorenzo Medici’s assassination met in the 15^th century.  Those conspirators included the Pope who owed the Medici family and wanted him taken care of!  More reason to continue to be Roman Catholic!  But I digress, on to the wine!  We’ve developed a new appreciation for Chianti and other Italian wines.  The Italians say that most Chianti is not good in the states so we’ll have to bring a few of the bottles we’ve been tasting back for everyone!  We love you and miss you all.  But especially baby goo!!!!!!!!! Nana says hi and misses everyone too.  Love to Aunt Cathy!