Travel Adventures with the PagaPops

Last week, John's dad and sister postponing their trip to France until July left us with the prospect of a 4-day weekend without any plans. We knew we had to take advantage of the long weekend but our idea to drive along the Loire and visit chateaus for a little wine-tasting didn't seem as enticing without John's family. On top of that, we thought that without Pop-pop and Auntie Lisa, the drive might just bore the girls. Last minute beach plans and rentals were out of the question as all of those would have been rented out months ago. We've learned that if a holiday is coming up in France, booking travel and hotel reservations in advance is a must. With all this in mind, we decided to take the plunge and check out Disneyland Paris, formerly known as Eurodisney. Perhaps the hardest part of this Disney experience was navigating the website. After juggling problems with the English (UK version) and French sections of the site for half a day, I was finally able to ord...

There's a little phrase in France that I think is quite appropriate for me to use right now and that is...à tout à l’heure! I plan to catch up on my blog à tout à l’heure, in other words, right away. I learned from the Orange (phone company) installation man and the water heater repair man, right away doesn't necessarily mean right away. À tout à l'heure can vary from a few minutes to an hour more or less, leaning more towards the more side of an hour and maybe even more than more. In other words, don't hold your breath and drop everything you're doing. Just wait a bit. So, I will write again and you can catch up with the Pagapops - à tout à l’heure.

This morning we awoke to the sounds of hundreds (?) of M-80s and other firecrackers/firebombs exploding in the neighborhood. If I didn't know this 7 AM wake-up call was supposed to happen, I would have thought something was seriously wrong and Valencia was being attacked. But all was well and the explosions echoing in the park and courtyard behind our apartment were intentional. They were simply the Valencian way of signalling the offical start of Fallas week. The initial barrage lasted about 20 minutes - 20 constant minutes of cannon-ball like sounds amplified by the open plazas around our apartment surrounded by close buildings. After the first 30 minutes, explosions would burst again, periodically. And then, as if everyone had finished refueling, the continuous blasts would begin again. And continue off and on throughout the day, although not with the same intensity as at 7 AM this morning. I believe this will be our wake-up call every day this week until Fallas is over o...

Have you ever felt as if your head were going to both implode and explode as your body quickly disintegrated into a million pieces? That is the closest description I can give to explain how I felt during today’s mascleta at Ayuntamiento Plaza. It was an experience I will never forget and one I will never experience again. Once is enough – for the sake of my sanity and my hearing. I still feel like my head and insides are a jumbled mess. Is it possible to physically dislocate the inside of your body? Our journey to mascleta at City Hall began on Monday when John mentioned that there was a possibility that we could experience the mascleta up close and personal. One of John’s colleagues (Pepe) at the university has a connection at City Hall and was applying for tickets for us. The applications were approved and today, after we (“the distinguished professor from Illinois and his family” – apparently, these our application titles) met up with Pepe, Jordi (John’s host at the universi...