Advertisement
Nearly a week has passed and we haven't written anything to all our friends and family until now. Get used to it people. Internet cafes are expensive...and we'd rather spend the money on...souvenirs? Or maybe more nights in the Dolomite region. This place is Be-ea-ut-it-ful.
Since a whole week has passed, lets get everyone caught up on our progress. We began our journey in London, then headed to Milan. From Milan we headed straight to Lake Como and we are now enjoying a lovely day in a city called Bolzano, where people speak German more than Italian.
Some highlights of the trip so far:
St. Christopher's Inn Hostel in London- friendly, cool people, with a pub built right in. Who could ask for anything better? Sure we had a bit of trouble getting to the airport at 2 am to catch our RyanAir flight to Milan at 6 in the morning after all the phones don't work and none of the public transportation was running...But thanks to a friendly Austrian, we got there no problem by taxi.
We almost missed our flight even though we had priority seating and were 5 hours early, but we couldn't understand the announcer (and she was speaking English supposedly).
But we got it and got into Milan no problem, got to our hostel, took a two hour tour, got back to the hostel for a nap....and woke up at 12:45 in the morning. All in all we got about two nights sleep worth in one night, but we needed it, since we hadn't slept the night before. That's how sleep works, right?
Well, Milan was culture shock to say the least. Not so friendly, especially to people who don't speak Italian, but we got out of there as quick as we could and went to a more friendly (or so we thought) region in the lakes: Lake Como.
We stayed in Menaggio because of the hostel, but we didn't realize it had a 12 oclock curfew. We got in on time, but were apparently making too much noise for the babies sleeping in the other rooms (what the heck is a baby doing in a hostel?). The owner, Alberto, barged into our room without knocking and started a barage of insults, telling us to be quiet, "How olde har you? How old har you? Are you six? Are you six? You har varry stoopid"
We settled down somewhat after that, although it was a bit difficult considering there was a group of drunk ITalian men below our window looking like they were contemplating how to get up to our room. Just a bit distracting...They left, don't worry.
Well all the guide books said that this hostel rented bikes and kayaks, but thats not true, so we spent the next day just walking around the city of Como, a two hour scenic ferry ride away from Menaggio. At times we had to physically restrain Briene from purchasing a new Gucci purse. She has three that she brought on the trip anyway.
Well, we spent nearly the entire next day travelling to Bolzano. We didn't have a reservation at the hostel we knew of because we figured this wasn't a popular region at this time, off-season for hiking in the Dolomites. A nice guy helped us find the hostel, but there was no room. As we were calling around for a new place, it started pouring. Not cold rain, more like that humid, summer rainstorm rain. We sat under an awning until it subsided and tried to find the new hotel. It only took us about 3 hours walking around and around the same small town with our bags on our backs. (The guidebook said it was a 15 minute walk from the station).
We had to pay a little extra (sorry dads), but it was worth it. We got our own room with a balcony overlooking the garden of this little German lady who couldn't speak a word of English (or italian either). But we figured it out, got our keys and got freshened up to go get some food.
We went to an amazing restaurant called Vogele or something in German. even thoggh it was 11 at night, they served us food. I don't know what it was, but it was the best we've had so far. A mix between Austrian, German and Italian, just like the region itself. We had some great house wine and some creepy old guys bought us roses. Nice gesture, made the night, but we ditched em for some 1 euro wine at another bar. No thanks, guys, we don't swing that way, you know, where would you stow your walkers with the little tennis balls on them?
Anyway, we have had a full day today. Great weather, great view of the mountains. We had to laundry, but we left it at a dry cleaner, which was not much more expensive than doing it ourself so we could have the rest of the day to explore the village. We had bratwurst sandwiches for lunch then bought fruit from the open air market for dessert. We rented bikes for 1 euro and biked around the town voted "most bike friendly city" in 2004. Bolzanese are very proud of their bike heritage. We just got back from sitting on some rocks on the bank of the River Talvera and are going to pick up our clothes, take a shower and get some dinner. Tomorrow we head out to a new location, hopefully, unless we want to stay longer in this Austrian fairytale land.
Our time is up on the internet. We love you all and miss you. Until next time, this is Helen, Briene and Katie, saying, you don't have to take our word for it.
Ciao Bellos
Advertisement
Tot: 0.047s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 14; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
momma
non-member comment
lov you guys
You should think about careers in journalism. Such funny girls. Stay away from drunks, especially old ones. Well it sounds like you are having a blast and being somewhat careful as well. Keep up the fun and write as soon as you can. Love ya, Momma