Thursday, after class, we all ran to the grocery store to buy snacks for our train ride to Rimini. Rimini is one of the most popular beach towns in Italy. The season doesn't start until late May- early June but we knew that going into it. After all of our traveling we all wanted a relaxing, chill weekend- which means the less people the better. Our train ride was only 2.5 hours which was another plus to the destination. Once we got there we walked to our hostel. The hostel was fairly new and was really nice. There weren't many people staying in it over the weekend, but we could tell that when its the season, the hostel is a lot of fun. The owner was really nice and helpful. Thursday night we walked around and did a little shopping. Then we had dinner at a restaurant nearby. I had pasta with bolognese sauce and it was delicious. We all thought that our food was some of the best we've had yet. We walked back to the hostel and crashed pretty early after dinner.
One of the many great things about the trip was the flexibility. Because there were only 4 of us we could decide what we wanted to do as we went- and since Rimini is a smaller city, that gave us room to move things around or go somewhere else. We really wanted to spend time on the beach so that was the top priority on our small agenda for the weekend. Once we ate our free breakfast, we decided to go ahead and go to the beach while the weather was nice. We made a pit stop at the grocery store to grab some snacks. I have recently become obsessed with kiwi. Its just so delicious! So I grabbed those and some plums. The beach was really clean and it was also really empty. The first 45 minutes were great. It was breezing which caused sand to go everywhere but the sun kept us warm. Once the clouds set in we got pretty cold. We stayed out there for about 3 hours and then decided to walk back to the hostel. We went up to the terrace and caught a few more rays while siesta was going on. Once it was 4 we headed out to the shops. I had not planned on getting anything but then splurged and bought a pearl necklace. I really love it though- its gorgeous! After we were all done with shopping we went back to the grocery store. We thought it would be nice to cook our own dinner at the hostel so we just bought stuff for a salad and stuff for our tortileni. We were all hungry when we got back so we just went ahead and cooked everything. It was delicious! Plus it was nice to save money. After dinner we all cleaned up and got ready to go out. We read that Rimini has the best discotechas in Italy but once we saw how slow the beach was, we knew that the discotechas that were open would be empty and it wouldn't be worth it. So, with the advise of the owner of the hostel, we walked down the street to a place called Barrumba that was on the beach. Once we got there we quickly realized we didn't want to stay too long. There were loads of people there but they just looked at us because they knew we were American. The men here have said really dumb things to us and have also hissed at us. Its getting pretty old to be honest. Few people speak english well enough to have a conversation with any of us and since only one of the 4 was drinking we left pretty soon. We've learned that for the 4 of us, going out in Europe isn't worth it because its hard to meet people or be comfortable with all the men staring. We walked back to the hostel and crashed when we got in bed.
Saturday we went into San Marino. San Marino is one of the smallest republics in Europe- besides the Vatican and Monaco. I had not even heard about San Marino until Emily read about it and told us that we should go. We caught a bus at the train station and rode for about a hour. San Marino was really gorgeous. Its on a mountain and gives gorgeous views. We walked around a lot and did some shopping too. Once it started to rain we ate lunch. I had gnocchi with bolognese sauce again. It was really good and really filling too. It quit raining by the time we were finished which was perfect. We walked around more and then caught the 3pm bus back into Rimini. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Rimini. It isn't huge but its really cute and has plenty to offer. Once we felt like we had seen enough we walked back to the hostel. We had gelato in San Marino and the other 3 had gelato another time in Rimini so we just ate our left over salad from Friday night. I was worried it wouldn't be enough for me but then the owner brought over a local meal that he wanted us to try. They were called padinas and its similar to a tortilla but its a little different. The ones he gave us were filled with tomatoes and mozerella and also potatoes, ham and cheese. They were both delicious! The rest of the night we played a bit of cards and packed up our stuff. Its was fun because we reflected on the whole trip. Throughout the weekend we would ask each other questions like "Whats been your favorite dish?", "Whats been your biggest regret", "Whats your favorite purchase?", "What has been your favorite city?", etc. Its good to prepare for all these questions that I am sure I'll get when I get back to the states. Also on Saturday we discussed our plans for Sunday. Our train went through Bologna so we wanted to take the day and see it. It all depended on the weather as to what time we left Rimini because we all wanted more time on the beach.
Sunday morning we woke up to rain. That decided our plans- to get to Bologna as soon as possible. We ate our last breakfast in our last hostel and then hit the road. When we got into Bologna it was raining pretty hard. In our books we read that Bologna is known for its food so we definitely wanted to eat a meal there. With the weather as bad as it was we decided to just eat and get back on the train. Since we decided not to stay long we didn't leave our bags in storage at the train station and had to carry it all around town. For some reason we had a really hard time finding a place to eat. We ended up walking around for over a hour- seeing the sights and searching for a restaurant. By the time we had given up on the idea of eatting because our backs were hurting, we finally found a place. I got the spagetti with bolognese sauce again and it was delicious. We all ordered bruschetta before and it was the best any of us have ever had. Once we were full and completely satisfied we headed back to the train station to catch the 3:30 train. Our last train ride was smooth and got us back into Verona alittle after 5.
So thats it. Thats the last weekend of my own traveling. I only have 3 more full days left in Verona. Thursday is our final and we all leave on Friday for Florence. I'll post another blog about my last week and our plans for Florence and Rome. Thanks again for reading and for supporting me! I've said it a lot, but it really does mean a lot.
I've posted some pictures below but I've also finally started to post all my pictures on my Picasa account. Hopefully I can finish it all before Thursday and give you all the link! I hope all is well in the states! Only 12 more days and I will be back!
With all my Love,
RRR
My awkward picture with the hostel VW Bus!
Rimini from the hostel terrace!
Me in San Marino
Gorgeous view!
Leaning towers in Bologna!
Street in Bologna!
No comments:
Post a Comment