Bummer of a day

In bed all day, nauseated and just not feeling so hot. Boo. Tomorrow is my flight to Nice and I am hoping this is just a 24 hour thing. Sickness when traveling = no fun. I've been in a suburb of Paris visiting an aunt and uncle and could at least lay low here, but the next stop is a 16 bed hostel dorm room....so health would be a good thing! Today I was originally supposed to join my aunt and uncle for a walking excursion with their walking club, so was quite disappointed when the revision for the day became bed assignment. I did get to join my aunt for a watercolor painting session on Tuesday, and that was incredibly fun! I haven't used watercolors since elementary school! I figured I would just play around but I actually finished a painting and was quite proud of it. :) I'll see if I can post it soon. So yes, time for the trip south, and off to celebrate citrus!

Success in France!!!

SUCCESS!!! I've been locked out of my blog for the past few days and I just figured out why! AND I fixed it. All by myself. I feel like such a big girl. =) Now for the interesting stuff! - I'm currently back in France (since Wednesday, February 13th)visiting a cousin near Bordeaux. I'm onto round 2 of visiting my French family and my goals now are: 1.) See all my French family once more before heading back to the States 2.) Also a bit more international travel before heading home....ideally I'd love to visit Prague, Istanbul, bike in Tuscany, and hike the West Highland Way in Scotland. We'll see if this is all doable by the end of June! 3.) Figure out what I'm doing next with my life! (I have some ideas and am looking into various possibilities, at times the uncertainties are exciting.... at times they are terrifying!!) - Yesterday my cousin didn't have to work, so we went to the beach with her two kiddos and built sand castles and played "rugby" and had a picnic by the sea. SO FANTASTIC!! Blue sky and sunshine, and the opportunity to act like a little kid again. Excellent! It had been yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeears since I'd made a sand castle. Even though this one wasn't very impressive, I still had a grand old time building it. =) - Struggling like crazy to figure out how to coordinate the travels and visits. Yes, yes, I know, boohoo, the first world complaints of the traveler. I realize there are far faaaaaaaaaaaar worse things to worry about in this world, but at this particular time in my life, I'm very lucky that this is one of my greatest challenges. Especially to find reasonable prices on transportation, everything has to be purchased in advance, and at this point, I just don't know. Too many places to go! - Case in point, I waited far too long to purchase tickets to the south of France, and every mode of transport was absurdly expensive. But I'm splurging and doing it anyways! It's for a special occasion. =) When I was little, my grandparents had an apartment in a town called Menton. Every year they have a lemon festival (La Fete du Citron). Sounds a bit odd, but it's really impressive (from the postcards I remember seeing as a child). I did go to one, but I was only 4 or 5, and don't really have any memories of this citrus heaven, so when I realized the dates would work, I decided I couldn't miss it. So I'm off to the Fete du Citron, for their 80th celebration, and theme "Around the World in 80 days." Cote d'Azur, here I come!!

Sintra and Orange splendor!!

Got my first rental car today in Portugal (feeling bold, though almost drove away without a map), not feeling THAT bold and don't trust GPS enough for that. :) Destination today : Sintra! aka Fairytale land! Friends recommended it and I'm so glad they did!! I definitely concur with the nickname :) Palacio Nacional de Pena is INCREDIBLE and even qualifies as one of Portugal's 7 wonders (and I can see why!) Tonight I just finished one of the most exquisite,juicy, splendid oranges ever!! I am madly in love with Portuguese oranges! Tomorrow, to Nazare, home of the new world record for tallest wave surfed...I think it was something absurdly ridiculous like 35 meters. Insanity. We'll see what the Atlantic cooks up tomorrow!

Aveiro, Portugal

Today, I visited Aveiro, which has been called  "Portugal's Venice" . . . after spending the afternoon there, I think the people who dubbed it so are being a wee bit too generous.... hard to make the comparison when there are only two main canals.  On my walk from the train station to the first canal, I was wondering if I was in the right city!  "If this is supposed to be the Portugese Venice, where is the water?" was my recurring thought as I walked along paved roads, and crossed over intersections with nothing but paved roads . . .

But indeed, there are canals and little boats that can take you on the water, you just have to get to the right spot.  Once you get there it is lovely (minus the motorway running parallel to one canal).  And there are some cute little spots tucked away, but I think I had my expectations set too high after a.) seeing Venice in 2008 and being seriously impressed by the fact that a city can exist in the midst of such a maze of canals and b.) seeing Bruge in July, which is dubbed the Venice of the North.  THAT place I do think deserves the title, plus it is overall an incredibly charming, very unique little town. 

Anyhoo, now I know!  I would have wondered what I was missing if I hadn't gone. 

Highlight of the trip: lunch!  =)  I found a place with some spectacular grilled squid, so that was fun and delicious..... and a bit shocking with the presentation, but I am trying new things and expanding my cultural horizons. 

Tomorrow is my last day to explore Porto, and honestly a bit bummed I didn't spend the day here because thus far Porto is absolutely hands down my favorite city in Portugal.  SO AMAZING!!!

Executive Decision

Hello!  If you are reading this blog, and have been thoroughly enjoying the pictures I've posted, I want to apologize to you now, because that chapter of my blog is coming to a close.  I am sorry if that makes you sad.  But don't despair, there is an upside to this situation, and next chaper!

I have been horrible at blogging about my trip, and that makes me sad. I have had countless adventures where I take tons of pictures 1.) because they are pictures I want for myself, yes, BUT 2.) because I want to share them with you and post them on my blog. 

As I take the pictures, I have all of these grand ideas for the blogpost that will accompany my pictures, and then I hardly ever get to actually publish the blog.  We won't count how many drafts are sitting, waiting for pictures, or more text, anxiously waiting to be published.  It's so time consuming for me to do a blogpost (seriously talking between 3-5 hours for an average one, and the Gallivanting one in Ireland was around 3 hours for each day . . . if you were following the progress of that one growing day by day, it took me weeks to finish it because overall it took me about 30 hours!!  Boo!!)  For you fellow bloggers out there, does it take you this long??!!

Sitting in front of a computer is not how I want to spend my time traveling (does that surprise anybody??  ha!), and more often than not, I don't even have a computer available, or I would feel quite rude choosing computer time instead of chatting with hosts . . . there are multitudes of reasons, but the end result is the same : I don't update my blog nearly as often as I would like to.

So!  My executive decision. To fix this dilemma, the upside to the situtation I alluded to earlier, I have decided to use my blog now, more as a sort of brief  update space. Let you know where I am, that I am alive, and how terribly or spectacularly life is going with highlights of the days.  I'm considering it kind of like the Facebook Status Update area, and that seems reasonable and doable to me on a more regular basis.  I am hoping this will be the end of the multiple week time lapses between posts.

If you've gotten this far in my text without pictures, I take it you actually do care and were following my trip, so REJOICE!!!  for I plan to update much more regularly, but simply more briefly and without pictures.  There!  Onwards to this new chapter. . . .