Man ist was man isst (you are what you eat)

View of Perugia from the Hostel's Porch

I really do wonder where time goes here. Already almost 3 months have passed, and I’m getting ready for Anne and Mom to visit for Thanksgiving. It’s that time of year already, time to start prepping for Christmas and for the cooking the bird. But alas, no bird for me this year, our Thanksgiving feast will probably be at an amazing Italian restaurant in Bologna. In America, we have Thanksgiving as the marker for starting Christmas decorations, but since there is no such holiday in Italy, as soon as Halloween comes and goes that lights slowly start to go up. Over the course of the last two weeks, lights and Christmas trees have been slowly popping up all over Bologna, and a tiny Christmas market just open either last week or the week before. In the beginning of November I thought it slightly ridiculous, but now, I’m really starting to like it.

The beginning of this month was very busy with travels. The first weekend of November, I embarked on a journey a bit south, into Umbria to the beautiful, medieval hill-toped town of Perugia. Six of us got up early Saturday morning, to get the cheap regional train, and for the first time in a while, I didn’t have to run to catch the train. Usually the train ride would take only 3 hours, but since we were taking the cheap train, it took about 4+ hours. At least it was a nice journey, running down the center of Italy with beautiful country side to look at.

Finally, the "moving stairs"

When we got to Perugia, we attempted to get from the station to the historic center, and instead of taking the short way, we somehow took the long way around. After a half an hour of walking, we finally found the “scale mobile” or moving stairs, to save some time and get up to the top quicker. The original plan for the weekend was one day in Perugia and Sunday at a lake that was an hour away. But after making it to the top, we all fell in love with the beauty of the town, and decided right then and there to stay Sunday in Perugia too. After checking into the hostel, we wandered for a bit, seeing the cathedral, the main square, and eventually wandering side streets. Knowing we would probably need a reservation for dinner, since there were six of us, the next goal was to find a restaurant. Perugia is known for Truffles, so our goal was to find a place where we could have truffles at a relatively low cost. We ended up eating at a cute little tattoria, where the owner was once an award winning boxer in the town. I got homemade pasta with a truffle sauce, and it was fantastic. The truffle sauce was just truffles and oil, so the flavor wasn’t lost.

Castle in Mannheim, now a univeristy

The next day, we explored the city more, starting with a pre-Christian church. It started to rain mid-morning, so we headed for the archeological museum, and spent the rest of the day there, until our stomachs were craving more food. After a pizza for lunch, we took the short way down the hill back to the station, to hopefully get a train home. I say hopefully because there was a train strike going on that day. We were very lucky that our train, at least half way to Florence, was the only one that wasn’t cancelled. We made it to Florence, but in Florence, our connecting train to Bologna was cancelled, so we had to wait 3 hours until the one at 10:30pm. So, unexpectantly, we got to tour a bit of Florence too. We planned it so we would be back at the station right before the train left, and that we did. But was the next train on time? Nope. Finally at 11:00pm we were able to get on a train back Bologna, and by that time everyone was just wishing for their warm beds.

Gate to Heidleberg

The next day, Monday November 9th, I packed up a backpack and headed to Germany with my English friend Chris. We had spontansoly booked flights a few weeks before for 0.01 euro each way. 2 cent tickets, I still wonder how that is possible. We flew into Frankfurt-Hahn with Ryanair, the amazingly cheap airline, and took a shuttle to Mannheim, where we would be staying with Maarten in his dad’s flat. The shuttle was 18euro, so we basically figured that paying that price to get to and from the airport was really the cost of the airplane. Maarten met us at the bus stop, and then we walked across Mannheim to get to his dad’s flat. It was around 1am or so by the time we got in, and then his dad offered us cheese, meat and bread for a late night snack. The next morning we leisurely got up and toured a bit of Mannheim. Maarten’s dad took us out to lunch at this amazing traditional German restaurant. It was a cozy restaurant, with big tables that were shared among the customers. As soon as we sat down, the waiter brought us a bowl of the soup of the day, which was perfect to warm up. After ordering, an unexpected salad also made its way to our table, as well as the beer-lemonade drink. Not long after the meal we ordered came out. I got some kind of leg of pork the size of my face, sauerkraut and dumplings. I ate about 1/3 of it, it was so big. But man, was it good.

Huge Meal. Yum.

After rolling out of the restaurant, Maarten, Chris and I headed to Heidelberg, a beautiful medieval town settled between mountains and a river. We walked the streets for a bit before heading up the hill to the castle that overlooks the town. After touring what we could of the castle, we went back into town to get a warm drink at the Mensa, the dining hall/union for the student’s at the University of Heidelberg. That night, after dinner, we went to Maarten’s local hangout, and got to meet other German university students.

Simon and Me!

Wednesday we got up and did breakfast at a wonderful bakery in Mannheim, where I got a very nice coffee and strudel. We had to pack up, and take everything with us as we headed back to Heidelberg, because we would be getting the shuttle back to the airport from there. We took a bit longer than we would have liked to get back into Heidelberg, and were only able to walk a few side streets before meeting my friend Simon Bach for lunch. Simon did an high school exchange program 5 or so years ago at Green Hope and was THE first chair clarinet in the band for the entire year. (At least that’s how I remember it.) We ate in the Mensa, a good meal for dirt cheap, and then walked to the river. Unfortunately, we had to end our visit short since we needed to get a 3:30 bus to the airport. But it was good to see him again. Once at the airport, we had a bit of time to kill and empty stomachs, so we ate one last German meal.


One of the outcroppings we visited for my Sed/Strat class

The rest of this month has been spent in Bologna, the only exceptions being my two field trips for my Sedimentology and Stratigraphy class. The past two Fridays we have gone to the Apinnes, the mountain range that runs down the boot of Italy. Other than that, I’ve remained in the city, trying to study for my classes. Today, Mom and Anne arrived for a long weekend, and so I could have a bit of home for Thanksgiving. They are currently sleeping because the Jetlag has really gotten to them. So it’s off to Venice this weekend.

Two months and still ticking

Canal leading to Lake Garda in Peschiera del Garda

Another month has flown by, and I’m sorry for not keeping my blog posts frequent. I’ve been in Italy for 2 months now, but it’s felt like more. Time really does get away from you, and I’m not really sure where to begin for this next blog entry. I’ve done so much in the last month, with classes starting, and several trips. Classes started in end of September/ beginning of October. I started out taking Archeology of the Landscape, Speleology, and Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. The first week of classes I only went to the archeology class, because the geology department didn’t start until the following week. But I’ve since dropped that class, for several reasons. One, it met at the same time as speleology on Friday, which I really wanted to take. Two, the professor rarely used PowerPoint, and mainly just talked (in Italian), so it was very hard to follow the lecture. Three, the exam would be an oral exam in Italian based off of articles that were impossible to find. So, I’ve since picked up a General Linguistics class, which is very neat, and the professor is much more entertaining and his Italian is much easier to follow. My sed/strat class consists of about 30 people, but I’ve only chatted with a few of the other students. (They all are Italian, so I’ve been a little nervous to approach them and chat in Italian.) The professor is great. He lectures in Italian, but due to the nature of the science, many of the words used to describe geological structures are in English, so I am able to follow very easily. Also, many of the charts and diagrams used in lecture are in English. Lecture is two hours, and to keep us on our toes, he gives the class a 10 minute “pausa” after the first hour has passes. During that time, he typically will come up to me as ask “tutto bene?” basically to make sure I’m following everything he is saying. Or if I don’t understand something that he mentioned during the lecture, I can ask him, and he will explain it in English. Sometimes, he will even throw out the English translation of something he is lecturing about to make sure I’m caught up with the class. My other class is speleology, which is taught by your stereotypical older Italian professor. Speleology is the science behind caves, which basically dips into all forms of science. The class is small, with me and two other students, which works to my benefit because it is almost like having a private tutor and I can ask questions if I don’t understand something during the lecture. This professor also lectures in Italian, but is able to speak English. Both of my exams for my geology classes will be orals, but in English. Yes.

View from hostel in Trento


A river runs through it, Trento

I’ve also been on a few trips during October; the first was to the Alto-Alpines, which is the western end of the Dolomites. There were eight of us that went to Trento, a lovely town in this area of the Dolomites. But only six of us stayed the night. We were: Maria (German), Emily (English), Kasia (Scottish), Carlos (Spanish), Maarten(German), Chris (English), Declan (Scottish) and myself the American. We got there just around lunch time, but instead of eating right away, we found the hostel and checked in. The six of us that stayed the night (all minus Kasia and Declan) shared a huge room and only had to pay 16euro each. The hostel was very nice; it was clean, had a bathroom in the bedroom, a nice view, and breakfast the next morning. After we checked in, we ventured our way to the town’s castle, and grabbed lunch along the way. We spent the better part of the day in this castle, and once we were done we headed to the river with individual bottle of Prosecco and fruit. A little after the time came for Declan and Kasia to leave, we decided to pack up too. It was a good decision, because just as we were going up the steps away from the river it started to pour! We ran back to the hostel and all napped until it was time to grab dinner.

The gang with castle in background, Trento

The next day, we left Trento and went to Pescheira del Garda on Lake Garda, which is south on the way back to Bologna. On our way into town from the train station we found a little shop that was selling rotisserie chickens, so we bought two to make a picnic lunch. Further in town we got bread, cheese, tomatoes, and we had fruit left over from the night before, and set up camp on the end of a dock on the lake. While eating our amazing lunch, we got the idea to rent a motor boat, if it didn’t cost too much. And it didn’t! We rented a boat for an hour and drove around a very small section of the lake for 9 euro each. Not bad. After, we did a bit of the town, and headed back to Bologna.

Sometime during the end of September/ beginning of October I befriended a group of German guys that are all doing internships at Lamborghini. Yes, you read that correctly, Lamborghini, as is very nice, expensive, fast cars. I spent most of the past weekends with my friends and the Lamborghini guys out and about, and I even went to see an Opera with one of them. I went to see La Boheme for 10 euro, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Verona's Roman Coliseum

I also went to Verona with a group of 12, which was a lot of fun. We again, took an early train and got there just in time for lunch. Well, actually before lunch, but we had to wait for Chris and Carlos, who missed the first train, and took the one the following hour. Verona was beautiful. It’s known for being the setting of Romeo and Juliette, and it still has the famous “Juliette’s Balcony”, which I personally think is a bunch of hokus-pokus because Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliette. Yes, the two family really did exist, but I’m pretty sure not in the sense of the way Shakespeare made it out to be. There is also an intact Roman theater, which is still used to this day for Operas and Concerts in the summer.


Chestnut's roasting on an open fire, Verona's Saturday Open-air Market

I feel like I’ve done a lot more during this past month, and I’m sure I have, but I just can’t seem to remember it at this moment. But now, onto a new month, with new adventures, and hopefully more frequent blog posts!!

The river of Verona