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Published: February 19th 2010
Hey gang,
Thought I would post a quick entry, I gotta be somewhere in about thirty minutes so my thoughts are going to be jumbled, but last night we got in and got acquainted with Verona. We went and had a bite to eat at a place in the town. We rode the bus with Martin our trip leader. He is about 80 years old, is missing a front tooth but is very helpful. He is has lived in Verona for 60 years now, came here when he was in the military. He met his wife when he was stationed here, he didn't speak Italian at the time, she didn't speak English either, one thing led to another and they have been married for 60 years now. Thankfully, they can communicate just fine now. The language barrier is much more complicated then I thought it would be. People don't speak English as well as I thought they would. After eating, Martin left us (which he told us he would!) and gave us some brief instructions on how to get back either via taxi or bus and told us to enjoy the night. Our big group roamed the streets for awhile and stumbled into a bar called College Bar. It had a bunch of US college shirts and signs hung up all over it, but we hung out there for awhile and drank some wine which was really cheap. We got there at 730 but to us being just shot from the travel, it felt like 1. The guy that owned the bar, we suspect opened much sooner than the bar actually opened because we were the only ones there for awhile. It didn't start packing in with locals until about 10. Five of us left early (around 11) due to exhaustion and literally roamed the streets clueless for about an hour, found our way back to the center of town where we ate, and grabbed a taxi back to the apartment, returned at around 12. Most of the group got back at around 2, so I was glad I got back earlier to get a good 7 hours of sleep which really helped fight the jet lag. TOday we went to the market where we will buy groceries for the rest of the trip. It was extremely cheap which is nice to know that the Euro allowance we get weekly goes a long way. Afterwards, Martin treated us to a coffee at a nearby shop. Its raining pretty hard today but it is not too cold. The plan this weekend is to get acquainted and familiar with the territory and see some places. The Center of town where we ate last night is really cool... there is a colisseum and a fountain and park and lots of cool statues. There are always a lot of pedestrians. Our program provides us with a bus pass that gets us access to any bus at any time. There are lots of cathedrals, a castle, and a river that runs through town. I will hopefully get some pictures up as the trip keeps going.
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David Thiel
non-member comment
in Dallas
hi JB I love reading your blogs. I hope all is well...it is Sunday a.m. I stayed with Matthew and Ashley. The kids are cute and fun to be around. June is so precious...she is a smiler...alert and very long...she is tall for her age. I miss you. dad