Blood sausage!

Yep, I've eaten blood sausage. Funniest thing, we get here to Salamanca, drop off my bag and head out for some tapas and wine. Jose tells me to just go up to the counter, see what looks good and let him know and he'll help me order.
What do I pick? The frickin' blood sausage! Who would have ever guessed that it would look good? It was definitely the mild version, it was mixed up with eggs and some quinoa type stuff. I also had some octopus (mmm) and salmon with cream cheese on bread before going for ice cream.
Tomorrow we'll walk around town in the morning then go explore some older villages in the afternoon.
The square is breathtaking. I wish I could just spend a week at home then come back to Spain for a few weeks.
I have to come back.
It's been a 21 hour day so I'm exhausted. If I have time I'll post tomorrow, otherwise- I'll see you all back across the pond.
-sfw

Spain!

I´ve arrived in Spain, over 4 hours late but at least I made it. Our plane had an issue with one of the machines that controls the cabin pressure and we had to turn back.
In the process I discovered that I have lost the power cord to my computer so I probably won´t be posting anymore photos. I´m here at Carmens home for the afternoon and we´ve had lunch. The view overlooking Valladolid from her balcony is beautiful. Tonight I will meet up with Jose and Debra and head down to Salamanca.
Hopefully I´ve had my share of bad luck and the trip home will go smoothly. Miss everyone and look forward to coming home :)

No stonehenge :( too late I think

Tourist photos

Woohoo- it's me by one of the famous red telephone booths with Big Ben behind me and. .. .a pole sticking out of my head.

Beggars can't be choosers.

The Noonans

In case you were unaware why I decided to go to Europe, my long-time friend Lindsay was getting married and I was lucky enough to make the invite list. Here is a photo of Lindsay and Noonan!

Landed in London

Plane was delayed, payed £16.90 for the train into town, caught the subway and checked into my hostel. I'm on the top bunk :(
All of the restaurants are closed so I had to get McDonalds >:P Oh well.
Limited on internet time. Off to bed.

Wedding

The wedding was beautiful; the reception was beautiful. Crillon Le Brave, where the reception was held, is on the Top 100 Places to See Before You Die list apparently and I can see why. I'm exhausted so I'm going to head to bed.

the proposal

So it's almost 2 a.m. I helped cook, decorated tables, made the (majority of the) wedding cake, photographed and put the whole cake together and iced it.

In return I had a Frenchman tell me I was a wonderful women when he saw me baking and icing the cake, insist I have a glass of wine when I was done; then when Noonan wouldn't stop saying how great I was he jokingly asked me to marry him. . . granted it is Noonans cousin and I think he's had quite a few glasses himself but it was still funny.

I've figured out the telephoto I borrowed from dad doesn't fit my camera and when my computer crashed I lost my Canon software so as of right now I can't download photos from my good camera. This is not a good camera joojoo trip :(

I'm exhausted and I have to get up in 4 hours to take pre-wedding photographs while the light is still good. Wish me luck.

This is the view overlooking the seaside of Saint Chamas. We found these steps leading up between houses off the road and just decided to follow them. It turns out they led up to this huge bridge with an aquaduct down the center and a bell tower on top. At the top was an olive orchard and ruins from something with faces carved into them.

Saint Chamas cont.

Here is a storefront in Saint Chamas where they were selling fruit and vegetables.

Saint Chamas Roman bridge & arches

Yesterday Sherri (Lindsays mom) and I took a short trip to a little fishing village named Saint Chamas. It was nice to see a small non-tourist town. The coolest thing was this bridge, dating back to possibly as early as the 1st century AD (I discovered online). It was built by the Romans and still has a beautiful inscription at the top and you can walk down to the river below and walk across it and everything. It's weird because it just sits next to the main road through town without any information or preservation or anything.

Monte Carlo

And this snazzy little place is the casino Monte Carlo in Monaco. Monaco is also host to the Tour de France which starts tomorrow! You have to check your cameras and pay just to get in the place. It's pretty upscale. The "Sky Mirror" out front was this convex (or concave depending on which side you were on) mirror that shows the sky and casino from one view and the fountain and grass and street from the other view.

Monaco

This is the Cafe de Paris in Monaco where we had lunch. Most of the people were pretty fancy but the funniest thing was that we also saw Tara Reid (actress from American Pie). She looked pretty trashy- we kept waiting for her to bust out the cocktails and get sloppy drunk.

Mediterranean

This is the beach at Cassis. The water was so clear and blue you could see the bottom, even at 30 feet deep.

Food

Here are some of the fantastic meals I've had in the last couple of days. Everything is so picturesque!