Italy

So I'll try this again. I've attempted to fill you all in about Italy
but the internet has not been cooperating.

Let me start out with it was AMAZING! Pasta, pizza wine and the beach
will never ever be the same again.

The adventure started out last Wednesday after work. I took the train
to Memmingen to meet the rest of the group. It wasn't looking all that
promising as it was cold and rainy. I met Emily and Erin in Ulm and we
met Danielle at the train station before heading to our hotel. We had
to stay in Memmingen since there were no trains that would get us to
the airport on Thursday early enough. As we were leaving the hotel to
go meet Colin and Jenn and find some food the door across the hall
opened. There were two girls there and they asked if we were English.
We of course told them we were Canadian and heading to Italy in the
morning. Turns out there were as well. Not all that strange since the
airport was close by. As we were talking we learned they were
ballerinas with the Stuttgart ballet. This was interesting to Danielle
and I as we had met a Canadian in Stuttgart two weeks before who was
also studying with the same company. We told them this and one of them
(Jen who is Italian but lived in Africa, UK and Germany) was shocked
as she told us this person we had met was her best friend! The world
sometimes is really too small.

With our new friends in tow we headed downtown to grab some food and
pick up Colin along the way. With the help of a bouncer from another
restaurant (he said the one we were looking at was full of old people!
haha) we found a great place to eat. We first tried the downstairs
part but was ushered upstairs to the younger people part. The host
from downstairs came with us and said he would let us order from the
menu downstairs though. He loved us and the fact that we spoke
English! After explaining what everything was and what was good he
took our orders. As we waited for our food the waitress brought us
some free drinks from the Chief is what she told us. Sometimes being
Canadian has great benefits over here :) Jenn joined us here since
here train was late. After we were done we headed back to the hotel to
grab some sleep before the adventure truly began.

The next morning we grabbed some cabs to the airport once we were up
and ready to go. We had to check in a bit early since we are not part
of the European Union. After we were checked in we grabbed some
breakfast (pretzels of course since the German's are pro at these)
then went through security before boarding the plane. The plane was
packed so we split into twos to find a seat. Jenn and I sat by an old
man thinking this would be okay. Well it was but interesting I guess.
He turned out to be Italian and only knew a bit of English but was
slightly better at French. Between the three languages we were able to
talk to him a bit. Once he found out we were Canadian he wanted our
address to send us a post card. Jenn nor I wanted to do this and he
had already made names for us so we made up an address for him. I felt
slightly bad until I found out apparently he took a picture of me
while I was sleeping.... yeah interesting old man who thinks I'm Mary
and from Charlottetown Nova Scotia!

After landing our shuttle was at the airport waiting for us. He was
holding a sign with my name on it since I was the one who booked it! I
now know that German's are not as crazy drivers as the Italians! He
however did get us to the hostel safely and agreed to pick us up on
Saturday morning to have us back in time for our flight. After we
checked into the hostel which turned out to be a sweet spot we put on
our bathing suits and headed to the beach. On our way we did stop at
the grocery store to get some sunscreen, snacks and wine. We spent the
afternoon on the beach. It was so nice!

After the beach we headed to the hostel to have showers before heading
downtown to grab some supper. It took Danielle getting the neighbour
to show us how to turn on the hot water to get showers. However it
took longer then we had so our first showers were cold ones. It's a
good thing that I can rock the beach hair and didn't need a full
shower just enough to get rid of the sand :) We walked along the beach
during sunset to go downtown. With map in tow we were in search of a
restaurant that had been suggested by the person who checked us in. We
had no luck we even asked the police where to go but we didn't find
anyone who spoke English! We did run into some men in fancy uniforms
coming out of the state building from a dinner but they weren't from
there and didn't know where to go. So we kept looking we were giving
up so we asked some locals where we could eat and they sent us to a
great restaurant! We had real pasta, wine and bread. After supper we
grabbed some galeto (ice cream will never be the same!) we grabbed a
taxi and headed home for the night.

On Friday we were up early and the first ones in the grocery store to
get food for breakfast. We grabbed some fruit, juice eggs and yogurt
there and some fresh baked goods from the bakery next store. We ate on
the balcony of our hostel and had quite the feast :) After everyone
was ready and had water supply for the day we headed out in attempt to
get the cable cars up the mountain behind us. We were walking for a
while with no luck but we found a lot of interesting things. We
stopped to ask directions again but the English was a fail once again.
We decided to give up on them for now and headed downtown again. We
grabbed a bus at the closest stop since it was a long walk. The bus
was crazy and we made some new friends! Well Erin had a little boy
(wearing pink sparkly shoes) fall in love with her, an Italian woman
loved us and wanted to take out pictures for us too. Again the driving
was nuts! The driver was on his phone, going through the tight streets
and tonnes of traffic. He must have lots of practice that's for sure.
After getting downtown we had some real Italian Pizza for lunch. This
is where we found another new friend. This one was a dog as there are
a lot of stray dogs that wander the city. He took us to the pizza
place stayed there while we ate and then escorted us through the city
for a good part of the afternoon. We saw some amazing sites and were
out on the tip of the city in some ruins. It was a great time but we
decided to grab some more gellato before heading to the beach for the
afternoon.

For our final night we took another bus down town and were able to
find the restaurant that had been suggested to us. I'm sooooooooo glad
we did as it was the most delicious and amazing food I have ever had.
The hostess was great (bonus that she knew some English) and the food
even better. It was a tiny little place but very nice and we could
even watch the chef make and cook our pasta and food for us. Sadly
after this is was time to get some final gellato and head back since
we had an early flight.

The flight back was old creepy Italian man-less at least. We were all
dead to the world before the plane took off but we woke in time to see
us flying over the alps! It was a very clear day so we had a great view.

Italy was a tonne of fun and it was hard to got to work on Monday
after that! I will fill you in on Lake Constance (was there Saturday)
and the past two days another time. That's all for now but stay tuned
for more adventures as I'm off to Venice on Friday! Chow