Adventures in Wine

On my last contract, my very favorite couple, Shane and Bridgett decided to wait until after I had been to Italy already for the last time to request that I buy them some Italian wine. Instead, I attempted to buy them some Spanish wine in Malaga. Since it was at the end of my contract, I didn't have any Euro on me, and the wonderful wine shop I found didn't take credit cards. So, I came home empty-handed (wine-wise)

Flash forward to now. Each time I've been to italy, I have not been anywhere near a wine shop. The one time I saw one in Rome, we were on a tour and I couldn't stop. Then we returned to Malaga. Cash in hand, I was very excited to find that wonderful old wine shop I had found on my last trip. Sadly, it seems that the wine shop no longer exists there. I can't be certain, but there was a brand new sex shop that definitely wasn't there last time and is right around where I remember the wine shop being. I decided that sexy Spanish massage oil was not the same as wine, so no gifts for Bridgett there (...hi Mrs. Mamola!)

Today I was in Nice and passed by a cute little wine shop on the way to the center of the city. I asked the shopkeeper "Parles vous Anglaise?" He replied "Only a little." I replied "Je parle un tres tres petite Francais." That ended the French-speaking part of our interaction. By "a little," he meant he could hold a simple conversation. By "tres petite" I meant that I could formulate enough French to explain, in French, that I wouldn't be speaking any more French to him.

After helping me pick out a local red wine, I pulled out the 100 Euro bill I had been given in the hotel in Lisbon. I had no credit card with me, so that was my only currency. He looked at the bill an unually long time, moving it back and forth and trying to catch it in the light. Dissatisfied, he showed it to his wife who seemed a little more approving of it. "I'm sorry, I can't take this, I'm just not sure about it. Do you have a credit card?" So, my malagan attempt at a wine purchase was foiled for lack of cash and now it seemed that my French attempt would be foiled by lack of credit card. But, unwilling to be put off (and failing at getting anyone else to make change), I went to the ATM and took out some smaller bills and bought some lovely local red wine from Nice for my favorite couple.

...complete with a story filled with sex shops and international intrigue in the form of suspicion of Euro counterfeiting.