Misadventures of Katie and Adrienne

I thought I'd share a few mishaps along the way. All taken as non-seriously as possible, of course.

1. French Fry Overload- Katie and I needed to eat lunch during an lay over to Venice, so we went to a restaurant in the airport called "Cafe American." Katie ordered in Spanish, and in Spanish, the man at the counter said "I can't understand her." The boss yelled to him, "She's speaking Spanish if you would just pay attention!" So Katie ordered her veggie burger with fries and promptly dropped the burger on the floor. The manager was nice, so he gave her a new one, complete with fry side dish. One sandwich, two orders of fries. My turn. I ordered the chicken wrap with fries. I just got fries. I had to reorder, fumbling over pronunciations of "pollo wrap." I was also given a wrap and fries. Assessment at the end of the day: one veggie burger, one chicken wrap, four generous orders of fries. This is when I proclaimed "We could feed the 5,000 with these fries!" and Katie retaliated, "You really think so?" and I said "Well, no. You probably couldn't even get 1,000 pieces with these." In which Katie replied, "That sounds like a challenge!!" With the following photos, you can guess how we spend the remainder of our lay over.

before... after... ladies and gentleman, 1,000 pieces of fries hand-torn.

2. Cough Attack- Of course when you know you're not supposed to laugh, you laugh more. Well, as Katie and I were waiting for the opera to start we got a bad case of the boreds so we started playing a game where we would pick people out of the audience. Apparently we were doing this a little too loudly, and the lady in front of us turned around a gave us the stink eye. Well, when you're sick and everything makes you cough, trying to hold in fits of laughter proved to be unsuccessful.

3. not so easyjet- With large backpacks and large purses as our carry-on's, Katie and I were always a little weary trying to get on the plane without having to check our bags. We were successful until our easyjet flight which required one bag only. Not a carry-on and a personal item. ONE bag. So we shoved our purses into our backpacks carrying the larger items our in our hands because they just wouldn't fit. We were in the terminal sitting on each others backpacks trying to smash them down as much as possible. As soon as we got on the plane Katie and I were separated because the seats were first come first serve. So we were both nervous because there was no way our bags would fit in the overhead. We both shoved our bags under the seats. Well, the girl sitting next to me had a nice, clean carry on suitcase under her seat, and the flight attendant (who was really intimidating and Katie and I now refer to her as The Stickler) called her out because her suitcase was sticking out three inches underneath the seat. Not into the aisle, but just into her leg room space. The Stickler took the lady's bag from her and checked it. I'm in slight panic mode, so I'm trying everything I can to avoid my bag being seen. I was sure she would've made me apologize to the plane and then kick me off if she would've seen it. I'm covering my legs with the in-flight magazines, I'm taking my coat off and draping it over my legs, and that lady STILL caught me. But it was too late, the flight was taking off, and she had to go strap herself in! ah HA! Apparently the same thing happened to Katie too, and we made it. But not with a little more grey hairs showing up on my head.

4. First impressions - Our first dinner in Venice was supposed to be a nice, local dinner. We wound through back alley's, got lost, everything to find a place that looked more local than tourists. We thought it looked local when the chef, wearing crazy pants that resembled pj's and suspenders that had old men picture framed on them. We fumbled through ordering in Italian, and we could kind of tell that everyone was already looking at us weird. But the first big mistake was not us, but the crazy chef. He knocked over our pitcher of water with his elbow, and Katie, trying to make conversation, asked if those were the U.S. Presidents on his suspenders. His lack of response, and a closer look on our parts, informed us that his suspenders were of Mozart. To add to everything on top of that, we realized the French couple next to us had left their map. We were in need of a good map, because the only one we had was from the bus station, and roads weren't labeled and we had already been lost multiple times. So the crazy chef gives us their map. When the French couple returned for their beloved map, ol' chef ratted us out!

5. ice castle- Katie and I were at the top of Europe. Advertised at the top of Europe was an ice castle. 15 minutes before the last train left for the bottom of the mountain, Katie and I decided to hurriedly follow the signs to this ice castle. We descended some stairs and opened up a freezer. It literally was hallways and rooms made entirely of ice. We skated through the halls snapping photos. This was only a misadventure because we only had about 5 minutes to explore the thing. But that was also a good thing because we were the only people there the whole time. It was kind of creepy, but being in a room where the floors, walls, and ceilings are ice, you want room to slip slide around!

6. Scrabble Scramble- Here's a Swiss tip for you: restaurants in small mountain towns close early. The entire town closes early. Katie and I were ready to go eat when we discovered everything was closed. Including stores. Luckily, we found a vending machine, and we had left overs from our lunch so Katie and my nice Swiss dinner consisted of chips and salsa, bread and cheese, two candy bars, half a bottle of grapefruit juice, and a capri sun. We ate this delicious meal at our hostel and decided to make the experience all the more better by playing scrabble while we ate.

7. horriblenogoodverybadday- Flight was at 7:30am. Get up at 5am, be in the cab by 6am. Check in at 6:30. Wait at the gate until boarding. Busy morning, but we did it. Our first bad omen was when we got out of the cab, walked into the airport, and Katie just stood there looking weird. I asked her what was wrong and she just threw up. In the airport. On the floor. Second bad omen. When it was ready to board, we got in line, and gave the attendant our tickets. "Ummm it says the 2nd. Today is the 3rd. Your flight was yesterday." You don't want to hear those words when you have hostels booked, train rides to catch, etc. We took a cab back home, and booked a flight later on in the day and slept off the mornings mishaps. Flight take two. Everything was going smoothly this time around. We were waiting in line and I picked up my backpack and a pain shot through my lower back like nothing I've ever felt before. I felt like I was 90 years old. I pulled my back out. Everything seemed to fail us that morning, and it caused us to arrive at our hostel at midnight, but a flight, 3 train rides, and a 15-minute walk later, we were there.

8. Paper airtrains- Fact: when you are on a train at night and can't see out the windows for two hours, things get a little boring. I realized things get boring when I was writing in my journal and I get a paper airplane thrown at me. I look up and Katie has crazy eyes that are saying "HA. Take THAT." So of course we have a paper airplane fight that turns into our own version of "horse" like the game you play with a basketball, but instead our fists were targets (sometimes moving to make things more challenging) and our basketball was the paper airplane. Fact 2: Katie is much more skilled at paper airplane throwing than I am.

9. French Elevators- If you don't know what the French do for elevators, let me enlighten you. They stick a birdcage on an electronic pulley system in the middle of their spiral staircases. Katie and I, needing to get to the third floor, forgot about this, so Katie goes directly in and realizes that she can't turn around with her big backpack on. Realizing her mistake, I backed into the elevator so I could press the button. Well, I couldn't get all the way in so I smashed Katie who had to twist herself in a position where our backpacks would fit together. But as soon as the doors closed, she realized how bad it was hurting her, so I smashed up against the front doors of the elevator. Anyone who looked in on us would've seen my two hands and cheek smashed to the glass elevator sides, and Katie the contortionist somewhere around me. When we got to the top, the doors wouldn't open because I was smashed up against them. (These kind fold in, not slide apart) So we had to smash all backwards again and then spill out into the hallway. I'm pretty sure we woke everyone up by screaming, then laughing, then yelling "ow!" then laughing again.

10. Chateau d'If: the boat ride - We wanted to go on a tour of Chateau d'If (kinda like France's version of San Francisco's Alcatraz) made famous in the book/movie Counte of Monte Cristo. The water was too choppy, so the tour that docked at the Chateau was cancelled, but we caught a boat that rode around it and the coast of Marseilles. First, we were the youngest people by at least thirty years. We were also the only non-French speaking people on the boat, so we understood nothing of the tour guide's announcements. Then the boat was full, but we asked the captain if we could sit outside on the front of the boat. She said yes, but we'd probably have to come in once we left the dock because the choppy water would get us wet. Whatever! We felt like champions with the best seat in the house. After we left the dock, no water. But boy was there wind! Too stubborn to sit inside we were whipped around by crazy wind, and since the Chateau was at the end of the tour, we were determined to stay outside the whole time. Once we actually circled the Chateau, the water did in fact come, getting us pretty wet. When the ride was over, we had dried off, but the salty sea still got the best of us leaving us with chunks of salt all over us, our wind-tangled hair, and our clothes.

before... after...chateau d'if