Multi-national mission: failed!

Well, it's now well past 10pm and I am still in Malaga, which means that I will not make it to country #4 within the same day. Hopefully I can still claim four countries in a 24-hour stretch. The flight keeps getting delayed more and more, now they are saying departure at 00:10, but I'll believe it when I see it. I still had one day of credit on the USB Internet key that I had purchased in Madrid, and I have been putting it to good use: I called the rental car agency to postpone my pick-up time, I canceled one hotel, reserved another, called a couple of people, and spent a good chunk of time chatting on line with a great friend from Berlin. How did we do it before the days of connectivity???

I am now in Milano, the day after. We did not leave until 12:45am, and by the time I found a shuttle bus to the hotel, I got to sleep after 3:30am. Still, country #4 within 24 hours. I got up around 7:45 to get the rental car and go pick up Elena at the other Milan airport. We then made it to my aunt's house, were the Italian-style overeating has begun in earnest. Also, my aunt dug up some very old B&W pics of my mom's family, pretty amazing! My mom is on the left, my grandmother in the middle.