The Shortest Tour of Europe Part 1

While it was hard to leave Florence, we made the adjustment a little bit easier on ourselves by planning a quick tour of Europe to end our adventure. Although these posts are very late, we wanted to wrap up our blog with one last update and some fun pictures, of course. We have now been home for a while, and we are both adjusting to the real world again. Every once in a while, we call each other to talk about how we probably should have stayed longer! :)

Barcelona
We spent the majority of our time in Barcelona checking out Gaudi's architecture and drinking (or should we say eating?) Spanish hot chocolate which is similar to warm chocolate pudding.

Madrid
In Madrid, we got a walking tour of the city from Jess' friends Anne and Javier, a native of Spain. Then we went out for tapas with Javier's wonderful and very fun family.

Paris
We both LOVED Paris!!! There was so much that we wanted to see so we decided to take a tour bus around the city so we could see it all. After that we enjoyed the most amazing steak and fries ever! We ended the trip by visiting the Eiffel Tower at night where we got to see the twinkling blue lights.

The Shortest Tour of Europe Part 2

Glasgow
Glasgow was such a treat as we got to spend time with Laura and her family. What wonderful people and hosts they are! They cooked amazing food, provided tasty wine, and danced to U2 until the wee hours of the night with us. Scottish people really know how to have a good time!

London
Katherine, Allie's old pen pal, was our hostess in London, and she totally hooked us up! After the standard sight-seeing was complete, she got us into London Fashion Week and took us out to the bar scene with her friends. It was so much fun!

Dublin
Our time in Dublin turned into a girls' weekend because Allie had the flu. Luckily, we were staying with Felicity and Shane who cooked for us and provided all kinds of fun movies to keep us busy. Unfortunately, we did not get to see all of Dublin, but we did enjoy a great lunch at an Irish pub.

Prague
Prague was our last stop on the shortest tour of Europe. We had the least time here, but we managed to check out all of the essential touristy spots including the famous clock. We also got upgraded to a suite in our hotel so we took advantage of the luxury during our stay.

Our Travels Begin...Part 2

Highlights of the French Riviera:
We took a quick trip to the French Riviera after Greece. We stayed in Cannes, but we also toured around Nice and Monte Carlo. Cannes was our favorite town because it had so much character. We enjoyed just walking around and people watching. It was in Cannes that we ate the best croissant that we have EVER had! The bakeries in France really are as good as people say. In Nice, we strolled around the city and then went to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where we experienced the classic French cuisine. It was delicious! When we arrived in Monte Carlo, we felt like we stepped onto a movie set. There were exquisite buildings, beautiful people, and fancy cars everywhere! We checked out the famous casino and walked around a couple of upscale hotels before we headed back to the real world.

Highlights of Germany:
The last leg of our trip was in northern Germany, and we could not wait to get there! We stayed with Mari, one of our good friends from high school. She is living in Germany with her husband Rob who is a professional soccer player. We had sooo much fun with both of them! They are definitely competing for the "best hosts of the year" award! After spending almost a full day catching up on each others' lives, Mari and Rob showed us around the local towns. We went to some fabulous restaurants, neat shopping areas and a really fun disco. We also had a couple of fun girls' nights and a movie night too. We loved every minute of it, but the highlight of the trip was definitely attending Rob's soccer game. We both agreed that it was one of the coolest sporting events that we have ever seen. The fans are absolutely nuts! We got to sit in the VIP section where we enjoyed free food and drinks. His team won, AND he scored a goal! What more could you ask for! It was all such a treat!

Our Travels Begin...Part 1

Highlights of Southern Italy:
Our trip started in the Amalfi Coast in Italy, which is absolutely beautiful! It is full of steep cliffs with colorful houses built into them, and each small town that lines the coast is very charming. We arrived in Salerno, the city in which we were staying, and had no idea how to get to our hotel so we approached the local police station to get some help. This turned out to be a fabulous idea because we ended up making friends with a few of them. On our second night there, they took us out to dinner at a local restaurant and showed us around the town. It was so nice to get a local's perspective of this town. We also spent a day at the beach in Positano and had the most delicious seafood pasta at Chez Black, a restaurant right on the water there.

Highlights of Greece:
Greece was definitely one of our favorite places so far! After Southern Italy, we headed to Greece with almost no set plans. All we knew was that we were hoping to find a nice beach and some traditional food. With that in mind, we figured that we could just wing it. Luckily, on the ferry from Italy to Greece, we met three amazing people from Australia. We instantly hit it off with Chris, Mel and Xavier, and they invited us to join them in Corfu, an island off of northern Greece. We all found a reasonable hotel across the street from the ocean. We spent our days relaxing on the beach and our nights trying new restaurants. The food was so so so incredible, and the company was even better!

On our last day there, we headed over to the infamous Pink Palace, a legendary hostel for backpackers from around the world. This place is wild! It has every crazy activity that you could imagine, from four-wheeling to toga parties. It felt like we were on Spring Break 08! Here is where we met Aviad and Loyd, two guys from Boston. We had a great time with them just hanging out at the beach and checking out all of the ridiculousness that goes down at the Pink Palace! It was a quick trip, but it was still quite the experience!

The Most AMAZING Cooking Class

We have officially had our single best experience in Italy! Everyone who comes to Florence must take advantage of the cooking class at the Villa Monteoriolo! When we (Tim and Florann were with us!) arrived at the villa, we met Eleonora, our amazing hostess and teacher, who gave us a tour of the entire property. She showed us the inside of the villa, the vineyards, and her family's cellar where she stores her homemade olive oil. After spending some time relaxing by the pool, we made our way into the kitchen. We started the evening by learning how to make pasta noodles from scratch, and we made homemade ravioli with a delicious ricotta cheese and basil filling. These were covered with a tasty tomato sauce. We also made an incredible rub which we used to season pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes. As we were cooking, we had incredible white wine that was made from a local vineyard and pecorino cheese. We ate our freshly cooked food in the large candle-lit dining room in the villa. After dinner, we all went out onto the terrace and enjoyed our homemade peach tiramisu and some amazing dessert wine. It was such a treat! We fully intend to stay in contact with Eleonora, and we are hoping to take another class from her before we leave.

Our friend Kendall came into town for a couple of days, and she treated us to the best dinner we have had here yet! We enjoyed their famous balsamic and blueberry steaks. To die for!!! It is officially our new favorite restaurant! We made friends with the people at the table next to us, and we all went out together after dinner. It was a blast!

The traveling is officially beginning today! We are taking off for Southern Italy, Greece, the French Riviera and Germany. We could not be more excited! We are looking to do some exploring of these new places and then a lot of relaxing on the beach. To end the trip, we are going to visit our friend Mari in Germany. We will be out of touch for a while, but we will definitely have some fun updates when we return.

The Week of Dinner Parties

We had the "week of dinner parties" last week! It was so much fun to really experience the culture of life in Italy! It started with our bosses cooking us a traditional Lebanese meal, which was so fresh and incredible. It was also exciting for us to try something new and different. We know this sounds terrible, but we are in serious need of something other than Italian food (a bean and cheese burrito from Titos sounds unbelievable right about now!). We then returned the favor to our bosses by cooking a gourmet "American" meal for them. Jess made Cheryl's famous meatloaf, and then we put together mashed potatoes and a salad. They were so impressed by this! Towards the end of the week, it was back to pizza, pasta, and bread when a few of our local friends made us an amazing home-cooked Italian meal. It was mouthwatering! We never thought penne with bolognese sauce could taste so good. After dinner, we went straight into an impromptu dance session. So much fun! Our week ended with a seafood feast at a restaurant in Santo Spirito with our friend Carlos. We sat outside under the stars with a violinist playing in the background. It was beautiful!

Chris, Florann and Tim are in town. Allie has spent the last several days with them cruising through Verona, Venice, Rome, Siena, and Florence, of course. It has been quite the adventure, to say the least! They have gotten a nice taste of the Italian train system, and they have made a point of enjoying gelato at every opportunity they get. We have done our best to really show them what Italy is all about! Jess has been such a great sport about working by herself! She has done an incredible job of holding down the fort at the leather store while Allie played tour guide to her family.

Everyone has told us to prepare for extremely warm weather in August, and It seems to be getting hotter by the day! Also, a lot of Italian businesses close for the month of August, and people use this time for vacation and rest. We are expecting a quiet and relaxing month. Luckily, some of our friends will still be around, and we will do our best to keep this town alive. We are also going to use this month to figure out our traveling plans for October. At this point, we have a very extensive list of places in Europe to check out, but we are open to more suggestions. :) Ciao!

Girl Tour 2008: The Celebration of Us!

Having Cristina and Beth here was so much fun! Our first night consisted of making dinner and then having a long chat over wine. It was so fun to have time for a little "girl talk"! The following night we got lucky and stumbled upon Jess's favorite restaurant here, where we enjoyed some incredible veal and pasta. After our fun meal out, the four of us headed out to a bar where we all immediately made friends with a couple of local Italians. The people here are so friendly and hospitable! On the girls' last night here, we packed a picnic and hiked up to Piazza Michael Angelo where we enjoyed an incredible view of the entire city of Florence during the sunset. So romantic!!!

We had such a blast with the girls that we decided to extend our time with them by meeting in Cinque Terre for a night. These coastal towns are beautiful, and we both got a nice little taste of home when we caught our first glimpse of the ocean. We were especially surprised at how small these towns are. They are literally made up of about one road lined with shops and restaurants and then beach areas. After a nice little dinner over-looking the water and some really tasty wine, we headed back to our little hotel rooms where we hung out and took a bunch of pictures to savor the memories of our time there.

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If we have learned anything from our Italian friends, it is that they stay really busy...doing a whole lot of nothing! Coming from the fast-paced life of Los Angeles, this has been a welcome change! Ciao!