2006

February 24, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

We have had several epiphanies about Italy:

1) If there is a fire, you need to remember that you pull the door to

get out instead of pushing like a normal place. It gets me every time. I

can’t get in the buildings either.

2) If you try to walk through a family, they will decide to hold hands

so that you get clotheslined and can’t get across the street

3) It is never too late or too cold or too anything to eat gelato. If

you are Japanese, you can buy your second ice cream cone before you have

even finished the first one.

4) it is late, i am tired, i have forgotten my epiphanies, but don’t

worry, they are definately profound

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So, we went to a real restaurant for dinner. We had gnocchi and wine and

cannoli. It was real authentic Italian food and a branch out from our

typical choice of pizza. The restaurant has a wide pizza menu, so we may go

back tomorrow. The waiters won’t let you put your coat on by yourself, if

they see you puttng your coat on by yourself, they make you stop until they

can help you with the other arm. It is great, i was trying to race the

waiter, to see if i could get my coat on before he noticed, but a different

one came running. there is no fooling them; i think they could get the gold

medal for coat-dressing.

We saw one of the greatest things ever today; it was fabulous and we have

the pictures to prove it. Even more exciting is where we were when we saw

it- the train station. What could so captivate our vivid imaginations and

love of the quirky? THE BATHROOM!!! It should have been on the world’s

best toilets on the travel chanel. It was space age- it looked like an

elevator. You had to push the button and and then the door slid open like

an elevator and you stepped in and then it closed. It was an enclosed area.

You had to push a button for the toilet paper- ten pushes maximum. The

soap and sink were in the toilet stall, too, and they were both automatic.

Never have i had automatic soap before. (Cheri says that is because i

didn’t go to Avila.) Oh well, it was new to me today. You have to be quick

about doing your business, though, because after 5 minutes the door will

open automatically. When you are ready to leave, you have to push a button

to get out. Then the door closes and locks so you can’t get back in because

it is self-cleaning and sanitizing. Of course, it got water everywhere and

there was no coat hook, so it has a few kinks to work out, but it was neat.

I think it needs a rapid dryer, though, because it still left the toilet

wet. Maybe even better was once we had figured all of this out and the

Italian ladies came in and asked what it was, what if you are

claustrophibic, how do you get in, and once you are in, how do you get out?

Have no fear- with our flawless italian (ha, ha) we explained it all to

them.

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What does any of that have to do with Penguins, that is the question of the

moment, hmm?

Well, after we had shopped at 2 different olympic stores only to find that

they were both out of what we wanted but somehow still managing to spend 140

euros, we were walking back to the hotel, when people asked if we spoke

english. I usually ignore them and walk real fast, after shaking my head

that no i don’t speak english (but how could i answer if i didn’t know what

they said?) Well, Cheri stopped because the people were cute- they were

wearing Penguin Costumes!!! They were from the Society for the Conservation

of Penguins. Last time i checked, penguins were not native to italy; they

said it is a real organiziation and charity; they help with the rehabilition

of penguins injured in fishing nets, i think, and orphan penguins. Very

Worthwhile, but i am not sure where the penguins are. WE have seen a lot of

things in italy, but no penguins. They were selling penguins made out of

nutshells. i am a sucker for things made out of nutshells (just one of my

many collections). This penguin had the olympic rings painted on his belly

and on the bottom of his feet, it says Torino 2006. They are hand-made,

unique, one of a kind knick-knack treasures. Cheri said to them that we

would only buy them if we could take a picture of the 2 supporters from the

Society for the Conservation of Penguins. We feel that this is probably a

worthy cause that everyone should support, but even if it is not, it is a

great gimmick.

Time is running out, so we gotta go bye, bye.

can you believe the shoe store is open until midnight, so we stopped in and

bought shoes before coming here? They are cute- special shoes for the

olympics- of course, they are spanish shoes, but that is okay. now i have

olympic socks and olympic shoes, but i don’t think they match each other

well enought to go together….. what a pity

gotta go

thetwinsontour

ps- women’s ice hockey tomorrow- not sure who is playing but it is the

quarter-finals. should be exciting, i hope….

Too bad I didn’t wash my hair today 2/16/2006

February 24, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

Today was another exciting day of CURLING. We had tickets for the morning

session today, so we had to be up and ready at the butt-crack of dawn. In

an effort to save time and sleep a little longer, we both decided to forgo

the hair washing. We made it to curling right on time, but the crazy

Japanese crew had already taken our seats. They wanted to be there so that

they could be closer to the Japanese Curling Action. This is the real

excitement at the curling matches–watching the Japanese cheer on their

team. They had crazy Carmen Miranda style flower hats. they are so huge

and shiny. just wait till you see the pictures we took. we even asked one

of them to pose with us. he saw that i had an olympus camera, so he said,

“Olympus made in Japan. Very GOOD!” We said, “Go Japan!” they realy are

quite entertaining. Then on the other side of us was a whole section of

Itailan school childern. it looked like they drew flags for their art

project at school this week because they had itailian flags, japanese flags,

and one girl even had a british flag. they spent the whole match screaming

I-TAL-YA I-TAL-YA. then the head japanese guy went over there and got them

to scream JA-PO-NE JA-PO-NE. it was really all quite entertaining.

Japanese curling fans are the best dressed!

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We werent near any canadians today, so no further enlightenment into the

mysterious world of curling. Today we got the opportunity to spread the

Canadain knowledge. 2 american girls from washington dc currently living

in Moscow sat behind us, so we filled them in. There was some great

stratigizing going on today. Did you watch it? Exciting stuff.

We saw the TODAY SHOW again. Why did matt laurer have on orange pant and a

matching orange scarf? i think he has been in italy too long. They

interviewed Tody Dawson (Bronze medal Moguls or maybe more recognizable

from the Frosted Flakes Box) He came out and was making his way around to

sign autographs. he made it 3 quarters of the way around, then they made

him leave. he had to leave before he got to us!!! HOW HORRIBLE. We have

several boxes of his Frosted Flakes. I think he would have stayed, but the

Today Show needed to make Canoli and he was in the way. How Very, very,

very distressing.

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Dry your eyes because there is a happy ending to this story. I guess it

could be an ending to this story, or it may be its own new story.

We happened across an autograph session with ALBERTO TOMBA LA BOMBA. Yup,

that is right!!! ALBERTO TOMBA LA BOMBA!!!!!!!! (no one better have to

google him. but he is not on any frosted flake boxes) we were waiting

in a mob at one of the entrances when they came and closed the door. they

said something about 10 minutes and sent everyone away. it was most

distressing. We went back a few minutes later and saw that there was an

old lady laying on the floor surrounded by the green cross. (for some

reason, their paramadics wear vests that say croce verde) I don’t know if

she got stampeded or just fainted after meeting The LEGEND: TOMBA LA BOMBA.

We decided that they were never going to open the doors because he was

scheduled to leave in less than a half hour. We went into the next

building, and when we came out, Mari said, “the doors are open!! lets go!!”

We went back through the doors that we had been waiting in the mob at and

then were informed that the line formed out the door on the other side of

the building. We had a few moments of tension as the 5 oclock hour

approached. do you feel the tension? We were on tenterhooks and feared

that due to the typical italian effeciency, we would miss our chance to see

TOMBA LA BOMBA. Would it be that hard to tell people waiting at one door,

that they should really go to the other door? The 5 oclock hour came

and passed. TOMBA LA BOMBAs Really hot assistant started pointing at his

watch. would he stay a little while extra to compensate for the time that

old lady wasted by falling down? Did she ruin it for everyone?

The answer: HE STAYED!!!! i HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG BECAUSE WE DIDNT CARE

ONCE WE GOT OUR AUTOGRAPH AND PICTURE WITH ALBERTO TOMBA LA BOMBA!!!! DO

YOU KNOW WHAT HE SAID TO US? “SISTERS?” YUP. HE TALKED TO US!!! HIS

HOT ASISSTANT HAD ALREADY ANNOUNCED THAT WE WERE GEMELLI.

Hence the reason it is too bad that i didnt wash my hair today. it was

not a great hair day for meeting ALBERTO TOMBA LA BOMBA. Not Awful, but

not great either.

We are now off to the Olympic store to see if they have restocked what we

wanted.

Stay tuned for more exiting updates from thetwinsontour now that we have

found an internet place convenient to the action and our shopping needs.

Love,

thetwinsontour

ps-mullets are the thing with teen age boys. especially if you sort of comb

the top into a quasi mohawk. mohawk italian mullet–now that is stylin!!

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Secrets to Curling 2/15/2006

February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

So, we went to Curling today. We were excited because it was an inside

event and we are so tired of being outside in the cold, but oh my gosh, it

was like an icebox. We never took our coats off for the 3 hours we were

there. When we go back tomorrow, i will definately have on the long john’s

and hand warmers.

pause- for a product critique-

Hand warmers work great, but seem to work better once you are on the train

and are beginning to defrost. The toe warmers, are not worth crap. They

did not get hot until 2 hours after i took off my wool socks. All they do

is get in the way and make it harder to walk. we have enough trouble

walking as it is- my middle name is not Grace.

pause- product critique is over

Return to Curling.

So, today Cheri discovered the Secret to the Mysteries of Curling (or, as i

like to refer to is, Shuffleboard on Ice.)

What is the grand secret to comprehension of this quasi sport? They don’t

sell lightbulbs at the souveniour stand……

The secret is to find a CANADIAN!!! Ask them!!! Cheri asked the little old

lady wearing her stocking cap that said, “I love Life” and her grandson.

The little old lady thought it was rather boring, but she has been watching

it on tv and has been getting into it. Her grandson on the other hand, is a

fanatic and loved to share his knowledge. He just kept talking and talking,

or rather, enlightening and enlightening. It is a very strategic game.

Here are the main points for those of you watching at home without your own

personel CANADIAN.

*Only one team scored per round-inning- whatever you call it

*the team with the stone closest to the center wins, and then every stone

they have closer than the other teams closest stone, earns a point (we never

saw anyone with more than 2 points.)

*whoever scores does not get to be the last to throw-curl the stone in the

next round-inning

*it is best to get to go last because then you can knock the other person

out (sounds like a vicious sport-eh? )or get closer

**pause** They are playing Bon Jovi in the Book Store!! it doesn’t get

better than that….livin’ on a prayer. ….. livin’ on a prayer……

**end pause**

Back to more Curling- that is the secret too- you have to break it up- too

much curling at a time will make you go bonkers…..

*so sometimes you choose not to score so you can have the last stone the

next time for the chance to get some more points, or sometimes you might let

the other person score so you can try for more the next time

great strategy- but there were 4 matches going on at once- we missed some of

it, but if there was going to be any exciting curling action, our own

personal CANADIAN let us know and explained the magnificence of it all to

us.

the lady the pushes the stone for the norwegian team is quite possibly the

most famous female curler in the world- her name is dorothy- we were in the

same room as her- we were witnessing greatness and had no idea what was

going on, until the CANADIAN explained it. Go Canada!! Canada wasn’t even

competing while we were there, but go CANADA anyway!! The US was there, but

they were on the other side of the room. It was much easier to see the

Great Brittain versus Sweden match that was right in front of us.

Tomorrow- MORE CURLING- but we won’t have our own personal CANADIAN anymore.

we will be on our own to discover and relish the secrets of curling.

NO MORE CURLING

until tomorrow that is

so, my mother is worried because we haven’t talked about shopping. we

haven’t had time to do that much shopping because it takes so long to get to

and from events. as the delta pilots we befriended on the way to the luge

said, “it shouldn’t be called the Torino Olympics; it should be called the

somewhere west of Torino Olympicx.”

today, i went into a tobacco store to buy some POSTCARDS- not tobacco. All

i wanted was postcards and somehow i spent 84 Euros. Those were some

expensive postcards. You can buy souveniours, stamps, candy, bus tickets,

postcards and tobacco at tobacco stores. we went to the olympic store and

had to wait in line outside to get in. it was crazy. then, they were sold

out of half the stuff that we wanted. it was crazy. now we have to go to a

different store to find the stuff i didn’t buy earlier. we did buy polar

fleece blankets to wrap up in at the bobsled event on saturday.

it is cold, and even though we have on hats, scarves and gloves, we still

had some GELATO. it is truly never too cold for GELATO.

well, we are running out of time for the internet, so ciao ciao for now.

thetwinsontour

Japanese curling fans are the best dressed!

Venue

Our personal Canadians that taught us the secrets to curling

The curling venues have gotten a little bigger since 2006

My awesome snowboots will never look the same 2/15/2006

February 12, 2018February 22, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

We bought awesome new snowboots. i could expound on their virtues for

hours. lucky for you, i only have 26minutes left on my e-mail time, so we

will pontificate later.

Why will my boots never look the same, you may ask. (you should be asking

this to yourself now)

Yesterday we went to the mens downhill combined event. bode miller got

screwed, but that is not the point of this story.

we rode the train to OULX for an hour. then we took a 45 minute shuttle

ride on the bus to get to Sestiere where it was being held. the bus let us

off right at the security checkpoint and right in front if the slalom hill.

( i think that is the one with the gates that they claim bode missed one

of). then we had a 1.5 km DOWNHILL hike through snow, slush, mud, and some

definite sludge. it was slow going. especially for 2 girls from nice

flat kansas. (i may be quoted in bode milers hometown newspaper the

littleton courier saying, “im from kanasas. it is flat there”)

anyways it was treacherous. some people had muddy backsides. i was not one

of them. i managed to keep the mud all over my once beatiful boots and the

hem of my pants only. i was super glad that i decided to wear my jeans one

more day instead of putting on my last pair of clean jeans. that would be

horrible had i gotten my last pair of clean jeans dirty with a week left to

go. for those of you that are counting, we wore a pair of jeans (not the

same pair) and then brought 2 clean pairs each along with a travel bottle

of febreze. (some one please pick my aunt bonnie up off the floor.) it

works quite well. my boots are now a muddy, muddy mess. that is

why i say they will never look the same.

quote of the day from one of the olympic volunteer workers telling people

which direction to go:

go slowly. we have medical services, but is much better to see the

event.

the downhill skiing event was awesome. we had great seats right even with

the bottom of the course. they start way, way up at the top of the

moutain, so you can only see them once they get to the last jump and then

cross the finish line. the rest you watch on the jumbo tron screen.

also, there was a german oompa band in the audience, so it was fairly

lively. i think they may have only known one song. it was beautiful

beautiful weather. i wasnt cold at all, but i think that may have had

something to do with the mecca that we made down the hill. sweat was

pouring off me by the time we made it to our seats. the down hill event

really is down the hill.

notice we kept saying down. you know what you have to do to get out of

there? yup, thats right–you go up. very very very steep up. downhill

was treacherous, but uphill was tortorous. by this time, most of the snow

had melted leaving icky mud. we were huffing and puffing all the way.

we did make it though. then we had 2 hours to wait outside in the cold

for the next portion of the event. it was cold, damn cold. we got out

all of our warm weather gear. put on the extra pair of wool socks, tried

those worthless toe warmers. got our pocket warmers ready. put on the

hat, gloves, and scarf. used my cardigan swearter as a lap blanket.

then we were warm for about 5 minutes.

we decided to scavenge better seats because we were all the way over to the

right, which would have been perfect had they come down the right side track

rather than the left one. we scooted over 2 sections. we were pretty much

the only people in the entire section. this old italian man came up and

tapped mari on the shoulder to say that we were in his seats. the whole

section was empty!!! we looke at him, got up, then sat in the row directly

in front of him. unfortunately, mari lost her seat cushion under the grand

stand during this little fiasco.

we stayed for an hour. it started at 5pm. at 5;45, cheri said can we go

at 6? mari didnt even hesitate on that one. it was so damn cold.

during our next outdoor event, we will be wearing 2 pairs of long johns and

take our new fleece blanket. we will leave those worthless toe warmers

behind though unless someone can tell us a secret of how to get the fool

things to work…

we didnt feel bad about leaving early. we usually stay till the bitter

end, or maybe that should be bitterly cold end, since we did pay good money

to see the event. bode miller was in first place where he belongs, and we

were excited, and distraught about being cold and wanting to leave before

the final run at 730. then he got disqualified, so we said screw it and

left at 557. that about sums it up, and ive only got 3 minutes left.

ciao for now!!!

love,

thetwinsontour

ps-stil only eaten at mcdonalds once

ps-hot pink is a great color for the men in our audience

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Monday 2/13/2006

February 12, 2018February 13, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

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Ahh, we have finally had time to track down the internet. This was the

third place we tried before we found it. Torino seems to have a shortage of

internet and payphones. We found free internet the other day and wrote a

fabulous message- pulitzer prize winning, possibly- but there was a glitch

with the hotmail and it would not send or save.

So, we have been busy, busy, busy. We haven’t even had much time to eat

gelato- no matter how cold it is, it is never, ever too cold for limon

gelato.

Today we were at the women’s halfpipe snowboarding. go USA!!!!!!! Gold

and Silver- it was pretty cool. Of course, our tickets were “a piedi.”

That means on foot. They wanted us to stand “on foot” on the side of the

half-pipe. It was very steep and solid ice and snow. We are from Kansas-

we do not have the ability to climb snowy mountains for a very limited view

over other people’s heads to see the action. We lasted about 5 minutes and

only made it up a quarter of the way before we quit. Quitting actually

turned out to be a good thing for us as there was some GA seating off to a

bit to the side. From there we could see the whole thing- it was a bit

further away- but we got to see more and we could see the jumbo-tron for the

instant replays. i have no idea how cold it was. i heard them say it was

negative 3 celcius- anyone want to do some math? i just know i was cold.

cheri contemplated giving up and leaving before the final round of 12. We

stuck it out though, and as soon as the finals came started, the sun came

out and was shining bright- it was almost toasty.

Yesterday was the Luge. Now that was definately a hike. From the bus

stop we had to walk up, up, up to the entrance gate. Then we had to walk

up, up, up to the bottom of the run. Then we walked up, up, and up to what

we thought was the top of the run. Most people were too chicken to walk up

that high, so we had plenty of room to move about- this was standing, too,

but we had our own rail to lean against. We got there at around 2ish and

did not leave until it was all over, which was after 8. We were soooooooooo

cold. It was great fun though. We tried to take pictutes, but we just

got a lot of nice pictures of ice. it will make for a great slide show.

Look, we just missed the Latvian luger. Look, we just missed the german

luger- georg hackl- i had thought he was retired.

There is a record-book-tv type store here- FNAC- it is a chain, like a

european best buy. they are open 24 hours during hte games- hw fabulous is

that??? anyways, there were a lot of people in there wathcing the figure

skating pairs final on the big screen. we didn’t have time to watch because

we were searching down an internet. WE saw the short program on saturday

night. That was a great show, but i really missed the commentaries from

scott hamilton- he makes you appreciate it more. and, the seats were not

meant for comfort- they were meant for sardines. we were packed in so tight

we couldn,t move, and the seats didn’t have backs so it was a long night.

fortunately a big huge group of people from ernst and young left early, so

we flew down into their seats before they were all even gone. then we could

spread out into 3 rows; it was almost as good as sitting in a lazy boy at

home when you compare it to what we had. we were in front of a group of

noisy russians- were we on tv? russians are a rowdy. they cheered very

louldly everytime they russians took the ice and they booed when the

russians didn,t get first place.

Did anyone watch the Today show on Friday? We could have been on TV. We

were in the audience. Katie Couric and Al were there. We were hoping to be

on TV, but since it was filmed live, we couldn’t call mom to have her record

it because it was too late.

The opening ceremony was neat. We had an obstructed view, but it was

still cool. We were sitting behind the olympic rings were the athletes came

in for the parade of nations, so half of our view was of the rings. we were

in the very top row of the second level, so the third level hung down over

part of our view, too. We were able to scavange some seats here, too. we

moved up one row and it was amazing how much that improved the view.

Our hotel is okay, but this is the first one i have ever stayed in where

they don’t provide toilet paper. very odd. We had to go to the supermarket

to buy some. it is a one star. it doesn,t have toilet paper, but we have a

tv. very odd.

That is all for now i think.

Tomorrow is the DownHill. It is also Valentine’s Day. We will be on the

lookout for Bode Miller.

there are 2 parts to it tomorrow. one part is at noon and the second part

is at 5. i hope it is warmer tomorrow; we will have to see how long we

last.

thetwinsontour

mari and cheri

ps- we have only eaten at mcdonald’s once. we have actually only found one

mcdonald’s so far, and that took us a couple of days.

pss- we haven’t had much time to shop yet- that is very sad to me- but the

events have kept us very, very busy.

Ice skating

Our seats at ice skating

Ice Skating venue!

ice skating

Katie and Al from The Today show

Part of a luger

Mari at the Luge

Luge!

At the luge venue

Michelle Kwan on the Today Show

Our view of the ceremony

Our view of the opening ceremony

Alberto Tomba with the torch

Cheri with the flame

Mari with the flame

Opening ceremony

With the flame at the opening ceremony

opening ceremony

At the Luge

Torino 2006, Here we come!! 2/8/2006

February 12, 2018February 12, 2018 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

We have just discovered that if procrastination were an Olympic Medal Sport,

we would be double gold medal winners. Who would have thought that hotmail

will only let you send a message to 50 people at a time. Who would have

thought that we knew that many people??? So, our previous message was a

masterpiece, but now, this is what your are getting- the last one deleted

itself.

For those of you that don’t know we are off to Tornio, Italy to witness the

spectacle that is “The Winter Olympics.” Our suitcases are loaded down with

toe warmers and hand warmers and the thickest socks we could find- that

don’t itch. Don’t worry about us not being able to shop while we are there-

we have extra suitcases inside of our suitcases.

We purchased Opening Ceremony tickets off of E-bay last week- from England.

This is not recommended for the faint hearted. The Royal Mail service has

tracking numbers that they can’t track once the letter leaves England. The

tracking number continuously states, “your package is being processed for

shipment abroad.” What good does that do anyone??? And the United States

Postal Service can’t track a tracking number that isn’t theirs. Cheri

nearly had an apoplexy stressing out about the mail service. Thank

goodness, Peter Rabbit the mailman delivered them yesterday. (Imagine a huge

sigh of relief right here.) We know exactly the moment they arrived because

mom sent the NEIGHBOR over to sit in the driveway and wait on the mail to be

delivered.

We are attaching a powerpoint with more excitement for your pleasure. As

previously mentioned we are procrastinators, so if we missed anyone or

forgot anyone, we apologize.

thetwinsontour

mari and cheri

Colombia Day 9

September 16, 2017September 16, 2017 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

Columbia Day 9

Today was a beach day! There are lots of beach tour packages in the area. We opted to go with the most economical because it gave us the most time at the beach and included lunch all for the low price of $40,000 (about $13 so you don’t need to dig out your currency converter). When you can find transportation to a beach over an hour away for that price why do more research? Of course, it was a bit of a mad house trying to figure out which corner of the plaza we were supposed to be on for the bus. People kept dragging us all over the place, and it was so hot–even at 8 o’clock in the morning. But obviously, it all worked out.

fresh fruit with a drizzle of condensed milk

We made it to the beach, and then we paid $40,000 (yes, the same as the whole trip) for our umbrella and 2 lounge chairs–there is an upcharge if you want 2 lounge chairs. I managed to negotiate down from $50,000 but I was too hot after walking from the bus to our designated spot on the beach to haggle any further. They were prime chairs because the people next to us ended up laying directly behind/underneath them.

floating in the Caribbean ocean

And then we spent the rest of the day floating in the Caribbean ocean. It was glorious. The sand was white. The beach was narrow, but stretched for a mile or so. The water was warm, and fairly clear. It had a green tint. The water got a little wavy, but that may have been because of the massive number of jet skis for rent and the banana boat which also covered up the smell of salt water with gas fumes. And it was crowded with people, but we didn’t care.

Piña Coloda

I am not sure how many massages I turned down, but I turned down even more “pearl” and “coral” bracelets. All too soon, it was time to head back to the bus. Just one problem, the guide couldn’t find the bus. Now it doesn’t make much sense to me at all why he didn’t have the bus drivers phone number to call him. He walked all over the muddy parking lot in the blistering heat looking for the bus, and then to the next lot. All the while we stood there in the sweltering sun literally sweating out sunscreen. Finally, the parking lot attendant said there was an accident on the road, but the driver would be there soon. The way I look at it is that we could have had an extra half hour on the beach instead of wasting a half hour in a muddy parking lot, but oh well. The beach was still great.

Love,

thetwinsontour

Colombia Day 7 & 8

September 16, 2017 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

Colombia Day 7 & 8

Saturday morning we left Medellin just in time to avoid the Pope and all of the craziness that ensues. He arrived in Medellin at the other airport, so we were safe. Our plane was mysteriously delayed for over an hour and changed gates a few times though.

The airport in Cartagena is very close to the old town, so within 10 minutes we were dropped at our hotel right in the middle of it all. The only problem is that there are 2 Casa Blanca hotels! And of course, this one is way outside of our budget. They hailed us a taxi and sent us on our way. The taxi driver only had to ask 4 different people where the hotel was (fruit sellers on the corner, a man sitting on his couch in his living room, etc). The taxi drivers in Colombia ask a lot of directions though. We finally found it, but then our taxi driver got into an argument with another taxi driver about a one way street. So he parked around the corner and said that he would escort us to the hotel. Now I am not sure if that was to ensure our safety or to yell at the hotel owner for not having a sign. My vote is for the latter.

We had no plans for the rest of the day, so we asked the hotel guy where to go eat lunch and it was like he was a mind reader who could read the depths of our souls. He suggested Hamburguesa de Patacones– a hamburger that utilizes large, smooshed, and fried plantains instead of a bun? holy guacamole! That is what I am talking about! (I don’t even like guacamole, which is a pity because there are a plethora of avocados in this country– almost as many as there are hat vendors.) Needless to say, lunch was ah-maz-ing!

Who needs chips and salsa when you have banana chips?

YUMMY!

After lunch, we whipped out our handy little map and successfully navigated ourselves to the old town, which is the highlight of Cartagena, and a mecca for tourists. Anyone who knows thetwinsontour, knows they are directionally challenged and get lost everywhere they go. Quite the feat! Of course, there is no need to mention that we just had to go down the street and make a slight jog to the right to reach our destination. No need to mention that at all. That will be our little secret.

Unfortunately, it had started to rain. Luckily, this time we were prepared with our rain coats! Yeah! We actually used something we packed. We wandered around the old town, from gift shop to gift shop, but nothing caught our eye. Shocking, right?! How can thetwinsontour single handedly improve the economy of Colombia if they can’t find anything to buy?

We did eventually find the gold museum. The best thing is that it was free! thetwinsontour love free stuff! But, you knew that already. There were some nice pre-colombian bits of good work. We tried reading about it, but the rain, our full bellys from lunch, and the early morning flight had us battling to stay awake on our feet.

This is an example of El Dorado from “Colombia Day 1”

Right next door to the gold museum was the emerald museum– also free! It is like Cartagena speaks thetwinsontour language!! The emerald consists of 1 room, with a few examples of emeralds as they are found in the mines. Colombia is famous for emeralds, which you would know already if you have watched Romancing the Stone. The emerald museum is conveniently attached to an emerald jewelry store. Imagine that! It is not, however, the emerald shop named Romance In The Stone– that one is on another street.

After all this aimless wandering in the drizzling rain, we successfully navigated ourselves back to our hotel and crashed. Deeply and completely. So we could refresh ourselves for our Sunday in Cartagena.

This was not just any Sunday, though. This was Pope Sunday. The. Pope. In Cartagena. Where 92% of the population is Catholic. And they have had no papal visits since 1986. It’s kind of a big deal. And, I might have bought a souvenir shirt to prove it. We had originally thought to avoid all the craziness of the Pope, but we quickly realized that this wasn’t possible. Almost everything was closed. And there were crowds of Colombians in Pope shirts, wearing Pope baseball caps, and waving Pope flags. We couldn’t get across the street to the old town because the police had it blocked off for the Pope to drive down. This was quite the conundrum because we were looking for breakfast. We found a nice little street kiosk that wanted to sell us a solo cup full of shrimp and other seafood things, but that just isn’t breakfast food even if thetwinsontour liked seafood. Fortunately, they also served juice so we were able to get a glass of Lulo juice, sit at their tables, sip our beverages and watch the faithful gathering at the barriers to wait on the Pope. All this excitement and joy began to spread. They told us the Pope should be passing by at any moment. We decided that we might as well wait and see the old guy. When in Rome, and all that Jazz. Except we weren’t in Rome, and neither was the Pope. We were in Colombia! We quickly realized we forgot the selfie stick in the hotel, and we would need to get decent pics since we were not on the front row. Fortunately, amongst all the people selling Pope shirts, hat’s, key chains, flags, posters, magnets, and statues, there was one man with selfie sticks for 10,000 pesos! What a deal! $3 bucks to add another selfie stick to our growing collection.

We waited. And waited. Pretty sure the Pope must have stopped for a nap. And we waited. We thought for sure the people would be singing Ave Maria or reciting The Lord’s Prayer or something, but nothing. Just people waiting in eager anticipation. Then the helicopters started to fly overhead. The police started driving down the road. Then there was a random taxi. Then more police on motorcycles. And more police. And then the TV cameras for the 24 hour Pope coverage. Then there was a shout, and the crowd started to roar! El Papa! El Papa! The Pope was coming! And suddenly, there he was, standing up in the glass-enclosed Pope Mobile! Pope Francis! And he was smiling and waving at me! And going way too fast. Within 10 seconds, he had flown past us and disappeared into the old town. I thought the Pope would drive at a more sedate speed. But all too soon it was over. The crowds dispersed quickly, and the man selling Pope hats packed them up and replaced them with Cartagena caps. But the men selling Pope shirts out of a suitcase were having a heyday selling up their shirts, $7,000 or 2 for $12,000. How can you pass up a deal like that? Thetwinsontour certainly couldn’t! And that’s how in our post Pope euphoria, we ended up with $2 Pope shirts that we will never wear, but that Pope fever sure is contagious!

The Pope!

El Papa!

And he’s gone

Pope shirts!

So we walked into the old town which was full of hopeful Pope- shirt -wearing people, and closed shops and restaurants. We were so intent on finding a bathroom that we missed the Pope 2 times. We knew that there was a bathroom in the Gold Museum (which we later found out was closed) so we tried to get there, but when we got to the church, the road was closed. We turned around to go another direction, but before we made it too far there was a cheer and an empty Popemobile. Then later, after we had found a bathroom we saw a crowd of people standing at a blocked off road. Again there was a cheer! The Popearrazzi, aka thetwinsontour went off at a run, I mean a slight jog, I mean a brisk walk. Alas he had already passed. So close!

empty Popemobile

We had decided that our cultural and sightseeing activity of the day was going to be to walk along the city walls because literally nearly everything else was closed. So we walked along the wall, and there was only one spot where my mother would have said, “Girls that’s just not safe” because we were literally walking on top of a narrow part instead of the walkway beside the wall. Then do you know what happened? We came to a bridge over the road, and it was roped off with police standing guard and a building crowd. I asked the police, “cuando viene el Papa?” He said at 3pm which was just 18 minutes away! So guess what we did? That’s right, we found an open spot along the barriers and joined the Pope watch, again! Of course it was more than 18 minutes. It was so hot and humid, that I was literally melting. I could feel the sweat trickling down my back to my butt crack, but still I held my place with the selfie stick raised and ready to get a picture of the Pope. There were ice cream vendors everywhere, but we were afraid to turn around to buy one. Besides what would we do if we were eating a messy ice cream bar and the Pope came along? We would miss him. That’s how serious we were in our Pope watching. Everyone knows that thetwinsontour love ice cream, and don’t pass up that chance ever. Finally, there was a fleet of motorcycle police, and the television truck filming everything, but no Popemobile. He was sitting in the front seat of a small black Chevy. We almost missed him! But there he was, smiling and waving. And that my dear friends, is how we saw the Pope twice in one day. So on that note I shall end because what could compare?

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS Don’t worry! We promptly found an ice cream cart, and enjoyed an ice cream in the park.

The exterior of a restaurant that we did not eat at.

Mari on the wall

“Girls, that’s just not safe!”

Sitting on the wall

Colombia Day 6

September 11, 2017September 11, 2017 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

Colombia Day 6

We had planned to sleep in today because we have had a lot of early mornings this trip, and then take a free walking tour in the afternoon. We had heard great things about said free walking tour, and you know thetwinsontour love free stuff. However, they limit the group size and you can only sign up 36 hours in advance. We had tried to sign up 37 hours in advance, and then we forgot. By the time we remembered, 12 hours in advance, it was too late. So we were frantically searching for something to do while sitting at the food court at one of the many malls near our hotel (they always send us to the mall because there are no stand alone restaurants near our hotel, except McDonald’s) we found another Graffiti tour. We emailed them and they wrote back within 5 minutes even though it was after hours. Amazing response. So just like that we booked another Graffiti tour!

So no sleeping in too late today because we had to meet for our Graffiti tour at 10am. The first 2 hours of the tour we spent riding the Metro and a different set of cable cars than we had the other day. We kept getting off at each stop of the cable car so that he could explain some cultural stuff to us, then we got back on the cable car. We really got our money worth out of that one metro ticket.

At the halfway point, we stopped for a snack. Anyone who knows thetwinsontour is aware that thetwinsontour love snacks. Especially included snacks. And oh boy was this yummy–an arepa with a giant hunk of fresh Colombian cheese on it and a glass of lulo juice. Yummy, yummy. We devoured it.

Then it was time to hop onto a small little city bus to get to the neighborhood with the grafitti. Right as we were getting off the bus, it started to thunder. If you are reading that sentence as ominous foreshadowing, then you are reading it correctly. No sooner than we had stopped in front of our first mural than it started to rain. And then the heavens unfurled. We sought refuge under an awning. And it rained and rained. The owner of said awning invited us into his living room to seek shelter from the rain and even allowed us to use his toilet!! (my aunt doesn’t even allow me to do that!)

inside a Colombian house

sitting on a Colombian couch–they have a little snack stand in the front of the house which is what you see in the window

Eventually our guide decided that the rain had let up enough for us to continue. Said we were tourists and were here for the experience so we wouldn’t mind getting a little wet. Now thetwinsontour are always prepared. Always. (ominous foreshadowing). Yep, our raincoats were safely stashed away in the hotel because it had been so hot and sunny the previous days. Fortunately someone talked her reluctant sister into packing the 99 cent rain poncho that she has been dragging around the world since 2006. Of course, trying to put on one of those ponchos is not so easy–made me feel like George W at the inauguration ceremony. Luckily, I didn’t struggle as much as W, and got my poncho on after just a few seconds of fighting with it. Then we were off, happily snapping graffiti selfies in the rain.

Our graffiti destination was Comuna 13, a favela high up the mountainside that actually has escalators to get people up the hill. There are 6 sets of escalators in total. The elevators are also a Trip advisor top 10, but I don’t think we would ever have been able to find them on our own. They are clean and well maintained, with a guard at the top of each one (job creation more than safety), and each is covered by a canopy to protect from the elements.

The best graffiti artist (in our opinion, so it is true) in Medellin is Chota (Instagram @chota13). They all sign their work with their Instagram name. We went to a coffee shop near his home where his paintings cover the walls. Do you know who else went there recently? Bill Clinton! I don’t know if he bought any artwork or what kind of coffee he ordered though. I apologize for not being more informed because if I know what kind of hotdog he got in Iceland I should know what kind of coffee he got in Colombia. My only excuse is that I was mesmerized by the bright colors of the paintings.

Several people purchased paintings from him. If we had a few days, we could have had one custom made and delivered to our hotel. Since we are leaving Medellin tomorrow at 6:30am that was not really an option. Luckily, we were able to chat with Chota, and he had one ready to go at his house. He showed it to us, and we loved it. You have to study it to see all the details. It is a woman with a bird face. You know thetwinsontour don’t like birds, but we make exceptions for works of art as they don’t poop on you or try to peck your eyes out. In the background you can also see the Metro Cable car, so it is really a fantastic Medellin souvenir. Chota believes that color is life. Thetwinsontour agree with this 100%! Thetwinsontour love bright and colorful things–especially in their house, which is a giant cacophony of color. And of course we took our photo with Chota. The sad thing is, it will probably cost more to frame our painting than it cost to buy it.

our new painting by Chota

We had no other plans after our tour, so we headed towards the botanical gardens, which had rave reviews on Trip advisor and a butterfly house. Sounds fantastic, right? yeah, it was closed until Saturday. Well, fuddy-duddy. So we just walked around a bit looking at the grafitti murals under the Metro tracks for a while, and then headed back.

art under the Metro at Universidad station

Good Night!

Love,

thetwinsontour

This elephant is also by Chota

Colombia Day 5, Guatapé and Peñal

September 10, 2017September 10, 2017 / thetwinsontourblog / Leave a comment

Colombia Day 5

Today we took a day trip to Guatapé and Peñal. For some reason the tours there are really cheap. For the low price of $30 they pick you up at your hotel, feed you breakfast after 2 hours on the bus, take you to a couple small towns (not super interesting), take you on a boat ride to see the ruins of Pablo Escobar’s house, feed you lunch, and take you to the best selfie pueblito in the world. How can you pass up a deal like that? thetwinsontour love a great deal! We probably could have taken public transportation to get there, but thetwinsontour also love convenient travel as much as they love a great deal, but not as much as they love ice cream.

Pablo Escobar’s house looks really small next to our big heads

Anyways we took a boat ride on a lake they created in 1977 when they built a damn and flooded the town of Old Peñol. The main purpose of this is to float past the ruins of Pablo Escobar’s bombed out house and take lots of pictures. But there are also several nice houses that belonged to drug dealers in the 80s and 90s. Now one of them belongs to a famous Colombian soccer player.

Nice scenery on the boat ride

Lunch with a view! No, we didn’t eat those beans.

The next activity on the itenary was lunch with a beautiful view of Guatapé lake, so that we would have the energy to climb 744 steps to the top of El Peñol, “the rock with the best view in the world.” That part was not included. We had to pay $18,000 (about 6 dollars) for that torture, I mean pleasure. The stairs are nice, evenly spaced, cement stairs with a separate stairway for the ascent and descent. Every 25th stair has the number spray painted on it which is both very discouraging and encouraging at the same time. For example, step 100 seems to scream at you, “Why are you out of breathe already fatty? You still have 644 steps to go.” The same with 125 and 150. Then when you make it to 300, the labored breathing makes you do bad math because you tell yourself that you are halfway there. The steps don’t get encouraging until about 600 when you realize how far you have come and there’s only a few (like 144) left. Our guide had said it would take 15 minutes to get to the top. It took us 20, and someone stopped every 25 steps to breathe and read the signs telling you what number to call for rescue if you start to feel nauseous or light headed, or vomit. We were moving at a marathon snails pace. Once we made it to the top, we realized how breathtaking it was — both literally and figuratively. On the one hand, you are out of breath and sweaty. On the other hand, you are awestruck by the amazing views. From the top of the rock (which is privately owned by the way.) you can get a great 360 view of the surrounding area. The lake/damn is huge with little islets of land that break up the monotany of water give it the appearance of happy little islets and trees. Truly a sight not to be missed.

View from the top

The stairs going down

After what felt like just a few seconds of gazing at the bucolic countryside– actually I don’t know if a lake can be bucolic, may be that is just verdant grasslands with herds of grazing Shetland Kuhs– anyways it looked peaceful and serene and not at all like a former stronghold of the number one enemy of the USA, Pablo Escobar– we decided it was time to head down the rock. Because if you climb 744 stairs up, you have to climb 744 stairs down. There is no elevator, escalator, or zip line to get down. Just your own two feet. The down stairs are to the inside of the up stairs, so they are dark and dank with no view to enjoy at all. Which is a good thing because thetwinsontour had one thing on their mind. No, we are not talking about a sale at Kohl’s. We are talking about local ice cream snacks in local flavors! Hot, diggity dog! Yum yum!

Local ice cream selfie

What flavors did thetwinsontour settle on? Arequipa con pasas and Maracuya. Say what? Arequipa is like a dulce de leche/caramel flavor which evidently pairs nicely with raisins. Maracuya is passion fruit. Obviously, we opted for the local ice cream treat. They were kind of like a popsicle or one of those fruit bars, but they were cone shaped. Interestingly, the popsicle stick is at an angle. I was too busy devouring my ice cream to study the physics and logic behind this. Maybe it’s so you don’t lose so much while you are eating it? Or maybe it’s so it doesn’t take up as much space in the freezer. I don’t know. I just know that thetwinsontour love ice cream in any shape or form.

After that we went to the town of Guatapé which is known for its colorful houses. I may be wrong about this because our guide spoke in the biggest mix of Spanglish I have ever heard. His English wasn’t great, but then again neither was his Spanish. I don’t think Guatapé was always colorful. I think they added the color after the drug wars because color means life. Anyways, the part that makes it even more colorful are the zocolos, decorative carvings along the bottom of the building. They vary in content from llamas to sunflowers to pastoral scenes to the Virgin Mary. We took so many pictures, but you should know that. Selfie heaven. All too quick our time was over and we had to head back to Medellin.

And just like that, we are done with Day 5 in Colombia.

Love,

thetwinsontour

PS. Don’t forget to tell all of your friends to like thetwinsontour on Facebook. We need your help to get to a million followers. We are so close! Only about 999,640 to go. Let’s do this! We figure the more likes we get, the closer we get to our ultimate goal of a TV show travelling the world eating ice cream and candy. I know that you all want to watch that!

We took a sunflower picture this week too!