Mallorca comes to an end… Madrid begins..

Our last few days in Mallorca we didn’t do too much. On Friday we went down to Palma and wandered around the town and had lunch. It was quite a nice day, however it was quite cool in the shade.

On Sunday we went to the pub for lunch with Maxine, Kath’s Grandpa and Bill. Kath and Maxine had the Sunday lunch, which was really good and I had the pork chops and mash potato, that was also good.

The weather has been really shocking lately and you don’t want to leave the house.

Our last night in Mallorca we went out for dinner with Maxine to an Indian place. The food was really good and we had some apple schnaps at the end of the meal.

Maxine took us to the airport today.. on the way we hit a snow blizzard!! Snow in Mallorca, crazy! Our flight was late boarding, but we managed to leave on time..

When we arrived in Madrid it was 3degrees and sunny! By the time we took 3 metros and walked to the hostel we were really warm. We got upgraded to a 4 bed dorm (instead of a 6) as we said we were not willing to share with boys (since we did book a female dorm).. Apparently some male booked a bed in the female dorm! We are the only 2 in our room so we hope there are another 2 girls coming (or noone at all). They have funny keys for the rooms, it is basically a watch, but instead of the time it has a chip in it.

After we checked in we went to have some lunch and then went to the train station to  buy our tickets to Lisbon. They have really funny sounds for the pedestrian crossings at traffic lights, it makes a funny bird chirp.. we laughed a while about it… Kinda scary really… We got our tickets then went for a walk around the area and through the streets back to our hostel.

We are here for 2 nights then off to Lisbon for 4 nights, then back here for 1 night then back to Barcelona (then France).

Tomorrow we are doing a free walking tour, hopefully that is good.

Love Cindy and Kath

Milan in a nut shell, to Barcelona…

We went out for dinner the first night in Milan to a pizza place that was recommended in our lets go book. We ordered a pepperoni pizza… when the pizza arrived it was actually a capsicum pizza! So we ate that then left, we got charged a fortune. Kath enjoyed the pizza! The next day we thought we would see the one sight Milan has to offer. We caught the metro to the Duomo, a giant church. We walked around the outside, it was very detailed. We then wandered the streets for a while then went back to the hostel and we had a new roommate, he was Mexican. We chatted to him most the arvo/night. We had a horrible salad for dinner. We shouldn’t try and be healthy, it never turns out nicely lol…

The guy had a cold and snored really loudly most the night, so we didn’t get a great deal of sleep. The next morning we hung around the hostel until check out time then went to the train station. We waited around and had some lunch/dinner in a near by family restaurant. When our train arrived we were the first to jump on, we put our bags in the rack and got ready to set off. They gave you a kids find a word on the back of a brochure, It was in Italian so we had no idea what words we were meant to find, so Kath created words then I found them. Then we played boggle with it. We are very creative!

After we left the station a ticket lady came and took our tickets and passports. We watched a movie and then I tried to get some sleep. The seats reclined so they were ok. Kath chatted to some American guys in front of us. They were really nice. They offered her some cake. At our first check point in France it was snowing. The police were in our carriage questioning some guy, after discussion over his passport he was escorted off the train, Phew it wasn’t me! The rest of the journey we both just rested and tried to get sleep.

Kath woke up pretty early and saw the sunrise, then she kindly woke me to see it as well. Nice sunrise over the coast of somewhere (in either France or Spain).

When we arrived in Barcelona we jumped off the train and headed to the Metro to go to the hostel. It was boiling! We had left 4-6degree coldness and arrived in 12degree heat! We found the hostel really easily as they gave you great directions. We checked in, but had to leave our bags in the storage room as we were early. We then headed back to the Metro to try and find the port. We found the port really easily and sat by the water and had some strawberries and juice in the beautiful sun. We saw some really huge fish in the water. People obviously come there all the time to feed the fish bread. After sitting there for a while we decided to go for a walk over the bridge to see what was on the other side. There was a shopping mall, an Imax and the Aquarium. We decided to go for a walk to find the ferry we are going to take to Mallorca. The ferry ticket place was closed, so we went to sit back near the fish feeding area. Apparently there are lots of people who come to get rid of their old bread there. There was one lady that had bags and bags of baguettes she was throwing in the water (whole). The fish were amazing they were really big, Kath wanted to sneak in a line (Look below for a video). We sat and watched them for ages then we decided to go back to the hostel and to the supermarket for dinner food. We were getting quite tired and hungry as we hadn’t really had breakfast or lunch. We cooked pasta for dinner. It was really good, we are so glad to have good facilities in this hostel. There is a big kitchen, big dining/common area, pool table, foosball table, punching bag, 2 exercise bikes, a cinema, and a terrace. We then went to bed and watched a movie.

We were woken up this morning by a rude girl who didn’t even sleep in her bed last night, she came in, turned the light on then left and didn’t turn the light off, so I got up and turned it off. We got up about an hour after that and got ready. We had our breakfast, it was packed in the dining area. Kath spoke to her parents on Skype then we headed out to do a free walking tour. When we arrived in the place we thought the walking tour was meant to start we couldn’t find anyone, so we just wandered around the street. We visited the Martime Museum and then kept walking around and came across a church, it was having massive renovations done to it. We kept walking and found a street parade that was going on. So we went to watch that. There were lots of Spanish dancers.. it was really entertaining. People in the parade were walking along drinking beer! We thought that was hilarious. Then one group came along and set firecrackers off in front of us, it was a bit scary. After the parade finished we walked along to the beach. There were lots of people doing beach sculpting. We walked along for a while, then turned back as the weather was starting to get bad and our feet were getting sore. We walked through some markets then headed back to the metro as it had started raining. The first train we caught was quite busy, 3 guys followed us off the train and through the metro. We were watching our bags and wallets. Then when we were on the escalator one of the guys stepped up onto the step Kath and I were on, so we stepped up a step then he stepped up onto that. As there were people in front of us we couldn’t move anymore. Kath had her hand on her wallet and I turned so my bag was against the escalator wall. Kath thought she felt one of the guys hand trying to get in her camera bag. When we reached the top of the escalator we walked away pretty quickly to the next train line. The guys followed us there as well, but we walked down the other end of the line, Kath checked she had everything. After we got off the next train we realised that the clip on her bag was undone. Nothing was taken, and the guy was pretty stupid to think that we would not realise if her bag was opened (it has a huge velcro strip which is hard to undo at the best of times). We are now back to the hostel and are making an itinerary for tomorrow. We are having pasta again tonight, so I am looking forward to that. Kath had a new beer called Saaz, I thought it tasted ok. I had a magners and now we are sharing a drink called a Damm Lemon (it is 6 parts beer, 4 parts lemon). Tastes pretty good.

Hope everyone is well.
Hope to hear from you all soon (comments are welcome, we are a little sheltered from Aussie life over here).

Love Cindy and Kath

PS: new photos are up in Italy and Spain!

Bologna, Montagnana, Venice, Verona…to Milan

On Thursday morning, our last day in Bologna, I woke up with bites all over my hands (nowhere else on my body). We got up and had our cornflakes then we headed into the city and went to the chemist for some cream (the supermarket didn’t have any insect bite cream). The pharmacist was really nice (and spoke english which was a bonus), we then wandered around the city and went to the Medieval Museum. The museum was pretty interesting, it had a few rooms full of old medieval swords, helmets and other armour. We had some lunch, and another hot chocolate and then went back to the camp grounds to pack our bags and get ready to leave early the next morning. We discovered that the hostel we were staying in, in “Padova” was not in Padova at all it is is Montagnana. That then meant we had to take different trains and buses to get to Montagnana and to get to Venice Saturday afternoon for the Mardi Gras Parade at 3pm. We found some buses and trains that got to Montagnana at 9.40am meaning we had to leave by 6am from Bologna, but meant we would be in Venice by 2pm for the parade.

We thought we were being really lucky that noone was in the room, that way we could just get up and get ready without the hassle of other people. At about 9.30pm 2 girls came into the room, and left the front door wide open (so the whole bungalow was freezing). They then came in and moved around really loudly, so we told them we were getting up at 5.30am and we will try to be quite but we have to turn the light on in our area. We then went to bed. We turned off the lights in our area and they were in their room, next thing you know they are smoking in their room! As the room had a big gap between the wall and the roof (stupid design) we could smell it. They then stayed in their room for another hour or so talking really loudly with their ceiling light on. They then both left the bungalow.. Finally a chance to sleep. Well the girls returned at 3.30am, turned on the lights and decided to call someone on their phone (on speaker phone)…grrr! They didn’t go to sleep and turn off their light until around 4.30am.. So at 5.30am when the alarm went off we weren’t too happy. Now normally we are very considerate people when it comes to getting up early etc. But as I was so angry that they were so rude to us, I decided to turn on all the lights in our area and eat my breakfast really loudly. It turned out that they didn’t even lock the door when they returned. We made our way to the bus stop (over 1 km away) on icy road. The bus was on time which was good, we jumped on and went to the train station. When we arrived we were 40 mins early, so we bought our tickets and then went to the platform. The train was already there so we waited for someone else to get on before boarding to make sure we were allowed on. We found some seats and got comfy. The train was getting fuller by the minute (it was a train going to Venice and apparently there were a lot of people heading up to Carnival). By the time we left the station the train was completely full and there were people having to stand. Each station just kept getting busier and busier. When we arrived at our stop, Monselice, it was so full we could barely get off the train. There were 2 people wide in the isle and noone wanted to move to let you off the train. When we got off we found the line we wanted to get to Montagnana. We waited a while for the train to arrive. It was 20mins late when it finally arrived. We boarded the train and off we went really slowly. We realised at this point that we were not going to make the return train to get us to Venice, so we were a bit disappointed. Nonetheless we continued on to Montagnana. Before the first stop the train just completely stopped, the ticket inspector came around and checked our tickets and told us it would be 5-8mins. Grr more time added to our day! When we finally arrived in Montagnana (40 mins later), we hopped off the train and found our way to the hostel. Pretty much the whole town is surrounded in a fort. We walked around the edge of the fort (we didn’t know if the streets would be like a maze) and we finally came across our hostel. The lady on the desk was really lovely. We are the only ones in our room and she gave us our own key to the bathroom and told us we can lock it when we want. We made our beds and got ready to get the 12.00pm train to Monselice (then to Venice). So we wandered down to the train station, 30mins early and then tried to find the ticket machine. Apparently there is no machine at the station so we had to buy tickets from the pub over the road. We went in there and got our tickets then headed back to the station. We re-checked the timetable and realised that because it was a festival day the train would arrive at 12.23. 12.23 came and went and we were still sitting at the train station, 1pm passed and finally at 1.08 a train arrived. We jumped on and headed into Monselice. The train was only 1 carriage, it was tiny and cool – we had a laugh every time they changed gears to get faster. When we arrived at Monselice we had to wait 20 mins for the train to come. When we got on the train, it too was packed. We had to wait until 2 stops before Venice before we got a seat. When we arrived at Venice at 3.03pm we decided to follow the crowds to get to the street parade (our whole reason for rushing to Venice today). As we exited the train station we saw a tent that had information about Carnival and we picked up a map/brochure. The first thing we looked for was the location of the parade. Turned out that the parade was actually at 2.30pm not at 3pm like the guide on the internet said!! We then decided to follow crowds and see the area. There were a fair few people dressed up. There were lots of little kids who were dressed up as crocodiles, there was also a superman, bumble bee, tiger, dog and many others. The adults were more dressed up in old clothes, however there was a ghost buster and also a Harry Potter. Kids were throwing confetti everywhere and other younger kids were so fascinated picking it up and throwing it in the air or collecting it.

We were getting quite hungry so we found a pizza place that seemed to do reasonably priced pizza. They did huge slices, so we both got a slice of Salami Pizza each. It was the best pizza we have had so far in Italy. After our pizza we wandered around the little streets. At 5pm we decided to try and find our way back to the train station so that we were at least heading in the right direction (we only had 2 trains to get back). The crowds were huge, you could barely walk anywhere. It took us a while to get back to the train station as it was just so busy. Kath pulled out our book to point us in the right direction.

We got our tickets and jumped onto the train. It was really busy, and we were lucky to get a seat. By the time the train departed it was so full again that people were standing 2 wide in the isles. It was easier to get off the train this time as some people had already got off and there weren’t as many people in the isles. We were lucky that we realised that the Montagnana train was already on the other platform, so we ran down the stairs on one platform then up on the other platform. The guard was nice enough to wait for us. We had a really long stop at the second station (no idea why). Then when we arrived at our stop we were quite tired and ready to go to bed. We walked through the town and to our hostel at around 8:30pm. We got into bed and watched a movie.

We got up this morning and got ready to head up to Venice for the Costume Parade. This hostel doesn’t have a kitchen or a fridge so we planned to get up early and buy some milk from the supermarket and then go to the train station. So we got ready and went to the supermarket. The supermarket was closed on Sundays. So we had some crackers for breakfast. We then went to the train station (stopped into the pub to get our tickets along the way), and waited at the station. There were lots of locals there as well, so we knew the trains were meant to be running today. We waited for 40mins for the train to arrive, but it never turned up. Lots of the locals slowly just left the station. The train going in the other direction turned up and then left again, no sign of the train to Monselice. We decided that we weren’t going to spend hours at the train station again today (the next train wasn’t until 12.00pm if it even turned up!). Luckily we hadn’t validated our ticket so we could use it another day. We went for a walk through the town, but as it is Sunday most things were closed, and there wasn’t even really anywhere to eat that we could find that was open and reasonably priced. We pretended that we were in Venice, the cars were boats and the pedestrian paths were bridges… though Kath kept walking in the water . We then came back to the hostel to try and ask the new person on reception is she could recommend a place to eat, if there was internet we could use and if there was a kitchen. She said there is no kitchen but there is a food machine, she didn’t really know what internet was and she recommended a place down the road. So we thought we would go down to the restaurant to try and see if it was open. The hostel has stupid hours and you can only get in when someone is on the front desk. We went down the road and it was closed so we came back up and asked her if we could stay inside when the hostel is meant to be closed and she said she had to call the manager (the lady from yesterday), we said ok and then went to our room. She didn’t kick us out before she left so we were locked into the hostel until 3pm. We were a bit disappointed with the lack of trains here and the open/close hours of the hostel. We decided we’d go out and try and get some dinner at a pizzeria near the train station tonight. And will try and use the hostel’s internet tonight. We organised our plans for the next few days. Probably go to Venice or Verona Monday and then Venice on Tuesday for the last day of Carnival. We would decide later about the rest of the week and where we would go! Kath got me some chocolates for Valentines day, so despite the fact we are locked in a hostel in a town that is pretty much a ghost town at the moment, we are at least spending the day together.

That night we ventured out to try some pizza at the pizzeria Cindy remembered seeing close to the train station. The guy was really friendly there and we got 2 big slices of Peperoni type pizza for a total of 4 euro, he also gave us a tourist guide to Montagnana (In Italian) but it was good. We ate that there and the pizza was delicious – It beat the Venice pizza we had the day before – the small town had something to it. We decided we’d try the gelateria in the middle of the town. The Gelati man was really nice and spoke some English – he asked us where we were from and there was a guy behind us that welcomed us as well. Cindy got a cone with chocolate flavoured gelati and I got a cup of vanilla with real big chocolate bits through it. We sat outside and watch the town slowly come to life as we ate our ice-cream. The gelati was delicious and really cheap so after a pretty horrible morning – we ate great pizza and delicious ice-cream we were very happy that night. We asked the lady at reception if we could go online on her computer and she said yes. We checked our emails and checked the times for the train to Verona.

The next morning we got up early and decided to go to Lidl and get some milk for breakfast before heading to Verona. We decided we’d catch the bus to Padova then get a train from there to Verona. The buses seemed to be a bit more reliable. We got two little things of milk for our cereal and went back to the hostel. Cindy opened hers and poured it onto her cornflakes to realise that we had gotten Cream! It didn’t taste very nice so we gave up on breaky and headed to the bus stop, the lady at reception said the bar on the corner sold tickets, so we went there and asked for 2 tickets (in italian) and he told us around the corner… (well we got that from his hand signals – we didn’t understand him)… We tried to communicate with the lady in the Tabacci store but she just looked at us blankly – apparently our Italian attempts weren’t good enough. Cindy showed her train tickets and then I said bus. We got the message across and got 2 tickets to Verona… which were quite pricey but we thought the train from Padova would be cheap.

As we walked out of the Tabacci store we saw the bus we wanted pass us and we were like great! So we waited 40 minutes for the next bus. We jumped on the next bus and validated our ticket and took our seats. After a couple of stops – one person actually bought their ticket from the driver. So we were a little annoyed we had missed the last bus buying a ticket when we could have bought one on the bus. The bus took forever… we got to Padova 2 hours later – where we had missed the train we wanted to catch to Verona. We decided we’d get something to eat as I wasn’t feeling to well… We stopped of at Maccas and got a euro cheeseburger each and then headed over the road to the train station. The train to Verona was more expensive for the later train which was annoying but we got the next train to Verona. When we arrived in Verona – It was a decent day and we found the info point and got a free map of Verona. We found the places we’d like to visit and off we set. If you don’t know Verona is the town Romeo and Juliet is set in. They had the Capulets and Montague houses (which actually aren’t the houses – but just a gimmicky tourist thing) but we went there and found some really nice piazza’s on the way. We passed the Arena which is like a miniature Colosseum which is intake that they use for events. Juilets courtyard was free to go into, and as you go through this little tunnel thing to get into the courtyard – people have written love messages and stuck them on the wall – the walls were covered with messages. Lots of loving. Haha – It was a nice little courtyard and you could pay to go up and be Juliet on her balcony – but we were happy just to look up at it. After this we walked around looking at shops and markets and some piazzas (one was covered in Love Heart confetti… obviously from Valentines day the day before).

We slowly made our way back to the station and got our ticket to go all the way back to Montagnana which was cheaper than the ticket from Padova to Verona… So that was a little weird. When we got back to Montagana we went to the Lidl and bought some snacks and little things we could have for dinner. We went online again and booked accommodation in Milan for 2 nights and looked at trains that go from there to Barcelona, Spain. The trains look very cheap… (a bit like is this right – as its so cheap… I refuse to believe the price until I have the ticket in my hand).

The next day we went to the supermarket and get some REAL milk and then went back to the hostel to eat our cereal. We then headed off through the town – and took some photos of the centre piazza. Our train was at 10:30am and off we set… we spoke to a man at the station who is half Italian and half American. His English was good but even though he’s lived there for a few years his American accent was very evident. The train came on time and off we set for Monselice – we changed platforms and the cold and rain started. The rain was very light but we weren’t too happy. Quite cold actually. Our trip to Venice was pretty ordinary.

When we arrived in Venice – we had decided to buy our tickets to get back to Montagana and to Milan the next day so we didn’t have to do when we came back. With that out of the way off we set – we followed our instincts and found the grand canal. We talked to one Gondola man and he wanted to charge us 100 euro – he got down to 70 but we didn’t want to pay that much. So we kept walking and found Piazza San Marco – Everything was happening there. There was this massive and impressive church and this cool courtyard that was made of fake fruit with this Giant Lion made entirely of like hedge and fake fruit and vegetables. There were a lot of people walking around dressed up in all these fancy and amazing costumes. They loved getting there photos taken and you should have seen the cameras that were there. It made my camera look like a baby… We walked around for awhile and looked in lots of little shops. We decided to try find another Gondola man, we found one and he wouldn’t budge from his 80 euros, so we kept walking and found another man who was happy to take his price from 100 down to 60 euros… so we decided that’d we do it. It was fun – but I don’t think it’s the same as what it would be like 10-20 years ago as to me it’s very commercial. The guy was an amazing steerer – we didn’t hit anything and we got so close to things. It was really cool to go through these little canals and see doorways and stuff under water. The grand canal is about 5m deep and the littler canals are 2m. The tour was 2km – and was quite short… I’d like to see these guys money books… I reckon that they’d earn a lot of money because so many people don’t even haggle the price and just pay the 80 or 100 euros that they ask – and they seem so busy.

After our gondola ride we walked around some alleys just following the crowds and looking at small stores. Venice is famous for its Murano Glass. They sell all different types of things from really small to really huge things. There was this really cool little glass bag with a little gold fish in it. They were charging a bit too much for it so we just looked. But to see the detail in some of the things – really amazing. We slowly winded our way through back to the train station, getting pizza on the way and got the train back to Monselice… I fell asleep so the trip went really quickly for me. When we got to Monselice we realised we had just missed a train and we had to wait like 40 minutes in the cold for the next train… bit annoying but we just huddled up on a seat.

A girl our age spoke something to us in Italian and I said we speak English and she nodded and spoke English. She seemed nice and asked us about our trip and where we were staying when I mispronounced Montagana she corrected me and said that’s where she lived. We chatted for a while… Cindy thought she liked me but I don’t think so… She was nice and made sure we had a seat on the train and came and got us when the station was coming up (even though we had been there a few other times). She left with her friend and we went to the Pizza place on the way back and Cindy got the Peperoni pizza again and I had a sausage pizza. Both were really nice. We then thought we’d go get some Gelati and Cindy got 2 scoops this time and I still got my one…. Little too cold for too much ice cream. That night we packed our bags and got ready for the next day. Before we knew it was 10pm… so put a movie on and went to bed.

This morning we got up early and waited until the lady came and unlocked the door so we could get out and get our milk for our cereal… the lady was late (we were a bit annoyed as our train was at 9.41am).. so we had our breaky quickly and hurried to the train station. As we got there a train pulled up and I asked the conductor if it was our train, he said it wasn’t but he suggested we get this one and just get off at the last stop and the catch the train from there. We decided what the hell and on we jumped. He was nice and let us know the time of the train to Montova. We waited for a little bit for the next train – but it arrived on time and caught that train to Montova where our Milan train was waiting for us. We had just under an hour to kill but we just got on the train and had something to eat and drink.

We got to Milan and jumped on the metro to our hostel and this man starts speaking to us – turns out he’s a scot from Glasgow and has just come over to watch the Manchester United game verse Milan… He’s an avid fan and follows the team where ever they go…

We found the hostel really easily but turns out theres no kitchen (when the site says KITCHEN)… We were looking forward to being able to cook a meal and it being cheap. Sigh! We’re rooming with two other Aussies… They seem nice. Well that’s the update – we have free internet so we might skype tomorrow.

Ciao for now.

Florence to Bologna

We spent our last two days in Florence wandering around the city and enjoying many old buildings. We went for a walk along the river and had some morning tea (until a creepy person came and hid in a bush, so we got out of there pretty quickly). We went for a lunch in a restaurant, Kath had a bolognese and I had a cabonara. Both meals were very tasty. Our last night in Florence we went back to the American pub to have a Stongbow before moving on. Kath had a pint of gasoline and didn’t like it very much this time. We then packed our bags and went to bed. On Wednesday morning we put on our waterproof jackets as it was meant to rain in Florence and Bologna that day. We finished off our breakfast and milk then headed to the train station.
We had to go from one Florence Station to another to get our train to Bologna. When we arrived at the other train station we got our tickets and had some morning tea. We boarded the train when it finally arrived and made our way into our carriage (we had a train like Harry Potter) again. There was someone sitting in my seat so we just sat in 2 other seats. After we sat down a man and lady got into our carriage (individual people). The guy pretty much said you are in my seat and we were like ohh we will move and pointed at the man in our seat and he indicated he would just sit in our other one. The lady looked a little uneasy that we were in her seat then just opposite us. Our carriage was full. The next stop some guy came into our carriage indicating that he had to sit in there. Next thing you know the lady opposite us is making us move (even though she was in the seat opposite the one she was meant to be in). The guy who was in the carriage when we arrived wasn’t even meant to be in our carriage. So he moved out and cranky lady made us move all of our stuff so she could sit in the seat we were in. Then we all had to rearrange (the 2nd guy who was happy to sit anywhere was still in our seats, which meant one of us was still in the wrong seat). Thankfully everyone seemed to calm down there. It really annoyed me as I had a window seat and the 2 people sitting on the window seats were just reading books and not even looking out the window!!!
It was quite a pleasant train ride lots of nice fields and green grass. We went through a tunnel – about a minute later we came out the other end and everything went from green to WHITE!! It was snowing!! It took me a second to realise what was going on then I was tapping Kath going its snowing, its snowing. A lot of the people on the train were amazed. We then had snow for the rest of our journey into Bologna.

When we arrived in Bologna, we attempted to find the bus stop. We thought we found it, so we went to McDonalds for lunch (as it was sleeting and freezing and it was the only undercover food place around). We went into McDonalds and it was completely jammed packed. We eventually saw some people leaving a table so we snuck in after them. Kath minded the bags while I went downstairs to order. It was so packed down there, it was worse then Ekka Wednesday in the showbag stand!! It appeared to be full on Uni students who had been to Open Day or something. We had our lunch then made our way to the bus stop. Well the bus going the other direction wasn’t on the other side of the road like we thought it would be. So we wandered around for ages looking for the stop. In the end we asked someone and they told us to go from the stop we were at. So we waited for 40mins for the bus to come (it only comes once every 2 hours). Finally the bus turned up and we went up and the guy was like Campeggio? (which is the stop we wanted) and we were like yes, and he pointed up the street to a tiny little bus stop. We wandered up there and saw we still had an hour and a half to kill. So we went into a little coffee shop opposite the bus station. We got 2 hot chocolates. They were brilliant!! They were like pudding sauce in a cup. It was so so delicious. After our hot chocolates we went to the bus stop and waited there for 30 mins (we didn’t want to miss another bus). It was so cold (we weren’t ready for snow!). We got on the bus and 20 mins later arrived out the camp grounds. We “checked in” and then found our room. There were already 2 girls in the chalet. There are 2 beds in a room and the other 2 are like in the “living area”. We got allocated those beds as they were there first. We unpacked our stuff and made our beds then had a relaxing afternoon. At 6 we went to see if we could get dinner in the restaurant, turns out they didn’t serve until 7pm and there was no menu. So we went back at 7pm. There was only 2 options for pasta, a Bologna bolognase and a pasta and tomato thing. We both got the Bologna speciality. Our meals were quite nice and reasonably cheap. We then went back to our room and stayed warm. The girls came in around 8 and didn’t seem to interested in talking to us, so we all went about doing our own thing.
This morning it was pitch black when I woke up, so I went back to sleep. I heard an alarm going off, so I decided to find my torch and look at my watch. It was 9am!! I got up and went to the bathroom, then opened the outside blinds next to my bed and saw it snowed a lot during the night, but was raining so it was melting quite quickly.
We decided to catch the 11am bus from the camp site (we had missed the 9am one haha). So we got up and got ready and prepared for snow, beanies and gloves. We left our waterproof pants in Scotland so no playing in the snow . One of the girls was much more chatty this morning. The girls are from Germany, studying in Bologna. They were moving into the city today. They left around 10.15 to check out. We hung out for a bit longer in the chalet and then went to get some bus tickets and wait for the bus. When the bus arrived we jumped on, the German girls got on too. When we arrived in the city they pointed us in the right direction of the main piazza. We had a good chat to one of the girls. She spoke German, English and Italian (pretty impressive). We then wandered around the city to find the information place. Finally we accidently stumbled across it, so we got a town map and asked where the supermarket was. We then went and had some lunch then had a look at some of the attractions (building and fountains) and went into the Archaeological museum. Everything in the museum was in Italian, so we could only just look at the stuff and make up our own information about it.
We then went to the supermarket to get something. You can only use the cooking stuff in the chalet if you stay for more then 15days. So we got some ham and salad and other things that you can eat cold. We also had to get containers to use as bowls as they don’t let you use plates or cutlery etc either.
We then went for another hot chocolate to kill some time before the bus was due. It was a bit rainy so we decided we would come back into the city tomorrow to see the rest of the museums we want to see and give us a chance to read a bit about the different museums.
When we arrived back at the chalet, most of the snow around the site has melted. So I think it will gone in a few days.

We have arrived in Bologna

ITS SNOWING!!!