No Return Ticket

At the moment, I have not had enough alcohol to make the words flow freely, and I'm not particularly inspired to write.  I would rather just sit back in my chair, read a bit, and stare at the awesome view and sunset that is about to paint the sky in the tiny little village of San Vincente de Alcantara, Spain.  But, my lovely wife Nicole, is itching to post about our trip so far, and so it is up to me to introduce this blog.  So here it is.

About ten months ago, after multiple efforts in multiple ways to start a viable PigWizard business without going into massive debt that I wasn't ready for, we decided to chuck it all in and move to Europe for a while.  I had never even so much as flown across the Atlantic but Nicole had lived in Barcelona teaching English for a little more than a year and a half, returning to California in 2006. She has wanted to return for years, and I needed a change of everything.  So we started saving, and planning.

I knew from my friend and former landlord Charlie Cascio of a website that would allow us to network with farmers, hostel owners and retirees that needed extra helping hands, and would provide a roof over our heads and food in our bellies in return. It seemed like the best way to stretch our dollars, and it suits my way of traveling.  Getting to a place and leaving in a week after staying in a hostel, seeing a few monuments and eating a few meals just doesn't is not my cup of tea.  I like to get to know the people that inhabit the place, get invited to house parties, BBQs, fiestas, luaus, pig roasts and wine bottling parties, and you can't do that much in a week or too.  Fortunately, Nicole loved the idea.

Then we decided to get married before we left, like, two weeks before we left.  I'm still recovering from the weeks of planning, moving stuff, feeding people, organizing carpools, cleaning up, thanking everyone completely inadequately, eating leftovers, packing, and working a day job.  It was awesome though, and we had the best weather we could ask for, with the most amazing backdrop, most gracious hosts, wonderful ceremony, wittiest photographer, incredible food, and outrageous bartender. I'm being inadequate again, without a doubt,  for not mentioning the most dedicated cake maker of them all.

So here we are, in SPAIN.  I don't want to be a spoiler, and tell you about all of the awesome things that we did and ate in Lisbon, or what we are doing on our first farm, or the amazing offer we have had in the Pyrenees that we are looking into, because my Baby Bird Nicole has been keeping notes for days waiting for me to do the introduction.

So I'll skip ahead to the end.

There isn't one.  At least not one that we know of.  Because we saved like crazy, got really generous wedding presents, and don't have to pay for room and board 90% of the time, so we can stay for a long long time.  (I know you're all bummed that you won't get bacon, but most of you haven't had much more than a taste to begin with.  Trust me, you're better off not knowing until we get back, because I had threats of kidnapping before we even left to bring me back to make the stuff.) So we are here, and it's awesome, and we miss you, and we don't have return tickets.  Hell, we don't even know where we are going when we leave this farm, but we will be sure to keep you posted.  Shoot us a line if you know someone that we should visit, hang out with, work for, or drink with.  Better yet, come and visit, and introduce us to your favorite people and places.