Today, I remembered how two weeks ago I ate the most scrumptious dish of lassagne ever. I'm usually not a huge fan of heavy pasta dishes, but this one actually tasted light and fresh- subtle spices in the sauce, homemade noodles, ricotta cheese- and was so delicious, I actually took a picture of it:
Why did I remember that meal? Well, here was today's lunch:
Not. The. Same. Thing.
I know, I know, poor me! Isn't it funny how when you get back from a vacation, your brain puts on those rose-colored glasses and plays a slideshow of only the happy parts?
Gondola ride? Check!
Seeing the David? Check!
Me blowing the fuse on half a floor because I ran my hair dryer on high? Uh... nope, this memory did not make the cut!
As promised, here are a few other memories that also didn't make it into my slideshow:
1. The Suitcases: My unbelievably generous parents lent us two roomy suitcases for our trip. As we were tromping down a cobblestone street for hours trying to find our hotel the first night, I heard Dan yelp, "Sh**!" and turned to see that he had accidentally broken the handle off own. Six days later, he was carrying the other suitcases and I suddenly heard a snap! I turned to see him desperately trying to jam a piece back on before I would notice. Yup, the handle on that one had broken too.
Oh, and we also lost the book my Dad had lent to Dan to read on the plane.
My parents just loved us when we returned.
2. Wrong train: I fell asleep for three hours on Dan's shoulder only to have him hiss, "Wake up! We're going to the wrong city!!" and hurriedly had to exit at the next stop, dragging two broken suit cases and sporting bedhead. Sloppy Americans= Us.3. The hostel stay: The night that induced new-mom-with-colicky-baby-level exhaustion. Except there was no baby- just four grown, snoring men. Read all about it here.
4. The most expensive metro ever: After dinner on our first night in Rome, Dan and I decided to metro over to the Colosseum to see it at night. We settled on buying the most expensive metro tickets (around 15 bucks total) because the stub said that it was good for 24 hours and we figured we'd use it the entire next day. After seeing the Colosseum and gorging on gelato, we came back to the metro around 12:30 p.m. When we slid our tickets into the machine to enter the terminal, a big red X flashed. Our tickets were no longer good! We went up to the attendant and began vehemently explaining that "the tickets have a 24 on them! Aren't they good for 24 hours??"
With the patience of a kindergarten teacher, the attendant explained to us that Italy was on the 24 hour clock (duh!) The "24.00" stood for 12:00 MIDNIGHT.
We paid 15 bucks for a two minute metro ride.
5. Sexy Wine:
Dan and I read that if we put our Rick Steve's guidebook on our table at a certain restaurant, we would receive free glasses of "sexy wine", a drink that the owner makes from homegrown strawberries. Being a sucker for any sweet drinks, I eagerly slapped the book down as soon as we were seated. No sexy wine ever came out. Then, when it was time to order, I nudged the book to the edge of the table, hoping the server would catch on. Still nothing. Finally, I tried taking a direct approach.
"Excuse me, signoire, but we have the Rick Steves guidebook with us. Could we have our free glass of sexy wine?" Blank stare from our waiter. "You know, the one made from strawberries. The one you all call 'sexy'." He shook his head and silently walked away. I was starting to think that maybe you had to talk to Mr. Sexy Wine Maker himself, so when the owner walked by, I flagged him down and opened the book to the promise of this drink "Hi, could we try your sexy wine?" (Thinking that the word "sexy" was being lost in translation, I maaay have even done a little shoulder shimmy...)
"No," he said shortly and walked off.
I was getting pissed. "Let's just leave, Dan," I whispered. Dan reached to pay the bill. At the top of it, he saw the name of the restaurant.
We were at the wrong one.
Cheers to our dumb ass moments!
Feel free to chime in with your own travel blunders! Or am I the only one? :)
2 comments:
Haha, traveling in foreign countries is nothing if not an adventure. The food looks absolutely AMAZING -- hopefully you can at least find some authentic Italian where you live?
xxoo Josie
http://winksmilestyle.blogspot.com
From what I heard, you parents did love you when you returned. And I'm just glad that I am not the only person to find himself in the wrong restaurant. Once we were confused when a restaurant didn't have our reservations, only to discover after we ordered that we were in the restaurant next door! And we didn't even have the excuse of being in a foreign country! --SMC
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