That's Amore!

Considering that I planned this entire trip from my couch in Ohio, I've had very few problems, I'm proud to say.  But there are some things I definitely would have done differently.

For instance, I would have reversed my city order from Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest to Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna instead.

Because, to go from Budapest to my next city, Venice, meant I had to take a train all the way back to Vienna first.

All in all, Budapest to Venice took two trains, one bus, and eleven hours of my day.

I like long train rides, but I'll admit its poor usage of my limited time here.

On the bus, I meet a Swedish guy named Tuna (sp?), who was studying abroad in Vienna and visiting Venice.  He was kind of clueless where he was supposed to go once he got of the bus (who doesn't bring a map?!).  I offered to let him tag along with me to get directions from my host, Alberto, who was meeting me at the bus stop.

It took us a minute to find Alberto, and once we did he was a little less than enthusiastic about Tuna and his questions.  I could understand why though, we were kind of on a tight schedule.

That night was a dinner for Alberto's local political party, which he was very active in.  I had arrived shortly after six, and the dinner was at eight.

The thing about Venice, is that bit many people actually live in the city.  Unless they are extremely rich, most people live on the mainland (Venice is an island for those of you that didn't know, like me). 

So to get to Alberto's house in Mira, we had to take a 30 minute bus.

We crammed ourselves into an over crowded bus.  My backpack, which sticks out a foot behind me, was making me the least popular passenger, per usual.  Eventually I took it off, and held it between my legs.

About ten minutes in, verbal banter broke out between the driver and the whole front half of the bus.  It sounded intense to me.  I for sure thought the driver was about to go mafia on the one guy.  Apparently, it was mostly about the bus being late, etc.

Everything sounds intense in Italian.

We made it to Alberto's house, and I met his two other couch surfers, Alison and Julian.  They were both studying abroad in Bristol, but Julian was from Canada, and Alison was from Australia.

Native English speakers.  After a while abroad, you miss the little things about native English speakers.  Non-natives tend to overuse words like "exactly"or phrases like "for me, it's okay".  Not that those aren't okay things to say, I can always understand the meaning.  I just have to sort of "digest" non-native English, whereas listening to an American takes no extra effort.

Someone on my trip actually mentioned how a group of exchange students, from all over Europe, could understand each other perfectly in English.  Even though it might be their second or third language, it would be their only common language.  But throw a native English speaker in the group, and I guarantee it will be much harder for them to understand everyone else.

Ironic a bit.

Back to Venice.

After a quick pit stop, the four of us headed to the dinner.  We met a friend of Alberto's down the street, who took us in his car. 

Now when I heard "political dinner", I assumed it would be a sit and tie type affair.  In an effort to be proper, I donned the fanciest thing I had with me (a cotton t-shirt dress...). 

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. 

The dinner was in a small family restaurant, where all the seats were benches, and the toilet was a hole in the floor with a garden hose for sanitation.

I had an awesome time at this dinner.

Our table had the only for people speaking English (between Alison and Julian being Asian, and me being blonde, it wasn't hard to pick out the foreigners.) It was great to have the two of them there with me.  They were both hilarious, I loved hearing their views on living in England.  Plus, it's so much less awkward when there's a group of you that doesn't really know how to act. 

Alberto, having read my profile, brought up Star Trek at some point.  I admitted that I had never seen an episode, simply because I had always felt loyal to Star Wars, and Star Trek seemed like the other woman.  Trying to convince me of Trek's superiority, he cited that Martin Luther King Jr. watched and loved Star Trek.  I said, had he been alive to see it, he would have recognized Star Wars as the bigger genius.

Touché.

Our geek discussion continued quite a bit further, to The Big Bang Theory and beyond.

Dinner consisted of thirteen million different courses. 

There was bread.  Then there was a meat and cheese plate.  Then there was a dish of deli-type salads.  Then there was falafel type things. Then a heavy wild rice dish.  Then, since the main course was taking too long, they brought out the best fries ever, fried in olive oil I believe.

The main course: braised donkey.

When I read the menu online beforehand, it had not occurred to me how closely donkey and horse are related...

Oh, but it was good.

At the dinner there was also a handful of kids that had come with their parents.  One in particular was a seven year old girl named Valentina who had taken a liking to me for some reason. 

Now I've never really been around children, and I'm not a huge fan of them.  Frankly I just don't know how to interact, but I tried my best.

She knew very little English, so Alberto was doing most of the translating.  She asked if I was from England.  When I said no, America, she got kind of excited.  She told me I was very pretty, and that she wanted to come back to America with me.  I joked about shoving her in my suitcase.  She took it rather seriously and yelled to her mom that she was going to America!  I felt a little bad because I think she actually believed it.  I said that I would write to her if she gave me her address.  So she did, and she asked for mine as well.  I also found out that her birthday was coincidentally the same as mine! I think I will send her a birthday card postmarked from the states.

I couldn't understand her fascination with me.  Alberto said that, to them, I seem like a Britney Spears or a Lola Bunny.  Valentina had even referred to me as being like Lola Bunny.  I thought this was hilarious.  Also apparently I wiggle around a lot when I talk and do this thing with my shoulders that is very animated and unusual to them.  I'd never noticed.

Another surprising thing Alberto said, was that while Valentina was a sweet girl now, she would grow up to be a snobby and spoiled typical Italian woman.  Of course I had heard of this stereotype, but I hadn't thought of it as a solid rule.

It has been a common theme among many of my hosts to say that American girls are much more open than girls of their country.  Some have even said cooler and more fun, but I don't mean to brag...  I have also heard the opposite.  That previous Americans my hosts had had were arrogant and boring, and generally acted as if their country and citizens were superior to any other.

By the time the dinner had finished, we were all about to go into a food coma.  Upon returning to Alberto's house, he received a message from two Polish surfers, whose previously arranged host on Venice had flaked on them.

Now as it turned out, Alberto only had one bed and one couch.  Now he had five surfers.  Julian and Alison got the bed upstairs that they had been sleeping on previously.  The Polish couple set up blankets on the floor in the living room and I got the couch.  This left Alberto.

I made a joke (of course I did) that I'd take two couch cushions, and he could have the third.

He took this into serious consideration.

What ended up going down, was we both shared all three cushions, but in opposite directions. 

There were Italian feet directly under my pillow.

It was generally uncomfortable, but I couldn't say anything.  Where else would he have slept?  He promised to be a perfect gentleman, and I trusted him.  Besides, with two other people in the room, I couldn't foresee anything bad happening.

While the Polish couple (Zuzanna and Jacek) were in the upstairs bathroom, Alberto asked me a rather surprising question.

He asked me to stay longer in Venice.

Longer as in forever.

Now I was exhausted at this point, so I hope I'm paraphrasing correctly.  But he basically said that he was sure I was just the girl he had been looking for, and that if I would agree to stay, he would stop accepting couch surfers forever. 

I was most definitely caught off guard.  So what did I do?

I responded with a joke of course.

I said I'd have to wait and see how much I liked Venice tomorrow first.

He said the offer would still stand tomorrow.

Buona Notte Italy
Tegs