I confess, I'm procrastinating from studying. But, I realised I haven't written here for a while and the reason was sort of that I haven't been anywhere for a while. But, not going on any nice trips doesn't mean I haven't "done" anything. Every day here is quite an adventure, and there have been lots of nice springtime happenings.

Since I've started walking, a lot, in Udine, I have been delighted to come across many things I hadn't previously discovered. Just little things, but things which make me fall in love with this city all over again.  Maybe I'm over-romanticising, and quite possibly it's just because I'm feeling nostalgic prior to the event of actually leaving, but that's how it is - got to make the most of every last second from this point on.

11th April - Parco del Cormor
One day I had this crazy idea to walk from my house (by the station) to the out-of-town shopping mall. Actually it's only about 8km and most of the way was a lovely walk (bar the bits where there is literally NO provision for pedestrians and some rather big roads to negotiate!). Hot, sunny day and it was nice to see all the lizards back out! 

Anyway, just near the mall is this wonderful park, which I had never been to before! I often complain about the lack of nice parks in Italy, spoiled as we are in England, so discovering this natural reserve made me very happy indeed: lots of people, but an overall sense of peace, calm and nature. 

25th April - Liberation Day Bank Holiday: Far East Film Festival
A random Thursday day off was the perfect opportunity to see something of the Far East Film Festival which takes place in Udine every year. This was the 15th edition. I never made it to anything last year or the year before, so I was very pleased to manage to this year. A real tribute to the cinematic enterprise of all the nations of the Far East.
This was also a brilliant day on several counts. One of my housemates made a delicious lunch (we don't usually eat together because of such different timetables but all 3 of us sat down and had lunch together which was super nice).   Then we went to Piazza San Giacomo to see the Cosplay competition. Now weatherwise, we couldn't have asked for more for a bank holiday: glorious sunshine, hot - to the extent that standing in the square we were all sweltering (and in my case, catching the sun something chronic!). A fun event of costumes and performance mixed together - this was the winning costume.

Rita and I then enjoyed the sunshine some more by drinking a few spritz - no spritz in this picture but it's my favourite from the day! 

In the evening we went to watch a Japanese film called "Girls for Keeps". Given that the FEFF is a huge event, all the films are projected in the Teatro Giovanni da Udine. This was another first for me - I've been meaning to go to the theatre pretty much since I moved to Udine, but had never found the opportunity. Here it was! Not the best picture, but gives the idea. The film was great actually - really interesting to see the ways in which life is pretty standard whichever country you're in. The film followed four women in their 30s (or nearly) and had some rather poignant points.

28th April - Clauiano, Provincia di Udine
On Sunday I was able to meet up with some friends that I haven't seen nearly enough of recently, and they took me to this little village near Udine. It's supposedly one of the "most beautiful villages in Italy". It was nice, well-kept etc, but nothing majorly exciting to be honest. Anyway I enjoyed the company, and again the sunshine, and also a stunning view at one point with magnificent clouds:

30th April - The day before the bank holiday
As the 1st May is also a bank holiday, we had Wednesday off last week (having had Thursday the week before!). On Tuesday night, after returning from work, my housemate and I went for a few drinks at the bar near our house. I used to go there a lot with Sean as basically it's in a perfect location - right between work and home, and easy to drop into on the way back for a post-work wind-down  Of course since Sean left I haven't exactly wanted to go there on my own, though I have missed going! So I suggested it to Rita and we popped down - nice evening, though perhaps beer then vodka wasn't the best mix (I'm not as young as I was!).  Made a new friend, too

1st May - Bank Holiday
Having gallivanted the week before on day off, today I stayed home to study almost all day. Boring boring. I'm so far behind with all the books I have to read though it's untrue. The problem being that they are going to be put into storage in just over a month, and then I won't have opportunity to continue until Sept, by which point it's basically too late. So I'm a bit stressed on that front. But reading and making notes is very slow going, especially when I can only grab a few minutes here and there to make progress as there are quite frankly so many other things to do!
As a reward for having managed to get on quite well, I went to the cinema in the evening. I saw a film called "Viaggio Sola" which had an actor and actress who are usually in the films by my favourite director. Really enjoyed it, even if it was quite an emotionally-charged film!! 

4th May - Palazzo Contemporaneo, Udine
On 25th April we popped in briefly to have a look at this amazing space in Udine which is basically an ex-department store which has been transformed into a contemporary art space. Lots of different works - expressive, communicative, community-focused. The deparment store was called UPIM and the acronym becomes "Udine Prova a Immaginarti Migliore" (more or less: Udine, try and imagine yourself better). I've never seen a project quite like it, and yeah, basically wanted to go back and have a better look, so yesterday I took that opportunity. It's only a temporary thing and is closing next week, so it was yesterday or never. 

In the evening, I returned to the Cinema Centrale and saw "Night train to Lisbon". I haven't read the book, so I can't comment (have heard mixed reviews) but I did enjoy the film. Quite slow-paced overall, but thought-provoking and lots of poignant ideas....

A few parting shots of my fave city (these are from March actually, but still). 
I know there are perhaps more exciting things on the horizon, but I'm feeling extremely sentimental about my current location at the moment. Three years is a long time for me to have stayed in one place, and it's been very formative in many ways - obviously to an immeasurable degree career wise - it's been my absolute foundation. But also in many other ways. So, just trying to make the most...

 

 

I do love living near to Venice! I've been very lucky in that it's been easy to get to Venice from all three places I've lived in Italy: Trento, Brescia and Udine. So, I've been quite a regular visitor to Venice over the past few years, and especially this year when I have started to go as regularly as possible to St George's Anglican church too. But, whilst I have returned to most of the major sights over the years, I hadn't been back to the islands of Burano and Murano since 1998, the first time I went to Venice at all, with my family.

Yesterday I took the opportunity to take a trip there. I had the Venice museum pass which is valid for 6 months. Bought it in October so it was about to run out, and I still had the Museum of Glass on Murano and the Museum of Lace on Burano to do, as well as the 3 museums in St Mark's Square. So, I invested in a 12 hour boat pass (rather an extortionate amount for that, but it did allow me to do everything) and having done a quick hop to St George's for the 10.30am service, I got myself across to Murano.

Murano, famous for its glass, is a pretty little island, but architecturally not that different from the main part of Venice. The glass sculptures scattered around are striking though, and of course seeing a glassblower at work is fascinating too. I didn't actually do that this time, but I still have vivid memories from the time we did, back in 1998! Anyway I enjoyed wandering around and seeing some different things.

The highlight for me though was revisiting Burano. I literally had no recollection of this place at all! In fact I'll be fascinated to see our family trip photos when home to see if it really was the same. It must have been, of course, but I didn't remember it at all. Very sweet colourful houses, all painted different colours and making a very striking and charming effect. Loved it! 

The boat to get back to the mainland took what felt like hours,but it was a lovely day and I enjoyed getting windswept on the top deck of the boat. Spent a long time all day on boats which seemed to go very slowly indeed, but it was enjoyable because the weather was fine! I was also able to squeeze in the 3 St Mark's museums and see the usual familiar old sights...

 

 

...and still manage to be back in Udine by 9pm...at which point I smashed a large bottle of olive oil on the kitchen floor, and spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the mess. Not such a good finish, but a great day overall.

Oh and today I became an auntie again Delighted to have a niece as well as a nephew now  

Well, the first "real" holiday I've had in quite some time (ie. spending more than 2 nights in a place that wasn't Taize or Taize related) warrants a new blog entry I feel! Not sure I've got time to keep it up as before, but we'll see... lots of changes afoot, so perhaps.

In the meantime, a quick run down of my holiday:

Thursday 28th March 2013: Day One
For the first time ever, I think, I flew from Venezia Marco Polo airport to somewhere other than the UK. The only other time I have flown from an Italian airport elsewhere was to go to Cagliari in December 2010 but I think I went from Milan as I was living in Brescia. 
The flight was ridiculously delayed because of a lack of buses at the airport. When I got on the plane, surrounded by 70% Italians, 20% French and 10% other, the very British pilot announced that the organisation at Venice on the ground was shocking and that he had lodged a complaint and suggested we do the same. He announced this in very fast, colloquial English, so I suspect the gist of what he was saying was lost on most of the passengers but the very few native speakers flying from Venice-Nice. He did try to say the same thing in French, bless him, but it didn't amount to much... Anyway it was a frustrating delay all round as it meant the arrival in Nice was slightly too late to go to the museums I had been hoping to squeeze in that day. In the end it all turned out to be timed beautifully so it was okay but the arrival was a slight pain. Late flight, hostel which had messed up my booking so I wasn't in a 5 bed female dorm but a 13 bed female form (I've stayed in worse, but the 1 bathroom between 13 in room was something I was trying to factor out this time). Oh and it was raining. Pouring in fact. 

As I was too late to do much else, I decided to go straight to the swimming pool. Bliss! Only €2.60 entrance, and geared with my costume, swimming cap (first time I've worn one of those since school!) and goggles, I got in and had a good old swim. Very liberating, and lovely to be able to since I don't really feel I can go in Italy. Partly for timing, partly for fear of bumping into students there! 

After that, I had a quick dinner in a cafe  

and then headed to Holy Trinity, the Anglican Church of Nice for a Maundy Thursday service at 8.30pm. Beautiful church, and the service was quite well attended, though of course a very solemn affair so I didn't actually speak to anyone before, during or after. We sang a Taize chant though and a couple of hymns and it was nice. 

Friday 29th March 2013: Day Two
The weather as I set off made a great change from the previous day: sunny and blue skies! Started by wandering round Old Nice a bit, and the waterfront, before catching a bus to go on my first day trip down the coast. I was starting at a place called Eze village, a tiny little medieval village perched on a clifftop with great views across the coast. It's also famous for its perfumery, but I decided against visiting. Instead I wandered about the village, up to the very highest point which is an exotic garden. Splendid views indeed, though unfortunately we were a bit up in the clouds there so it had gone a bit dull.

 

Looking down from the top you could see right down to the village's sea level counterpart, Eze-sur-mer,

 

and there was indeed a walking path to go down by foot instead of taking the bus.

My guidebook described this walk as "strenuous" and I had read a few similar things about it, but had put my trainers on and was ready to go, so go I did. It basically took 45-50 minutes to get down. Very unsteady path in some places, though with steps carved in others. I didn't see ANYONE going down. I met 3 couples coming up (much much worse I imagine!!). It was quite strenuous in terms of needing quite a lot of control to stay steady...

I'm reasonably accustomed to doing crazy things like this though so it was fine, but I have to say my calves are STILL suffering now. I didn't warm up at all before starting which was stupid as it was a long and quite challenging descent! I was glad when I made it to the bottom but then went even further, right down to the very water and walked all along the pebble beach - more hard work for the old legs!! 

From Eze-sur-mer I took the bus 100 to Monaco, to visit Monte Carlo. The weather still wasn't great, but I enjoyed having my packed lunch (a supermarket bought salad and fruit) in one of the parks near the Grand Casino.

The Casino was closed so I didn't get to go in even to the non-dress code free entry bit (I was wearing my trainers for Eze so was not dressed the casino part!!), but had a good look round the outside and enjoyed looking at lots of expensive cars and things.

I wandered around the marina area, and then embarked on another good walk, this time an ascent up to the Royal Palace and Cathedral etc of Monaco.

Thoroughly enjoyed wandering around up there, and after a few hours decided it was time to head back to Nice. Once back in Nice I spent some more time wandering around while it was still light and managed to fit in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art which I loved. Especially the roof terraces with fantastic views over the city (nice as it was sunny!). Then I raced across town to visit the Russian Orthodox Church - as I was on the way I was worried it would be closed when I got there as my guide said 5.30pm. I was happy just to see the outside in the sun though and would go back to see inside another time. But luckily it was still open! Even if the security man was a bit of a joker and told me it wasn't... had to put a scarf on head to enter of course and no photos inside, but it was yet another magnificent Orthodox church.

After that I took advantage of a "dish of the day" offer at a restaurant I passed, which turned out to be delicious salmon with potatoes and roasted vegetables. One of the cheapest but most delicious and healthy meals I had on the trip! Then it was straight back to the hostel to take advantage of the free internet. I have to say, the hostel was great (despite having screwed up my booking!). I've stayed in an awful lot of different hostels in different countries now, and this was certainly one of the best in terms of things it offered. Rather like the ones in Australia, lots of activities put on, free guided tours of the city, TV common room, on site bar etc etc. Better than most of the European hostels I've stayed in recently - very international feeling. What can I say, it was run by Brits!!

Saturday 30th March 2013: Day Three
Another rainy day. My plan was to go to Cannes and Antibes, but given the weather I decided to leave Nice a bit later to give it a chance to brighten up. I decided at the last minute to go swimming again in the morning. The pool was meant to be open from 7am, but I hadn't noticed it was closed for a group from 9-10am. So having trudged across in the rain, I was turned away for an hour (I arrived at 9am). Got a coffee and wrote postcards while waiting, and wandered around a bit more through Old Nice (since I was going to get wet in the pool anyway it didn't really matter, apart from my shoes have completely disintegrated now...). Had another lovely swim, this time actually counting the lengths: 54 in 40 minutes. I was quite pleased with that, especially since the last time I went swimming (before these two times on this trip) was in August in Dulwich. When I lived in Bristol I went 3/4 times a week after work for a period of time and loved it. Sometimes I feel like I grew up in the water, given how much time we spent at the school pool... so I do miss swimming when I don't get to go. 

As it was still raining, I decided to fit in a couple of museums before lunch too. Starting with the Musee de Massena, a nice small collection of art housed in a beautiful period building. Followed by the Musee des Beaux Arts. Enjoyed both. Then it was straight to the station to get my train to Cannes.

Arrived in perfect timing, just as a train was about to leave. Hopped on and was delighted that the skies were brightening up! Shame they had dulled again by the time I got off the train... I didn't spend long in Cannes. It was interesting to visit, but absolutely packed with Italians and once I'd seen the red carpet, seen the film stars' hand prints and wandered up yet more steps/hill to get to the old town and castle, I had seen enough. 

Hopped back on train to head to Antibes, where I spent a bit longer. Now decidedly grey, the sea views weren't quite as enthralling as they were from Nice the following day, but nonetheless I enjoyed walking along the ramparts and visiting the huge sculpture that stands facing out to sea. 

I also visited the Picasso museum which was great. After wandering around for quite some time, I had an early supper in a Lebanese Falafel place (yum!) and then walked back to the station to get the train back. By this point legs were rather killing from the exertion of the day before, compounded by a lot more walking in Cannes/Antibes, so it was back to the hostel to rest for me!

Sunday 31st March 2013: Day Four
Happy Easter! First stop was Holy Trinity for the Easter service at 11am. Beautiful blue skies - the Chaplain said as he welcomed us to the service, "I've arranged for the weather to be suitable for the day". It was indeed glorious, and a lovely service too. Great hymns (I was slightly concerned that I didn't recognise them and there was no music to sight read from, but it turned out the tunes were very familiar indeed). The church was packed with 200 or 250 so it was a very hearty Easter service. Having one of the two OT readings read in French gave it a rather Taize-ish feeling to it which was lovely, especially as the past 3 Easters that's where I've celebrated it and so I was very slightly missing it. Nice to see another Anglican church abroad, too. Much bigger that St George's, Venice of course. But similar in many ways.

After church the plan was to visit Nice properly in the sunshine. That I did! Wandered around all the old town and along the Promenade des Anglais soaking up the sun. So much so that I actually caught it quite a lot! I wanted to go up on the castle hill, for which there is a lift taking you most of the way up. Given the legs situation, that was the plan. Unfortunately the lift was closed (exceptionally) on Easter Sunday so I had to take the steps after all! Oh well, legs certainly did get a good workout! (Hopefully I'll be able to walk normally again soon, hah!). The views from the top were worth every step - stunning and a wonderful place to spend a bit of Easter! There's a great park on top which goes all the way round the hill so you can soak up the views on all sides. I had lunch up there in the cafe too (not the best place but I had picked the wrong time to make the ascent really, at 1pm!). 

After that I explored the rest of the town, everything being closed though so couldn't go in some of the small places I had thought I might. No bother, after that I got the bus to Villefranche-sur-Mer. A little town on the way to Monaco which was wonderful in the sunshine. Another long walk down from/up to the bus stop, but again worth it. I visited a little chapel painted by Jean Cocteau (whose play I studied in 1st year at Bristol) which was very interesting, another museum of interesting sculptures by a local artist, Volti, and spent the rest of the time wandering along the sea front and around the old streets of the village perched on a hill. 

 

Getting back from Villefranche was some what of an adventure. I got to the bus stop at just before 5pm. A bus came past, "complet". If they're "full" they don't stop. Well actually this one did stop to let about 10 people off, so it also let about 10 people on. Not me. The next bus was "complet" and definitely not stopping. The next one was "complet" and let 2 people on. The next one was "complet" and didn't stop. And so on. Given that by this point there were about 30 people waiting for a bus and ALL of them (coming from Monaco) were already full, the hopes of getting on one were fast diminishing! There were riots starting every time a bus went past, people kicking the side and swearing at the driver etc. To be fair, by this point we had been waiting an hour and a half... it was quite ridiculous. But of course being a bank holiday the buses were less frequent. So we waited with no luck... then a bus went past and didn't stop, even to the protests, but then stopped a bit further along to let a man with a pushchair on!! A few people started running to the open door and I joined them, and jumped on. In fact this bus was by no means "full" which annoyed me greatly. Of course each driver who went past didn't know that we had been waiting that long or that that many buses had gone past, presumably each just thought we could take the next one, but that hadn't been the case. So to find that there was actually plenty of room for the 10 or so of us who managed to jump on was a pain. I didn't have a ticket of course and spent the journey worrying about being fined, and preparing my protestation in French, but luckily no one checked and I was quite happy not to have paid for the journey having waited 3 hours for the bus.

Once back in Nice I wanted to try the local speciality "socca" for supper. It's a chickpea flatbread.

My guide book recommended a particular place, but I hadn't managed to find it and my legs were hurting so much again by this point that I stopped at a place on the way back which was doing a deal on it with a glass of wine. I didn't like it at ALL but don't know if just because I'd picked the wrong place to get it. 10m along the road I came to the place recommended by guide. Annoying! 
I treated myself to an Easter Sunday crepe (can't go to France and not have at least one crepe!) and a small glass of cider. Lovely! 

Monday 1st April 2013: Day Five
Final day, and planned to perfection in that the only things I had left were the 2 museums open on that Monday, Chagall and Matisse. My flight was at 6pm so I wanted to leave for airport at 3.30pm and it all worked brilliantly.
I walked to the Chagall Museum (nearer town) and spent a good 90 minutes there, marvelling at his work. Never seen it before to be honest but I was impressed, and of course having an audio guide explaining each piece in detail automatically makes the visit longer. 

From there I decided to wait for the bus to get to Matisse. This was one of the highlights of the trip: at the bus stop were a couple of Italian guys and they were discussing what time the next bus was coming, and I chipped in in Italian and was then chatting to them about Nice and stuff in Italian. Then a batty old French woman turned up and started chattering away in French, and I held a good conversation with her for the 15 minutes we were waiting for the bus. She complimented me on my French and asked where I had learnt to speak it so well! Of course I was delighted, since speaking French is quite a rare occurrence these days! I did speak it a LOT on this trip though which was great, and I was pleased that it did seem to come back to me, even if I still throw in the occasional Italian word while speaking! Felt quite fluent on the few occasions I did speak though, which is probably more than I can say for Italian half the time!

After the museums I visited the area around them, the cemetery where Matisse and another artist whose work I appreciated in the other museum, Raoul Dufy, are buried, and the Monastery church. Then back to the hostel, last use of the free internet, and off to the airport.

Now the airport is meant to be France's 2nd or 3rd in terms of passenger numbers. But it was TINY! You fell through security straight onto the gates. One shop, seating all at gates really, vending machines and a very overpriced Paul cafe. No other choice. I was thinking it was a shame I'd got there so early, but then we started boarding the plane at 5.15pm and were all ready to take off early - great! Meant I arrived early at the other end, no passport control and no baggage to collect meant I was out the airport door at the bus stop at the same time we were due to land, on an earlier bus and an earlier train than expected. Thought the train journey was going to be a nightmare when at Venice Mestre we all had to cram on like cattle into the ends (all corridor space taken), but luckily lots of people got off at Mogliano Veneto and then Treviso, which isn't too far, so the rest of the journey I was able to sleep like a baby!

All in all a great little mini-break:
6.5 towns, 7 museums, 2 swims, about 1000 stone steps and many kms up and down hill later, I'm back.... and I'm looking forward to my next similar trip which is booked for the beginning of July: Prague! 

 

...to the blog.

I can't believe I haven't updated this since October 2011. That's an incredibly long time now. I suppose that's round about the time that living abroad stopped feeling like something unusual, something with lots of tales to tell, and started feeling like, well, normal life. And normal life it is, seeing as I am still here, doing the same thing. Lucky I love it then!

A very quick summary of things that have happened since I last wrote about that trip round Veneto in 2011. "Interesting" things, that is.

Trips
Christmas 2011: Back to London as usual for some family time
New year 2011/2012: Spent in Berlin at my 3rd Taize European Meeting 

January-March 2012: Trips to Trieste and Venice Carnival, and Mum and Dad visit and we go to Gorizia and Nova Gorica (in Slovenia) and Aquileia and Grado

April: Venice again, then Easter in Taize, France, followed by a quick trip back to the UK to go to my dear friend Katherine's wedding to Jon in Durham. A few weeks later I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia for another Taize meeting

May: Discovered the nearest Ikea at Gorizia - cue new shelves for my growing TEFL book collection, another trip to Trieste (this time to visit the chilling concentration camp there for the first time) and general end of year shenanigans in Udine. 

 June: A lovely long weekend spent at Lake Bled in Slovenia with Sean

July: I accompanied a group of 14 teenage boys to Paris for a few days as part of my second summer with Our World.

July/August: 6 weeks teaching English to 12-17 year old international students at summer school. We held an Olympic torch. 

September: 3 weeks volunteering at the Taize community in France - a mixture of cleaning and closing down the family area, preparing the church for services, working in the shop wrapping pottery parcels and singing in the music group preparing for a televised mass on French TV.  My 8th trip to the Taize community since 2008.

 

October: A new school year. Back to Udine. Trips to Venice/Trieste become more frequent to enable me to go to Anglican services at the churches there (weekly in Venice, monthly in Trieste).  AA&C come to visit and we explore Friuli a bit. 

 

 November: Remembrance Day trip to Venice turns into quite the adventure when the highest acqua alta recorded in years puts in an appearance. Queue wading through thigh deep water all morning just to get to St George's. Rather a wet experience! 

December: Overnight trip to Venice, enabling me to go to the Carol Service before flying to London the following day

 

Christmas 2012: Back to London again, and this time with more time at home as I didn't go to the European Meeting in Rome but had a lovely long time at home instead, including a trip to Horsham to see the rest of the family after a long time not! 

Jan 2013: Back to Udine, experienced my first Pignarul (Italian ephiphany celebrations involve what we do on Bonfire night - Bonfires with an old lady "Guy" equivalent to burn).

Keith Haring exhibition in Udine

Feb 2013: Return to Verona for first time since 2010. 2 days after my 28th birthday.

Meet a wonderful couple at church in Venice and spend the day with them.  

March 2013: Back to Verona again for second time since 2010, plus Lake Garda. 

 Easter trip to the Cote d'Azur, based in Nice - which deserves a separate entry and is the reason I find myself back here...watch this space!

Oh and I'm sure other things have happened during that period, many things in fact for sure, but the easiest way to recap was just to go through my main photo albums... can't possibly fill in all the details now. Must keep up better with this in future as it's now a historic record for me from 2001 on! 

 

Well, today I had quite a few adventures, going on a much more extensive jaunt around the Veneto region than I had planned before I set out this morning...

A couple of weeks ago, before I decided to go to Ljubljana, I thought I would like to go and re-visit Vicenza, a town famous for a lot of Palladio architecture. I first visited in 2007 whilst living in Trento, but only spent half a day there because my friend Sally and I decided to go on to Padova the same afternoon and combine the two cities as they were so close.  Given that I've re-visited Padova and many of the other cities that I explored either during my year abroad or during my year in Brescia (both years being ones I had plenty of time to gallivant all over Italy whenever I so pleased...), I thought I should give Vicenza a more extensive exploring too. So, I bought the ticket thinking I would go when I got back from Villach, but then I went to Ljubljana and then I was sort of back at work, so I never made it. The train ticket was valid until November, but I thought I should try and go while the weather was still nice as otherwise, especially as work gets busier, I risked wasting the ticket. So, despite being thoroughly exhausted from having had all my teens courses start back on Thurs/Friday and a new adults course (the timetable isn't actually that full yet but of course the first few lessons back are always a bit more effort-requiring than others, especially with new classes/students) and really thinking this morning that I'd quite like to have a lie-in and a duvet day rather than get up at 7am, I got up, and set off for Vicenza. Actually it was nice because I bumped into one of my colleagues and her husband at the station and we got on the train together and travelled until I had to change train at Treviso.

So...arrived in Vicenza and had a pleasant walk around looking at the same things again - well...some different things, but not many, and I didn't pay to go inside the same things I'd been in previously (e.g. the theatre which is the oldest one in Europe).  I didn't find the people I encountered particularly friendly (completely unhelpful woman in the tourist office, completely unfriendly woman who sold me postcards and completely rubbish waitress in the restaurant where I had lunch) which was a shame. I always think it's funny when people talk about how "friendly" the people were in a city, as I've never really found them not to be anywhere, but as soon as you do you realise just why people think it's so nice when they are friendly! I treated myself to lunch in a pizzeria with a nice big glass of wine. Actually I'd bought a sandwich at the station in the morning, but I ended up giving it to a guy who was begging saying he was hungry (because I would rather give food than money in those circumstances). 

Vicenza - columns in Piazza dei Signori

Anyway, it is a nice city, and the Palladio architecture is fantastic. Just looking at my photos from 2007 now I'm glad I got the chance to take some new ones as there's really no comparison! But, apart from that it has to be said that there was probably a lesson to be learnt today: if the first time you visit a city you leave it after a couple of hours to move on to another one, mainly because you feel you've exhausted the first one, then you're probably not going to find a whole lot more to make it worth returning to a second time... 

By 2pm I had run out of things to do, and at that point although the skies were clear and it was sunny, it wasn't that hot to sit around reading a book or anything, so I was actually thinking about just heading home (which would have allowed me to get on with chores, supermarket shopping, lesson planning, that kind of thing...). 

But no... recently I've been quite taken with spontaneous unplanned adventures and I decided to go for another one. Basically, once I realised that Vicenza was lovely but wasn't really all that worth visiting a second time round, I started wishing I'd gone to a new place instead, and the new place I had considered was the small but pretty town of Bassano del Grappa. Recommended by my guidebook etc, and I had planned to go there another day. But like Vicenza it's about €22 return on the trains so would have been another full day out from Udine. Whereas from Vicenza it's not far at all! So, I decided to head from Vicenza to Bassano and then back to get my train back. The train to Bassano involved changing at a small station called Cittadella so it actually took about an hour with waiting time at Cittadella, but the good thing about changing there was that it was on the line for the train back to Treviso to get back to Udine. So, having explained my plans to the trenitalia salesman, he asked if I would make it back to Udine within the 6 hours that the regional tickets are valid for, and I thought I would, so he said just to stamp my Vicenza - Udine ticket there at 15.07 when I got on the train to Cittadella, then he sold me a €4.15 return from Cittadella to Bassano to use for that leg, and then as long as I got back to Udine by 21.07 I was fine on the same ticket. Perfect! I would arrive in Bassano at 16.08 and that seemed like plenty of time therefore. Until I looked at the train times... the latest train I could get back to Udine arrived at 20.55, leaving Treviso at 19.38. To get back to Treviso for 19.38 I had to get the train from Cittadella at 18.25. To get back to Cittadella for 18.25 I had to leave Bassano at 17.50. You get the picture....
 
By this point I was determined to go though (especially as I'd bought the ticket!), and decided it was defintely worth it even if just as a reccy to see if it was worth going back at a later stage.  So I got to Cittadella and while I was waiting I realised that the "train" coming back there after was actually a substitute bus. So I started wondering if it would come straight to the station because I only had a very short time from 18.15-18.25 to get the train back to Treviso (and if I missed that I'd invalidate my ticket that I'd stamped at 15.07). Being a small station, if the bus dropped off outside the door, 10 minutes should be plenty. So I asked a nice helpful lady if she knew whether the substitute buses dropped off outside the station and she was fairly sure they didn't, and tried to explain to me where they did. However, she was confident that it wasn't too far and with 10 minutes I'd be fine.  I decided to ask a TrenItalia staff member anyway when I got to Bassano, and he kindly showed me where the bus left from and assured me that it arrived at the station in Cittadella too. So far so good. 
Wandered into Bassano, found the tourist office near the station and asked the girl what I should see in a 90 minute visit. She gave me directions to the bridge etc which I remembered I wanted to see from the guidebook (which of course I didn't have with me).  She explained that there was a "fiera" on today (a sort of market/festival type thing) so the city centre wasn't that accessible. Groan. I picked the WORST possible day to go. Those fieras are a time when the whole city is out and you can't move for people, so trying to get through the sites quickly was just impossible as you spend hours waiting behind people who are walking as slowly as they possibly can. Grrr. What I saw of the city centre was lovely, I just wish I'd been able to see more (the whole place was covered by stalls and people so it was impossible to get perspective on the main squares etc). But, I did see the famous wooden bridge and the lovely view from that, and had a nice walk around generally. 

Above:View of Bassano del Grappa from the bridge (shown below)

As I had sort of finished seeing as much as I realistically could before the 17.50 bus (no time to visit the Grappa Museum or anything!!) it was only 17.05 and I remembered there was another bus at 17.20 which it was probably worth me trying to get, as that would lessen the risk of missing the train. Walked back to the station and first of all couldn't see any sign of the train/bus on the departures computer screen, so I checked the yellow board again and realised that it said "working days". Being Saturday, I started worrying that I'd made a mistake and couldn't get that after all (even though I had checked on the ticket machine!) and went to ask the guy who said it was fine (I forgot that in Italy Saturday IS a working/school day). But I couldn't see the bus where the other Trenitalia man had been kind enough to show me that it left from. By now it was 17.20 and I'd started worrying that I was actually going to be stranded in Bassano for the evening... but then JUST at the last minute I realised the bus wasn't where I'd been told but on a different road, and I managed to get on it. Some other girls had asked if it stopped at Cittadella as well so I knew I'd be safe getting off with them. Until I realised that I didn't actually know for sure where it stopped or whether there were multiple stops in Cittadella etc. Anyway, this bus was due in at 17.45 which would give me plenty of time to get the 18.25 train. At 17.55 we were still on the road. I was already thankful for my sixth sense reminding me of the 17.20 bus and hinting to my brain that it might be a good idea to get the earlier one, as if the later bus had been slower due to traffic etc as well then I would have missed it for sure. THAT was before I got off the bus too... basically the girls got off, and I went and asked the driver if that was the stop for the station and he said "No, the next one, but then you have to walk a bit". He was lovely and when he dropped me at the stop he gave me exact directions to walk, but it was NOT near the station, it was exactly as the other woman had said! I doubted her, but she knew what she was talking about!! By the time I actually got to the station it was 18.10! Thank GOODNESS I got the earlier bus!! The nice thing was that I had to walk past the citadel which gives Cittadella its name, which was quite impressive to see.

 
Cittadella 

Then the rest of the journey home was smooth and I arrived with the 12 minutes to spare on my original ticket. In fact none of the tickets were checked at all since 15.07 when I got on at Vicenza and realised the machine had run out of ink and had to get the conductor to write the time on the ticket...it wasn't looked at again!

So, all in all, a good adventure! The trains went: Udine - Treviso - Vicenza - Cittadella - Bassano del Grappa - Cittadella - Treviso - Udine. I did some kilometres! Glad I did though as much as I did enjoy seeing Vicenza again (don't get me wrong), it would have been a shame to go home after just a few hours. Glad I went on!  

So I'm just starting out my second year living in Udine. Udine, a city which is very close to the borders with both Austria and Slovenia, neither of which country did I make it to visit last year. All has been rectified in the space of just a few days, with my little excursions to Villach, Austria and the fantastic city of Ljubljana, Slovenia. 
I wrote previously about the frustrations of transport links - the only trains from this part of Italy to go to Ljubljana arrive at 2am. Considering it's only an hour and a half to drive or take the train, that's pretty ridiculous that there isn't another connection (ditto for Zagreb - arrives at 4am). To get to Austria is far easier - there's currently a bus link (as no train) from Udine to Villach and Klagenfurt, and train connections from there to Vienna, Salzburg etc, and as it turns out, most of the rest of Europe. I'd been meaning to hop on that bus for quite a while, but again it's quite frustrating as the earliest to leave Udine is 11.15am, and the latest back is currently 12.56 (though it was 14.56 on my first return trip). That makes it impossible to do a day trip so you have to stay overnight. The hostel in Klagenfurt seems to be permanently booked, so when I saw that there was space in the Villach one I decided just to go there as it looked a nice enough town. When I was researching places to go during the quiet period before work starts I investigated flights (from Venice or Trieste) and trains/buses to various places, but nothing was resulting cheap or convenient enough, and I totally failed to link in my mind the previously acquired knowledge that Villach was a good place to get connections to other places from. So, I just booked the Saturday 11.15am coach with a night in the hostel and a return at 14.56 the following day, giving me a decent amount of time to explore.

Villach

A very small town which serves well as a base for exploring the rest of the region and its nearby lakes and mountains. When I arrived, I had a rough idea of the things there were to do but hadn't really planned anything or done too much investigation. First stop: tourist office. I vaguely remembered having seen something about a castle up in the mountains nearby, with birds of prey and stuff. However, I'd only been able to find details of driving up there and nothing about public transport (as is so often the way). So I asked the guy in the tourist office and he said I could get a bus to the bottom and then walk up to the top. He reckoned it was about 40 minutes uphill. Seemed fine to me... actually it was a long time since I'd done that kind of thing. During my year abroad when I travelled extensively at weekends I used to do quite a few similar things, walking up random hills and stuff to visit castles in the middle of nowhere...it's great fun! So, I decided to revisit those days and do it again. Used some rusty German to speak to the bus driver and ask him to tell me where I should get off, and off we went. (Incidentally, I wish I had retained my basic German better!). 

Landskron Castle

Got off the bus and followed the path all the way up and up and up to the top. The views were of course absolutely stunning and well worth the trek. I missed the birds of prey show, but I was still able to catch glimpses of them gliding above as I was making my way up to the top, and then there were some griffon vultures still flying about once I was up there... 

Then, I discovered that that mountain is also the location of a project called "Monkey Mountain". Some 170 Japanese Macaque monkeys are living there in semi-wild conditions, and you can pay to visit the area in which they are housed. It really is a vast vast mountainous and tree filled area such that you wouldn't really know it was an enclosure. It was an interesting guided tour, absolutely entirely in German such that I understood how my beginner students feel!! But I was able to grasp the main ideas and was interested to watch them demonstrate their intelligence by retrieving fruit from various complicated puzzles.

With all these exciting things, this day certainly turned out to be the highlight of the Villach trip with the following day being a bit of a wash out. I hadn't factored in the usual Sunday closures...nothing I wanted to do was going to be open! So I ended up taking a 2 hour boat trip down the river (not really recommended, although quite relaxing) and just wandered around town a bit until it was time to get the bus back again.  

On the first day after all the adventures I straight went to the hostel (about a 15 minute walk out of town in a not particularly nice suburb). My feet were exhausted by then and I couldn't face walking back into town, so I ate at the only place nearby, a Chinese restaurant. The menu was entirely in German but I was very pleased with myself for managing to order about the only Chinese food that I actually like, and really enjoying the meal! 
Then back to the hostel for a very early night! The hostel itself was perfectly pleasant but almost deserted! My 4 bed dorm was shared with just one other girl, a lovely Japanese traveller who had spent 2 years studying in Edinburgh before undertaking this 2 month European trip before returning to Japan for the first time in over 2 years! Any sense of homesickness on my part (which always hits me very slightly when I first return after a time in the UK/Taizé etc, and definitely did this time after 3 fantastic summer months!) quickly disappeared on hearing that! Anyway, it was through chatting with her that I was reminded of the connections from Austria. She had been in Venice and wanted to travel to Slovenia and Croatia and had found the exact same problem as me (the middle of the night arrival times) and had been advised to go to Villach and then across from there. Doh - if I'd remembered in advance I could have made a really nice combined trip, straight on to Ljubljana from Villach!  

Udine
What I actually did, was travel back to Udine on the bus and go home, investigate buses, trains and hostels for Ljubljana, book it all and pack ready to leave again the following day! 
Frustratingly, the last bus back that I had taken that day had from that day on been cancelled, so I had to book on the earlier 12.56 one, and I only found that out when having a lengthy conversation with a lovely Trenitalia man at the ticket desk who was amused at me risking the booking even though I wasn't certain there was an earlier connecting train from Ljubljana. Luckily it all turned out fine and all my worries about the whole thing were unfounded (I couldn't book the Austrian ticket online for some unknown reason so I was just assuming I'd be able to do it turning up on the day). 
Lots of hostels to choose from in Ljubljana but I definitely plumped for the absolute best one location wise - right in the centre! More on that later.

Ljubljana 
So, packed and ready to go, with Ljubljana researched in detail and a tourist pass booked (saving lots of money on all the sights, museums etc) I got on the same bus, less than 24 hours after I'd last been on it, with the same driver, and went back to Villach! We were due in at 12.50pm and I had decided I'd have to wait until 15.09 to get the train as the earlier one was at 12.56pm. When we got there I had to wait quite a while to get my case out of the hold, and then at the ticket desk there was a lady asking lots of complicated questions, but once I had realised that it was 12.55pm and I had a chance of making the train, I literally ran like the wind and jumped on it as the whistle blew!! (suddenly realising I hadn't validated my ticket, but luckily in Austria you don't have to.. nor in Slovenia...only in Italy it seems! (and France, I know). Anyway so that was really lucky because it meant that I arrived much earlier than expected and had a lot of time to do stuff on that afternoon/evening (which made up for having to leave at 9am on the Weds).

After a beautiful train ride through Austria and Slovenia I arrived and was checked in to the hostel by 3pm. It was such a perfect location - 10 minutes walk from the station and literally in the centre, by the river and completely immersed in Ljubljana's fantastic cafe culture. Made for an overall far nicer experience than Villach because everything was on hand and I could stay out as late as I liked and still be only a few paces from "home". 

My tourist pass was for 24 hours and I didn't really want to start it until the following day, but after having wandered around and seen a lot of the city on foot, and having had a lovely spritz in one of the pavement cafes, I decided to start it at 6pm with a boat tour (wasn't put off by the Villach boat tour, obviously, but should have been as to be honest it was equally as boring!). Nice way just to chill out for a bit though, and I was definitely getting my money's worth on the tourist pass. It was €20.70 (with a 10% online discount) and everything was then free - I totalled up the things I'd done at the end and full price it would have been €55.60 (including €8 for the boat tour). 

When I got back I went to a pizzeria for a fantastic pizza and wine (rivalled Italians!) in a place which was absolutely packed with British people (tourists and businessmen alike) - Easyjet must be doing a storming trade on that route! Was lovely just to enjoy being outside in the unprecedented September heat, watching the world go by. From there I headed on to another cafe on the other side of the river which had a live band playing, and there I enjoyed local beer along with the live music until quite late. The atmosphere in the city is just fantastic - the population is about 280,000 (400,000 including the suburbs) with 60,000 of them being students and it's a really young feeling, lively city. 
The hostel was also buzzing when I returned, and with free wifi and free internet on computers in the common room it stayed that way until the early hours of the morning. My 8 bed dorm was full, and was unisex (downside = guys snoring loudly! I don't mean to be sexist as I know girls can snore too, but it didn't happen on the second night when it was only girls in the room!!) and people didn't settle down until about 1am, with people still coming in at 4.30am. This aspect of the holiday really reminded me of my Interrailing trip - actually all of it did, I was really reliving those day! Train rides across Europe and meeting random people in youth hostels... 
I really liked this hostel, even though it was pretty run down actually. Free internet was an absolute blessing for an addict like me (and seemingly all the other guests!), cold showers were not so welcome...
 
On Tuesday I had the whole day to explore, and to get the rest of my money's worth from the tourist pass! Started with a trek across town to the Botanical Garden out in the sticks... far too early in the morning (it was the only thing open before the guided tour at 10am), such that it was still very foggy and not really an ideal place to visit then. Still, it meant I arrived back in town in perfect time to have a small breakfast in a cafe before meeting for the tour. The tour was 2 hours long (worth €10) and was with an excellent guide. There were 7 Americans, 2 Japanese and me. The guide, Martin, spoke fantastic English, as in fact everybody in Ljubljana seems to. Seriously, I was in awe every time I asked if someone spoke English and they replied in perfect, fluent and natural language... quite a contrast from what I'm used to (no comment!). 

Anyway, the tour took us all the way round the city with a full history given of all the sights encountered:  

 

and then we got the funicular up to the castle which overlooks the whole city. Nice views from up there too (although after the Villach castle experience it wasn't really much in comparison!). The tour ended and I explored the castle a bit (there's an exhibition with an extensive history of Slovenia, which was interesting but I found a bit dense on the things to read - it was a series of computer screens giving details of the whole history, a few pages at a time...you basically read a whole book if you read it all! 
From there I descended back to the city on a tourist train (again included in the pass!!). Lunch in a cafe and then set off for my museum tour. I went to the National Gallery, the Modern Art Museum, the National Museum of Slovenia and the Natural History Museum. Also visited the nearby Serbian Orthodox Church (beautiful) and the Tivoli Gardens (an enormous park). On my maps it said to get the bus 14 to the zoo, which was to be my next stop, but I couldn't find out where to get that bus from so I asked in one of the museums if they thought it was walkable. She reckoned about 20 minutes. Fine by me. Set off, and about 40 minutes later I arrived. Now my feet might have been hurting, but I didn't actually walk that slowly, it was just miles! You had to skirt all the way around the Tivoli gardens to get there. No wonder none of the tourist guides mentioned the possibility of walking! I mean, that's not a massively long walk, but it was longer than I was expecting. Anyway, I arrived in good time to get in before my pass expired and with plenty of time to explore before the zoo closed at 7pm. I also checked there was a bus back!!! Yes, at 7.20pm.
Now, the zoo. I'm always torn because I hate zoos in principle, and having seen many of the animals in the wild it's always quite heartbreaking to see them cramped in those conditions, but I like animals and I like seeing and observing animals, so I wanted to go anyway (and it was included in the pass ). In fact, this zoo is amazing in some ways and totally rubbish in others. It's set in the most fantastic woodland landscape. When you go in there's a large circuit just on the flat (and all the things like playground, restaurant, shop etc). In this bit you can see a lonely tiger, a lonely depressed elephant, a cramped pair of lions and various other animals in small enclosures which shouldn't be there. Then if you want to follow the full circuit it takes you up a massive hill and round at the top, passing various animals in much larger enclosures (but far more boring animals...). There's so much space it's such a shame they can't use more of it to give the other animals more space too. Anyway, it made for a nice woodland walk and was extremely peaceful as most people don't bother going up that bit - when I got back to the "main" zoo it was absolutely packed with families around the playground area! Anyway, it was about 6.30pm when I finished, so I had to wait a while for the return bus, and of course my pass had expired by then so I didn't have access to free transport anymore... it got dark and I was waiting at the bus stop convinced there wasn't actually going to be a bus, when about 7.25pm it turned up!! The man was the ONLY person I met who didn't speak English, and he was very chatty when I got on (I was the only passenger!!) so I had to apologise and make it clear I hadn't understood a word he had just said! He then asked if I spoke German, and we had a little conversation in poor German! It was good fun. He was very friendly and completely ignored the fact that my pass was rejected when I scanned it. He dropped me off in the centre and was very pleasant indeed as he said goodbye!! It was nice to have a private (and free!) bus ride! I was mainly just SO relieved that the bus turned up as I had started having all sorts of visions of having to hitch hike or hail down a taxi (in the middle of nowhere, in the dark) etc... or walk back on that same route with my feet feeling like they were going to fall off after quite a lot of walking that day! Anyway, it was all fine! 
Back in town I went for my last meal out. So far in Austria and Slovenia I had eaten Chinese and Italian, so I decided to stick to a theme and go for Indian!! I'd clocked a nice looking place when we passed it on the guided tour in the morning, and it was really nice indeed. Sitting outside by the river again, watching the world go by, and eating my standard Indian meal but with it being totally different of course. I was worried it would be like an Italian Indian (which isn't worth bothering with at all if you're used to curry back home!) but although it was nothing like the one I'm used to, it was really good! So I enjoyed that, as curry is something I miss while in Italy!! 
Then back to the hostel for another lively night before leaving early the following morning...

Getting the train was amusing. It was a EC (Eurocity) train to Frankfurt. On the board it said Platform 3a. I went to Platform 3a and there were just a few people there, including an Australian (?) couple. Heard an announcement in Slovenian which mentioned Frankfurt and bus for sure. Didn't catch on that they were saying the same thing in English until I'd missed most of it. Checked the board again and it still said platform 3a, but having got chatting to the Australian couple we all decided it WAS saying it was a bus from Ljubljana to somewhere further along the line. So we made our way to where the buses were parked and yes, we had to get a bus to Kranj. Really odd that they didn't write that on the board! Eventually everyone cottoned on and 3 buses were filled with passengers and driven to Kranj where our EC train was waiting. LOTS of foreign travellers going to all sorts of destinations in Austria and Germany. Again, reminded me of interrailing and the time when going by train from Copenhagen to Hamburg they ended up taking us off the train and putting us on a replacement bus service on which we had to get off and onto a ferry half way... all good fun! Anyway, I made it to Villach in one piece, and in actual fact the 10.56am bus to Udine was still waiting there (it was about 11.05am and I therefore had a reservation on the 12.56 bus). I could have probably jumped on that one anyway, but I didn't because I wanted to do one thing in Villach that I hadn't been able to on Sunday because it was closed - climb the tower! So I walked back to the church and managed to leave my mini suitcase at the bottom of the stairs in order to climb the 249 steps. It was a fairly pointless venture really, only amounting to good exercise as the view over Villach wasn't that stunning to be honest (having seen Ljubljana from above, and the Ossiacher See etc from the castle). Still, I felt it completed my tour of Villach, and from then I was satisfied I could go back to Udine having done everything properly!

All in all, a wonderful little mini-break before starting back at school. I'm so glad I got away somewhere, and now I know about the better connections from Villach I may well make it somewhere else soon! The train I was on actually goes to Belgrade, and although I don't want to risk night trains (so many horror stories!) I would happily travel across Europe in the daytime. It's not that far and when I have a few days holiday in succession (which never happens, but this year we have a "ponte" bank holiday so I may have 4 days off, depending whether I have Saturday lessons in that period) I might make it to Zagreb or Belgrade... probably Zagreb first as it's nearer and is a place I've been wanting to go for ages. Exciting stuff!! 
 

Yup, the fact that I'm writing here means that I'm back in Udine and summer is officially over! (Although the gorgeous weather would have us believe otherwise...). In actual fact I got back to Udine 8 days ago, but then I went away again on the spur of the moment...more details to follow!

I've just re-read my pre summer post which was aaaaaaages ago, and having survived and thoroughly enjoyed the summer school it's funny to see how apprehensive I was! It was a really good experience in so many ways. Yes it was as intensive as I feared (although the additional duties weren't quite as bad as I thought they were going to be), and at times it was pretty challenging, but overall I had a brilliant time. It helped that I was working with an awesome team of teachers which helped the atmosphere no end, and with lovely students too! It was interesting to teach multi-lingual groups (although predominantly Russians in both the classes I had) and to see what a summer school is like. I seem to have picked a good one to work for anyway, from what I heard, even if we did have a dubious DoS for the second half... don't ask! 

Of course the added bonus was the location. Being in London for 6 weeks was unbelievably cool! I was able to visit my brother, sister-in-law and nephew often, to meet up with various friends who I hadn't seen for ages and to visit lots of cool London things, etc etc. The excursions at the weekends for work were great fun too (Thorpe Park, Brighton, Oxford etc). All in all it was a win win situation! (and one that is almost certain to be repeated next year).

Summer school was followed by a brief time at home before going to Taizé for 2 weeks. I won't drive anybody mad by writing more about Taizé here, but all I can say is that however long you stay there it isn't long enough! Had a superb 2 weeks and also enjoyed a quick jaunt to Notre Dame on my way back through Paris...

Then had a relaxing time at home for 9 days before heading back to Udine. Back in Udine things were a bit slow, so I decided to head off again... 2 days in Villach, Austria and 3 days in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Absolutely fantastic and so glad I went! I plan to write a separate blog about the trip when I have time as there's so much to say about it! 

That's all for now though...didn't want you to think I was abandoning the blog altogether - I'm still here!! (I had forgotten my login details though, that's saying something about how neglectful I've been!) 

 

 

I have neglected to return to this blog to say that summer school number one was really good fun! Sleep wasn't a problem after the first couple of days, and everything else went well. The kids were a great group and we did some fun stuff. Honestly loved it!

Not so convinced I'm going to *love* the next one after getting the 100 page handbook to read. I mean, I knew when I applied to do residential summer schools that it was going to be tough, but I think I had conveniently forgotten quite how bad it could be... it's going to be pretty intensive.  There's a prescribed routine which I guess will help us all get settled into the experience, but it means there's very little time to do other things or even to plan... we have to teach 4 x 1.5 hour English sessions a day and then do all the other required duties (wake up at 7am, mealtimes, evening stuff and put to bed)... I'm really not sure when "planning" happens yet! Which would be okay except for the fact that we have 3 observations (one in the first week, one a bit later and one is a British Council inspection), so lessons really do need to be properly planned with a plan that's presentable to the observer (or inspector at any time). Yeah. 
Then at the weekend we go on trips (they go to London one day and around the country on the other - we get one day off so just do one each week). I'm quite looking forward to that part. It'll be nice to see some different places, even if there is the slight hitch of having potentially 100 kids to monitor! (They expect 180 students per week for the first four and a few fewer the last 2 weeks). 
Anyway, here's hoping that I do survive, and not only survive but actually enjoy it. It's going to be an experience whatever happens!

Everything else here has finished. Can't believe it! I'm all packed and ready to come home (leaving on Monday). 
I have to say, it's the NICEST feeling to know I'm coming back here next year! It's the first time in so many years that I'm staying in the same place 2 years running, and that's amazing. Being able to leave most of my stuff in my room here and really feel like this is "home", my second base. I'm looking forward to going home home to see all my books and other long lost possessions too though! But just so glad to be coming back here to a place where I feel really settled. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I work for a brilliant school where I've got fantastic colleagues, great students and I live in a beautiful town where I've got some wonderful friends. It couldn't be better!

I was reminiscing today about the day I actually applied for this job. I read the advert while staying with host family number 1 in Cognola, Trento - sitting on the camp bed with my laptop under the skylight window (which I accidentally left open one day when there was a torrential downpour - oops!). I saw the advert and wasn't sure whether to apply as I had already got 2 interviews fixed up for the week summer school finished, and I wasn't convinced I was keen on applying for another one. Then I did, and heard back quickly and decided to go for the interview, which happened to be before the others I'd arranged. Went and wasn't sure they'd even offer it to me after the test I produced, but they did, and I'm SO GLAD!!! 

Next movements:
Monday 4th July - Saturday 9th July: Taunton
Saturday 9th July - meet my baby nephew for the first time
Sunday 10th July - Induction at summer school
Monday 11th July - Monday 22nd August - Summer School (a.k.a. don't expect to hear from me at all!)
Tuesday 23rd August - Saturday 27th August - Taunton
Saturday 27th August - Monday 12th September - Taize trip (coach to Paris, train to Taize, 2 week stay there)
Monday 12th September - Monday 19th September - Taunton
Tuesday 20th September - Back to Udine

 

Tomorrow is the first day of summer school. I'm actually quite looking forward to it (hopefully that won't all change when I've met the class!), but I am approaching tonight with a sense of dread. I am so completely fixed in a very different sleeping routine from the one I need to have for the next 2 weeks (and in fact probably the next 11 weeks really). Last night I was still awake at 2.45am, not for want of trying to sleep earlier. If I am still awake at that time tonight, it will be very bad news for getting up approximately 4 hours earlier than I have been for the past couple of months... 

Last year I was used to leaving the house at 7am to start work at 7.55am. This year the earliest starts I've ever had have been lessons at 9am, mostly on Saturdays, oddly enough. It's quite hard to get into any sort of routine in this job because the timetable changes from day to day and week to week, so one day  will have a lesson at 10am, the next not until 3pm. The only fairly constant thing all year has been finishing at 8 or 9pm. It's the only thing I don't really like about the job, because not having a routine means getting into bad habits when it comes to eating and, as is hugely apparent now, sleeping.  Really I should have always just stuck to a routine regardless of when I actually had to be up, but I like lie-ins and so whenever the opportunity has arisen, I've taken it! Then of course if you sleep in late, you don't get tired until later, so it becomes a vicious circle! Plus now I don't have to climb 98 steps to get home every day and am not going swimming etc (which would be another difficult thing to fit in to this "routine"...), I'm less active too which is bad news all round! 

At the beginning of the year we had a lot of group courses, and as everything was quite new it all took much longer to prepare, so I was working much longer hours. Things have been more relaxed recently, especially as all the groups tailed off. So, over the past couple of months I have fixed my "routine" in a terrible one of getting home somewhere between 8.30pm and 9.30pm, eating (hate eating late) and then watching TV, reading, doing whatever I need to do, and ending up being up late. So, I've started sleeping later and later, until just recently I seem to have fixed it so that I can't sleep before 2am. It's been okay up until now because I can sleep in late (haven't had many lessons before midday for a while) except on Saturdays and Sundays, and so I've been getting enough sleep (probably too much in fact) and just working a later shift type thing. 

From tomorrow, however, I need to leave the house at 8am, meaning I'll need to get up before 7am, which is going to be a nightmare if I don't get to sleep until 3am! Summer school is also of course more tiring and intense than other teaching, so I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow from that point of view! I suppose it won't take long to get into the routine, and hopefully I'll be so exhausted by tomorrow evening that I'll fall asleep early!! Then the challenge will be keeping to that routine even in the 2 weeks that follow when I could slip back into lazy lie-ins, as after that I have 6 weeks of even earlier starts (waking up the kids 2 mornings a week, ie. being completely up and dressed for 7.30am!). Eek! (Why did I sign up for this?!).  (Obviously I have had other jobs for long periods of time where I have managed to get up at 6am or similar every day, so it's not that that's the problem, it's just switching routines so quickly and frequently...). 

Anyway, not long to go til UK time now. I have to say I'm quite looking forward to it! Dulwich is clearly going to be very hard work, but I hope also quite fun, and at the end of the day I'm only really doing it for the experience...
I've sorted out my 2 weeks in Taize now too. I suppose I managed to get into the routine then of getting up for morning prayer at 8.15am every day and it never takes too long, so I'll just have to hope it's all ok from tomorrow on!!

All the other groups have finished now (had a lovely evening out with my upper-intermediate group on Friday, pictured below) and only a few one-to-one students remain, so I am basically doing the mornings at summer school and then one or two lessons a day (finishing somewhere between 4.30pm and 7.30pm each day), with nothing on Saturdays any more so the novelty of a full weekend. It's amazing what a difference having 2 full days off makes! That's another thing I won't have in Dulwich as it's a 6 day working week (although 1 day is taking the kids on trips, how hard can that be... ). I won't know whether I'm working Saturday or Sunday until I arrive, and it will probably change on a week to week basis. That's a shame as if I had Sundays off regularly I could get quite a good Anglican fix I'm sure! Either way I hope to visit my brother, sister-in law and baby nephew on my day off whenever I'm allowed! 
To be honest though, I'm not sure how much "free time" I'll have - starting to get slightly worried about the planning (like, when do we plan?!! I won't even know what sort of groups I'm teaching until I arrive on July 9th for the induction, and we start on July 10th!), the observations (twice by the Director of Studies and once by the British Council), the uniform, the hours... pretty much everything really!! But I did really enjoy doing the summer schools last year, and I have really enjoyed teaching all year, and since it's combining the two, I think I'll be okay. At least the groups change every couple of weeks too... you don't have to put up with any little terrors for too long 

 

I know, I know, I haven't written on here since February 26th. That's a long time... and a few of my faithful readers have asked if I'm ever going to write again. Well, here I am. I don't really know why I haven't written, as it hasn't been for want of doing things to write about. March was a pretty busy month at work as well though and I guess I just didn't really find the time, then got out of the habit of doing so. Or perhaps it's because I discovered a way to watch BBC iPlayer even from abroad, so have been able to amuse myself with good British comedy and rubbish British soaps again!!
Who knows whether I will write again after this, but as I've had a nice long weekend this week (a full two days!!) I've got a bit of spare time to bring this blog back up to speed!

A year ago today I was heading on holiday to Le Cinque Terre with Auntie Dee, having finished my Language Assistant placement, and having finished CELTA and thus qualified as a "proper" English teacher on May 28th. I honestly can't believe that was all only a year ago. Maybe it sounds like a bad thing to say that this year has felt much much longer than a year, but I don't mean it as a bad thing. I think it's just that I now feel quite settled and feel like I've been doing this longer. It's certainly been a whirlwind year, and I feel very lucky to have been offered a job where I was, as it's certainly given me a good grounding in the world of ELT, with experience in many different areas that I had none in before.

Things are winding down a bit now, with most of the group courses having finished (or nearly so, I still have a few this coming week), and fewer one-to-one students too. However, for 2 weeks from June 13th we're doing an intensive summer school with 11-13 year olds. Same set up as I was doing last year in Trentino, but different age group (that was 8-12). Hopefully it will be quite good fun, if tiring!! I did enjoy it last year...and this one is more like the one I did in August/Sept (mornings only - no sports afternoons!!). Then I've got another week with perhaps a few lessons here and there, before flying home on July 4th. Up to Dulwich on July 9th for the 6 weeks of summer school - I'll be in good practice by the end! Not totally convinced I am overjoyed to be doing 8 weeks of summer school now, but hopefully it won't kill me!! I'll also finally get to meet my baby nephew who was born on April 20th. I am definitely looking forward to a bit of UK time... and then I've booked 2 weeks in Taizé from 28th August to 11th September, before flying back here on 20th September. So, it's all go! No rest for the wicked...

Anyway, this will have to be brief I suppose, but here's a quick run through of some things that have happened since February 26th when I last wrote!

MARCH SUNDAY AFTERNOONS ETC
Continuing the tradition of Sunday afternoon trips with Carla and Renato, on the first Sunday of March they took me up to Gemona del Friuli, about an hour North of Udine in the mountains. This little town is famous because it was the epicentre of a major earthquake tragedy in 1976 (yup, it turns out Friuli is on quite a fault line). Just under 1000 people were killed, with a couple thousand more injured and several thousand made homeless.  The Duomo was one of the buildings that was completely destroyed. It's a very pretty little town, and it was interesting to see the photos of the devestation and reconstruction that followed the earthquake on May 6th 1976 and the terrible aftershock on 15th September of the same year which caused further damage still. Here's the Duomo as it now stands... inside the pillars are at an incredible angle following the quake.  

On the same afternoon, we headed on to another nearby town, Venzone, also hit by the earthquake. There's a famous pumpkin festival here in October, but it's also worth a visit just for the nice setting, surrounded by medieval city walls. You can also visit some interesting mummies that were found nearby...they're pretty gross to be honest.   

 

This pic shows the damage in Venzone following the aftershock on 15th Sept 1976

Another little Sunday afternoon trip a couple of weeks later saw us taking advantage of the much brighter and warmer weather, going for a little walk in the countryside near to Pagnacco, a village not far from Udine. Finished the afternoon off with a proper gelato... might have been the first of the year actually! 

 

Also in March I was taken out for pizza by one of my classes, and after the pizza we ended up heading into town for ice cream, and then on to a bar for cocktails, Uno and table football. All very civilized and lots of fun!! Going out with that same group again this Friday...I wonder if the same things will be involved this time! 
The following day our choir sang in the Duomo at a Lent vigil. The Pentecost one is this coming Friday but it clashes with the above pizza night out...shame that they clash, but I've chosen to go out with my class! 

APRIL EVENTS
At the beginning of April, Mum and Dad came to visit for a few days, and I think they'd agree that we had a lovely time jaunting about Friuli and beyond. I took them to Cividale on Saturday (see the last post) to share those delights with them. On Sunday we went to Trieste and managed to pack in most of the sights, some of which I hadn't been back to see since my first trip to Trieste in 2007. On Monday I was lucky enough to have the day off work (having worked on Saturday morning as usual while they explored Udine by themselves) and so I accompanied them to Treviso, where we spent the day together before they got the bus to the airport.  I hadn't been to Treviso since going there in October 2006 for the Ombralonga wine festival (which no longer takes place) with ESN Trento (Erasmus Student Network), so it was nice to see the town without being heavily under the influence of sangria and wine!! 
We did drink our fair share of Spritz during their visit... and good wine too. They took me back to "Ai Frati", a trattoria that I first went to before Christmas with a class. Had a true Friulano dish...polenta and frico. Don't dare imagine how many calories that plate held... check it out!!

The following week there was a fantastic (and free!) concert of Mozart's Requiem on in the Duomo which I was delighted to be able to go to. We arrived quite late and the whole place was totally packed...well worth it!

Afterwards we went on a wander round town in search of an open gelateria, but ended up going instead to the fairground which was set up in Piazza Primo Maggio. Carla dragged me on to the Pirate's Ship with her, something I haven't done for a long time, but very much enjoyed!! I wanted to go on so many other rides, but C & R had to go home and I wasn't about to go on them by myself... next year I'll be making a proper trip out of the fairground (or Lunapark as they call them here!).

On the 17th, we went to see "Alice in Wonderland the Musical" in Pordenone. Actually I went to visit the town first on my own during the day, and then met the others for the evening's entertainment. It was a lot of fun...quite difficult to understand in places as they were speaking very fast (even the Italians said they were struggling at times..) and singing, but it was enjoyable. Afterwards we went backstage because one of the male dancers was Renato's best man's son, so we went to congratulate him! 

April 20th saw the birth of my nephew, as mentioned above. Perfectly timed to fit in just before I headed to Taize on the 21st, with a group from Veneto. Another little adventure... met some great people, and caught up with some friends from Brescia (from the group I went with last year), and generally had the usual good time that Taizé involves. It was a very short trip this year, we arrived quite late on Good Friday, and left on Easter Monday. It usually takes some time to get into the rhythm of Taizé and this year it did kind of feel like we'd been flung into the middle of it and then pulled away too soon as well. Going straight back to work when we got back didn't help, and this year it took me much longer to get back to normality. It is absolutely beautiful there at Easter and definitely well worth the experience, but I think now having done it twice I won't necessarily do it again.  (I've said that about not going to Berlin at New Year for the European meeting too...we'll see whether or not I actually end up going to one/both...). 

The Source at Taizé 

MAY 2011
The big thing in May was going down to Ferrara with my housemate Rita to see the Palio di Ferrara. Very simliar to the famous Palio di Siena, only in Ferrara...it's actually older, dating back to 1259, but not as touristy. Very much a local tradition, these festivals see the several "contrade" of the town competing in various competitions to win flags and honour. They start with a huge procession through the town in medieval costume, with flag throwers, bands etc etc, and the event culminates in a square which has been turned into a race track. First the boys (i putti), then the girls (le putte) then the donkey race and finally the horses.  The donkey race was the funniest as it took them ages to get them in the right place to start, then there were THREE false starts in a row, which takes ages because then they have to get them all back in the right place (and these donkeys just didn't want to BE in the right place) and then start again, three times... eventually they were off... we saw someone get de-donkeyed right in front of us, and trampled on by another donkey (but luckily he was ok!). All quite an excitement! Obviously the horses are the real thing though. It's the first time I've ever been to a horse race, although this is quite a different affair (bareback jockeys wearing the colours of the contrade they are representing), bribes and deals being made before everyone's eyes before the race (google Palio+bribery and you'll find loads of articles about this little affair...)... all quite interesting really! Good thing to experience once I guess... 

 Above: Rita and me in front of the Duomo, Ferrara. Below: Ferrara Castle

Above: Part of the Procession, one of the Contrada flags. Below: Another contrada's band

Below: Flag throwing during the final part of the procession

Above: Donkey race. Below: Horse race

JUNE 2011
don't think anything else happened in May really, and now it's June already! On the 2nd we had a day off for the bank holiday (Republic Day) which was very nice. Mid week bank holidays are great, though it would be even better if they also managed to work out that if a bank holiday falls on a Sunday, it's a good idea to move it to the nearest Monday... we've missed several this year because they've been Sundays (May 1st being one example!). Anyway, on the 2nd I experienced my first ever Italian grigliata. Now anyone who knows me will know that I'm not meat's biggest fan... well Italians like meat. A lot.

After eating, we played tombola (bingo) which was great fun, even if I had no idea what was going on at the beginning and had had far too much wine to be able to work out which numbers had or hadn't come up!! Anyway, all good fun. Followed by attending the latter part of a HUGE family party (an annual event on the 2nd) with Carla's extended (and there are LOTS of them) family! Afterwards, and after having had goodness knows how much alcohol (red wine, wine wine, Prosecco, dessert wine, whisky in coffee etc etc), Renato decided to hand me the keys to his car and ask me to drive it down 2 roads to meet him after he'd taken some rubbish up there. Absolutely hilarious... the first time I've driven since last September, and only the 2nd time in Italy, and I actually didn't remember at all as I was getting into the car quite how much I had drunk.... thank goodness it WAS only 2 roads!! Once I'd remembered that Italians never use the handbrake and leave the car in gear it was ok...took a while to manage to get it started with those problems though!! All good fun though... I do miss driving!!!

Last night I went to an open air concert of Gen Verde - an "international performing group" - the members are from 14 different countries. It was a spectacular show, but the best thing about it in my opinion was that we were sitting there in this stadium, totally open to the elements (from 9-11pm), and the whole time the show was going on you could see HUGE flashes of lightning just behind the stage, and hear the thunder, and yet we stayed totally dry! A miracle really, as on the drive home (about an hour back to Udine) we realised how wet it had got in other parts. So we were really lucky, and it certainly made it a very atmospheric experience!

 

Afterwards, just like Alice in Wonderland, we went backstage to meet one of the performers who Renato knew... the second show I've attended with them and the second time I've been backstage!! All good fun anyway, and after leaving at about 11.30pm we went on a quick wander around the village (Cordovado) where the performance had been... a very pretty little village which would be worth returning to in daylight if I can sometime!  

So, there we go! That was a "short" run through of all the things I should have written about at the time but didn't, and now I'll try and remember to write again a bit more regularly!!