Panzerotti Party!

Hey Hey!

Last night, we went to a friend's to make and eat panzerotti: delicious cheesy pockets.

Here's how you make them.

1) Acquire dough. Make a pizza type dough or just buy it at the baker's or ask the bakery section at your supermarket. Put it in a large bowl and let it rise, covered in dishtowels. It helps to finally cover it with a blanket.

2) Once the dough has properly risen, separate and roll into balls. The balls should be a little bigger than golf balls. Again, cover with a dish cloth and let rise.

3) Prepare filling. Crumble or grate mozzarella cheese (try and get the real kind, in water) and mix in a bowl with tomato sauce. Do not put too much sauce, this will make the panzerotti burst. Make sure your mix is mostly cheese.

4) Once your little dough balls have risen, roll them into little flat circles. I say, about 3 mm in thickness.

5) Fill with not more than a tablespoon of mixture. Keep in mind that the cheese will expand, so take it easy on the filling or your panzerotti will burst!

6) Fold over into a half circle and properly press the edges shut with your thumbs. It is important that the corners are properly sealed. You can cut the excess dough with a fancy edger, or simply press them down with a fork.

7) Heat vegetable oil. Gently place panzerotti in oil. They will expand and float. Turn them over a few times and take them out of the oil once they are nice and golden. (In the picture below, they are not ready, they need to be almost orange!)

MC and Luciano are very excited and hungry:

8) Share with friends and family!!! We had them with a side of olives, raw carrots, radishes and fennel. Yum!

Mozzarella, Ricotta e Caccio Cavallo

Cheese making 101! I wrote this last week for my family. If you don't know French, just look at the pretty pictures :)

Comment faire la caccio cavallo, le provolone et la ricotta à la maison.

Alors, on commence en chauffant le lait. Nous, on a fait chauffer 150L de lait. Il faut le filtrer dans un linge avant de le chauffer:

Juste avant que le lait bout, on le transfert dans un autre pot. Nous, on a prit des grosses poubelles en plastique (utilisées seulement pour faire le fromage bien évidemment) pour mettre le lait de côté. La prochaine étape est de mettre l'agent qui fait cailler le lait (ce qui le transforme en fromage). En italien ça s'appelle "càglio", en français, "présure". c'est un genre d'acide. La, il faut laisser le produit agir pendant 1 heure ou 2. Nous, on est allé prendre le café. Bon, vous allez vous demander quand on sait que le fromage est prêt. Et bien, après 1 heure, une grosse boule se forme dans le fond de ton lait. Il faut prendre un petit morceau de la boule, et le tremper dans l'eau bouillante. Si il s'étire (il est "stringy" et "slingy") le fromage est prêt à être travailler:

Voilà la grosse boule! Elle sera la source de notre mozarelle et de la caccio cavallo. Le liquide restant, on le remet dans la casserole qui a été lavée(Attention, tout se lave sans savon, juste a l'eau chaude!). Ce liquide sera la source de la ricotta. Pour l'instant, on met la grosse boule de côté et on se concentre sur la ricotta:

On réchauffe le liquide après avoir ajouté un peu de sel. On le couvre, et laisse chauffer pendant quelques dizaines de minutes. Quand une croûte commence à se former, notre ricotta est presque prête. Si le liquide bout dessous, on verse de l'eau froide sur les bulles pour calmer le brou-brou et on éteint le feu, le fromage est prêt. La on laisse refroidir pendant 10 minutes et on est prêt à la transférer. S'il se défait trop et se mélange avec l'eau en le transférant, il faut le laisser refroidir un peu plus:

La prochaine étape est de transférer la croûte dans des petits pots de filet en plastique. Ici, on a placé les pots dans un bac en bois incliné pour essorer l'eau en surplus. Il faut prendre une cuillère trouée:

Voilà le produit final! Quand l'eau est bien sorti du fromage, on met les pots dans le frigo. Nous, on a presque tout mangé d'un coup: chauffé sur les pâtes fraîches. Miam miam

Maintenant, la mozzarelle et la caccio cavallo (alors, la grosse boule). On la transfert sur le même bac en bois incliné pour faire sortir le liquide en surplus. Attention de ne pas l'échapper, c'est très lourd!!! Ici, Giovanni saved the day!

On coupe la boule en petits morceaux. Ici, on voit bien le bac. Il y a un trou à gauche pour faire couler l'eau. Nous, on l'a placé par dessus une décente d'eau.

On transfert les petits morceaux dans un bol. Ici, c'est un gros bol en terre cuite, il a plus de 100 ans!

Là on commence à travailler le fromage! On verse de l'eau bouillante (sans joke) dans le bol. Ça va mieux si quelqu'un tient le bol et l'autre travaille le fromage. La personne qui travaille le fromage doit être très brave parce qu'elle se trempe les mains dans l'eau très très très chaude!!! C'est intelligent de garder un petit bol d'eau froide pour refroidir les doigts de temps en temps. Bon, avec l'eau bouillante, les petits morceaux fondent et deviennent (de nouveau) un grosse boule. On presse les morceaux ensemble avec la main en les soulevant sur une palette de bois (on dirait le bout d'une rame) pour que la boule soit bien lisse. Pour une mozzarelle plus dense (pour faire fondre sur la pizza ou dans la lasagne) on travaille beaucoup la boule. Pour une mozzarelle légère (pour servir froide dans la salade ou sur le pain), on la travaille moins.

Quand le fromage est bien uniforme et s'allonge sans casser, il est prêt!

Wow!

Maintenant, on divise le fromage en tiges. et on fait un noeud (le "noeud en huit" est le meilleur, regardez à google). C'est important de travailler vite, parce que dès qu'il refroidit, il devient moins souple et casse (il "snap"). Par contre, si ton noeud n'est pas finit et ta tige a refroidit, tu peux simplement la tremper dans l'eau chaude et recommencer.

On a même appris à faire des tresses!

Voilà. La, on mets tout les petites boules dans l'eau froide. Tu les laisses refroidir. Nous, on les a laisser jusqu'à ce qu'on ait finit la "batch": c'était suffisant. Après tu peux les tremper dans l'eau salée pour quelques secondes pour donner du goût, mais ce n'est pas nécessaire. Il y a des gens qui préfèrent les laisser, et les saler juste avant de les manger (mais il faut se rappeler que sa ne goûte pas grand chose sans sel!) Ce n'est pas nécessaire de les conserver dans l'eau. Ici, on en a mangé plein le jour même et le reste ont été gelés.

Bon, le dernier fromage, la caccio cavallo. On suit les mêmes étapes que la mozzarelle. Ici, on travaille le fromage beaucoup, pour qu'il soit dur et lisse. À la place de couper en petite tige, on forme des boules. On prend un boule et on fait un genre de champignon. C'est un peu difficile à expliquer la forme... Il faut faire une boule, l'étirer par dessous, et rentrer le surplus à l'intérieur. Imaginez le "cap" d'un champignon, placez vos mains plates sur le dessus et rentrez ("curl-under") les bords en dessous. Après on retourne la boule et on la tourne dans nos mains. Une "tête" commence à se former (on voit Giovanni, le jeune en arrière sur la photo). On tourne la boule en la serrant jusqu'à ce la tête est prête à tomber (regardez Marissa, la petite en arrière sur la photo). Tout ça est fait pour enlever l'eau et les bulles d'air du fromage. Après, on coupe la tête, on trempe le bout dans l'eau bouillante et on presse le bout pour bien le renfermer.

Après un serre de nouveau la boule et on la forme en genre de bonhomme pour l'attacher par la "tête". On la met dans l'eau froide, et après on la trempe dans l'eau très très salée pendant 1 ou 2 heures, dépendent de leur taille. Une très grosse boule est trempée plus longtemps. Après on la pend et dans trois semaines, et on la mange! Une croûte sèche se forme et protège le fromage à l'intérieur (la croûte fait ce que la cire ferrait sur une autre sorte de fromage). Vu qu'il n'y a pas d'air ou d'eau dans le fromage, il ne va pas moisir. Ce n'est pas nécessaire de le manger en dedans de 3 semaines. C'est possible de le laisser sécher pendant des années, mais il va devenir plus fort, comme un parmesan. La caccio cavallo s'appelle comme sa parce qu'on l'attache avec une "tête". Si elle n'avait pas de tête, et serait un peu plus petite, ça serait de la scamorza. Si elle était immense et en forme de 2 paires de fesses, ça serait de la provolone. Ces trois fromages ont une texture très semblable, mais on leur donne différents noms car la taille et la forme leur donnent des goûts très distincts!

Et voilà! Giovanni est venu me voir pendant que je preparais ce texte, et il m'a dit qu'il ne faut pas oublier que faire du fromage, c'est un art. Tout le monde peu essayer avec la même technique, mais les fromages auront tous des différents goûts! C'est dommage que tous les fromages italiens industriels ne sont plus fait avec la technique que j'ai décris. Aujourd'hui tout est fait à la machine et les différents goûts sont grâce à des poudres et des agents qui ont été rajoutés...

A votre tour d'essayer à la maison!!

New lifestyle, new website

Big news!

We will no longer be using http://web.me.com/marieclaudehebert. From now on, this is our only website. I have copied and pasted all of the old blog's entries, but only the text. I will eventually make a small photo album that highlights the overland trip we took from Australia to Luxembourg.

We hope to update you often about our new life in Italy.

We have been living full-time in our spiced up Lancruiser, the Wombat, since October 14th 2008. It didn't feel like we were living in a truck because we were moving aorund so much. After over a splendid year on the road, we felt like staying put for a little while. It's time to get jobs and earn a little living because, despite looking all over the world, we still haven't found a money tree.

We chose Europe because it's warmer than Canada, closer to our family than Australia and more familiar than Asia. Jonny lived in Luxembourg for a while, so knows people here and there. What also attracted us to Europe was the fact that it is close enough to what we're used to, but can give us the opportunity to learn a new language! (Well MC anyway...Jonny can just practice the languages he knows).

Now, we weren't exactly sure where to settle. Neither of us are exactly sure of what we want to do in life, so we won't pick a country over a job. We thought of Italy, then Spain, then Gibraltar, then Spain again and finally (without any specific reason) picked Italy. Jonny studied Italian in school, and has always dreamed of being a pizzaiolo...

So we made our way across France, and picked up our puppy, then came into Italy. We were very happy right away. I had to go back to Canada to pick up my visa, but Jonny stayed back with Nomade, the puppy. He found a town he quite liked called Pistoia. After the holidays in Luxembourg, we returned to Pistoia to get settled.

After a few weeks, we realized it wouldn't be as easy as we thought. It was very difficult to rent an apartment for under 1 year, and without a work contract. Staying in the Wombat was getting to be a little annoying because it was snowing and raining all the time. So, we decided to go back to what was our first idea: Sicily.

We headed south with a lovely stop in Rome (Nomade loved the hippodrome, there were lots of other nice dogs she

could play with).We decided we would head East before taking the ferry to Sicily. We wanted to visit Jonathan's family friends in Putignano (in the province of Puglia, the heel of Italy's boot)...

We have now been in Putignano for almost 3 weeks, and have decided to rent a trullo right next door to their home in the country.

Here's wikipedia's definition of a trullo:

A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian stone dwelling with a conical roof. Trulli were generally constructed as dwellings or storehouses. Traditionally they were built without any cement or mortar, thus avoiding taxation.

The one on the left is not the one we'll be living in, but one I photographed a few weeks ago.

Though we have changed our mind, yet again, I am so happy to have decided to stay here. Starting saturday, we are going to be living in a typically Italian country hut, in the country side, with a yard, and a garden surrounded by little stone walls. We don't have to worry about little Nomade being couped up in a city apartment all day, we don't have to worry about the Wombat getting robbed or vandalized, we don't have to worry about being lonely: we've got great friends next door.

There are a few little things that may cause problems, but I'm sure we'll find a way to make everything work out. We don't have heating, but we have a fireplace, electricity, blankets, and cuddles to keep us warm. We stayed in the Wombat in the Swiss Alps in December, I think we can handle sleeping without central heating. The other little hiccup is that there is a little barky dog that sleeps in front of the house. The house owners (who spend the winter in the city 3 km away) come feed her everyday and we don't have to watch her, but she's a chronic barker. Jonny sees it as a challenge, and is sure to train her by the end of the month. Maybe she's not as bad as I think, I shouldn't complain until I've actually spent more time with her.

So, that's our life for the moment. I intend to write about lots of things we've experienced lately: cheese making, burning large fires in the city centre to celebrate a saint, eating lots of good italian things, visiting lots of trulli, learning italian, learning to play italian card games, ridiculous italian tv shows, the ponies and bunnies on the farm, Nomade growing up, learning italian songs, painting the italian landscape and the upcoming Putignano carnival.

I will make photo albums soon too!

MC

Happy Holidays with the Family

December 20th 2009

So we’ve had a very wonderful last few months. We spent October and November travelling around France, meeting up with friends and getting used to life with a puppy. We had such a fantastic time! I never would have thought that I would be so fascinated by that country. We ate, we drank wine, we ate and we ate some more. We made sure to taste as many local specialties as we could. Food is such an important part of travelling, and definetely an important part of mine and Jonathan’s lives. Most of what we do is related to food.

After France, we briefly hopped into Monaco, then back into France, and then into Italia! Jonathan settled in very quickly, because he speaks Italian. I understand Italian more than I thought I would, but people generally don’t understand me. I just need to practise and it will come. So far we’ve been welcomed to Italy and feel very good there. The people are very nice and fun!

I had to go back to Canada to apply for my work-holiday visa for Italy. I decided to take the opportunity to surprise my parents. My sister and her husdand picked me up from the airport, and took me home for dinner. I stayed in the car while they went into the house. Then, my sister said she forgot a bottle of wine she brought in the car. She came to get me. When we walked into the house, my parents still in the kitchen, she said “how about a little something from Italy” and I walked into the kitchen, with a bottle of Italian wine in my hand. Seeing the look on my parents’ faces was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

I spent a wonderful 3 weeks in Canada, while Jonny and Nomade were frolicking in Italy. Jonny met a woman from Montréal who runs a hotel, and got a bunch of tips from her on what we should do. He made friends with workers from the tourist information office in Pistoia, who gave him ideas on where we should work. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be in the Wombat alone, but at least he had the puppy to keep him company.

Once I made it back to Italy, we had to go apply for a residence permit for me. The law is that any foreigner staying in Italy for more than 90 days needs to apply for residency. This is a bit silly because if you stay as a tourist you likely won’t have a home, but still need a residency permit. It’s kind of hard to apply for residency when you don’t have a residence! Anyway, a nice lady called Mariana from a social aid office helped us sort everything out. Now we have to show up at the police station on the 29th of December because they have to take my fingerprints. It cuts our Christmas holiday a bit short, but at least it’ll force us to get our ass in gear and get some jobs!

We’re only staying in Italy for 6 months, but we still plan to get an apartment. I’m looking forward to settling for a little while. The plan is to try a bunch of things and see what we like. We still have no clue where we’ll end up next year, or what we’ll be doing, so it’s important for us to take this time to get inspired and find what we want to do in life!

Now we’re eating cookies, drinking eggnog, playing cards, walking Nomade in the snow, and having a great time. We’re happy campers!

Happy holidays to all!

MC

Sabred Champagne and Family Fun!

7 October 2009

We have had a fantastic time in Luxembourg. We are planning to leave tomorrow and head West to pick up our puppy. We will take a few weeks to enjoy France. Our friend Laurent has given us tips on where to go without having to pay for toll highways. It’ll be nice to take the country roads, and really get to see France. When we crossed Europe to Luxembourg in July, we did it in such a hurry and stuck to the biggest motorways, and we didn’t get to see much. Now, we’ll get lost in the middle of nowhere, have great wine, great food, and meet nice people. We plan to ask farmers’ permission to stay on their lots, or stay at petrol stops.

So, here are some highlights of our time in Luxembourg:

We went to Jonny’s parents’ friend’s friend’s farm/estate in France to have dinner. We had a traditional 7 course meal. Well, let’s start at the beginning. First, we went to his wine cave to see his amazing collection. Then, the owner came and sabred a bottle of champagne. I was amazed!! Then, (after 2 sabred bottles) we headed to the restaurant. First, we had a sort of paté de campagne. Then, Foie gras with truffles, and another paté with onions. THEN we had panned foie gras on a bed of apples with amazing sauce topped with salted green apple shreds. THEN we had carpaccio with balsamic vinegar rocket salad, grape tomatoes and roasted peppers, THEN we had apple sorbet served in Calbadoce, THEN we had magret de canard served with carrot mash, potatoes cooked in Lorraine style, and garden salad. THEN, we were all exploding, so we didn’t have the dégustation of desserts, but instead a flambéed cake. Seriously, one of the best experiences of my life. Each course was accompanied with the appropriate wine. I can’t imagine eating this way everyday. But I realize now, how much I love food, I love wine and I love eating. One amazing thing is that absolutely everything we ate cam FROM THE FARM! That’s the way it should be! It makes such a difference to eat food on the spot. It’s so much more flavourful... Anyway, I love French food very much.

Another fun time:

Jonny’s mom’s birthday was on the 1st. Jonny and I prepared a big fondue dinner for the family. We made different salads, vegetable platters, many sauces, the soup for the fondue and tiramisu. Jonny’s sister surprised Jonny’s mom and showed up for the evening from Strasbourg. We had a great time, and sang folk songs from Québec until the wee hours of the night

Now we’ve been packing like crazy. I cleaned the Wombat. First I emptied everything and cleaned for 2 days straight. It’s like new! Now, we had to sort through everything, and clean that, and repack the Wombat. We have lots of spare room, and are happy about that. We’ve set up everything for little Nomade, who is doing very well (we’ve heard from Laurent and Amandine). Tomorrow we shoudl finish up.

I found I have a skill at sewing. I’ve always liked it, but haven’t done it that much. This week, I made my own patterns and made things for Nomade. I made her a stuffed animal and some baseballs. I love sewing! It’s so relaxing and I feel great about myself once I’ve made something! woohoo!

Apart from that, we are happy and healthy and looking forward to head south. The weather is getting pretty bad here...

MC

Hello Luxembourg

22 September 2009

Here we are, in Luxembourg.

We have been here for a week or so, spending time with Jonathan’s family. We’re relaxing, enjoying the GORGEOUS weather and fixing up the Wombat.

We are still having battery problems after all this time and effort (and money) spent on the Wombat. In Islamabad, we decided to buy 2 new batteries because the one we bought in India wasn’t cutting it. We thought having two identical batteries would fix our problem, but it didn’t...Well, we’re not sure if it did...This time the problem is structural. Meaning that one of the cells from our battery leaked acid all over the place. We were in Canada for one month, and so could not attend to the problem right away. Result: Bucket loads of corrosion.

Jonny has been sanding down the rust and repainting the area where the batteries go. Now we have to battery shopping...again... We were planning on reworking the electrical system in the Wombat anyway, but this is just more work that we don’t need! We’re thinking of installing a third battery. We are power hungry.

Meanwhile, I began sanding the battery racks when Jonathan’s mother interrupted me and told me that Jonathan’s dad could take them to work and sandblast them. SCORE! So I moved on. I began reorganizing the seat/single bed in the back. We are going set it so that we can half unfold the bed for our puppy. I have made a list of what we need for little Nomade, and I’m trying to recycle as much as we can. Here is the list of things we have to buy/find/make:

Buy:

2 tarp lined blankets to protect our cushions (this will be the bottom of Nomade’s area)

a kong (a rubber toy for her to gnaw on)

a rope toy

a basket (to make her a bed, I hope I can find one...)

a crate (we’ll wait until she’s a bit bigger)

a leash and collar

Find:

a couple of towels to make sure she’s comfy

an old pillow for her basket

2 doggy bowls

Make:

a doll/toy for her to love and keep her company. I will make it out of old jeans, or old bathing suits. It’ll likely be in the shape of a kitty cat.

I think that’s all we need for little Nomade to hit the road with us. I called Laurent and Amandine the other day and they said she was growing up nicely. She opened her eyes the other day, and Gitane is being a very good mother. I’m looking forward to picking her up in a few weeks. This is my first puppy ever (and Jonathan’s!) I’m sure we’ll do a good job.

Other things that need to be done in the Wombat is hardcore cleaning! I’ll wait for Jonny to be done the batteries, and I’ll empty everything out. Now emptying everything out of a car does not sounds very challenging, but this is also our house, and contains our life. (Click here to get an idea of how much stuff is in the Wombat) I will wash everything and give away what we don’t need. There’s a great recycling centre in Luxembourg where you bring the things you don’t need and people are free to take them home. We just went there to drop off a whole lot of stuff, and i picked up a few things!: a French/Italian dictionary and a red ceramic flower pot to replant our Basil plant. I plan to reorganize everything so that all we have “loose” in the wombat is our 2 suitcases and my guitar. Before we also had 2 big boxes, camera bags, computer bags, an extra car battery, a large hand torch, etc etc. I want to reduce it so that we only have to move our suitcases from the back to the front seats in the evening, and so that Nomade will have the most room possible. Also, I’m FINALLY starting to learn that in life, less is more.

When you have tons of stuff, you have tons of stuff to worry about. There’s only one thing in life that people can’t dammage/steal/ruin for you, your memories! As long as I have photos and my journals, I’m happy :) Of course there are a some things we can’t (or don’t want to) live without, but I’m doing my best to live with the bear minimum, aka à la Jonathan!

I’m having a lot of fun in Luxembourg. We are eating amazing food everyday, drinking fantastic wine, and enjoying the company of family. Some highlights: Jonny’s mom won a club golf tournament over the weekend! We are all very happy. We went to Metz with Jonny’s dad to have a look around and were quite pleased. Jonny’s brother’s girlfriend Anja brought over her pet snake Josette for us to play with (as seen in the photo above). I had a blast!

Our plans are still to head to Sicily but I’m having some visa woes. I have until November 24th to figure things out. I think I’ll find something to study down South. Either in the south of France or the South of Italy. We want to stay warm :)

So that’s all for now. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary that we left our jobs in Australia. So much has happened since then, and I’m terribly happy to live the way I do.

Marie-Claude

Un beau séjour à Paris

7 September 2009

We arrived in Paris on Thursday the 4th to be greeted by my dear friend Alex. the weather was cold, but we were jet lagged and didn’t mind staying in. We met her boyfriend and their brand new puppy. Our first few days here have been amazing, especially because the sun decided to come out yesterday.

We have stayed on Alex and Dave’s schedule, (go to bed very late and get up in the afternoon) so getting over jetlag has been a breeze. I’m still covered in black fly bites from my last days in Canada spent at Jonny’s parents’ house in Ste-Émilie-de-l’énergie. A souvenir from home I guess.

Our time in Canada was so wonderful, but short! Certain moments, like seeing my family for the first time, my sister’s wedding, meeting new babies in the family, I had been dreaming of for so long. Once they came, I wasn’t disappointed! I had so much home at home. So many card games and g&ts... I am looking forward to my next visit already!

The day before we left Canada, we got some good news from our friends Laurent and Amandine. Their dog Gitane, the one we took back to Luxembourg from Turkey for them, had a litter of puppies and there’s one with our name on it! It’s a little black female with white paws, a white tail and a spot on her back. We are very very excited to meet this little one! We’ll be picking her up in 6-8 weeks!

So, we are still in vacation mode at the moment. We are enjoying Paris (they have vélibs here! They’re like Montréal’s bixi bikes and we love them!) Next week, we will either head to Belle-Ile en mer, or Luxembourg. Depending on which ride we can get... Our plan is to fix up the Wombat in Luxembourg (we need to clean it and reorganize it), pick up our puppy in France, and then head on down South to Italy. I’ll have to get a visa, but that shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t have anything really planned out yet, nor do we have leads for any jobs, but we’re not worried. We’ll make fun things happen, we’re usually pretty good at that.

Marie-Claude

Through Eastern Europe and now safe in Munich

18 July 2009

So we’ve nearly made it!

We’ve had a busy but exciting last week!

Our friends Laurent and Amadine (who we met in India, crossed Pakistan with and hung out in Iran with) had a misfortune. Their car’s engine failed in Turkey and they were told the whole thing is kaput. They have been repatriated back to France from Trabzon, their car is being shipped back but they had one huge problem. The insurance company agreed to fly their darling dog back to France for them but Laurent and Amandine couldn’t find a proper crate to put her in for the flight. They look all over town, made phone calls and had no luck. They sent us an email telling us about the whole thing, and we agreed to take Gitane the dog back to France for them.

We drove from Cappadocce to Trabzon (on the coast of the Black sea) and picked her up. The Wombat had a HUGE birthday on the way there. He turned 400 000 kms old!

We told Laurent and Amandine we would take could care of their doggy, and they were off to France the next morning. We left for Istanbul. We didn’t make it there the first day, but nearly. The highways were great once we got closer to Istanbul, but there were traffic jams late at night because of construction. We stopped about 100 kilometres outside of Istanbul.

Crossing the bridge out of Asia and into Europe was pretty emotional. We spent many months discovering many sides of Asia, and we had to say goodbye.

We found the great parking stop near the Hagia Sophia that was recommended to us by our friend Flo. We had to pay 5 Euro a day, but it was safe, attended and at a prime location. The attendee was very sweet and loved Gitane. He quickly learned her name and ordered her around.

I took Gitane on some walks around Istanbul. I was thinking how crazy it is the amount of things that dog has seen! Still, you can give her the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, or the Hippodrome, and she won’t be impressed. Give her 4 square meters of grass and she’ll have the best time of her life for hours.

After visiting Istanbul for two days, we left and headed to Bulgaria. We had no insurance for Europe and had to deal with that. We tried at the automobile club in Istanbul but they could only sell us insurance for Europe (the green card) for 15 days for 80 Euro. We wanted to buy a policy for longer, and they told us to try in Bulgaria. Once we got to Bulgaria. We had to buy a minimum of 1 month for 130 Euro. You didn’t save by buying more months, they just multiplied 130...So we took a chance and lost 50 Euro. It’ll happen sometimes...

In Bulgaria we stayed the night on this mountain. Gitane really enjoyed it and so did we. We don’t normally buy meat when we’re on the road. We made an exception and bought some to cook so Gitane could eat the bones. I think she appreciated it.

We crossed into Romania the next day. We had some trouble there with exchanging money...they wouldn’t take my credit card anywhere, and most places didn’t accept Euro (or gave you a horrible exchange rate). We really felt like we were in a place where people have no interest in helping foreigners, it was a shame.

The next day, we crossed Hungary. Everything went well. There was even a nice stranger who was intrigued with our license plates. He offered us help, gave us some tips, and even gave us sweet corn from his farm! We only drove through Hungary, but that man left us a great impression :) The place was much less stressful that Romania because they accepted my credit card.

We spent the night at a parking stop on the highway in Austria. There were toilets, picnic tables, a water pump, and loads of forest and grass for Gitane to play in. I didn’t laundry and got help from Jonny to wash my hair under the water pump. I then used the solar shower outside in my bikini. It had been about a week, I was desperate!

The next day (yesterday) we eased into Germany without a problem. We called our dear friend Bahama Jon to get directions to meet him. I was so happy to give him a huge hug! It had been so long since we last saw each other. We met his girlfriend, Sandra, who quickly invited us in. We had beers and chatted. It was wonderful

Then we were offered to have a shower. A real nice hot shower. Sandra even offered me to use her shampoo and conditioner. She has no idea how happy that made me feel!

We spent the night drinking good beer and meeting friends of friends. It felt like I was home, which is strange because clearly I’ve never been here and do not live here. I guess seeing Bahama has brought back a part of home. It’s a little taste of what I’ll be feeling in the next month, and I love it!

Tomorrow: Luxembourg!

MC