Flashback Italy

Mapp med bilder från Italien som uppdateras emellanåt. Kika in om ni vill!

Destination Florence

När vi stod på stationen i Pisa började molntäcket spricka upp och en blå himmel visade sig. Ett regnigt Italien är mysigt, men vi njuter så klart extra mycket när solen värmer oss. Vi klev på tåget till Florence och susade förbi ett vackert landskap.

När vi kom till Florence (som ligger 40 min bort och visade samma väderprognos som Pisa) låg återigen ett tjockt molntäcke över oss och det började regna. Mitt glada humör byttes till något lågmält muttrande. Jag ville verkligen ha en solig dag...

Men efter något kvarter började solen värma upp oss och humöret var på topp igen. Dags för lite sevärdheter...

Ett torg med fina byggnader, statyer utanför ett museum, några broar och lite annat. Alltid trevligt att springa runt med kameran, men jag föredrar en lugn liten by framför ett vackert men turistfyllt Florence.

Det blev god lunch och några italienska glassar och lite, lite shopping. Men mest gick vi...

En upplevelse  men jag trodde faktiskt att det skulle vara mindre och mysigare. Kändes skönt att komma tillbaka till Pisa igen!

 

It's all about the food!

Det må vara molnigt men maten är lika god för det. Vi går från café till restaurang till takeaway ställen och äter och äter.

Mat, det kan dem! Och matglada det är vi...

Italien levererar!

Guanajuato - part 1

We live in the white house
with the blue window frames

Leaving Mexico City was quite an adventure itself. There were more security than on an airport. I was checked 4 times. I must look very suspicious! But finally we got on the bus with some snacks that were included. The seats would fold back almost all the way down and we all were half asleep most of the time. After a four and a half hour comfortable bus ride from MC, and a 30 min taxi ride we finally arrived in Guanajuato! The goal with this trip!

It was nice to drive through the city by night and see all the houses lit up. And the last part of the ride we went up, up, up! If the cars have trouble getting up you can imagine how steep it is... But up we came and wow what a view! I didn't want to go inside, I just wanted to enjoy what I saw. Yes, it's a bit of a challenge to get here, but it's worth it!

The house and the hill

Kittens

The next day we went down the hill with my brother and had burgers for breakfast. Yum! Then we bought some groceries and started our climb up the hill. I have to say it went well. But yeah we were tired. So tired that we had to say in bed for a few days.

I don't want to blame the hills, I rather blame the filthy town we just visited. It was a few intense days and the air wasn't very clean. We came from the heat to some very cold nights. So the combination is probably what did it.

We've been fighting a cold ever since we left Sweden. So I guess it was inevitable. It's never fun to be sick on your vacation, but having the view we have and some nice cats to cuddle with, I guess it could be worse ;) And I did go outside one afternoon to feel the heat from the sun and to take some photos. So much to look at just outside the door...

Yesterday (sunday) we made it to our first meeting at Kingdom Hall here in Guanajuato. Such a lovely congregation, and they all came up to talk to us and welcome us! A young brother from the congregation had his very first talk. He did such a good job and it was very warm and uplifting. It was nice to be at an english meeting and it was actually easy to follow. What I really enjoyed was to sing our songs in english! Too bad my throat was sore, but I did my best... The congregation was a mix of people from around the world. Mostly from America, Mexico but also from London and Sweden. I'm sure there's more nationalities that I don't know about. Many of the brothers and sisters have moved here to fill a need. The Kingdom Hall is shared by four groups - spanish, english, sign language, and an indian tribe language (can't remember the name). We went home tired but happy!

Welcome to Guanajuato

The group

After some rest we finally made it DOWNTOWN! We've heard so many good things about this town, the congregation and the atmosphere here. And well, they were right! We took the 30-40 min walk and it was nice to both see the  city and to get a little exercise. Not sure how much I got because of all the stops I did to take pictures though ;) We could've had more clothes on because it gets chilly at night, but we found some restaurants with heaters. We (Rob, X, Jess, Joey, me and J) had a lovely time joking around, taking pictures, listening to the street musicians and the noise from all the people. We had some dinner at a place with lousy service - not going back. But they can't all be good. And we ended the night getting a drink at another place, just outside this very cool building that is sort of the centre of this city. It's so cool at night when it's lit up. I love it!!

We ended the night pretty early since we're not recovered from our cold. We took a taxi home for 40 pesos. That's 20 kronor. Split between 3 persons. Yeah, pretty cheap! And we didn't have to walk up that hill...

The funny thing is that they all have trouble finding this house. They always drive around a bit lost. It happened again. This guy knew the way to the area called de La Bufa, which is the big mountain behind our house. But still, he went the wrong way and we (my brother) had to correct him. The good thing about it was that we got to see even more of the breathtaking view!

Not bad for 7 kronor each!

The view from the house - Guanajuato by night

Over and out!

Mexico City

Oh where to begin. So different from the quiet peaceful island. One of the biggest cities in the world. And a couple of very busy days. First, meeting my brother, Robert - Robbie - Roberto - Rob - "Mr Good Hair"! :) With him were his friends Xóchitl (Sochill) and Jessica (Jess). Who are now our friends too :)

Brother and sister

After hugging and all that we did something that is sort of the Mexico City "thing" - we walk! And walk and walk and walk...  Oh and the thing about walking in this city is that you never get anywhere. That's how big it is...

Carlos, Jonathan, Stella

We stayed with a very nice couple, Carlos and Stella. In a very old and cold house, but big and beautiful. They only live there temporarily. It was very nice of them to open their home for us. And we enjoyed staying up talking about how things work in the field service in Mexico. They are circuit overseers in the Mexico City area. Miss them already!

Kingdom Hall

Monday morning we got up early to travel to Bethel which is on the outskirts of MC. Of course a lot of walking, then subway (which include a lot of walking too), taxi and then some more walking. The funny thing is that when we found a taxi/van the driver turned out to be a study of a JW. Isn't that something?! Xóchitl spent that hour talking to him. A nice beginning to a day at Bethel. He was very nice and offered to pick us up and drive us to our next stop. But we stayed so long at Bethel that we never made it. We managed to tell him though. 

Bethel: It's big!!! Three big buildings with translation, printery, dining hall and apartments. Besides that there's Kingdom Halls, one Assembly hall, gym, football and basketball field, laundry and probably more that I don't know about. The maintaining of these properties is huge and requires a lot of people working on it. And that they do willingly and voluntarily! Our guide was funny and took us on the official tour to the printery. Which was so cool! I've never been to one so it was amazing to see. Of course a lot of walking since it's so big.

After that he took us to one of the translation offices, since he's an overseer there. That was very fascinating as well! The work they put into translating is just incredible. They need to learn grammar for three languages and they translate and retranslate many times before it's done. One magazine like Awake takes one month to translate. They even have people in the part of the country where the language/dialect is spoken so they can catch up on terms and expressions they use so they will truly understand the meaning of the article. I think that's pretty amazing!

Also the amount of research that is put into write an article is fascinating. You can be 100% sure that whatever you read in the Watchtower and Awake is accurate. I haven't and will never doubt that!!

Look at more photos from Bethel here!

Bethel was truly the highlight and also the main purpose of the trip to Mexico City. As a city i'm not very fond of it. In fact I couldn't wait to get out of there. I actually blame the city for us getting sick. The air isn't very clean. But there was something other than Bethel that was really great about MC. The food! Yum, yum, yum!! And luckily we had two sweet spanish talking, food loving girls with us to guide us through their tacos! Finally some delicious food! Apparently they put lime, salt and salsa on everything. I already love lime. I do like spicy food, but this is on another level and it took a few meals before I really dug into the salsa. That last place - mmm!!! But oh my, my lips were burning after ;) And let's not forget about the Crema de Cajeta ;)


More photos from our adventures in Mexico City, here!

So what else is there to say about Mexico City, besides that it's BIG? I'm grateful beyond words for the worldwide family that we have!

There is nothing better I tell ya!

Sunset outside of Bethel

Over and out!