Hey all,

Today I write from the home of our dear friend Karine in Aix En Provence.  We finally got here after a 36-hour struggle with the French railway system, who was on strike during our travels here.  We have been here for two days, REALLY enjoying have a base and a place to unpack and do laundry.  Not to mention how nice it is to see a friend. 

We have been really lucky during the past couple of weeks.  We have been taken care of a lot.  A friend that we met on the farm took us out in Madrid, where we ended up staying an extra night at her house!  Then she had a friend who put us up in Barcelona.  He also took us around and really made sure we had a good time.  And now we’re with Karine, a great friend from our time in Peru.

So after Lisbon; we took the overnight train to Madrid, where we ended up staying three days, four nights!  We really loved it and it was so nice to be speaking Spanish again.  We went to the Palace, the Gran Via, Puerta del Sol, the Prado, Reina Sofia and dancing in Chueca.  It was a really beautiful city.  Then we took a train over to Barcelona, where we now only had one day and two nights.  We had a really nice walking tour of Barcelona during the day and then cooked dinner for our hosts that night.

The next day, we left for Marseille to meet Karine.  We didn’t know that the French railway system was striking that day.  We went from trains to buses all day long until we finally stopped in Toulouse, where they told us we would have to spend the night.  They left sleeping cars in the station for people to use so we just slept in the station.  The next day, we were FINALLY on our way.  We arrived in Marseille very late and we were so happy to see Karine.

Since we’ve been in Aix, we have just been realxing at the house, having delicious homemade French food and walking around the nice town area.  We have really enjoyed ourselves here and will be a little sad to leave tonight.  Not too sad though, because we are off to Venice!!  Ciao!

XOXOXO Kati and Liza

Hi all,

Sorry it has been so long since we´ve written.  We have been living on a farm in remote Portugal.  We got to the farm about two weeks ago.  Our role there was ever-changing, going from farm hands to kitchen girls to gardeners.  We built a chicken run, made a marble pathway, cooked for ten, and tended to the chickens.  We were in a tiny tiny town in eastern Portugal, right on the border of Spain.  Sarah was our WWOOF master and we want to thank her for putting us up and feeding us!  There was an interesting cast of characters in this town who just couldn´t seem to get over their fascination of the two new American girls in town.  One old man, named Jose Maria, would drop by during the day just to watch us work.  People would also ride by on their motorbikes just to see what was going on.  We were informed that it is very odd to have three single women alone, without a man, so that piqued everyone´s interest I guess.  There were also two male workers from Bulgaria who learned their English slang from watching Borat.  That was interesting.

Today we left the farm and arrived in Lisbon.  So far, we really like Lisbon.  It´s a really beautiful old city with lots of charm.  After not having computer access for two weeks, we have really been taking advantage of the free internet that comes with our hostel.

After we finished up at French camp, which was SUCH a blast, we headed down to Avignon to meet Auntie Susan for a girl´s night.  It was so wonderful and we had one of the BEST dinner ever.  The place we stayed in was so cute and the whole thing was just a dream.  After that, we had a 48 hour trip to Portugal which included a day-long layover in Madrid.  We just got a taste of Madrid, but we loved it and can´t wait to go back on Thursday.

Anyways, we are off to enjoy Lisbon!  Miss you all!!

XOXOXO Kati