So we left Venice on Sunday afternoon and made it to Bologna in pretty good time...better than I expected. However while we worked to find our hostel we got lost. I thought mapquest or google maps worked here in Italy, but maybe our bus driver is stubborn and doesn't like to use them. So he got very angry and upset that he couldn't find our hostel. When we finally did, he didn't say anything to us, not like he ever did anyways. We got checked in to our hostel, which also has Internet, as you can tell...it's very nice and clean. We get our own rooms with doors, which we didn't get in Venice. The breakfast is kinda crappy but whatever we can skip it if it's that awful. So we got on the bus to go to the train station. We got to the train station right before our train left....5 minutes before. So we ran to the platform and made it on with time to spare..who would have known that would be a predicor of our day? We made it to Parma and I was very pleased with the city because it was different than the others that we have seen thus far. We didn't have a tour but Tammy did a grand job of taking us around to different places and seeing things before we split for the rest of the morning to explore for ourselves. There really wasn't much history in Parma that we could see, though there some really nice things to stare at. I got a nice pair of jeans here in a cute shop. It was very interesting to see many if the shops closed from 12-3:30 every day. And around that time we started seeing a lot of schoolage children walking around and getting on the bus. It's interesting to think that so many cultures take those hours of their day to relax and I imagine spend time with their families. We made it back to Bologna by 330 and we split up right away to look at what we wanted. Again, we didn't see very much because there were no maps and everyone we talked to gave us poor directions. It was frustrating but we enjoyed the sun by walking down the main streets stopping in shops and observing people. We stopped for some gelato in the midafternoon and enjoyed the nice weather some more. We met up for dinner at 7 and we ate at this great place called Victoria. I had bolognese cheese tortellini. We had authentic bolognese food as well as vino from the region which was to die for. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the name of the wine because we had to be at the bus stop at 844. We found this out at 830. So we, yea 15 crazy Americans, ran through the city center of Bologna to make it to our busstop so we could get to the stop before the last regular bus. Needless to say, one major spill by one of the girls, on slippery marble floors, later we made it to the stop on time. For the wrong bus. Haha. It was fine though because we were able to run off some of our dinner and then have room for some dessert. At dessert we met some Italian men who spoke English well. It was fun to talk with them, and have them giggle like little girls around us.
One major observation i have made here is that the Italian men are not afraid to say things to strangers. Nearly everyday we walk around cities the girls I walk around with get called 'guapa' 'bella' or get blown kisses and continous staring all the way down the street. We have decided to use this to our advantage when it comes to food and drinks from now on. But dont worry mom. We will be very safe. :-)
We finally made it home and after a long day with nearly 4 hours of non walking traveling we were beat. Nearly all of us came home and went right to bed. The next morning came all to quickly.....
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