Hope and Vanessa's European Adventure

Vanessa says: Greetings or should I say Bonjour! We made it off the ship this morning with only mild annoyances (for some reason their records showed we were to get off the ship yesterday morning so there were a few explanations we had to make throughout yesterday when our sea pass cards made funny sounds in their card readers). This morning we got our rental car and booted it to Aix en Provence. We arrived here earlier than we expected…and we needed it since it turns out yours truly here (Vanitzia for those following along) is not so swell of a navigator down these medieval goat trails. And Mom you will sympathize with Hope because I hadn’t quite eaten enough this morning so I was getting the shakes and turning a bit (okay a lot) snarly about the whole thing. But Spiranza took it all in stride. We seem to have a good balance that way. She just fed me one of her yummy pumpkin granola bars and in short time I was back and good to go.

So we finally found our B&B…it’s…interesting. A teeny room with a loft for our beds. But we do have our own bathroom and it’s quite modern. Right now Hope is napping and I am in the hosts living room using the free wifi (yay!!). We wandered around the old town, of which we’re in a very good location for walking. It’s colder here. We left Toulon and it was beautiful and sunny and got to Aix en Provence, an hour northwest, and it was overcast and chilly. Not sure what the weather will be like tomorrow but we will definately dress warmer for it. We picked up w baguette, some wonderful cheeses and fruit and some local red wine…I’m looking forward to this treat tonite.

Well, I shall sign off as Hope may want to blog next. Au revoir!

I know there is no mistaking my posts from Hope’s, so it’s probably not necessary to say “Vanessa (or Venetzia as I guess I’m now going by) here”!

Florence. What can one say about Florence. A lovely town, as our guide Trudy said today. And what an understatement that was. The copy of the statue of David in one of the piazza’s (there are so many, I forget which one now) was a highlight today. Oh, and of course the jewellery shop, the leather shops (I think it’s really just one continuous leather shop that snakes through the whole town) and if you can believe it, we sniffed out the department store!!! Yes mom, I did drop a little cash in the department store! haha

Score one for the suckeritas today – neither of us spent any money buying painting or knicknacks from the folks in the middle of the piazzas – however I regret not buying a little wooden pinochio (sp?) as this is where he originated!

The countryside here is incredibly beautiful and lush. If you haven’t seen “Under the Tuscan Sun”, you must. It’s exactly like that. This is a place I would definately return to, time and again! On our way out of the core of Florence, our coach took us on a drive overlooking the town, and along the way we passed Andrea Bocelli’s place, and numerous other famous folks I forget at the moment. Really, if you want to travel to Italy, Florence is the place you want to be!

I am sleeping so soundly here. I wonder if it’s the hum/movement of the boat, or the amount of walking we are doing – whatever it is, I’m loving it. The early mornings are not fun and tomorrow is the earliest yet – we leave the boat at 7:45 am. Some of you will just be going to bed.

I’m running out of wifi time, so will sign off. We’re having the time of our lives, thanks for letting us get this down on our blog to help us preserve our memories.

Ciao everyone.

Vanessa says I’m supposed to start my posts with “This blog is from Hope”.

This blog is from Hope:
Well good thing my house is for sale. I fell in love today and I am moving to Tuscany. I had one of the best days I can ever remember. We travelled through Tuscany for an hour to Florence. We spent the day with our tour guide Trudy (a Dutch woman-married-Tuscan who has lived here for over 40 years). She was both fabulous and bitch at the same time. She sent us to her favorite jewellry store….you know the kind where you have to ring the bell to be invited up……shoulda known right then and there to turn and run….but oh NO, this is Hope we’re talking about…I don’t even want to tell you how much I spent on the the bracelet I bought. Good thing I have no children, they’d go hungry for 3 months. Oh, but does my wrist look beautiful….make sure you tell me that when you see it.

Venizia and I have come up with our own language. One of our favorite words is ‘Suckorita” – Spanish or Italian for a tourist woman who falls sucker to latino type shop keepers (and there are many).

Let’s see what else did we do today. Well we shopped. Since we are in the heart of Tuscany, I bought truffle oil and truffles and truffle sauce. I bought silk scarft, leather business card holder (God knows I need business cards so to prove I have a job to pay for this trip), change purse, credit card holder, and the list goes on. Mamma always we shoulda been born rich instead of beautiful….she’s never been more right.

Every day gets better, we get up – tired as all heck – but so excited.

We had the best meal of our lives today in Florence. Can’t even explain it so I won’t. It did have a cream sauce made with white truffles, so you can imagine from there. I asked the restaurant owner to adopt me….oddly for an Italian man, he didn’t take me up on it. Odd because as Trudy says “there are 3 major sports in Italy…soccer, sports cars and women”. Then we had dinner in the Italian restaurant on the ship where we had a 4 course meal for $20. And the wine over here is incredible, I never knew Italian wine, but I think I have now grown bored of the Spanish ones and am moving on to the Italian ones (you know I am talking about wine here right…..? hee hee hee).

Mia amigos…time for us to go to bed so we can be excited for tomorrow in Nice. Finally – somewhere I can speak the language…although have to say, growing up in Little Italy paid off this week.

Amore.
Spiranza

Ok, I’m a little slow on the blog – this boat’s IT system just does not like me at all. So Here I am in the library, instead of the champagne bar. Anyway…

Well yesterday we started the day very tired as we 2 blueberries had stayed out way too late the night before at – yeah – you guessed it – the Karoke bar. You should all know that my years of vocal training and 3 (or maybe 4) glasses of wine were not well combined as I took the stage and made Canada proud….er-uh, well actually not, they may take my passport away. Of the 200 or so people in the lounge, the one other Canadian said I put Canada on the map – only because I added in humour to make up or what wasn’t coming out of my mouth as music.

Before that was the pantyhose fiasco. I know those were invented by men just to torture us. I got over that, we got all gussied up and went to the formal dinner – the one where we gracefully glide into the dining room. Um, how graceful can one (me) be in 5″ stilettos (also invented by men by the way).

Yesterday was Naples, Pompei, Sorrento, the Amalfi coast, the buffalla mozzarella and olive farm, and really really sore feet. Good thing for me, we had an hour to stroll and that Italy is famous for shoes, I had to buy a pair to relieve my aching tootsies. Everyone reading this will know me well enough, breathing is a good enough excuse for me to shoe shop.

Learning of the day for yesterday: little ‘ol Pompei had 22 brothels in its hay day (no pun intended). There were ancient paintings still visible on the wall inside the brothel, which by today’s standards would be porn (albeit quite Romanesque, pre-baroque era porn). The tour guide told us it was the Pompein catalogue for the customers – kinda the sears catalogue of its day – NOT. To top it all off, in each “activity chamber” was a 5×4 stone bed and that’s it. As I looked about, people had cocked heads and grimaces on their faces – they were obviously trying to imagine just how one would enjoy “sex on the rocks”.

Bella Vanezia and Bella Spiranza are staying in tonight and crashing early after a long day in Roma, eating pizza, followed by high tea with that dude who wears white dresses and hangs at the Vatican. It was another long day of sore feet, ya think he woulda blessed these size 10’s of mine, but oh no – “you must suffer” he said. You know what I say to that – huh – go buy another pair of damn shoes, ones more comfortable yet, the search is on and so are we for Florence tomorrow.

Anyway, we were a couple of sour pusses today as we didn’t get any time to shop in Rome, today’s tour guide kept us going step after aching step across 17th century cobblesone, consider her lovely but was truly the Tour Nazi (oops, better watch that word here, a little sensitive they are still).

Overall, Roma (apart from sore feet) was spectacular – Spanish Steps, Coliseum, Vatican, Bernini, Pizza, Trevi fountain – so much culture for these gals from Cowtown. We loved it all, especially the Vatican, who could have imagined it would be so breathtaking.

Abraco everyone, see you soon.

Spiranza….

Vanessa says: we dolled up last night for our first formal dinner, or rather I dolled up and Hope turned up the heat on her usual stunning self. Professional photographers were everywhere so we had pics taken and (christmas gift spoiler alert) will buy some if they turn out ok. 

Interesting note: I did not realize until last night how much Hope likes karaoke. Not just listening – performing! (Jackie and Chris, you could have warned me!). Our girl was the last performer, closing the show with a heartrending number…and the crowd loved her even more when she burst out giggling in the middle of it! She was great. Bedtime was 1am so our 6am alarm was not welcome!

Today’s excursion to Naples and Pompeii was good. Pompeii was more interesting than I expected and our tour guide was a charming and knowledgeable Napolitano.  We also got a snack at a local Napoli farm – homemade everything – mozzarella cheese, olive oil, bread, and a fabulous yummy olive from their own trees. Oh yah, and a shot of limoncello licquer and lemon cream licquer. Delish.

It was cooler today, about 14 degrees C. I hope it will be warmer in Rome tomorrow. I am glad to be back in the suite under a blankie. We’re probably going to cancel our dinner reservation tonite and instead head up to the 24 hour food trough I mean buffet and bring it back to our suite, maybe watch a movie. We must be tired; neither one of us has mentioned going and scouting out the European men (who are all here with wives or girlfriends). There are many accents on this boat, both crew and passengers, and I’m finding many are eager to practice their English. A bonus for this Alberta gal.

Arrivaderci for now, senori. 

We’ve been cruising on the ship now for about 4 hours. How on earth this ship floats with all the people, food, alcohol, etc. I have no idea! But wow is it nice! So many places to eat, drink, listen to music, dance, not to mention the hot tubs, shopping, spa, pool, running track, climbing wall…it’s never ending. I’m actually looking forward to a full day of cruising so I can catch up on some reading and sleeping. Hope is looking forward to a workout and maybe a massage.

Right now i’m at the Schooner Bar which is one of the wifi hotspots on the ship – it seems these spots are conveniently located where alcohol flows…but not freely if you know what I mean. But they are not pressuring me to buy anything so that is bonus!

There’s a fellow singing Neil Diamond right now – he’s quite good and yes, I’ve been known to hum a sing or two of his! Speaking of music, I’ve come to see how music brings us all together. Everywhere you go over hear you hear all the music we listen to in North America. Even our 50 year old taxi driver today, who didn’t speak any English, spoke to us about music, referring to the songs that were playing on his radio on our short ride to the cruise terminal. He liked Van Halen, ELO, Rod Stewart…it was pretty cool relating to each other through radio tunes.

Ah, must go check on my travel partner. I’m sure she is enjoying her hour away from me! haha

Ciao for now
PS we are now 7 hrs ahead until next Sunday when those of you back home all move your clocks back.
Vanessa

Ok, here’s the thing…
Upon arrival in our 6×6 European hotel room, and seeing our twin beds pushed together, and there’s about a total of 2″ available to spread them apart, Miss Vanessa gar s the door hanger which reads “no molestar” – fornthose rusty in their spanish, it means Do Not Disturb, that’s our girl playing with the double entendre!!!! It’s become thebhandy catch phrase many times. You know what they say, you don’t really know someone ’till you’ve shared a 3 star cell with them. That was Friday.

Saturday:
Hope says ” am I annoying you yet”?
Vanessa says “no”……..30 seconds later….
Hope says “how ’bout now?”………no answer

Later that day…..
Vanessa says “should I light a candle in the bathroom?”

We’re still friends….good thing, we still have 2 weeks to go.

Now about Oliver for those who asked, he’s our new German friend from the Black Forest, and is daughter Georgina (aka GiGi). He hosted us on wine, cheese, risotto and a cheating round of “don’t get angry” in which the 6 yr old won ( big surprise).

Oliver is a friend of a friend who risked taking in two blazen cowgirls for an evening, poor chap, he got off relatively unscarred, and may even welcome us back.

More later….it’s Saturday night, we must explore the 10′ wide, dark, gothic corners of every street, in search of the Batcave.

Vanessa says: Hope and I have so been enjoying this beautiful city. Today we strolled through the gothic quarter, where we are staying, and toured the Picasso museum. Amazing! We are looking forward to seeing the Sagrada Familia tomorrow…and more shopping of course. Tonite has been an excellent treat as Oliver and his beautiful daughter Georgina (Gigi) have been entertaining us at their apartment in Port Vell. Gorgeous location and incredible people. We have been so spoiled – thanks Oliver and Gigi, for inviting us into your home for the evening.

Vanessa says:
Departure day! When Hope first suggested this trip 6 months ago, it seemed so far off. Where on earth did the time go? We fly out of Calgary today at 1:15 pm. Flight to Frankfurt is 9.5 hours then it’s another 2 to Barcelona. We get there at 9:30 a.m. Barcelona time (1:30 a.m. Calgary time). And then plan to sweet-talk our way into an early check in at our hotel 🙂 Might be a challenge for two cranky, sleep-deprived mujeres.
Should be 21 degrees and sunny our first two days in Barcelona (70 degrees F).

Here we come La Rambla, modernista architecture, tapas, sangria, the Boqueria market…!

Adios a todos. Hasta luego!

Vanessa says: Vanessa is now officially on vacation. The girls leave in approximately 1.5 days. Vanessa is busy goofing off, packing, re-packing, attempting to design a simple blog, worried it’s too complicated but willing to wing it. Busy writing on this blog in the third person. She has time on her hands.
Hope, on the other hand, is still busy working. And then she might have a cup of green tea…and then work some more. She needs a holiday. Hope travels so much her suitcase already contains everything she could possibly need. Not sure exactly when the next post will be. Thanks for reading this far and we’ll try to be diligent in our future “wifi-connection required” posts. Ciao.