Saturday Market Experiences...

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This weekend has been pretty slow. On Thursday we braved the city ourselves. Just the 3 of us went out for drinks at Dempsey’s, our other peeps are out of town. Luckily, when we were at a bar a big group of Umbra students came in, so we ended up talking to a bunch of people then heading to another place called LunaBar. It was pretty fun, lots of dancing to songs in Italian, Spanish and English. Of course we had to take a trip to the illegal bakery before heading home. Did I talk about those already? A bakery that's open after hours, when businesses are supposed to closed, they don't give out reciepts and you usually have to knock on the closed door to get service. I had another bambolini con nutella. Seriously words cannot describe the delicious-ness. It’s a warm, round donut, rolled in sugar and filled with Nutella. I’ve already planned to serve them at my wedding. That’s the level of love I have for them.

On Friday we slept in then decided to get ourselves together to go to school so we could sit on their internet, rather than ours, to plan our Spring Break trip. Everything is so much easier said than done when it comes to planning things like this. For 3 girls who have never planned trips on our own to sit down and figure out how to get around 3 European countries in 10 days is a challenge to say the least. That night we stayed in so we could wake up early on Saturday for a trip to the market.

At 10:30am, we hopped on the MiniMetro to the last stop on the track. We HAD to go to the market, we heard people raving about how they find the best clothes for cheap prices there.

AU CONTRAIRE, my friends.

The market was set up like one I would see a home. Rows of tables covered in random goods, food stands, and lots of hanging clothes. Walking through, however, I realized it was nothing like I have ever seen at home. Words to describe this scene, anonymously quoted from all three of us were:
“all this has been stolen, for sure.”
“this could be a gypsy village.”
“I feel like I’m going to turn around, and see my own coat hanging up and will have to pay 10E to get it back, without even noticing it was stolen off me.”

Seriously, the clothes were in no way appealing to me/us, and although cheap, I don’t think I could have actually bought them. Carrie, however, did find a pair of shoes she got for 10E. We walked through rows of stands and could only bring ourselves to make jokes about the jean one-piece outfits for sale, odd displays of underwear, and how everyone else but us seemed to be losing their minds over the “great finds” they were about to purchase.

Were we missing something? Were they missing something? We just didn’t get it.

Nowhere else in my life have I seen stands with giant hunks of meat for sale, next to stands selling children’s Halloween costumes, next to a garden’s worth of flowers next to a stand of (stolen) pots and pans. The last stand we saw before finishing walking through the market was just the icing on the cake to end this experience. A truck was parked, its side open totally, to show cages stacked on top of each other of birds, pigeons, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and other random animals for sale. Some cages were out and placed on the ground. They had ducks at every life stage, even babies for 1.80E! There were guinea pigs, hamsters and turtles. The animals were not in great condition, smelled horrible and I really, really don’t think were meant to be bought to have as pets. I’ll admit I wanted to take home a baby duck, though.

That was a place I’m glad we went to, but will be even more glad if we never go again. After getting back home, we walked around town then ate lunch at a restaurant we’ve never been to before in order to spice our lives up. Unsuccessful, seeing how Abby and I got a calzone and Carrie got pizza, but we had no idea what anything else on the menu was. It was pretty good, but the calzone had random pieces in ham in it that I picked out. It was 10E! Pretty expensive for nothing too creative.

Last night we braved the town on our own again, but did not have the same luck as we did on Thursday. Maybe everyone from school was out of town? But we literally did not see a person we knew. We did the same Dempsey’s to LunaBar plan and were the only Americans in both places. Weird to think about it, but it was true. Some people we talked to were pretty good at English, at least. After we went to get kabobs!

AHHHHHHHHH wonderful timing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The power in our apartment just went out :-) all that was on was the stove, washing machine and some lights! So now I’m typing along in the dark. Lalalala. I screamed HELP just to be annoying.

Problem solved, thanks roomies. I wasn’t tryna get up.

Carrie also just brought me a grilled cheese in my bed as I type this. Best roommate award for the day, agreed Abby.

Anyway, so the kabob place we went to got an A+ in my book. We walked in around 2:35am, realized it was actually technically closed, but still very open! We ordered the Offerita 1. (I think that’s what it’s called) which consisted of a kebob, order of French fries, and a drink all for 5E! Best 5E I have spent all day for sure. I got mine with some sort of hot sauce, something I have not found anywhere else, and a flavor I’ve been missing!! This is somewhere I know my dad will love when my parents come to visit in April. It was like State Fair food!

Today we slept til 3, then looked at hostels in the 4 cities we plan on being in for Spring Break: Cork, Dublin, London and Paris. As I said, easier said than done. When we finished that, we got all ready to buy the plane tickets finally, but found the flight we originally wanted and was still shown, for $60 or something, was not shown after we clicked on it. Tomorrow we have to ask someone at school about that. The weather today is not inviting at all. Sad to say, but we have not left the apartment today, at least it’s the first time that has ever happened!

Tomorrow I hope to buy those plane tickets and ace my History of Food in Italy quiz. Tonight we’re making dinner (chicken! salad!) Ciao for now.

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