Back in the US

We flew into Orlando late last night after a long day of lines and airports to complete our journey abroad. To sum up our trip we present our Contest Results and each of our Top 5 Wows.

Contest Results have been calculated (we were disappointed there were no entries for where are Virginia and Carolyn though!). The closest person did not submit their name with their answers so they are disqualified (Right is Right), so our winner is Allison Kidd Covington who was only off by 11 total from the final tally. Your prize will be on it's way soon Kidd!

Virginia's Top 5 WOWS:

• The Alhambra did not disappoint me at all. Arabic architecture is a favorite of mine with all the texture, lighting, and water elements designed so intentionally. 

• Our walking tour of Barcelona on the first day was a perfect way to learn some history, some culture, and current events while meeting other English speaking tourists our ages.

• Revisiting all the familiar places in Rome that I frequented while living there and showing them to Carolyn (even though I couldn't answer ALL her questions!)

• The leisurely lunch we had after visiting St. Peter's in Rome: the risotto was fabulous and we were easily swayed to get an appetizer, dessert, and the house wine.
• The tour of La Sagrada Familia and the other Gaudi masterpieces. Overall the parts of the trip we enjoyed the most were when we had a guide to give us context and history around what we were seeing.

Carolyn's Top 5 WOWS:

• The Flamenco show in Barcelona was my favorite part of the whole trip. The dancers, singers, and guitarists all impressed me with their passion and focus during the performance. I loved it!

• Speaking Spanish was so fun for me! I haven't taken a Spanish class in 4 years, so I was surprised how much I remembered. I got some help from Natives, but I made my way through a couple long conversations.
• Being in the Colosseum was a surreal experience. My imagination went wild with images of men fighting for their lives and the crowd going crazy.

• Our guided tour of St. Peter's in Vatican City was definitely a good decision. The church was beautiful in itself, but our guide explained the history and significance of even the smallest details. 

• We made tons of friends throughout our trip, and I loved visiting with people from all over the world. We hung out with young adults from Australia, the UK, Brazil, Turkey, etc. 

Last Day(s)

*Now that we have solid internet back in Barcelona, go back and check out the pictures on our last post*

POWS:

• We didn't have churros and chocolate until our last day! 

WOWS:

• Carolyn has had two long conversations in Spanish - one with our hostel owner who walked us to meet the bus to Sacromonte for Flamenco and the other with taxi drivers in the airport who commented on her Messi jersey to start the conversation. 
• Kebab dinner in Granada last night - cheapest and best meal in Granada (until we had churros today...) When I ordered a Coke Zero and Carolyn ordered a 7UP, the man referenced the score to Spain's most recent Eurocup loss, 7-0.
• Viewing the Alhambra from Sacromonte during our walking tour before the Flamenco show

• We made it to the Barcelona Pavilion with 5 minutes until it closed!

We're headed back to Florida tomorrow! Adios!

Contest Update (we'll calculate winners when we are back in the states)
Sisters: 3 (13 total)
Twins: 0 (1 total)
Other: 0 (2 total)

Granada

This post covers a little more than one day without pictures because the internet in our hostel has not been working on our computer consistently so we are using the hostel's computer. We'll try to add more pictures later!

WOWS:

• Seeing La Pieta in chocolate at Barcelona's chocolate museum days after seeing the real thing at St. Peter's:

• Putting our feet in the Mediterranean in Barcelona

• We have the penthouse with a rooftop terrace overlooking Granada at our hostel

• We remember more Spanish from high school than we thought! No English is spoken at our hostel and very little around Granada. Gracias Senora Ferryman!
• La Alhambra. Period.

POWS:

• Carolyn can't stand drinking sangria through straws that bend and that seems to be all they have in Europe.

• Flying two days in a row. It wore us out, but nothing a siesta didn't fix!
• Peeling, De-heading, and de-tailing our shrimp at lunch today. We prefer to just eat it!

Contest Update:

Sisters: 1 (10 total)

Twins: 1

Other: 1 (2 total)

Pisa

POWS:

• Long day of traveling today: 4 cities, train, plane, bus, walking

WOWS:

• Taking stalker pictures of other tourists posing with the leaning tower. One to share now and more to come!

• Beautiful views of the Mediterranean from train and plane today.

• The tower did not fall on us when we took these pictures. 

• No hospital visits today (I broke my ankle the day that I visited Pisa 4 years ago)

Contest Update:
Sisters: 0 (9 total)
Twins: 0
Other: 0 (1 total)

Florence

POWS:

• Unfortunately, we didn't find out about the Bruce Springsteen concert in Florence tonight until it was too late! But don't worry, we saw plenty of fans around the city showing their support.
• We saw lots of naked statues today. Carolyn wasn't prepared for so much "natural" art.

• Advice to future travelers: Don't wearing anything easily identifiable. The venders like to call you out as you walk through the market. Ex: Carolyn wore a Chicago Cubs shirt today.

• The Duomo in Florence is closed on Sundays, so we're weren't able to make the 460+ step climb to the top! See Campanile WOW for resolution to this dilemma!

WOWS:

• We need to take a minute to add a WOW from our Rome experience yesterday. This one is too good to leave out! While walking through the Campo di Fiori, we saw an old man carving vegetables into swirls with a unique cutting tool. He was very entertaining in his explanations (he even used a rubber chicken to illustrate a meal!). Needless to say, we were sold, and we each bought his fun cutting tools.

 

• When we arrived in Florence, we weren't sure which bus to get on--and we didn't have tickets. Thankfully, Virginia figured out which one we needed to go on, and we ended up getting a free bus ride. God was watching over us!
• Our hostel in Florence is absolutely perfect! They offer a cheap dinner, free breakfast, and the rooms are very clean. Check out the great view of the patio out of our window--

• Leather shopping! Carolyn loves the smell of new leather (she says it reminds her of a brand new softball glove), and we definitely experienced a lot of that today! 
• Florence is much smaller than Rome, so walking around was a less daunting task than the last few days. 

• Since we couldn't go up the Duomo, we climbed the Campanile for an amazing view of Florence. Now we just need an aerial from Pisa and Granada to complete our trip!

Contest Update:

Sisters: 0 (9 total)

Twins: 0

Other: 0 (1 total)

Vatican Day

WOWS:

• Viewing Rome from the top of St. Peter's Dome. 551 steps to the top Robin - I'm training over here too!

• Virginia's risotto at our long lunch near St. Peter's
• We got to sleep in this morning and have a pretty relaxed day today.
• Carolyn "saggin" to make sure her shorts were long enough to be permitted into St. Peter's

POWS:

• We decided late in the day that we were going to try to go to the Vatican museum and got there too late and ended up walking all the way around Vatican City trying to catch a bus back towards our hostel. But can anyone else say they walked around an entire country?! 

Contest Update
Sisters: 1 (9 total)
Twins: 0
Other: 1