A month later, here are the last of the photos from our trip! Barcelona was our final stop before heading home. I had been waiting the whole trip to be able to practice my Spanish, and then... Catalan. Oops, I had totally forgotten about the Catalan thing. (Catalan is a language spoken in parts of Spain, Italy, and France.) Well, what can you do. So while all the street signs etc. looked kind of foreign to me, I was still able to try my hand at speaking Spanish. It was not the prettiest thing you'e ever heard, but I think I did ok. Sorry Jon that I'd been building myself up over the weeks. "Just wait til we get to Spain; I'll be able to get us around just great!" Ha! Because we traveled during off season, we didn't have to stand in a single line for anything. Literally, not one line. So when we got to the cathedral in Barcelona and saw a line that wrapped around the church, we were like "Oh yeah... lines. We forgot about those." Anyway, we ended up seeing the courtyard instead, which was still pretty amazing. And geese! Oh, the bakeries here. They did not disappoint. This little Christmas market was filled with all the cutest things you can think of! There was so much beautiful street art in Barcelona. I was kind of bummed that I couldn't totally read the writing, but at least I was able to get the main gist. And pictures are kind of a universal language anyway. So. Park Guell. Guadi's architecture is the bomb! As we were strolling around looking at architecture, we stumbled into a street protest about immigration. It was pretty cool and made us feel right at home. No one is illegal! First time empanada eaters over here. They were delish! We found this huge indoor market that spilled outside onto the streets. Vendors were selling everything: candy, fresh-squeezed juice, fish, cheese, ostrich eggs, and waffles! Jon and I found some steps where we could sit and share a waffle and gelato. And let me tell you, that waffle was a million times better than it looks. Goodbye Barcelona! Goodbye Europe. We love you. Hope to see you again soon!
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.............We're moving to LA! And we are stoked. A little while ago, Jon decided to sign up with a traveling tech agency in hopes of landing a job in Portland (our dream city). As a traveling surgical tech, he will take 3-4 month long assignments throughout the country. The cool part about the job is that it allows us to travel and explore new places. The not-so-cool part is that our lives have been totally up in the air throughout the whole process. And as you know, I am a PLANNER. As you also know, I am a picky picky person. So this waiting period has been really hard for me. For the past few months, I'd kind of just cringe when people asked what our plans were and where we were going. BUT! Now we finally know. Jon actually got two offers at once: one in Boston and one in LA. For a few different reasons the LA job was a better fit for us, so that's the one we took. But it got us thinking... Boston sounds like a pretty sweet place. Maybe you're next up, Boston! Who knows. And here, in no particular order, are 10 things about LA that are making me spontaneously smile in public: 1. All the yummy food! Yeah I'm talking to you, sushi and vegan restaurants. 2. The warm weather, and general lack of snow. 3. The garment district! 4. The possibility of snagging a photo editing internship. 5. Getting to ride my bike again. Because no black ice in LA, right? 6. The beach! 7. Flea markets. 8. Farmers markets that are open year round. 9. Being able to visit SLC because flights to the Provo Airport are only 50 (yep you heard that right) bucks. 10. Exploring a new city with the love of my life. Los Angeles, here we come! We arrived at our hotel in Positano on a Monday, and I was super hungry (Jon has much better control over his hunger). So we walked into the hotel and asked the front desk guy where we could get some food. He sort of chuckled and explained that nothing was open because first of all, it was a Monday; second of all, riposo had just started; and third of all it was winter. I tried again and asked if there was anywhere that I could get food. Grocery store, restaurant, anything... "No," he said. "But maybe one restaurant will open later tonight." So, I sucked it up for a few hours and waited for the sole restaurant in town to open, and then we walked down a million steps to the beach to get there. Of course we were the only diners in the restaurant, but our server was super friendly and kindly suggested that we go to Sorrento where things were actually open and people were out on the streets. Thank you kind waiter! Because Sorrento was awesome and the atmosphere was the best. We loved it so much that we ended up going back every night during our stay on the Amalfi coast. We took a little day trip to Amalfi, which was incredibly beautiful. And we snagged one last ice cream roll on our way out :)
Driving from Naples to the Amalfi Coast was quite the experience. Let's just say narrow roads on the edge of a cliff does not make for a good combination. Not to mention a gps which is screaming at you "turn left! turn right!" every two seconds, as the road winds back and forth. Though Jon was a champ and managed to stay very calm, I kept finding my reflexes kicking in and trying to slam on the breaks from the passenger seat. Talk about stress! But the view definitely compensated for my anxiety. Oh boy, get ready for lots of photos. Okay, let's talk about this adorable little village that just appeared out of nowhere. We were in the car, and as I saw it zoom past, I yelled to Jon to stop the car and back up. "I can't really do that on this road!" he said. But I told him he had to and that it would be worth it. So he did, because that's how much he loves me. Every aspect of this miniature village was so detailed and perfect. I am still in love with it. Pilates on the beach!
From Sicily, we flew into Naples where we rented a car and drove to Pompeii. Again, a huge bonus of visiting Europe in the winter was that we pretty much had stuff to ourselves. No lines, no crowds. And to see Pompeii this way was totally surreal. I'm sure it would feel surreal either way, but to walk through the ancient city all by ourselves (and I mean literally not a single other person was there) made the whole experience even more magical. After spending hours at Pompeii, we drove up Mount Vesuvius with all intention of hiking to the top. But by the time we made it up the narrow windy switchbacks, we were tired and it was foggy so we decided to save our 20 euro and enjoy the view from our car. (We ended up really regretting this decision, especially since I had a pretty huge obsession with Vesuvius, and realized that we better make it happen. On our drive up to Rome a few days later, we went back, hiked the mountain at super speed because we were already racing to catch a flight, snapped a few photos, and ran back down. Probably the shortest trip around Vesuvius, and probably not the best use of the 20 euro, but hey, at least we can say we did it!) Vesuvius round 1. Vesuvius round 2.
Ah, Sicily. So many wonderful things in Sicily. After spending a week in Greece, we headed over to Italy. I had been to northern Italy before, but Jon had never been. And neither of us had been to Sicily, so we weren't really sure what to expect. But it did not disappoint! We spent the entire time in Palermo, which was beautifully decorated for the holiday season. And can I just tell you how friendly everyone was? A good six people stopped me or shouted across the street to tell me I was beautiful, but not in a weird cat call sort of way, just in a genuinely nice way. And it got me thinking about things. Like why we don't always tell people they're beautiful? Why don't we shout across the street, "Hey, did you're beautiful, did you know that?" We spend so much time critiquing ourselves and others, when in reality there is so much beauty around us. You really don't have to look that hard. So my new goal is to start telling people that they're beautiful (and to clarify, I'm not really talking about stereotypical batty here). Because we're all beautiful in our own unique ways, right? And we should embrace that, and everyone should get to hear that about themselves. Well ok, now that I've gotten that of my chest, here's Sicily. We went to the cutest little marionette show, and even though it was in Italian and we couldn't understand a word of it, it was still adorable. One of the more embarrassing moments of the day happened when the show was over and the puppeteers came onto stage for a bow. To my surprise, they looked like giants. (During the whole show I had thought that the marionettes were life-sized. Oops.) After the puppet show, we joined the festivities in the street. The locals were celebrating San Andrea with music, balloons, and lots of fun little street vendors. When our feet got tired, we sat down on some steps and shared one of Palermo's specialties: ice cream in a roll! Man, it was good. Wait, oranges? What? <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11484263/?claim=scqcy9rzq7t">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
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ELLEfeminist. linguist. traveller. foodie. crafter. ARCHIVES
January 2018
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All photos are the property of Elizabeth Cheney and may not be used without permission.
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