7 Countries Down - 1 To Go...

Another Retro Friendly Update here...So after the Portugal Wedding we
headed to Porto, Portugal to drink some Port. We've had steak in
Salsbury, UK, we've had Pisco Sours in Pisco, Peru - we must keep
the trend alive!

So we did. But I don't like Port. I thought it was supposed to be
like wine - I tried the white and the red - and neither tastes like
wine to me. This tastes more like a strong alcohol - and that's not
something I handle well. Jeff liked it, though, so we had to try it.
Porto was a cute little town with only 2 downfalls: 1. It is very
hilly and although I am a big fan of downhill, I do NOT love anything
that makes me walk uphill. 2. We were both just getting colds of some
sort (not swine flu) from having too much fun for 2 weeks straight.

Lucky for me they have what is called a Foonicular. I've never heard
of it (or maybe I have and my brain dumped the info long ago before I
started hating uphill and realized this would be a good bit of info to
have...). A Foonicular is basically a godsend for lazy people. It's
a cart on tracks that takes you up and down hills. SO worth it. So
we just had to try the Foonicular - and since we had to go up hill to
get back to our hotel it was really a win win situation. So Porto was
cute for 2 nights and then we were off again, this time via Ryanair
(the airline so cheap that they will soon charge for you to use their
bathrooms in the air) to Paris, France.

Now Paris was just ok. I know it's supposed to be the most beautiful
and romantic and all that, but it was just ok. We saw some catacombs
- which are really gross if you think about it - we payed money to
walk through caves with thousands of dead peoples bones piled neatly
all around us. But also interesting - and of course we visited Notre
Dame and a museum and the Eiffle Tower. Then comes the reaaaaally fun
part of France! We went to Tours! This is the town closest to
Vouvray - where my favoritest wine comes from!! We got to rent bikes
(and of course it rained) and go around to different vineyards and
drink Vouvray (in Vouvray - the trend continues). It was awesome and
fun (biking on flat land is doable even for me) and we bought 3
bottles of yummy wine. We dropped Rocko's business cards in case we
could get something more interesting but the tastings were already
free. I was THIS close to having Jeff speak only in French to the
vineyards and tell them he was Rocko and to call anytime...mua ha ha -
that would have been hysterical. But we didn't. Promise.

Portugal Weddings Rock!

This is going to be a Friendly Update in Retro. We barely had time to
think on this trip, let alone sit down and write friendly updates -
wah - so I'm going to do it all in now!

This wedding pulled out all the stops. First, Sarah Wild and Ruth had
a civil ceremony in London - where they live. Jeff and I flew over
after visiting the tall, tall Dutch and attended the ceremony and the
awesome mini reception after at a bar/restaurant. Lots of champagne
and other drinks - a good time had by all but mostly by our friend
Mara. She had a waaaaay good time. :)

Sarah Wild's surprise wedding gift to Ruth was to order a double
decker bus to pick us all up the following morning and take us to the
airport (about 12 of us) with champagne and bagels and our own music
selection. That was a bumpy but fantastic ride! We had a slight
snafoo at the airport when Jeff and I realized we booked our tickets
for the wrong date but a 10 minute run two terminals over led to
purchasing more useful tickets and getting to Portugal on time. D'oh.
But we made it. Thank goodness.

We got to stay in not one but TWO, count them on your left hand, TWO
castles! First we stayed at the "other" castle about 20 minutes from
the one the wedding was going to be held at. This one was a bit more
rustic but beautiful and had a dungeon (which we couldn't go in - sad
for me). Showers were a little tricky in that the hose went wild and
sprayed the entire bathroom - and I hear I'm not the only one that had
this problem.

Then we moved to the main castle (or Pousada as the Portugese call
them). This was more modern and our wedding had the run of the entire
place. It was kind of like a dorm where people just walked from room
to room, left their doors open and generally had a great time. The
wedding was out on the deck portion of the Pousada (see new pics on
Photobucket of the wedding) - and lucky for our side of the bridal
party - we got to stand in the shade! Ha! The poor girls in blue had
to stand in and look towards the sun. I don't know how they did it.
Our good friend, Maan, from Kenyon performed the ceremony and did an
amazing job. Then we had drinks and appetizers and then moved onto
the main meal in a nice dining hall. The place cards were fantastic -
they used a picture of you to mark your name and seat. Most were you
with one or both of the brides, or some were just super old and funny
pics of you. I loved seeing a random old picture of me and Sarah -
and I liked that she had one of her and Jeff from last year for him.

Dinner was followed by a dancing reception with great music and an ice
luge. That's right - a dolphin shaped ice luge. I had to bail around
1 am (because I do that and I got a beer spilled down my dress by a
magician). But the party went on until 5 am. I don't know how people
do that and still get up for breakfast in the morning. All in all it
was a blast and then Jeff and I headed to Porto. More retro updating
on that in a bit...