Friday was full of firsts for me: train ride, hostel stay, and travel within Italy (outside of school trips). I was going with my new friend Darcy who I met in Ravenna last weekend. We met at school at noon and then walked to Santa Maria Novella train station. It was so easy to ride the train! There are a bunch of self service kiosks where you just have to pick a destination and then use a credit card to buy a ticket. The train ride was about two and a half hours long which I spent talking with Darcy and reading my book. Once we got there, we bought bus tickets because we were staying at a Farmhouse hostel in the outskirts of Perugia. The hostel was suggested my Darcy’s friends and even though it was a twenty minute bus ride from the center it was well worth it! Plus it was only twenty euro a night for a private room. We got on the bus…going the wrong way (for the first time). So we ended up riding it to the end of the line (for about twenty minutes) and then it turned around and we rode it for about forty more minutes. It was a great way to see the city! Like a one euro tour guide! When we were at the end of the line, I told the driver where we were going, and he just laughed and told us to stay on the bus. When the bus stop came, he turned around to tell us to get off and told us where to walk. Seriously, again, the Italian men being extremely helpful. In Peruiga (unlike Florence) not EVERYONE speaks English so I managed to do this in Italian. The hostel was so cute! It was a farmhouse with goats, geese, and chicken. There was a big kitchen/living room and then four private rooms with a bathroom on the second floor. On the first floor, there was a tv, pool table, and a general hang out room with a few more rooms. The first people we met were a fabulous family of four. We did the basics…what’s your name? How long are you staying? Where are you from? And guess what…the family is from WEST SEATTLE!! Finally, some normal northwest people ;). Even better, the mom, Kathy grew up in Tacoma and went to Mt. Tahoma and then Foss. They spent the week before in UNIVERISTY PLACE (my hometown which is a small suburb of Tacoma) where the dad’s parents lived. Also, they asked me if I happened to be in the 8th grade class that did the wonderful sculptures on the corner of Bridgeport and Chambers Creek. Of course I exclaimed, I MADE THE TREE TRUNK!!! And then Randy (the dad) pulled out his kids sketches of our 8th grade art project totems. I made my tree trunk in the most recent art class I have taken (in eighth grade—seven years ago) so obviously I was surprised how well known my first publicly displayed work was ;). This family was absolutely amazing. They were traveling for TEN MONTHS! As a family, the two children were ages 13 and 9 but were so mature. I usually don’t like kids…so it says a lot that I liked these ones! The parents were absolutely amazing they were “home-schooling” there kids as they traveled around the country. Starting in Italy and France and going to all these western European countries and then eastern European countries and then the Middle East.
One of the other guys we befriended immediately was Nigel from Australia. He was a wine maker and was just taking a one month vacation and was going to travel around Europe for a while. He was really interesting and used to work in the Willamette valley and also in Romania making wine. Nigel was friendly, outgoing, talkative, funny, and very entertaining and cute too (of course). But, really, most importantly, he made wine! Apparently, all these amazing guys are just hanging out in Europe waiting for me.
At night, Darcy and I went out with the owner of the hostel Manuela and his girlfriend Laura and their friend Christian. By the way, Laura is from Pennsylvania and went to college in Allentown—her brother also goes to Temple (where my Mom used to work). Small world. Christian was absolutely obsessed with Sly Family Stone and would not shut up about it when he found out that I actually had heard of them. He was actually obsessed with like Motown to funk so we talked about that a lot. They took us to the center of town and we parked in a parking garage and then took like a series of five escalators up to the center. There are so many people (seemed even busier than Florence) and everyone just drinks outside. It’s also much, much colder than it is in Florence (and I was not prepared for this). But that doesn’t seem to affect anyone because people aren’t in bars. It was also very nice, because the predominant language spoken at night is actually Italian! Which isn’t that surprising because we are in Italy but in Florence, English is pretty widely spoken at all times of the day. There was also way less of an American presence, there are lots of Italians but also lots of foreigners from all around Europe and Asia (there is an Italian university and a university for Foreigners). The first night was kind of boring because we were tired and felt obligated to hang out with the native Perugians who drove us there…but we did meet a few cool people. My grandma e-mailed me after my last post and said that she and her husband got questioned about their nationality all the time in Europe and that is now happening to me…anytime I got remotely comfortable with someone I met (i.e. three times this night), they would say “you don’t look American. What’s your nationality?” So America, I am showing Europe your new face.
In the morning, we headed into town with the wonderful Seattle family and Nigel. We got off the bus a little late (not shocking as our record with busses does not get better) and then we went toward the town. We split up with the family and then Nigel, Darcy, and I walked around the center. We had some lunch and split a bottle of Umbrian wine (of course) and I had some Umbrian lasagna. My food and the wine was excellent and so was the company. Nigel is so funny and interesting. He also speaks Italian conversationally which is helpful. Oh and he used to make wine in the Willamette valley so we bonded further! Then for dessert, we of course had to have chocolate! Perugia is famous for its chocolate! We went to the base store of Perugina which is the big Nestle owned chocolate factory in town. Oh man, then we started eating chocolate. I got some milk chocolate and dark chocolate. We walked to the viewpoint of the city and then ate chocolate. I ate my entire bar. It was awesome. So good! I don’t really know what else we did because it was just so casual and relaxed. We walked down some old streets and past old buildings. Then we went to a really good wine store where the wine was very cheap, supposedly at producer prices. I bought a bottle for the afternoon. It was already around four so we decided to try and figure out how to take a bus back to the hostel. That only took us an hour or so…but we did get on going the right way! In the afternoon, I shared my fabulous red wine with hostel folk and learned more about them. Then Darcy and I went back to the center…and got on the bus going the wrong way again! Haha. Then we went to dinner and a few bars. The night was pretty uneventful but Perugia is about twice as cheap as Florence.
Sunday, it was finally time to go home! Even though we were in Perugia for such a short time it felt like we made a family with the Seattle people and Nigel. It was so sad to leave them, but I got all there information and hopefully I will be meeting up with Nigel in a week or so when he comes to Florence and with the Seattle family this summer when they come back from their ten month journey! We left the hostel at 10:45 to get the 11:08 bus…and not surprisingly we got on the bus going the wrong way and ended up riding it for an extra forty minutes! I think we did this three times total while riding the bus only four times… I was merely amused by this fact and happy that we weren’t in any rush to leave. And surprise, guess who shows up on our bus? Fabulous Seattle Family, Nigel, and other hostel person—they were going to Assisi for the afternoon and were headed to the train station too. The bus ride was really fun because we got to talk to them more and I knew everyone on the entire bus! We then had lunch with the hostel group before our trains left. I had ripped my jacket earlier that morning and was slightly devastated. I casually brought this up at lunch, and fabulous Seattle Mom said she had a sewing kit (also antibacterial ointment, band aids, tissues—so prepared), and then she offered to sew it. This act truly epitomized how I felt about my new Perugia family. It was so nice to be in a family setting, I didn’t even mind the kids! And then Kathy sewed the rip in my jacket during lunch! It was a great end to my first weekend trip.
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