A Stroke of Bad Luck...

The past week of my trip through Italy has been… a little unfortunate, mostly due to the fact that I am no longer in Italy.  It didn’t start out all too bad.  After my time in Sorrento, I set off to Orvieto, a small town of about 20,000 people situated on the top of a huge hill.  From the train station, the only way to get to the town is to take the funicular train up the side of the mountain.  The two days I was there were completely foggy, adding an air of mystery to the dramatic view of the countryside.  The town itself has remained largely untouched by any battles or wars, and it seems to have not changed much since around the 1300s. 

View from Orvieto

Orvieto

Another view of the countryside

            In Orvieto, I met my next Couchsurfing host, Martina.  Huge improvement over my last experience!  She made me feel right at home and cooked some amazing Italian dishes (and lots of pasta of course :)  The next day we went on a little road trip to nearby Civita di Bagnoregio, the strangest little anomaly of a town.  Civita is part of Bagnoregio, a city just outside, but Civita itself is a small village sitting on top of a plateau.  The strange thing is that the only way to get to the town is to park in Bagnoregio and then walk across a bridge suspended over the valley below.  Martina estimated that only about 20 people live there right now, because the town is in danger of literally falling off the top off the cliff.  Every time it rains, parts of the edge crumble off the side of the plateau… We also decided it must be a pain to live there, because every time you want to go to the store, you have to trek across the bridge, then haul all your things back up to your house when you’re done.  After Civita, we continued our road trip to Lake Bolsena.  It was raining so hard though that we couldn’t see, so back home we went. 

Civita di Bagnoregio

            This is about the time the trouble started.  Over the past week, my knee had been bothering me quite a bit, but stubborn as I am, I decided to ignore it.  Bad choice.  The pain kept getting worse until I reached a point when I couldn’t walk down the stairs, so I figured I should do something about it.  I had gone to the pharmacy earlier and after a long game of charades, bought a knee brace, but it didn’t seem to be helping.  So after some quick calculations, I realized it would actually be cheaper (and a little less lonely) to fly back to Spain and stay with Alex as I carry out my sentence of bed rest rather than hole up somewhere in an Italian hostel.  So back to Spain I went.  The stupid people at the airport actually weighed my carry-on, and of course, it was 1 kg over their measly 10 kg weight limit.  They informed I would have to pay some absurd amount to check my bag or throw things away.  I then politely pointed out that everyone around me was carrying at least an extra 40 kg in sheer body weight, so did my extra kg in my bag really matter that much?  The guy stared at me for a long minute, then started laughing and waved me on.  Hahahha  I should try this tactic more often!  By the way, did you know that you can now smoke smokeless cigarettes on Ryanair flights??  They even sell them onboard!  Something about this just seems so fundamentally wrong…

            Anyways, here I am in Spain again.  After a trip to the clinic and a slightly hellacious day in the hospital waiting for an x-ray, I was informed that I have a problem with the cartilage in my knee.  Apparently, my bones are scraping against each other when I walk.  Lovely.  I was ordered to a week or two of rest, a knee brace, and arthritis meds!! Hahhaha  I feel like an old woman :)   By the way, at the hospital we met this woman named Salud (which means health in Spanish).  Clearly, she is not living up to her name… Salud can also mean “Bless You.”  Why you would name your child that is beyond me.

            “Salud!”

            “What do you want?”

            “No, not you!  That man just sneezed!”

Anyways, after about an hour of jokes with Alex about Salud…. the hard drive on my brand new Spanish laptop crashed.  (Luckily they are giving me a full refund).  Then I got sideswiped by an evil flu virus and spent most of the week incapacitated in bed with a fever.  Today I finally felt better enough to get out of bed, so I booked a flight to Berlin!  I leave on Tuesday, and then I’ll go to Stockholm for the weekend to visit some family friends.  So yes, a little kink in my original plans, but it’s not like I really have anywhere I need to be anytime soon. 

Funny conversation with Alex and his family:

Elena (Alex’s sister):  Oh no! We forgot the árabe (Arabic man) at home!

Me:  They have an Arabic guy staying with them?  I must have missed something…

Alex: Well, Sarah and I are going out for a walk.  Do you want us to pick him up?

Elena: Oh no, don’t worry about it.  I don’t want you to have to walk around all day with him in your pocket.

Me: ….?

            Alex:  It’s not a big deal.  We’ll stop by and grab him.  Besides, Sarah has a big purse…she can put him in there.

Me: ?!?!??!

Later, I expressed my slight concern to Alex about this little Arabic man and what they were going to do to him.  He started laughing hysterically and said they were talking about a jarabe, not an arabe… which means cough syrup.  Of course.  That explains a lot.

Well that's it for now!  We'll see what craziness Germany has to offer! Ciao tutti!

Ciao Bella!

I used to think I spoke Italian… until I stayed with actual Italians :)  I’ve now been here a week in Italia, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Italians are crazy… but in the nicest sense of the term.   It’s what makes them entertaining.  Crazy drivers, crazy talkers, crazy drinkers, crazy whatever, but it makes them very fun to be around!

      I started out last week in Rome, staying in a hostel the first night, where I met Bryan from Colombia.  We laughed a bit about how stereotypically Spanish his name was, then we decided to go around Rome together.  We did all the typical touristy things: Colosseum tour, Fontana di Trevi, ate pizza and gelato, got lost about 8 times… I really do love Rome :)  The next day, I went to explore the Vatican and happened to run into Bryan again, so we decided we needed more pizza and gelato :)

      After my two days exploring Rome with my Colombian buddy, I met up with my first Couchsurfing host, which was… an experience, to say the least.  My host didn’t actually have a bed for me, or a couch for that matter.  We will call it more of a chair… right next to his bed…  He was also annoyed that I had no pillow or blankets, and didn’t find it necessary to provide me with either.  Minor details aside, he did take me to meet his friend, and they cooked me an awesome frittata with chicken and some other Italian deliciousness.  He also had me try some Slovakian spicy onion paste… blech.  Then the Hungarians arrived!  I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening at this point, since my Italian is clearly sub-par, and my host’s English was a little rusty as well… but from what I gathered, the Italian friend had lived in Hungary for a while with this guy and his sister, and they were coming to visit.  They were pretty cool… the Italians… well, they had us sit and watch them play video games for about three hours.

        The next day I went exploring some more, was told dinner would be at 8, and so I returned to my host’s flat around 7 to help him cook.  Long story short, he didn’t show up until 9, leaving me on a doorstep in some random suburb of Rome for 2 hours.  He cooked me some pasta though, which almost made up for it.  Then the Hungarians came over along with a zillion other Italians, and we went to botellón (pre-game) Italian style!  They bought liters of beer and little plastic cups and we had ourselves a little party in some piazza in front of a church.  Then they brought me and the Hungarians to what can only best be described as a rave… We were in some strange warehouse that was playing loud house music with no words, which was ok… then I noticed the dogs laying on the floor and people pouring beer on them…and then some guys tried to sell us light-up sunglasses and roses (think Portugal!), and at this point I just started laughing, because I was a little weirded out, but the Hungarians?  They looked like they might start crying.  Overall, a successful night :)

Naples

        After that I was off to Naples… I met some guy on the Metro who proposed a date that evening to go down to the sea and take pictures.   I naturally assumed he was in the Mafia and was planning on killing me and throwing my body into the sea, so needless to say, I didn’t go.  I did go on the Napoli Sotteranea tour, which takes you underground to see the ancient waterways, and I met some really fun people!  Joe and his French friend had been stationed in Naples with the Navy, and our tour guide Alessandro, was a riot with his Gerard Butler accent.  We all went out and had a hilarious night partying Napolitano style. 

Amici Italiani!

Sorrento

Positano

Amalfi

                Sad as I was to leave Naples, I am now in the beautiful small town of Sorrento.  Not too much to do here, and not too many tourists either, but the town is perched on a top of a cliff right on the Mediterranean.  I also took a bus down the coast to the villages of Amalfi and Positano… pictures can’t even capture the sheer beauty of this place.  Tomorrow I leave for Orvieto to stay with Martina.. and so continues the Italian saga.  That’s all for now!  Ciao tutti!  

New Year, New Beginnings

Here begins a journey.  A self-indulgent journey, some might say, but one I'd like to call enlightening.  I've spent the majority of my life doing what is 'expected of me' and doing 'the right thing'... not that there's anything wrong with that... but I have six months and I plan on using that time for myself.  For once, I don't have to answer to anyone, I don't have to be anywhere at a certain time... no classes, no bosses, no work, no deadlines, no rules... just me, my backpack, and my life savings :)  The goal is to see as much as I can, spending as little as I can, and making my money stretch as long as possible.  And, of course, to have fun!!

I've been in Spain now for about two weeks, where I got to celebrate my first Día de Reyes and got treated to Blancanieves Boulevard the Musical by Alex! I never thought I would reach a day when I could actually understand most of a musical in another language... Now it's off to Rome on Wednesday where I will have my first Couchsurfing experience! Although I'm a little apprehensive about traveling on my own, staying with strange people, etc., I am started to get really excited about the prospective of meeting so many different people and getting a close-up look at the life in other cultures, rather than one blurred by the lens of fancy hotels and tour buses.  So off I go....little Sarah is on an adventure!!