A day of parting mixed with some Italian logic.

A day of parting

I know this moment had to come, but still, we're never ready for it. We wish and  hope for the moment but then when we're actually faced with it, there's sadness in our hearts. And so this occurs with the parting of good friends, loved ones, travel companions, and of course bikes.  Yes, on September 2nd at 9:30 italian time I had to say good bye to a faithful friend. Trek T900 was sold to what I believe will be an excellent home for him. A family that finally understood the value and worth such a machine warranted. A mother, father, son duo.  I saw in their eyes that which was in my own the day I too acquired him.  He had no problem handing over the money for such a treasure. This I like to see as not all bikes are created equal. 

So now I must bare the burden of my over weight luggage as though i was the beast of burden. One bag in front, one behind, and a tire added just for sweet measure.  No doubt I'm the weirdest thing bologna has seen for a while.  Let's not forget to mention that good'ol trusty water. Ottos that has been with me for so long.. somewhere in the beginning of France about 50 days back.  Anyway, I'm already thinking about another bike. One to take south with me and if she's lucky, to Sicily. I get over'm quick. 

Funny conversation today with some italian girl:

How do you say it in Italian?

Mangare

No, it.

Ya, mangare

No, As in: The cat eats the food. It eats the food. 

Mangare is eat.

I know, but what about it. 

What is it?

Ya, that is the question. 

Bologna

So after a little more than a month with the thought of wearing actual shoes, the thought has returned. Digging through the bikebags and Ah yes, out come the ol'red saiconies and in go the flip flops.  It's off to Modena I go, and on business. Does that mean I can use this European trip as a tax write off? Lord knows I'll try. Another thing I've noticed concerning my time here on the east coast is the lack of soap I've needed. Now before everyone starts grossing out, there's something to be said about swimming in the ocean 3 times a day. I'm convinced the salt destroys any and all nastiness through some scientific process.  and if it doesn't, I sure haven't noticed otherwise. 

I now find myself in the fine Italian city of bologna.  Ive been here for about five days  It's a fun city buzzling with life as the new school year is about to commence. A city od about 365 thousand loyal citizens.  Lots of museums and churches to be found along any of the streets in the center of the old walled part. The ancient medevil people ordered lessers to build big walls around their city to protect them from other medevil rich people who ordered their lessers to attack them. I supposed this worked until really big guns were made had put to ruins in seconds what took a good number of years to construct.  It is however expensive, even after being warned that northern Italy can be this way. To this i say Thanks college kids!  Who else would consider living with 2 other people in the same room just to be able to afford more beer on the weekend. Nonetheless, I like it. A long cry from spanish soria where the medium age was, oh I'd say 70. 

Things to see in order of awesomeness:

The big tall tower

The museum of bologna history. At least the movie and the blue light special water thingy room

I forget the name but the church with 7 different churches that were built through the centuries. Very cool. 

Oh what else?  The library's  not bad either. But you have to be super cool to go there so obviously I was benvenuti'ed. 

The trains in Italy are a pretty nice convenience.  But the excitement of riding one lasts more or less about 40 minutes. After that you're just a person on a train wish'n it would arrive or at least those obnoxious people two rows back (hardly ever Italians) might somehow disappear through the train window. 

The history displayed throughout Italy is ecerywhere. Practically every church is a museum with works of art hundreds of years old. And churches are everywhere. Oh, what's in that door slightly ajar? Let's go see.  My gosh! It's a huge awesome church full of ancient sculptors and paintings!  Many of these from the outside don't give any hint as to what lies within, like Megatran, the transformer. 

See if you can find the fault in this argument:  It must be easy to find a bike to buy (as in many people are selling them) because with a bike you can travel around the city easily and quickly.  Hmmmm

No shame here

No shame here.

Well, I'm not so sure it can be called shame or shameless or even categorized at all. I refer to the ease of arguments that seams to exist here in the itian culture. I've seen arguments that, having occurrd in most anyother place, surely would end with someone in the hospital or at least with police on the scene. But not here. No sir.  It's as if they know nothings goin to happen in the end so they can do and say what ever it is they want.  Woman vs. the butcher, man vs. teenager, husband vs. disrespectful other man, anythings fare game overhere. 

 The typical "fight" goes something like this. 

All of a sudden you'll hear someone talkingl loudly. Not quite a yell but almost.  For a moment you'll wonder if this is friend or foe because really it can take a few verbal exchanges to figure it out. Finally a fist goes up shaking a finger. Ok, now we know it's on!  Normally only one person will be irate while the other more or less maintains their cool probably wondering why the other is indeed irrate. Anyway, they will exchange words back and forth loudly, a display for all those around. It's entertainment. You're supposed to stop and stare. Finally someone will pull the real angry one away all the while still shouting back to his nemesis. Things are about to cool down, when all of a sudden the one guy comes back with a snide reply. Here we go again. Mr. Irrate can no longer be restrained once again advancing towards his opponent with the finger shaking even more intensely. This cycle will repeat itself about 6 or 7 times, really it's comical, everytime creating moe and more space between the two until the shouts are now faint whimperings in the distance. Tomorrow they'll probably kiss and make up. Such is Italy. 

Awesome problems

I wake up in the morning, a ripe and early 6:30.  As I take a ride through the first I think to myself" this is awesome. The trees, the breezes, the fine dirt on the ground. What a life, this is awesome. " then at same point between banana yogurt mixed with cereal and a peach I have later, I head to the each. At this point I think to myself "This water is a preservative for the mind, body, and spirit.  Propelling myself through this massive amount of warm clear blue water. What amazing moments, this is awesome."  Now I'm walking through the city streets taking in the social scene mingling with the locals, dining on fine local cuisine, pizza from the kabob shop ever wondering if maybe gelato ( that's special Italian icecream) could actually be healthy trying to bend the odds in my favour. And yes once again, this is awesome. So it would appear to me that the problem I have is that it's in fact all awesome. Here, there, everywhere. No matter where I turn it's going to be good.  And maybe I just might turn myself right into one of those parlours.

As confucious once said "all wild crazy summer beach parties must come to an end"

First things first I love that new Marron 5 song Payphone. Some things in life we just like without the. We'd to explain it. And that songs one of them.
Right, anyway, the streets of San Benedetto del Tronto are slimming by the day. Now don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of nightly folk perusing (ha, I spelled that right the first time.round!) the ice team parlours with their 2 year olds at 1 in the morning, but substantially less then a mere week ago. I no longer have that horrible stress of wondering whether or not I'll get a spot of shade under a pal tree at my preferred stretch of beach, and I can actually afford to stand in the deli line at the supermerket without having 30 grannies waiting to buy 200 grams of some delicacy salami.  All in all its a nice change. But that means change for me to. At this very moment there are 2 main trains of thought in mi mente. One, big long bike path on Germany and On to Austria. Yes, I speak of the Danube river bike path.  Da da dan.  Some 2,000 km of sweet rolling bike road following the ancient Danube. And the other of course, the sea. A trip to southern Sardinia could be just the thing a hardworking fella like me needs. As it turns out, options are my worst enemy. They interfere with will to go allocating thought power on where I could be rather than where i need to be  and what I need to do.  Ha, vacation should not be this difficult. So as usual, when all else fails

Yes, boats kick and they kick hard.

Beware of the kicking boats!! Thats all I have to say to you should you go swimming the the Adriatic.

The lack of nighttime and morning breezes, though allowing every mosquito in the galaxy an attempt to annoy me all night long, sure makes for some calm smooth seas. And these are the times I really spread my wings out into the open waters.  Today was no different except for the fact that out there in the black hole of sea space, while swimming from buoy to buoy, I came across another intrepid soul.  A German I believe. Why do I say this?  Let's see if you can figure it out. 

A fine chubby fellow who spoke to me in English. He wanted to warm me about the rules and regulations regarding the buoys and which side of them we could rightfully swim on. He also pointed out his bay watch type floaty to which he was connected by a narrow rope stating that to be out that far away from the shore it was a requirement to have. Wow! Somebody did their " going for a swim on the beach of Italy homework." I wonder which other kind of silly fiddly rules he knew about?  Maybe that if it's not illegal, it's definitely frowned upon to take a bite of a whole tomatoe after each of a large ham sandwich or eating your cereal directly from the milk box you have to cut open with a knife. Hey, but at least we can run around all day long in out righty whites, or righty grayes as the case might be for some, without a care in the world. Of course with the one caveat that you must be at least 10 miles from a swimming spot.  Got a bathtub? You're good to go!  

Anyway, so the German continued to tell me that a rowing event was taking place and that if somebody was unfortunate enough to be found on the wrong side of the  buoys when they passed by, that person ran the risk of getting kicked by  a boat.  Kicked by a boat!? My goodness! I wouldn't even wan to get hit by one let alone kicked. Good grief! If its not one danger, it's another in this land of chaos.