Rome Sweet Rome: Espana gobble gobble!

Ciao friends!

A few days late, but a very Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope everyone had a blessed day, full of delicious food and quality time spent with family and friends! It was hard being away from home, but we made the most of it in Spain! If anything, we have some funny stories to share!

When we got to Avila, it was bitterly cold, raining and really windy. It got down to 39 degrees. I wasn't prepared. So I bought a beanie, gloves and a scarf. Its been so warm in Rome that I didn't think twice about packing too many cold clothes....That was a harsh lesson learned- my San Diego body was not having this bitter cold! (and to know it was 90 degrees in San Diego on Thanksgiving. Wow.) It got so cold that we purposely spent an hour in a museum looking at art just to get out of the cold...Brr!! (oh and we got back to Rome and it was 70 degrees and humid...beanie, scarf and gloves, already back in the closet)

There wasn't much to do in Avila besides St. Theresa's museum and convent and the Cathedral. As were were trying to figure out what to have for dinner, we ducked into a small bar and had a quick snack and a beer. Now, what I ate in that 20 minutes was far from what I had imagined having on Thanksgiving day... It was Pigs ear and a beer. I thought it was something else, so I was all excited, and my friend got it too. When I tasted it, I said, "this is not what I was expecting, I wonder what this is" and she was like, " Yeah, this is Pigs ear". Me: Oh my. Umm. Interesting. I'm not a fan. Her: Well I am happy, I love Pigs ear!" Thanksgiving lunch: Pigs ear and beer. Okey dokie. We are off to a great start on the whole "trying to have a Thanksgiving feast".... Oh boy.

We went back to the apartment because we were frozen and had some time to kill before dinner. So we decided to do our hosts dishes for her because we knew she wouldn't be home until late and she was really busy, and the fact that we didn't have anything else to do. Then we had a nice cup of hot tea and hung out with her little fluffy dog, named Chewy. Amazing!

Off to try the "feasting" again. This time, we got it right. We had a nice 3 course meal, consisting of hot lentil soup (which tasted like my dads, so I felt like I was at home which was really nice), veil and potatoes, flan and a bottle of wine all for 20 Euros. This meal was DELICIOUS! Our attempt at the feasting was successful! We went home and ate our eclairs and went to sleep. Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!

The View from our room in Avila

Off to Madrid now- we spent the rest of the weekend there. It was much warmer than Avila, which we were very happy with! Still rainy and cloudy, but you can't have everything...

We walked around everywhere! Through many parks, which I loved because of the Fall leaves and how they all were pressed against the floor due to the rain. It was quiet and peaceful. Just what I needed. The food we had was absolutely delicious!

Funny and slightly creepy story: On Saturday, we were waiting for our friends at 9:30am, and this drunk guy comes up to us and says, "you look like them, who are waiting for?" I ignored him and stared at the ground as my friend proceeded to get this guy to leave. He said, "Be careful, you look like one of them" One of who, we asked ourselves. Then we realized. He was calling us prostitutes. He then asked, "do you want to come with me? I will pay for you two." NOOOOO! EWW. With our disgusted faces, he finally left. We turned to each other and said, " Did we just get called prostitutes? We are fully clothed and look nothing like one! Ok then. Good morning Spain!" Quite interesting start to the day... Then later, a guy walked passed us and called us movie stars... definately on the other side of the spectrum... But we took the movie stars one as a compliment! Oh Spain...

It was a long few days, but still grateful I had the opportunity to go to Spain!