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