Italia Day 5-6: Middle Of Nowhere and Southern Tyrol

We had a lovely breakfast and cappuccino before heading out just as the rain really started to come down. As we boarded the train for Bressanone to go visit my friend Kathrin, we had a large learning curve trying to learn Italian trains. We deciphered most of the schedules and got on the right train to Verona, but we knew we only had 7 minutes to find our next train at the stop. In true Italian style, the train was late and we had one minute to find our train. We checked one of the boards, ran to Bin 7 and got on the train just as it was leaving. All was good. Little did we know, three hours later when they checked our tickets, we were three hours in the wrong direction. WE got off the train in the middle of nowhere and tried to call Kathrin, when I realised that I left off one of her digits of her mobile number. After waiting an hour, and knowing that the train was to go to Bin 5 we were ready. Many trains pulled in and out and some would pull in from one direction and then go back the way it came. At 5:30 when our train was to arrive, it did come on time, but from the wrong direction. We thought nothing of it, crossed the tracks, and boarded the train. We made it, or again, as we thought. Just as the doors closed, we saw the train pull in heading back to Verona. Once again, we were on the wrong train, again heading further South. Kathrin finally got a hold of us when we hit a town nearly to Florence by this time and booked a hotel. Another few hours we boarded the train directly to the largest town in Southern Tyrol Bolzano and got there by midnight. One full day spent going nowhere and missing out on catching up with an old friend.

We had a great nights rest and the next day we pottered around Bolzono waiting for Kathrin to get off work. In SOuthern Tyrol, it was once a part of Austria, so they are bilingual in German and Italian which is why Kathrin lives there. She did the foriegn exchange program from Stutgard Germany over to U of O which is how I know her. We had not seen each other in nearly 5 years since when I went to Germany, she happened to be in the US at the same time! I digress..... back to the story. Ben and I took our time seeing the city, trying to remember my super rusty German, but I did manage to say 'I have a reservation' in german when I went to the hotel and had the most lovely breakfast the next day in the hotel. We went to all of the museums the city had to offer. Most of the exhibits were in german so we went through them pretty quickly. The best was the archelogical one where we got to see the Iceman, Ötzi found up in the mountains. I had always wanted to see him. It was in english too and it was very interesting seeing stuff from thousands of years ago. We took a long walk up to see Roncolo Castle and toured that. It was lashing rain, but was great seeing all of the vinyards leading out to the castle and it was quite warm out. After sitting on a bus the whole day before, it was good to stretch our legs. We got back into town just as Kathrin got off of work and we headed to her house where we would be staying. We met up with her boyfriend Mouriz. Their accents speaking english are so differnet, since he learned it while living in London and she while living in Santa Barbara they even have a hard time understainding eachother. The german there was so hard for me to understand. I can understand Kathrin a little bit, but the others was just so musical and bouncy. We had a graet dinner with the funniest waiter. We drank and ate way into the night. The next morning we met up with Kathrin and took the train in with her. We had a bit of breky and some coffee before we parted ways. I was so happy to see her, and hope it will not be another 5 years before we see each other again!