Friday 12/02 9:19am In route to Madrid
Right now I'm sitting on the plane to Madrid, but a lot happened my last few days and the last few hours. My last few days in Cortona were fun and pretty normal for the work I did. I got to see the horses some more and cut wood for their winter. As soon as Vasco and Michaela found out I was leaving them on Thursday afternoon, their goal was to feed me as much Tuscan food as possible, and they succeeded. We started having two courses at lunch (which is the big meal of the day) and they started bringing out the wine. At one point, they even wanted me to try the Christmas bread, which they only eat on Christmas. They told me not to tell anyone we got into before Christmas. It was as good as everything else. They have been extremely nice my whole time there and I told Michaela I will send people her way when they are in Italy.
I made a new friend my last week... one of the kitties! There are four: Cookie, Sunny, Isola, and Julietta. Cookie and Sunny are nice I guess, but I tried to avoid them because they would bite you if you pet them too much. Isola liked me, but from a distance. But Julietta loved me. She followed me around the house, just waiting for me to sit down so she could get in my lap... so I would pet her. Vasco commented a few times about how the second I came out of my room, Julietta would run from whereever she was to come follow me. I wanted to bring her with me, but with the wine, she couldn't find in the bag. And poor Jovie and Campino, their faces were priceless everytime I pet the cat over them. They hated Julietta because she would tease them when they were chained and they definitely knew my time would have been better spent petting them.
With the knowledge of leaving came the knowledge that I had collected SO much stuff during my 3 months. I mean, I bought most of it, but it just piled up without me noticing and then I realized I had a lot of stuff. So, for the last two days, I literally threw out everything I could live without. Most of my tshirts are currently still in Cortona, my mizunos, and two jackets. I'm proud that I was able to let go of so much stuff, but then here comes Vasco and Michaela with MORE stuff for me. When I arrived, I had about a litre of olive oil from the farm, but I ended up buying another litre of their oil, plus FOUR bottles of wine. I just couldn't decided, so I bought 4 different ones (they have 6 total). I spent hours packing and repacking my bag so that I could have all that stuff in it without it breaking. Lets just say, when customs opens my bag in Dallas, they are going to have to help me untie my thongs, which are being used as string to hold the wrapped bottles together. Last night, I thought I was good to go, but Vasco brings me a bag of biscuits (cookies) that are made in the next town over. He made me take them home so I could show everyone how to dip the cookies in the honeywine I bought. THEN, right after dinner, he brings in a bottle of the illegal Grappa I helped them make and told me I had to take it too. We were illegally brewing it the otherday from some of the old wine. You need a permit to make Grappa in Italy, but no one cares. The set up in the kitchen looked like we were cooking up some meth though and I was laughing because what the hell am I supposed to tell customs?! When I got back to packing last night, I realized that the issue wasn't that I had too much stuff in the bag, it's that the stuff I ahd was too heavy! My bag is only half full, but it weighed a lot. I was worried about it since it only being half full, stuff can move around, but I figured out (on my own, cause I'm awesome) that my sleeping bag weighs the same spread out as it does compacted, so I used the sleeping back as a giant cushion in my bag, so hopefully that helps keep things from not breaking! We will see in Dallas!
I left Cortona yesterday afternoon after a huge lunch. The train ride was uneventful, except for a starer that I ended up moving seats (I made a huge deal out of moving so he would be embarressed). He ended up being really embarressed and went into the next car. Good dude, go bug someone else. I arrived at Termini with SO much time. I ended up getting on a super early train to the airport, hoping there would be something to do for the 12 hours I would have to sit there in the airport before checkin at 6am. I bought a sudoku book and spent the first 2 hours at the airport just doing that. I found a ledge in the "mall" area of the airport to spend my 12 hours, and it was nice because it was out of the way, but not so out of the way that it was secluded. I ate some dinner that I had bought at the grocery store (bread, olives, and some cheese... how italian of me) and continued doing my sudoku. I spent some time watching the airport hobos on the 1st floor pop open some wine and celebrate something. Around 930pm, I finally was getting bored, and even though the area was still busy, I put aside all my embaressment, brought out the sleeping bag, and set myself up. I ended up locking all my bags, and then locking them together, so if anyone wanted to steal something, they were going to have to drag it all away, along with me, since I was hooked in my bags. Surprisingly, I got over my embarressment quite quickly because train rides tire me out and I was exhausted. For sleeping on tile in an airport, I was quite comfortable. I woke up about once an hour, but otherwise, I was good. I didn't expect too much from sleeping at the airport, but I guess living at the Mogli got me ready for anything. I woke up around 4am and decided that that was going to be all the sleep I got. I looked around and saw other people sleeping on the floor and I didn't feel so bad, until I realized it was the hobos I had seen the night before.
The next part was the fun part. I was over about a kilo on my luggage, but there was NOTHING else I could take away without compromising the safety of the wine bottles. I had weighed it the night before at an empty checkin lane, and spent time going through it and got it down to a reasonable weight, but still a few pounds off. And not only that, but I also had my backpack, a pillow pet, and another carryon. I kind of hid the pillowpet and the carryon when I was checking in, and lucky for me, it worked and my overweight luggage got through with no problem. The only issue that I caught real quick was that my bag was only routed to Dallas and didn't have Austin on it. I was like WHOOOOA and she was like, where would you like you bag to go, and I was like the same place I'm going. So, my bag should end in Austin now. We will see if the grappa makes it that far.
I walked to gate and while I was sitting there ( I was one of the first ones there), I kept noticing everyone had an orange tag on their carryon luggage. I then realized that by hiding my bag, I didn't get the "stamp of approval" tag. I started getting worried that they were going to make me fit the bag in that little metal measuring thing as I was boarding, and there was NO WAY this damn bag was going to fit. I kept thinking "awesome"... I carried around these bags for over 3 months and now I would be able to board my flight home because my carryon is too big. Someone was looking out for me though, because the flight ended up boarding really late and they were so consumed with getting everyone on that they paid no attention to me and my bag. And you know, that damn thing fit right in the overhead compartment. I don't know what the big deal is.
Well, unfortunately for all of us, this is going to be my last post. You won't be able to read it until I am already in the states, but trust me, it was written in foreign air. I know, it's a big deal to take away something that has become a part of your daily lives, but I will have no travel experiences to write about once I return to Austin, unless you want to hear about San Antonio or College Station. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read about my adventures. I'm sure I'll be back to Europe soon. I have so many new friends in 100 million different counties, and I will have to visit them eventually. But for now, Bella needs her girl and Stephanie needs her dog.
Farewell for now,
Stephanie
