Bread for breakfast?

February 13, 2011

Last night I set the alarm on my phone for 8 a.m. because our hostel included free breakfast from 7:30-9:30, so we wanted to make sure that we could get the most out of our money! And on top of that our train from Bologna to Firenze Rifredi was at 11:28, so we figured that by the time we ate breakfast and got everything together and checked out we would just head to town, maybe check out the flea market for a little bit before heading to the train station. Lauren and I both got up at the same time and we went downstairs to wake up Ivy to come to breakfast…Ryan and Nora left around 6 a.m. by taxi because they were trying to go to Pisa early in the morning because Ryan has found a pastor and a church that he enjoys going to in Pisa. The three of us entered the little breakfast area to discover that breakfast included slices of bread that were piled in a basket with Nutella, butter, or jams to put on it, and then a huge bowl of corn flakes sitting on the same table. We kinda looked around like…is this it? We found the coffee and juice machines, but couldn’t find any bowls for the cereal…clearly we’re not in America anymore. We all got a couple slices of bread and doused it in Nutella, attempted drinking the coffee from the machine but it didn’t taste that great and neither did the juice, and I ended up having a little cereal in a coffee mug. 

We were sitting at the table finishing up when I mentioned that we should go to the reception desk and look at the bus schedule to figure out what bus we should catch to get into downtown Bologna to catch our train. We went to the desk and as I was reading I started flipping out…the only morning bus was at like 9:18 and the next one wasn’t coming til later in the afternoon…I forgot it was Sunday! Once again, haven’t I learned my lesson about Sundays in Italy!? We immediately looked at the clock and realized we had 10 minutes before the bus was coming…it’s go time! We RAN upstairs, stripped the sheets off the beds, grabbed our stuff, came down to the desk to find that the receptionist was nowhere to be found! There was a girl in front of us at the reception desk and finally she came, checked out the girl in front of us, and as soon as the girl stepped away I had all of our keys ready to hand to her, and I know she could tell we were in a hurry because she gave us back our 5 euro deposit for the keys, and asked if we wanted a receipt. We said no to the receipt and instead turned around and SPRINTED all the way to the bus stop. When we got the bus stop there was practically 20 people, most of whom were all in our hostel in the breakfast room this morning. We stood at the bus stop for about 3 minutes when we saw number 93 coming..perfect timing! 

The bus was extremely crowded and we couldn’t wait to get off. We remembered our stop, and started walking to discover that the enormous flea market was no longer there, and instead it was like a HUGE empty space/park…it looked so odd and out of place! We decided to just walk to the train station and sit there for a little over an hour because we were still tired and had no desire to walk around town anymore. We all sat at the platform where our train would eventually come in, and it seemed like the longest hour ever. One thing to make the time pass quicker was this pigeon that we saw and all felt sorry for because it was missing one foot and would hobble between its one foot and one peg. Lauren absolutely hates birds, but she felt so bad that she tried feeding it one of her roasted nuts, but realized it was too hard for the poor little guy. Eventually we got on our train which was the first train we have ever been on that has had tables between the seats..onward to home at last! We switched our train in Rifredi and the train was so packed we had to stand by the doors, but before we knew it we were in S.M.N….practically our backyard! 

It was a little drizzly, but Lauren and I didn’t even care, we stormed home ready to eat and shower! I made myself some soup with crackers while Lauren showered, and once she was out of the shower we switched roles….we both felt 12 times better once we showered! I did my Italian workbook for a little bit until it was time to get ready and go to church. Right before I started getting ready Nick and Claire came home and Nick invited me over to his place for stew after church..and of course I never deny free food, so I told him I would be there! I headed to the Duomo a little before 6 for a typical Italiain mass and was ushered up into the front/main section of seating..I was so excited! The row that I sat in had individual seats that were separated by your hip and by your head..they were so grand and so awesome, I felt like I were a queen or something! I ended up sitting beside this adorable old Italian woman who I wanted to ask to be my grandma. I followed along much better this time and was able to pick out different words here and there in the homily…I really really enjoyed myself, I think definitely more than the English masses. The whole experience just felt more intimate even though there are different phrases and prayers that I need to learn in Italian. 

I left church very pleased with my experience and headed over to Nick’s house. The stew wasn’t quite ready when I got there, but him and Claire has just started a movie which I believe was called The Mummy Returns or something? They explained what was going on in the movie because it is the second movie of the series, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it…I almost forgot about how hungry I was! After a little while Nick thought that the beans in the stew were soft enough, so he served us all a bowl and we dug in. It was the thickest stew I have ever seen in my life, but oh boy was it delicious! Once again, a fabulous dinner by Nick Glunt! The movie ended right when we were finishing up our stew and Claire and I both decided that we were ready to go home. As we were leaving their apartment I had reached back with my hand to grab the door and pull it shut, because I’m so used to our apartment door not shutting on its own. WELL, their outside apartment door is nothing like ours and has a hardcore spring on it which slams the door shut…and let’s just say that I got my finger slammed in the door. OUCH! I danced around in pain for a little bit before I felt good enough to walk home, but I walked most of the way home with my hand up in the air above my head…probably extremely embarrassing, but I didn’t even care! We got home and I iced my finger for a little bit before doing a little more homework and heading to bed!