europe

well, we are in europe--a huge culture and price shock after india. we flew into paris where we stayed with our friend alain, french alain as we call him. he has a tiny apartment, but he was nice enough to let us crowd in on his space, thank you alain. then we unexpectedly bought tickets to barcelona where we had absolutely no contacts--somehow the travel luck was with us and we wound up staying with a lovely family, friends of my aunt adele and uncle ken, in the heart of the old city's gothic barrio. they were delightful, fun, exciting, smart and informative. barcelona was wonderful thanks to nancy, keral, elena, and milo. thank you all again--so much for your hospitality and friendship--see you on the cape or in seattle! currently we are in italy, we've been staying with an old good friend from chicago, giorgio, and his girlfriend allesandra and their cat elvis. it has been grand, lots of big dinners and walking. we went up into the mountains the other day for the afternoon. we hiked up past some mideival ruins to a little camp where we had cheese and bread and wine. the scenery in the mountains--right at the foothills of the alps, is so beautiful, green, and crisp. it reminds me of a place where i used to live in colorado.
right now we are in the riviera--kind of the miami of italy. the sea is beautiful and clean, there are mountains and castles and a ton of old people--retirees. i am not feeling particularly inspired to write about everything right now, internet is expensive and the beach so much more attractive, but i did want to make my own list of thank yous:
thank you monique, pa breneman, erin, abby, and johnny hootah for keeping us financially afloat these past 2 months. thanks also, again, to the harris-bauers, alain and family, and the capallaro-pagini household. we are so grateful.