Germany, Verona, and some thoughts

I’m currently sitting at one of my favorite Bolognese caffes, enjoying what could be my last Italian Caffe Shakerato. Today is my last full day in Bologna, and I can’t believe the time has passed so fast!

First, a review of my past few days:

I LOVED Germany. To me, the lifestyle there seemed much more American, especially compared to the lifestyles I’ve been living in Spain and Italy. After arriving at the Dusseldorf airport, I joined Christian to cheer one of his best friends, Nicklas, on at his semi-pro football match. We drove past Cologne and Bonn to a tiny little town, to the home field of the opposing team. Here I saw exactly what I expected to see in germany: little white houses with brown wooden X’s across the walls, tiny churches, Wurst stands, and my favorite: a group of tall & husky balding men each holding a half pint of beer discussing over the football game with their deep and harsh accents. At the game, I enjoyed my first currywurst, and giggled over the home team’s fumbling and uncoordinated players. They were no match for Nicklas’ team, who won in a landslide game. After the game, I asked Christian to drive a tad out of the way so that I could enjoy sitting in a speeding car on the speed limit-less autobahn. After having just left Italy a few hours beforehand, I thought it funny when Christian and Nicklas insisted that we go to an Italian restaurant, l’Enoteca for dinner. The pizza was surprisingly delicious, as were the fruity flavored beers!

We finally got back to Christian’s house at around midnight, where his inebriated parents greeted us with some Polish vodka. By greeted, I mean peer pressured! Haha, I guess the fact that they were already drunk upon my arrival made a possibly awkward introduction much less so. His parents were hilarious, and we somehow managed to have a sort of a conversation even though we don’t speak any of the same languages. It wasn’t until around 2am that night that we finally headed upstairs, got ourselves ready, and headed to downtown Cologne to enjoy the night life. The disco was huge, flashy, and quickly became as hot as a sauna. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reuniting with Jasmin (who I haven’t seen since I was in Spain in June) and dancing around with Christian and Nicklas. It was funny to me that the girls in the disco hardly danced. Instead, they seemed to bounce back and forth in their uncomfortable heels, sticking close to the walls and mostly just people-watching. After we got home (just in time to watch the sun rise, around 6am), Christian was quick to inform me that I stuck out like a sore thumb, jumping around and singing along with the music, at the posh disco. Oops.

The group: Christian, Nicklas, Jasmin, & Patrizia!

Jasmin & me!

Thursday in Germany was spent in Bonn, where Christian and I met up with his good friend Peter. We went into a beautiful park, where they were setting up for a huge beer festival. At the park was a huge seasonal maze, which I at first predicted to be simple and silly. 40 minutes later, I was still lost navigating the maze when Christian made it to the top. After a teensy-tiny bit of cheating, Peter and I made it to the end of the maze, where we ascended the stairs up to a gazebo and watched others running back and forth, laughing each time they turned to see yet another dead end.

before the adventures began

...and the view from the top

Chinese yo-yo

and spinning plates!

We spent the rest of the day in Bonn, the hometown of Ludwig van Beethoven!

Beethovenhaus

Beautiful Rhein river

Bonn cathedral!

Bonn Cathedral & fallen heads

The next day, we went back to Bonn, enjoyed a coffee and croissant, and joked around in a bookstore. Then, we met up with Peter again to play minigolf. At around the 12^th hole, I was somehow in the lead but upon realizing this, I suppose I became too confident because I ended up in last place :).

Christian with his English children's book

hole in one!

That night, we met up with Christian’s brother Adrian and Nicklas at a bar in Bonn (where I enjoyed a broken conversation with some Germans trying to learn English) before heading to a disco. I enjoyed the disco in Bonn much better; it was much more relaxed and I didn’t feel like quite as many people were staring at me as I danced. Again, we headed home as the sun rose, another sign of a typical European night out.

That Saturday I finally watched my first live professional football match at a game of FC Cologne vs. FC Arsenal. Although it was a friendly pre-season match, there was so much Cologne pride in the stadium, and the loud drunken fans provided me with plenty of entertainment, even if I couldn’t understand the curses they were shouting at FC Arsenal fans. After the game, Nicklas, Christian and I were so exhausted so we took a casual nap in the car in the middle of downtown Cologne. The 20 minute nap was surprisingly refreshing, so we spent the rest of the day exploring the city (my first time seeing Cologne by day!)

[will add pictures of this soon!]

My trip to Germany seemed all too short, but as crazy as it sounds, I’m heading back there tomorrow! This time, Christian and I plan to make the quick drive over to Brussels for a day. I will definitely be blogging about my first experience with Belgian chocolate, and I can’t wait!

After returning to Italy, I spent a full day in sleep recovery before a busy Tuesday. I returned to my habit of reading in the piazza, before finally doing something touristy and taking the city bus tour of Bologna. To my surprise, there wasn’t much that I hadn’t already seen by foot, but at least I got that off my to-do list!

After my tour, I joined Alex and Daniele on a short drive to a nearby river. The river was like none I’d ever seen before- instead of being surrounded by rocky banks, it seemed this river had cut its way through the huge rocks, sculpting a beautiful landscape. I didn’t have my bathing suit on me this time, so I sat by with my feet in the water.

That night, I met up with a couch surfer, Luca, who took me to a fun bar on Via Pratello before giving me an awesome tour of the city. I learned lots of fun facts about Bologna, and was surprised at all of the dramatic stories about Princes held captive, quarrels and pranks with the Pope, and the inconvenience the Renaissance had on the existing Medieval architecture in Bologna. I also learned that the university here, which is the oldest in all of Europe (and the world, right?) has a secret society/fraternity of pranksters dating back to the university’s founding. To end the night, Luca took me up to the top of a mountain called Monte Donato, where we enjoyed a beautiful view of the twinkling lights of Bologna by night.

Luca brought me to Casa Isolani- built in the 8th century!!!

there's an arrow stuck in the Portico ceiling of Casa Isolani, debatably from Medieval times.. can you find it?

On Wednesday, I took a quick train ride to Verona, the home of Romeo & Juliet. There were beautiful sights, and I found the city to be very quaint and “Italian” looking. My day in Verona was the first time when I realized that everything is starting to look very similar, and that I may in fact be almost tired of travelling. All of the history in Europe- the Roman ruins, ancient churches, and stories of medieval battles and the clashes of religion and politics- are interesting, but soon everything is just another story. Nonetheless, I saw the touristy sights of Verona before taking an earlier-than-expected train ride back.

Wall at the entrance to Juliet's

The famous balcony!

for good luck!

locks on the gate to Juliet's

oh, Romeo

favorite spot: Piazza delle Erbe

view from the top of the Roman Theater

Roman ruins

Roman theater

the Arena

Castelvecchio

That night, I returned to Gardinia Marghertia for the second time to enjoy the night time open-air disco in the garden. My favorite part of the night was singing along with the music; the night’s playlist was comprised of recent techno, rap songs from the early 2000s, and some overplayed classic rock hits- RANDOM!

The next few days were spent typically- a little bit of babysitting, a few coffees, some piazza reading, lots of wandering around and window shopping, and a few instances of meeting up with some friends.

new favorite Bolognese food- Tigelleria from Mangin'giro- little panini-like sandwiches for only 2Euros each!

Madonna di San Luca, AKA Bologna's famous church on a hill

nuns who often trek the 4km of uphill porticoes- past 666 vaults (creeeepy)

Delicious Tortellini with Alex- one plain & one made with truffels, since they were black & white, we naturally decided to share & make a yin-yang of tortellini!

the shopping in Bologna is great.. but that's not to say I haven't found some super strange things..

UK flag, America's outline...hmm

Section of American flags

umm. they don't even have Starbucks in Italy...

An awesome restaurant/bar called Victoria Station.. with a double decker bus on top!

A casual walk in the park was met with goat sightings

On Saturday, I woke up at the crack of dawn to meet up with Alex, Michele, and two French girls, Mylene and Amandine, to drive to Cinqueterre. Unfortunately, when we realized we had scheduled this trip on one of the most traffic-heavy days of the year, we decided it would be better to spend the day nearby. We hit up Carrefour, a huge grocery store, and picked up some bread, sliced meats, cheese, and pastries, for a delicious riverside picnic. It was my first time swimming since I was in Spain, and diving into a cold pool of water never felt so refreshing!

Fragolino (strawberry flavored wine) + fried mozzarella balls

I’ve been spending the past few days really reflecting on my time in Bologna. My experience in the University town of Italy wasn’t quite what I expected it to be, mostly because I arrived just as the students, who make up ¼ of the city’s population, were leaving for vacation. The town has found itself especially empty in the past few weeks, as even the locals attempt to escape the heat and retreat to the countryside or the Mediterranean/Agean seasides. A lot of the stores and caffes have even closed up for the month of August, and virtually everybody I met when I first got to Bologna has left. Unlike my time in Barcelona, which was spent working many hours per day and only have one day off per week, I have found myself with more than enough free time in Bologna, but not enough things to do to fill my time. I regret not signing up for an Italian language course upon my arrival, but I was so overwhelmed with navigating a new city and my immediate trip to Paris.

The amount of alone time I’ve had in Bologna has been refreshing, but at times really depressing. I am proud of myself for going to restaurants and coffee shops by myself, as well as introducing myself to complete strangers who don’t even speak the same language as I do. However, when living in a city lovingly nicknamed “the fat one”, renowned for its delicious Italian cuisine, I quickly compiled a long list of places to eat, but found it hard to motivate myself to request a table for one at these fancy restaurants. I spent most of my alone time here enjoying beautiful monuments, taking a few pictures, maybe having a sit to read my book or try a new gelateria, and then heading back home. Of course, it was wonderful to be able to stroll about a town, teetering on the cobblestone pathways with delicious ice cream in hand, casually passing by churches and statues that were erected hundreds of years ago. I had many moments of awe when I would find myself lost in the city, only to look up to see castle walls and beautiful villas. Sadly though, these amazing sites were soon taken for granted, and I had to remind myself that my experience, although often lonely, was something truly special and unique. My Italian loneliness has made me realize how much I take Berkeley and my sorority for granted. I never realized, until now, how amazing it is to live in a house with 70 other fun-loving, English-speaking women, and to never have to go on an adventure or enjoy a meal alone. Although I have learned to be much more independent, the highlights of my past weeks in Europe have definitely been the few times when I’ve been able to reunite from friends back home, or even just spend a day in the city with other native English speakers (Eve, Alex, Salmonds, Meredith, Margaux, Sheena, I’m talking to you!).

I have many more thoughts to put into words on this blog, mostly my realizations about cultural differences and their effects on my personality and judgment, as well as thoughts for future travel, but I’ll save those for another post. This one is long enough! I didn’t think this day would come, but I’m actually becoming America-sick. Miss you all back home like crazy, and if you’re still reading this post, leave a comment so I know I’m not just writing to my family (hehe, love you granddad)!