Farewell Italy

It's time again to move on to a different city. This time to Barcelona so that we can train back to Bordeaux.

Today was spent mostly on commuting. I woke up at about 11 am. I got ready for the day and Michela's mom asked me if I wanted something to eat for breakfast. She said it was already late, but if I wanted something it was ok. I went to the kitchen and Michela's mom heated some milk for me to make some hot chocolate from Nesquick. I ate some round cookie things and she told me to not eat a lot so that I could eat lunch later.

While I was eating, Michela's mom told me that she was preparing Frico, a regional dish that's made of cheese and potatoes, and polenta. She said that those dishes were for the poor and they were rich in calories. She also said that even though those dishes were considered poor meals, restaurants now charge a lot of money for them. She later added that she was cooking the food for a long time because polenta requires slow cooking.

When Alicia and I finished breakfast, Michela's mom told Alicia how to make the dishes and asked her if she would stir the polenta. She told me that girls only did that kind of stuff and that boys are not supposed to cook. I thought that was funny and a bit backwards because anybody should be able to do whatever. I would have to say that Michela's family is a rather traditional family. Dad works to support family, mom stays home to look after the children and the house, and the children go to school.

After breakfast, Michela, Alicia, and I went to the train station to buy another train ticket. This time we were heading towards Treviso where the airport was located. Michela's mom was going to take us to the airport, but the car was broken. She said they needed to fix the engine, so we had to take the train and then the bus. Michela's mom did give me a 2? coin to pay for the bus tickets though.

When we got back from the train station, we had lunch and Michela's brother came back from school to have lunch with us and say goodbye to us. The polenta and the frico were delicious and I will long for home-made cooking. We then booked our hostel in Barcelona and before we knew it we had to leave the house. I was sad to already leave Udine since Michela's family was so welcoming and they really wanted us to stay a bit longer. Michela's mom kept on saying that it was too bad that we were staying for such a short time. She also said, "Je suis très contente" (I'm very happy) to have you. She really did want us to stay longer, but seeing that we were running a tight schedule we couldn't stay any longer even if I wanted to.

I was really glad that they liked us and that they wanted us to stay longer. Hopefully I can again stay with them in the future, but only time will tell. It was chance that Michela and I met, and chance that I was able to see her again, chance again will bring me back to Udine. I am so happy that I was able to meet such a nice and caring Italian family.

Before we left their house, Michela's mom gave us a little sack "lunch" with sandwiches with an orange and a little cookie with a chocolate bar on top. My two little sandwiches were cheese since Lent has started and Alicia got two little ham sandwiches. As we left the house, Michela's mom gave me and Alicia "bisous" or rather kisses on the cheek. We rushed to the train station and just in time made it to the awaiting train. We said our goodbyes to Michela and we wished each other to hopefully meet again.
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Today was filled with commuting - a short walk from Michela's flat to the Udine train station, then a two hour train trip to Treviso, followed by an approximately 30-45min bus trip to the airport, next we flew on ryan air for about 1h30, then paid for a 12? bus to get to Barcelona, and finally we taxied to our hostel. Today's transportation definitely costed a lot, but I was glad to be closer to being back to Bordeaux, since I was already getting tired lugging my baggage from town to town.

When we got to our hostel, we put our stuff away and went to the kitchen to eat our sack lunches. Afterwards, I was able to use the internet and a few hours later we went out to meet Alicia's friend.