May the Road rise up to meet you...

Finally, in the land of my ancestors. After the trip to Italy we hoped on a plane with the O' Miller family which took us to the beautiful island of Ireland. We spent most of our time on the West Coast in Galway and Connemara National Park, and Cliffs of Moher region all while drinking Irish Coffees since there was a slight chill to the air. The coffees were dispensed and always brewed right by every little pub we stopped at, more available then water even. We saw the gorgeous green and seaside village sights, which we had imagined picturesque Ireland to be like. There was an occasional sunshine spell in the afternoon on a few of our days there. The family (especially D-dad and Mum Miller) loved musselin around the island, as mussels in Ireland often appeared at seaside cafes and pubs. Roundstone, outside of Galway was our favorite seaside stop with wonderful art and mussels. We did get to hear lots of traditional Irish Music. Music abounds in Ireland. Irish culture is so rich in music. This indeed is a island after 'me own heart'...after all it is in my blood.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
~Old Irish Blessing~

Galway













Drinking Irish Coffee with D-dad


Connemara National Park







Irish Music






Roundstone, one of our favorite Seaside stops




Cliffs of Moher

Slow Foods Italy while Under the Tuscan Sun

What crazy Italian adventures that continue on for us... as we again traveled to Tuscany. This time we had traveling friends... the family (Mum and D-dad Miller). These two made the best traveling companions. As for the trip... Well, it started slightly behind schedule when we missed the flight out of Stansted (London) to Verona. Therefore, new tickets were purchased (Ryan Air thanks alot) and we had to fly 4 hours out of our way to Turin (Torino). This was our first encounter with slow foods Italy on this trip. And this time it was in an most unexpected place, a gas station!!!Needless to say the driving was insane and the Italian gas stations served 5 course meals (named -AUTOGRILL, Autogrills FOREVER!!). Did we mention that Italian drivers just use signs and stoplights and speedlimits as more of a suggestion. Anyways, the trip did behold some of the most amazing views of of the great Tuscan sun. We stayed for the majority of our trip in an Agroturismo Farm house in Castalina in Chianti, Tuscany. Here are some of the highlights...

You know you are in Tuscany when...
1. Eating in under 2 hours is considered fast food.
2. Red Wine out numbers the human population.
3. Making 50 pounds of fresh pasta is not enough to last a week (we did this
seriously).
4. Wine expos are held with few buses to bus people out of.
5. Restaurants open at 8pm to start dinner 'early'
6. Food can not be served without Olive oil.
7. When directions are given in Italian that often lead to abandoned parking lots that
are far away from key destinations.
8. Fresh bread is served at every meal.
9. Red pants are frequently worn by both men and women (IAN too)!
10. Drivers seem amazingly pleasant when they are not speeding by you, barely missing
and maiming you while you leisurely ride your bicycle.
11. When you rent a car at the airport and they tell you to go ahead and just take it, which is a problem, because you are accustomed to a client/rental agent's rigorous inspection of dents, dings and scratches that already existed on the car before you rented it. When you ask how they will know if you 'messed it up' up returning the car, they simply say, 'we'll be able to tell...don't worry about it.' That statement can send the most suspicious chills down the spinal/sphincter cord of anyone who has ever rented a car. By the way, our late model Ford Focus, in comparison to the BMWs and Alpha Romeos that whizzed by us honking their horns, drove like the original Model T - slow, deadly and without seat belts. Very Fred Flintstone-ish.
12. Need I say more?
13. Sunsets are your best light.

More on Slow Foods...http://www.slowfood.com (The Slow Food Movement)
The Slow Food movement promotes important things in the Tuscan region such as:
• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve indigenous varieties of plant and animal food sources in collaboration with local food providers
• developing an "ark of taste" for each eco-zone, where local culinary traditions and local foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organising small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and producing short run products)
• organising celebrations of local cuisine within regions

Our Agroturismo Villa among the Vineyards in Tuscany


Sweet Florence Coffee Shop


Tuscany


Fresh Pasta Making in Tuscany


Vin Italy



Autogrill-5 course meals at a Gas Station!!!?


PISA (D-dad's favorite)




Enjoying our Slow Foods








Under the Tuscan Sun


Overlooking Tuscany

The French Countryside....

To our joy one of our close friends from our master's program invited us to stay with her at her vacation home in France for the weekend. Her cottage is just outside of Calais, France in the countryside. Of course we fell in love with the countryside. Here are some highlights of the trip...

Our Cottage




Amazing Fire place



Our Room








Our Friend Renny

Tuscany, Italia- Part 2

Our trip to Tuscany began with a beautiful bus journey from Florence to San Gimignano, Tuscany. Tuscany's heart are the vineyards and olive groves, which are more charming than we expected in the winter season (it is really warm for us). Tuscan people are even more captivating than its landscape. San Gimignano is a quaint village in Tuscany that use to have over 100 towers during the medieval time period. Currently, it only has 18 towers. San Gimignano rose from an ancient etruscan settlement around a seventh century parish and a castle gave to the Volterra’s episcope in 929; during the XII century became a city-republic. Its first walls were born in 998, when San Gimignano became a business center. While we were in San Gimignano we decided to stay at a bed and breakfast farm (agritourismo) on the outskirts of town. We first wanted to rent Vespas to go the bed and breakfast however, the rental shop was closed for lunch, which commonly in Italy means the entire afternoon until about 4pm...plus we looked at the prices and they were outrageous since they were the only shop in town. So we decided to hop into a taxi and go. When we arrived at our bed and breakfast we were greeted by our host and she informed us that we were the only guest staying there for the night. We asked our host what time dinner was served and she also informed us that they do not cook dinner for guests in the off season (not mentioned on the website of course).

However, she has a plan. She pointed at a town miles away from the house that we could see in the distance from our hillside bed and breakfast. She said we would find dinner down there and we could walk it. To our amazement, she thought this was a brilliant idea. Of course as we were walking on a windy road in the unknown hillsides of Tuscany with no shoulder, we thought different. This proved to be a great adventure that led to a wonderful dinner and a late night plea for a taxi back to the bed and breakfast that Monica had to negotiate the price in her best Italian effort. While traveling in Italy, every naive tourist needs a bit of grease in order to glide through each sticky situation, as there is no shortage of them. Thus, the words of our generous tuscan restauranteur echoed inside of our heads, 'It's not Tuscan cuisine without olive oil." Indeed there was no shortage of olive oil too. The next morning we arose to a beautiful sunrise and walked back into that same town miles away to take a train back to Florence. Here are some glimpses of this romantic region...

The Town we walked to in Tuscany, starting the trail through the olive groves...



Our Tuscany Agritourismo...









San Gimignano, Tuscany....

Italia- Part 1

Our first few days we spent in Rome touring around. Then we went to Tuscany and stayed for one night. The last day and night we spent in Florence. Somehow we managed to speak close enough Spanish to Italian to get around without missing any of our trains, planes and busses. While I would not dare negotiate on a bicycle the hair-pinned turns, impossible road construction and the unquenchable testosterone of young Italian men behind the wheel of a Fiat Panda Jolly, it is essential to go by car or vespa (motorbike) if you really want to enjoy Tuscany. A combination of Monica's uncanny knack for making the best of any difficult situation and my simple refusal to let exhaustion, inconvenience, pain and peril get in the way of a formidably relaxing holiday kept us in high spirits indeed. If it werent for these divine gifts of patience, persistence and bliss, Monica and I would have had the worst time of our lives. But how can we? After all, it is Italy! Indeed, we had one of our greatest times traveling together in Italy. There was never a dull moment. Allow us to enlighten you by providing a couple of tips before you journey to that dreamy land we foreigners call ITALIA....

First day in Italy...If you've ever spent an entire day or two touring on foot in another land, you will, as you know, develop a raw spot where your upper thighs meet your middle torso. The inevitable friction of skin rubbing against skin and the irritability caused by a combination of dyed boxer shorts and suspenders, doused with a bit of hard-earned sweat can make a leisurely walk in a nice place like Tuscany feel like the semi-aquatic life of trench warfare. While Monica retired to the shower, I was charged with the task of going to the local pharmacy to retrieve some chaffing ointment. As soon as I entered I was approached by a middle-aged Italian woman with a pleasant smile. Taking a quick glance around in the interim, I could tell I was not going to get far without the help of a local. 'Bonasera' I said, as the lady in the white coat quickly realized that I was either an American, Canadian or flamboyant Englishman. I felt that if this lady had been trained as a pharmacist, she could probably understand, if not speak, a bit of English.

Hmmm diaper rash ointment...that probably is going to translate in a very curious way. After a few attempts of saying diaper rash ointment in English and broken Spanish, I ended up having to act out the necessity of diaper rash ointment for her. I somehow had a brilliant thought of rocking a make belief baby in my arms while trying to signal pain in the baby's bum, using my own as a model. At this point the kind Italian woman still was not getting the message and took matters into her own hands. She called over another staff member and I found myself acting out the same scenario for him. There was a hesitation in his face but then he sheepishly said 'ahhh...rasha'! Yes! RASHA! I could hear a Hallelujah chorus... It was a miraculous breakthrough. They almost collided with one another as they dashed to the shelf that held the prized diaper rash ointment. Of course, I was feeling a bit sheepish myseIf and rather vulnerable so I felt the need to tell them it was for "our baby" (the one we don't have). I mumbled something about our 'bambino' and thanked them profusely, wishing them a good evening as I waddled out the door like a limp and severely chaffed penguin. By the way, for future reference, the name of diaper rash ointment in Italian is...'Pasta di Fissan.' Pasta!? What! I thought this was just a food. Not in Italy. Our first night was already so eventful we could only imagine what the rest of the trip was going to hold. Here are some of our pictures to highlight this amazing place...

ROMA-

The Vatican







Fontana de Trevi



Colloseum













Gelato!!!




Rome Sunset