beaches & breasts!

Bonjour mes amis! I am just leaving the French Riviera and on my way to Pisa for lunch. By late this afternoon I will be in Florence and will be there for the next couple of days. In the meantime, let me catch you up with what's gone down since I last wrote to you. I last wrote of my time in Madrid...so let's start with Barcelona. I liked Barcelona a lot more than Madrid. It was a beautiful city with amazing history. La Sagrida Familia is an unbelievable work of architecture. For those not familiar with it, it is a cathedral that Antonio Gaudi was commissioned to create in 1882. It has been under construction since then and is expected to be complete in 20 more years. The city is speaking of building a metro and the plans include it running directly under the cathedral. Many engineers say that the Sagrida Familia will collapse as it is too heavy and a metro running beneath will not provide the support that it requires. The following day I went to a monestary in Monsterrat. It was in the mountains outside of Barcelona...but these mountains look like "ladyfingers" - the biscuits that you use in tiramisu. Very funky, but I still think the Rockies are the best. The nuns have a seperate castle from the monks but the nuns have theirs all pimped out with a pool. I wonder if they wear a one-piece or a two-piece suit? The monestary houses the black Virgin Mary and it is said to bring fertility when you touch her. I decided to give it a go but I had stomach cramps for two hours following the touch. Hmmmm....You think it did something? After the monestary, my girls and I strolled around Barcelona and then hit the beach. That evening we went to an authentic flamenco performance. It is unbelievable to see how much passion and emotion goes into that dance. The flamenco dance represents grit, pain, passion, and resilience of the oppressed and all of those emotions are clearly portrayed through this historical dance. After the performance, a large crew of us went to Port Olympico...a string of bars along the marina. Fochuk...you'll be proud to know that I was doing tequila shots for awhile and nobody had to carry me out (I ended up taking care of others). It was a fairly early evening...I was in bed by 5am. ;o) The next day was hell though. Hangovers ran amok in the bus. One girl passed out in the aisle. I felt awesome but was really tired. I think my body has just accepted the constant stream of alcohol running through my veins. I think I may have to check into a detox when I get home. AFTER Stampede of course! After Barcelona we headed to the French Riviera. I am officially in love! Nice is everything I thought it would be...and more. I bought a canvas painting off an artist and I also purchased a beautiful oversized white leather bag. Heidi spent 700€ by noon. Oh mon dieu! We dropped our purchases back at the hotel, grabbed a bottle of wine and a baguette sandwich and climbed to the top of La Colline du Chateau - the mountain that overlooks all of Nice. After our beautiful lunch, Heidi and I rented crusier-style bicycles and rode along the beach promenade. C'est tres magnifique!! All the boys that were jogging along the beach ran a little bit faster as we rode by but couldn't keep up to us. I still can't believe that I cycled along the French Riviera. J'adore the south of France. After our ride we went to the beach and both Heidi and I were incredibly overdressed in our bikinis. I can confirm that topless women are the majority on the French Rivierian beaches. We had some major drama on our way to dinner that evening. On our way to Monaco, there was a delivery truck parked on the street blocking the lane and a small Puegot car parked halfway into the street with its 4-way flashers on. This is a regular thing that happens but people will lean on their horns and the drivers generally come running to move their vehicles. This didn't happen in our case. Our bus was halfway round the corner and it was right at a t-intersection...so nobody could go anywhere until the truck moved. After 5 minutes of waiting and at least 30 cars lined up on the two streets, we knew that we could jimmy the bus by the truck IF the Puegot moved. So since the driver didn't want to move her car, we moved it for her. Four guys on our bus picked up the car and moved it to the side of the curb. It was unreal! But then the owner showed up right then and went completely insane. She was Algerian, approximately 20yrs old, weighed no more than a buck, and acted like she was a gangster. Her scrawney boyfriend was maybe a buck-ten. She was screaming French obsanities at us and then spat huge gobs on our bus. This got the giff riled-up and I showed her that I knew my own French expletives. The chick went mental! We started driving off and she hurled a pop bottle at our window. And it doesn't end there. We drove up to this scenic point above the harbour and she followed us there. She was claiming that we dented her piece-of-shit car and she wanted to fight our entire crew. She was also seeking me out but couldn't remember what I looked like. Bring it on sunshine! She was still screaming falic stuff at us but we mostly understood the hand gestures that went with her babble. She laid down on the road in front of the bus and said that no one was leaving until the police got there. But the police won't come unless someone is hurt. I offered to make that happen. After more than 40 minutes of her blocking the bus and two lanes of traffic (on the side of a mountain) and physically shoving the guys around, we were finally able to get her to agree to drive up the road to this castle that we were on our way to explore and sort this issue out there. I have some great pictures of the entire event. We had dinner in Monaco that evening and then went to the casinos in Monte Carlo. It is so incredibly glamourous there. It confirmed once again that I need to live in the French Riviera. We also had some big winners...Pietro put down 2€ on the blackjack table and 10 minutes later he had 255€. Mark entered with 10€ and walked away with 370€. I am now on my way to Pisa for lunch and then to Florence for dinner. I am so excited to be in Italy!! Thank you to everyone who has posted comments on my blog. I love hearing from all of you. Congratulations Carla and Kevin! I'm so glad you got your little girl! I can't wait to see some pics when I return! There also better be some pics from funday It sounded like you had a blast. I also loved the voicemail from Rusty's room! Caro...you, me, stephen ave, stampede. We're on chiquita!! This note has been long enough, so I better sign off. Miss all of you incredibly, Giff