A Well Deserved Vacation

View from our B&B on Lake Como

You know how they call it the freshman 15?? Well we found the “ Vacation , eat like a savage 10", on our recent vacation. Don’t get me wrong it was worth it , but boy let me tell you our jeans are feeling such a little bit too snug these days. Mike and I  started our vacation by landing in Milan at 6 am after an overnight flight. After doing the 13 hr flight back to Canada a little 5:30 flight is a piece of cake ( it also helps that there is a somewhat unlimited supply of champagne on the flight). I was awfully tired and little hungry and those two things don’t mesh too well for me , ask Mike it’s sorta my doctor Jekyll , Mister Hyde thing. Anyways after a little delay with the car we got on the road and headed towards Lake Como. We stayed at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast and it was right across the lake from where they filmed James Bond “ Casino Royale” .  Right next door to that was Sir Richard Branson’s villa. I tried to rent it for a few nights but unfortunately for us it was booked and cost 120 000 pounds per week. It was here that began Mike and I’s binge on cured meats and cheese. I think it would be fair to say that over the next 17 days Mike and I consumed almost a quarter leg of pork. It is sick , and we know that....... but it didn’t stop us.

The girl from the Ring sleeping in Florence

From there we went down to Bologna for two nights and ended up in the Italian equivalent of the  “Erin Fall Fair”. For all y’all who haven’t had the pleasure of attending said event , you are missing out. There were tractor pulls , farm animals , food stands , farm boys in wife beaters , and of course food tents. Because Europeans know what is going on , the booze and the food are served together . There is no need to split your times between your two favorite tents , you can fill your face and your thirst together. Of course I had a deep fried pizza dough sandwich with prosciutto and cheese , washed down with a bottle of wine , while Mike had a 3 course dinner. It was a trend on this trip , go to the point where you can’t eat any more , or go home , and let me tell you the Pados’s don’t just go home. I also attempted to drive standard which was a disaster to both the transmission and my pride.

The Last Judgement

Florence from the top of the Bell Tower

From there we went to fabulous Florence where our Persian Princess met us for the remainder of the trip. If you haven’t been to Florence I suggest you go buy a ticket right now and go. It is a great place  full of history and great food. It’s also full of marble private parts ,( since this is a PG blog  I will not go into detail ). We went to the David , Il Duomo , Ponte Vecchio , Palazzo Vecchio , 7 other museums which I can’t remember and 10 gelaterias. Okay maybe not that many but we tried to hit up the top five according to Trip Advisor. On the second night we went to meet Naz after her trip across the universe. Just to let you know she flew from Hawaii all the way to Italy and got her bag lost , and had no means of communication , and is also immune to jetlag. Also side note do not use the pay phone in Italy , they cost on average of $45 USD / min. Yeah huge pain in the butt. We eventually got her bag and her for that matter and spent the last day getting in as much of Florence as we could. In less than 18 hrs we had 3 full meals , multiple beverages  hot and cold , and various types of gelato. I hope at this point you guys are picking up on the trend here ….. we ate … A LOT. We also climbed the stairs to the bell tower and to the top of Il Duomo. That is a combined step-age of over 1000 steps in quite close quarters with a surprisingly large amount of people who do not wear deodorant. The actual church is called  the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore , and just the dome is Il Duomo (however I may be wrong on that). Google The Last Judgement by Giorgio Vasari. That’s the painting that is on the façade of the dome and some pretty serious things are going on in there. Again it’s a PG blog so it I will let you discover for yourself what I am referring too.

 

Crushin' brewskis like a champ

Cinque Terre

I think this was called Ville de Maximus Gluteus - because you would have a killer butt living there

San Sebastian

We were ultimately making our way to Nice , more preciously Opio , to our friends Nina and Julen’s house. Unfortunately enroute we found out Nina would be stuck in the US for the time we were there so it was just going to be Julen L Nina we will be coming back soon just to make sure that we see you !! On the way we spent two nights in a very small town close to the Cinque Terre national park . Also please google this as the pictures will be much better than my explanation.  5 fishing towns perched along the rocky and very very steep Italian coast line. Although in the summer it is very busy , I can not imagine how isolated it must feel in the winter. What is more crazy are the individual houses half up these hills/mountains. I have no idea how they get up or down and in case of emergency  , well as we say here Inshallah.

View from Casa Diaz xo

Hey GUURRLLL

Windy day in San Sebastian

Tourists

The next few days were spent at the wonderful Maison de Diaz . They live in a beautiful house in a very small little village , with a great view of the valley below. We took a drive through the Gorges De Verdon , which next to the Grand Canyon is the second biggest natural canyon in the world. Now my husband is a great driver don’t get me wrong , but when it comes to a manual transmission and very curvy roads his driving technique tends to cause a small amount of motion sickness….. and multiple stops for pee breaks. The last bit might not actually have anything to do with the way he drives , it might just be me but he doesn’t need to know that. After a few days stop in France we made the 8 hr drive to San Sebastian , which was amazing because Naz and I only demanded one washroom break. High five to us . You know what sucks , tolls suck ......huge. I don’t know how Europe is facing an economic meltdown when it costs 80 Euros to drive 900 kms. In Italy we got stuck going through a 12 km bridge that cost us 40.20 euros. I mean at that point there was no turning back and 12 kms through a mountain is impressive and all  but for 40.20 I expect some sort of scenery.

Waves crashing along the sea wall

If you have not been to San Sebastian I also suggest that right after you finish in Florence you get on another plane and head there. It is such a great city and the food is A-MAZ-ING. All the bars offer Pinchos , which is the Basque way of saying Tapas. They are so freaking tasty that before you know it you’ve eaten 15 and 6 glasses of wine and wonder why your bill is 50 euros. We spent the first few days exploring by ourselves as Julen had to wait in Nice for work. We took a day to go out of the city and see the country side. I am pretty sure that is where they filmed Pan’s Labyrinth , so just picture that. We did not run into any scary monsters so that was a positive. In the Basque region they speak a different form of Spanish , not that I could tell the difference and are sorta like people from Quebec in the sense of their desire to be their own country. I do however believe that the Basque people are a little more hardcore than our beloved Quebecois. Side note Mike and I had a crepe at a place called "Quebec Crepe Shop" in the middle of San Sebastian and it was heavily decorated with Habs paraphernalia and Quebec license plates. Random I know. It wasn’t until Julen got there and unfortunately Naz had just headed home , that we discovered the real and even more delicious foods the city had to offer. Mike and I had the BEST octopus we have ever had and some delicious razor clams. You have to get past their appearance because they look a little sea sluggy , but are well worth the intial fright. I don’t know if the chef personally gave the octopus a massage or what , but god help me I could eat another 8 plates worth right now.  So with our bellies full we drove back to Milan , in one day , with a bit stop in Carrcassonne.  This is pretty much a fully preserved medival city , complete with defence walls , castle , 12^th century churches , and modern day souvenir shops . It’s also a UNESCO site. I don’t know about you but it really burns my biscuits when I go to these beautiful old places and they have been completely gutted to make resturants and hotels. I understand you can’t cook over the open fire , and it’s not so nice to go to the washroom in a hole in the groud , but saving some original characteristics would be nice. All the same it was a super cool town and well worth a stop.

So that was our vacation , Naz spent 10 days with us and it was so great to finally  get her to read my blog . Seriously Naz if you don’t read this , you don’t even want to know.

Things in Doha are good , the heat is finally going away. The nights are great here , almost the prefect temp. The traffic is retarded now though ( I know that is politically incorrect , but so is the amount of horrible drivers causing mass delays). Yesterday the newspaper here said there is over 2 million people in Qatar , a number they didn’t expect to reach until 2016. So it all makes for mayhem.  Mike has been getting a lot of Europe flights and he is pretty happy with that. My mom comes here next week , and God Cyndy is in for a surprise . We are going to head to Dubai for a night and see the sights over there. Oh we also have 4 cats now , it’s a little bit of a problem our cat collection but we are working on it.

Alright homies , hope you are all keeping it real. Also the pictures weren't working too well for me so they are all scattered .

Peace in the Middle East

Much love 

The Padiis xoxoxoxo