18-Aprile-2006

I woke up excited because the weatherman was right on this occasion and it was sunny outside. I took my time at breakfast because the bike place didn’t open until 10am. I asked the man at the desk if I could leave my bag for a few hours and he said yes, which was a relief because he was on the verge of being a little bit cranky.

I made my way to the bike place and the rental guy was super nice. My bike had fenders, a kickstand, a bell and it took some convincing to assure the guy that I didn’t need a basket.. oi vey. But beggars can’t be choosers. I got the bike for 3 hours and only spent 5 euro. For the amount I wanted to ride, I probably would have spent 15 euro, but don’t tell them that. The man showed me a nice little path, which I probably could have done, four times in the three allotted hours, so I varied it a bit. I ended up following the river for quite a ways and see a lot of the factories and industrial sights in Cologne. The path was super nice and I encountered many walkers, runners and other bikers. I was amazed at how many older men were out riding bikes. I was impressed, I hope I’m that agile when I’m their age.

I eventually crossed the river and made it over to a luscious green park, recommended by the bike rental man and sat down to read for a few minutes, since the sun was so nice and warm. After that I rode the other way outside of town for awhile and then headed back to return my bike. I still had an hour to kill before I caught the bus back to the airport so I walked around a bit more and then went to pick up my bag. I also grabbed a piece of tonno (tuna) pizza, which I fell in love with in Germany. However, if you ever get tonno fisch pizza, don’t leave it in your bag for any extended period of time.. because now I have tuna fish air freshener in my bag.. it’s amazing, a real unique scent.

The bus took off at 3:30pm and my flight didn’t leave til 8:30pm. I made it to the airport a little after 6pm and it took forever for them to open up a desk for us to check in for the flight. In my opinion the airport wasn’t the most organized I’ve ever been to, but they got the job done.

I made it back to Milano around 10pm, the flight was only supposed to be an hour, but ended up being delayed a bit. Then I caught the bus back to the central station and after another hour, I arrived at Milano Centrale train station. The last train for Torino left at 12:30am, so I must have just missed the one before it and I sat on the train for a good hour, waiting for it to leave.

After five days I returned to Torino at 2:45am and Casey and Jeff let me in the apt, since I left my keys (idiot!)

All in all, Germany was amazing. I felt a lot more comfortable there, even with the language barrier, maybe that would be different if I was studying there, but they seem friendlier and I’ve heard they are even more friendly in the south.. I’ve also heard this is the same for Italy.. hmm.

I’m glad Adam wants to go back. Not sure if we’ll make it to Munich or Berlin when he’s hear, but I should probably get deciding that in the very near future.