Is This a Dream?

After 11 hours in planes, 30 minutes in a bus and 2 hours on a train I finally arrived in Pesaro, Italy yesterday afternoon at 4pm Italian time.  Although it was a long journey, things have much improved since the last time I traveled abroad.  The plane offered 45 different in-flight movies to watch in English, plus others in at least 10 other languages, compared to my last trip where 3 movies were on repeat.  I ill advisedly watched movies instead of sleeping during my flight which I regretted today when I was completely jet lagged (I slept from 9pm until noon today).

In London making my connecting flight to Bologna, I made my first friend in Italy! Thank goodness Paulina decided to interject when she overheard my travel plans and share that she too was traveling alone for a few months.  Meeting someone at the beginning of my trip who is doing something so similar to me was really reassuring that maybe I'm not alone in this after all.  We didn't have the best of luck with buses and trains; first having to walk in the middle of the road to locate the bus to the Bologna Central Train Station, then her train ticket printed out in a way that was completely unintelligible to us tourists.  However, helping each other out definitely made it easier.

P and I about to catch our trains

From the airport in Bologna we took a bus to the Central City train station which was approximately a 30 minute ride through the city.  We didn't see much from the bus, however I can't wait to go back and tour!  At the train station we each purchased train tickets from the fast ticket kiosks which were very simple to use, I just had to choose at which speed and class I wanted to travel.  Finding our trains was a bit harder, especially as Paulina's ticket printed out without a train number or time of departure!  I finally made it onto my train and took a peaceful train ride through the Italian countryside, passing hillside villages, rolling valleys and vineyards.  

Anna picked me up at the Pesaro Station; it was a very small station however I still managed to go to the wrong exit and it took a few minutes to find each other.  Then we picked Elena and Dana up from school; it was so great finally meeting them after months of planning and they both greeted me with big hugs.  We had fun playing games for a few hours and then I called it a night, all that traveling wore me out! 

The Library

One of the best things about where I'm staying is that it is within walking distance to the library (anyone who knows me, knows that I am a total bookworm).  I walked by there today to sign up for their tandem language exchange program.  I'm embarrassed to say I didn't learn much Italian before my trip and although it is very similar to Spanish so I can understand a bit, I am very much in need of some lessons!  In the language exchange program you learn by engaging in conversation for half an hour in each language, so both people have an opportunity to learn the other language.  I also found a cultural exchange group located in Pesaro which is having a meeting tonight at a place nearby which I plan on attending.