Hitchhiking, Tuscany, and Hotels

 Kindra here- Oh my goodness! How much has happened since our last blog post....where to begin? We have been in internet silence for the past several weeks since leaving Duruxa, as hitchhiking doesn't exactly provide extensive internet opportunities. Now, however, we are splurging in a hotel *gasp!* and going logistics mad, catching up online. Anyways, here's at least a few stories of our past few weeks traveling from Cangas de Onis, Spain, to Tuscany, Italy.

What became a common site as we hitched

Things got interesting for the last few days at Duruxa when Austin had a few back episodes, cramping, etc., but God completely healed him as soon as we hit the road! We have met the most interesting and kind people while hitchhiking, even if it took us an average of 1 hr while waiting on the road to meet them =) We were picked up by young Spanish couples, middle aged single French  men and women, and groups of Spanish and French men-all as unique as can be imagined. Mary in Spain, for instance, was living in her big white van with her bf (who is a mountain hiking and canyoning guide in the Pyrenees!) teaching art to children and the elderly in Bilbao-hands down one of our favorite cities we've been to, while Jean Christophe in France (with his gorgeous Peugeot) works in the technology with chips in passports and credit cards-and both were equally warm and eager to tell us all about the region we were driving through. Needless to say, hitchhiking if nothing else broke many stereotypes I had coming in-not a single ride from a big rig!

Another common sign, literally, for us as we tried hitching to San Sebastian

Chorizo and cheese with bread-our Spanish version of pb&j on the road

An incredible grown up playground in Bilbao, Spain we discovered! Rope courses, big slides, rocks-it was so much fun! Incidentally the guy in the left of the picture turned out to an American, and the partner of a Cirque de Soleil acrobat that was working in a show across the river!

We saw the Gugenheim in Bilbao....from the outside

So between hitchhiking, trains, buses, trams and metros, we made it to Mr. Millers in Tuscany, the land of rolling golden hills, olive orchards, abandoned castles and plenty of local traditions, and where his patio view and REAL BED! awaited us-a bed and shower has never felt better or been more needed. He was a wonderful host and eager to show us the surrounding areas, such as Sienna, which was full of rich, bizarre Italian history, such as the Palio di Siena horse race. Seriously, check out this race, it's hard to believe! While there we had some needed time to rest and recuperate from our taxing albeit adventurous journey getting there, and realized something: Austin and I haven't had a space of our own or alone time NOT traveling since April. At all. And we realized something-while being a tourist is exciting, it is also exhausting, and we needed to recharge alone together. Hence, the current hotel splurge.

Montpellier-where some kids stole about 3 euro from our out of a tram ticket machine. Sneaky little ones.

Enjoying being a girl in Cassis

Cassis!

Feeling the toad tiredness in Nice.

We have set aside this season of our trip as a time to reconnect with each other, apart from the exhaustion of traveling and figuring out how we're getting to the next place; and just as important, to reconnect with God. We so believe He has a desire for us on this whole trip experience, and we have not been prioritizing time with Him to sit and listen as we would like to. I am convinced there are specific things He wants to reveal to us, show us, tell us, on this trip and no other time in our lives, and I don't want to miss this incredible opportunity to deepen my relationship with Him. So we are reevaluating our trip, assessing what has been good, what has been hard, and how/where/when we want to continue our journey. To help with this, we are going to the French island of Corsica tomorrow for 10 days-with NO real plans =)))) We will arrive on the ferry, take a train to the northwest, and start looking. Listening. Walking. Camping. Sitting. Being. And nothing else. My heart is already so looking forward to the room to expand and rest there!

Tuscany

Our host, Mr. Miller, on the right getting ready for his flute concert at the pizzeria next door to his apartment in Murlo.

Once our time on the island is over, we will joyfully bound back into Italy to meet Austin's mom in Milan, who is visiting for 3 weeks!! We will be WWOOFing with her in Switzerland for 10 days, then just enjoying the area with her for another 10 days or so until she flies back to America. As we haven't seen any family since we left in January, we are SO excited about this gift of time with her!

It's hard to believe our time here in the hotel is already coming to an end and our internet will again be a luxury not a norm, so the blog is short as the night gets late. And, after all, we have been wanting to finish watching Return of the Jedi for about a month and tonight is our last night ; ) Let's go and see what Corsica is like!