no parla italiano - Days 4-7

Alright, so to conclude the last one... France was beaten by Italy and is out of the Cup. Tear, kind of... I mean, I love France, but it would be so awesome to see Italy in the final just because I am here. Also, I left my notebook at the hostel, so I am not sure how well I am going to be able to recount these last few days, so here is an overview.

Day 4 - I got up and went to the station to take a train to fair Verona as planned. I was supposed to have a quick stop in Milano and then continue on, but I have started to notice a trend in the Italian train system... everything is late. I missed my connection and ended up waiting in line for about an hour at the station only to be told to take a train that was to leave in about 30 seconds. I, um, missed it and decided to do a little b-sing. I waited for the next train to Verona and got on. I told the ticket lady that the man at the station told me to take this train (which he hadn't) and she bought it. It was a nicer train than I was supposed to take... high speed and it even had power outlets at each seat. Pretty cool.
I got to Verona and made my way to the hostel. I met a group of older French travellers and they actually bought my bus ticket for me. They were really nice and pretty funny. Once I got to the bus stop I got a bit lost and really had to, er, use the facilities, so I aksed a woman for directions and then asked to use her bathroom and she let me. Italians are AWESOME. So once I was on the right street, I followed the signs and came upon a beautiful building with a huge garden and thought, "wow, this can't be it," but it was and the inside was breathtaking. The walls were covered in frescos, it was clean, even the bathroom had a fresco on the ceiling. The grounds were magnificent and the people were great. Verona is an amazing place.
That first night, I met some Swedish girls, Linn and Annika and we went into town. Pretty much everything is in waliking distance in Verona, so we walked to the market and got some dinner supplies and ate dinner in one of the main piazzas, piazza Brà. After thatwe went and sat down at a bar in piazza Erbe to watch the match, Sweden v. Russia. Sadly, Russia won and we made our way back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit and then went to bed.

Day 5 - So in Verona, there is quite a bit to do, for such a small town. We (the Swedes and I) bought a pass to all the major sights and spent the day being typical tourists. We went to the Arena, which is breathtaking. It is an enormous structure that seat about 30,000 and right in the heart of town. After that we checked out Juliet's balcony. I was a bit frustrated that the sight made it seem that Romeo & Juliet was real. I would have preferred to hear more about the history of the story. Anyhow, the next thing on our list was tha chiesa San Fermo, a really neat curch that was actually two. It was a romanesque style church with a gothic structure built over it. I have officially chosen my favorite style of architecture; romanesque. After that we ate lunch and got some gelato. It is sooooo good. I had hazelnut and sweet cream. We then climbed the torre dei Lamberti. It was so picturesque from above, exactly what Italy should be. The little streets and great architecture. After the tower, we set out to another church, Basilica San Zemo. We walked to the other side of town an saw this roman church that was equally awesome. It was in a part of town that was less travelled, so it was cool to see the locals out in the afternoon. We then trecked back towards the hostel, which was conveniently close to the teatro romano, the roman theater. There was a jazz band practicing while we were there and it was really cool. We wanted to get back to the hostel in time to eat their dinner, so we left with the intention of exploring the theater and adjacent religious structures the next day.
We went back to the hostel and had a nice pasta dinner with a salad and a cut of beef. We then watched some more football... I don't remeber which match was that night and met some more really awesome people. Verona was a great time for me. I was starting to get a bit lonely, so it was nice to meet some more people to hang out with. The atmosphere there was so great. We ended up staying downstairs until we had to go upstairs. It is really nice to hear about other people travelling alone and how it all works out. So, that was bed time.

Day 6 - Friday, I think, was a very relaxing day. Linn and Annika and I started out at the teatro romano. We spent a few hours lazily wondering about the place. Apparently, houses and other buildings had been built on top of the theater and was only just found again in the 17th century. Pretty cool, huh? After that, we ended up just kind of walking around and hanging out. We got lunch at a little deli and I had the most amazing pastry thing with mozarella and tomato in it. mmm, cheese. We continued to meander about the streets and fell upon monument after monument. We eventually went to the train station and I got a ticket for Bologna and then we went to the grocery store. We got a bottle of wine and headed back to the hostel to eat. Apparently Annika and Linn had a bit of a disagreement, so dinner was just Annika and me.
This made me realize how great travelling alone is. I get to do what I want when I want and how I want, which is rarely the case in life. I am very lucky to have this opportunity and only think that one month is not enough time. Many people I am meeting are doing around the worl trips over periods of up to a year. I was not really that into travel before, but after hearing about so many places, I am already thinking about when I can travel more, alone or with someone.
Anyhow, Annika and I went into town to get some gelato... I know, I know, twice in one day, but it is so hot here. We walked around once more and said goodbye to this place and its amazingly positive atmosphere. One last time we went to the hostel to watch the match... a crazy one between Croatia and Turkey. All the way to PKs. It is so much fun to watch soccer. I am so happy to have met so many friendly people.

Day 7 - So , I sadly said my goodbyes to Linn and Annika as we swapped names for Facebook. I headed to the station with, Eliana and Talia, two Australian girls who had stayed at the hostel. We ended up taking the same train, where I had an extremely interesting conversation with Talia about everything; life, travel, school, politics, religion. On arriving in Bologna we decided to quickly grab some lunch... as Bologna is the culinary capitol of Italy, before theur next train. It was a tight squeeze, but they made it. The specialty here is Bolognese style sauce... meat and tomoto sauce, so that is what we ate. We ended up bargaining with a restaurant and got 3 bowls for 5euro each, instead of 12. Go us!
I then got a bus ticket and made my way to the hostel, which is a bit outside of town. I met some guys from Sweden (the Swedes are everywhere!!!) and we waited for the bus and found the hostel together. They were pretty silly. So I got to the hostel around 4 and was too hot to go back into town. I decided to stay in for a bit and wait for it to cool off. Around 7 I started into town, but didn't have a bus ticket. I decided to walk - about 6k - and it took a bit of time.
When I got into town all I wanted to do was have a beer and watch the game, but I didn't see any places with TVs. Craziness. I finally just went into a bar and asked and the barman directed me to a backroom where only 2 guys were watching the game. It was a bit strange, but at least the game was on. At half time, I met a woman from Scotland, Liz, and she invited me to watch the game at an Irish pub where she was meeting her friends. Liz has been living in Italy for over 10 years, so it was cool to hang out with a semi-local. Her friends were a cornacopia of languages, English, Spanish, and Italian. Ok, well a small cornocopia. It was fun trying to communicate and I had a very nice time. I was invited to watch the "big game" (Italy v. Spain) tonight at an American's house, but I am not sure if I am going to go. The people were a bit older than me and while they were cool, I met some people at the hostel that are going to watch the game too. Anyway, a few of the poepl there helped me to get to the bus stop that I needed and I took the last bus back to the hostel. It was pretty funny, for about the last 10 minutes I was the only person on the bus. Luckily I recognized where I was and made it back to the hostel. I slept so well! It was great.

Day 8 - This brings us to today. This morning I went to breakfast, only to see Bec, an Australian girl who I had met in Verona and Rachel. We waited for the bus into town together and spent the day together. We started with an amazing lunch. I had tortelloni with Ragù. Oh, to die for. It was so good. I love the food here. I have been trying to "self-cater," as lonely planet puts it, but every now and then it is worth it to eat out. Especially when it comes to ice cream.
We took a look at the main piazza, which I saw last night. There is so much marble here and it is so beautiful. I am getting really bad at coming up with new adjectives, so if you have any suggestions... We then climbed up the 400 plus steps to the top of one of the towers and got a great view of the city. Towers are so cool. We sat up there for a while and ended meeting some Californians who are studying in Siena.
We then walked around for a bit and stopped in a pastry shop. For 30 cents each we got to try a little bit of the bolgnese specialties and they were very tasty. One had figs and the other was almond based. Mmm. So that brings me to now. I am going to decide what to do this evening for the game.

I hope I didn't forget too much, but if I did I will put it in the next, um, volume ;). I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you!
Again, I did not edit... so I apologize for the typos and lack of eloquence. Yeah, I consider myself to be an eloquent writer/person.