And then it rained...

I left San Francisco on Thursday evening after downing my last American food in a nearby parking lot (it consisted of a burrito from my favorite local Mexican restaurant - La Cumbre - in San Mateo... you should go there if you've never been!). I managed to sleep most of the flight, with the aid of ear plugs, an eye mask (provided by the airline!), a neck pillow, a sweatshirt, a blanket, and a few sleeping pills. I arrived in London Friday afternoon with exactly one hour between when my flight was due to land and when my connecting flight was to leave. I have no idea what time we actually landed or how long it took me to get off the plane, but the combination of that and the fact that I had to walk down a series of hallways that were probably a 1/2 mile long, take 3 escalators, go through customs, and go through security again... I missed my flight. I then had to wait upwards of 4 hours for another flight, which didn't get me to France until 10:30pm, which meant that Elise and I missed to last bus to Chambery where she lives, which then meant we had to sleep in the airport.

After a sleepless night on a cafe bench tied to my suitcase, we took a hour bus ride to Chambery where it was freezing and rainy. The next day we took a bus to Torino, Italy where we spend 2 1/2 days. Of course, the weather was terrible and we couldn't see the supposed gorgeous mountains surrounding the town. We had a nice time exploring and me taking pictures of everything and saw some cool buildings. We had lots of pizza, ate gelato, were given free drinks by a man named Jean Franco who offered to take us to the mountains, didn't pay for bus tickets, went to a market and talked to some sweet older women who tried to teach us Italian (which I am way better at than French), drank a whole bottle of wine in our hostel while being serenaded by the man in the shower next door, wandered around with only 4 euros looking for food, ate lunch at a restaurant that only took cash (oops!), saw lots of dogs in sweaters, and then went home on a train filled with children hacking up all sorts of germs.

Then, I tried to go to Paris but something happened in the midst of buying my train ticket and it was lost. So here I am, still in Chambery, eating my baguette.

Italy Pictures: click to see large

France Pictures: Also click to see large