a bologna backpacking deBacle

well, as you may have heard (i told the world) iron and wine was playing in bologna this weekend. which is an hourish or less from florence. obviously i'm gonna go. with lauren, sarah, julianna, and her friend denny who is studying in barcelona. iron and wine is solidly in my top five all time favorite bands. and in italy? seriously. you can probably imagine the experience it would be. me too. so here's a very long, detailed account of what really happened.

10isham- we wake up. quickly pack and decide to actually look at where we are going. realize it's a 30 minute bus ride or 45 minute walk. our train leaves at 11:42.

11am- decide to skip the bus because it's too confusing and we think we're pretty fast walkers.

11:40am- we come to terms with the fact that we are not going to get there in time walking. so we go to a nearby train station to see if we can go from there. we half board train. guess what? wrong train. thanks to ju for asking. so we talk to a lady who says we can't walk to the real station and gives us directions for a bus to get there.

12:30pm- we find the bus and actually go the right way. make friends who tell us which station to get off.

1pm- we make it to the train station. i do a little exchange with the ticket guy who was EXTREMELY nice and he gives us tickets for a later train. really. great man. we go looking for food. i think i've found bliss aka a hamburger. it's not a hamburger. i'm still not sure what it is. lovely friends suggest river rat meat. i do not rule out this possibility.

2:15ishpm- train leaves. guess what? we're on it. thank the lord. sweet lil train ride.

3:15ishpm- we arrive. in bologna! which is where we want to go. ten points for gryffindor. we sit in the train station for a bit while denny changes his ticket home. poor sick lauren devere throws up in a clear trashcan in broad daylight.

3:28pm- we realize we don't know where the hostel is.

3:28.5pm- we realize we don't even know the name of the hostel. we head out to find an internet cafe to get the info from my email.

3:40pm- we meet a lovely concierge at a hotel who gives us directions to an internet cafe. we walk.

4:30pm- we wonder where this internet cafe is. we stop for directions again and actually find it.

5pm- i retrieve all information about the getting to the hostel, concert, back, etc. i'm on a roll.

5:07pm- i try to print our concert tickets.

5:09pm- i realize i have no confirmation email for the concert. i look all over the place and on the website. it tells me my order was canceled and never went through. i retrieve the phone number and call just to make sure. a nice man tells me they do not have my tickets.

5:15pm- i do not cry. i do not cry. i do not cry. i want to cry. i do not cry.

5:20pm- i tell everyone we don't have tickets. they are not as mad as they should be and don't hate me for life. even though i deserve it because i'm a freaking idiot. we decide to make our way to the hostel and figure it out from there. i know the bus and get directions so i lead. i immediately forget how tall i am and walk my head straight into a metal garage door half closed. we move on.

5:45pm- i am leading in the wrong direction. we can't find the right bus.

6pm- a nice man helps us find the right bus.

7pm- we get on. we count ten stops. we get off. when i say we i mean denny sarah and i. we watch as the doors close and lauren and julianna disappear, still on the bus.

7:15pm- we laugh a lottt at the situation and our luck throughout the day. get directions to the hostel. we are about 2 miles away because we got off at the wrong stop. ju and la find us. we walk. on a highway pretty much. looking like world travelers with our big backpacks. funny sight. we try very hard not to be hit by cars.

8ispm- we arrive at the hostel. hallelujah. check in. find our rooms. regroup and head in the direction of the concert to find scalpers. we are not stopping. we will go to this concert.

9:15pm- we are still waiting for the bus. we decide it's not coming and stand up to leave. the bus comes as soon as we stand up. thank ya jesus. we ride and try to get off at the right stop.

9:30pm- we get off at the right stop. walk a bit. find the locomotiv club. denny retrieves his ticket (he bought his on his own. therefore he actually bought one.)

9:45pm- we are standing outside the club deciding what to do. trying to convince denny to go in. a man walks up and asks if we have an extra ticket. he gives it to him and makes a random girl's night- possibly life. the night changes and we know why we're there.

10pm- we get over missing the concert and go to dinner at this cute little hole in the wall with live music and wonderful, huge calzones. then move onto chocolate. duh.

midnightish- we go back to bologna centrale to catch the bus home. we planned. we had directions. we get on bus 21 with some other people going to our hostel.

12:30am- we realize we are at the last stop and it's not the one we want. the bus driver tells us he'll take us back to the station so we can take the right bus.

12:43am- we get back to the station and get off the bus. stoked because the last bus leaves at 12:44 and we just made it. the bus that drops us off drives away and as soon as it leaves the number changes from 21 to 21b. which is the bus we need. not helpful mr bus driver man. and it was the last bus of the night. we are a 20 minute drive- a verrrry long walk- from our hostel. we do not panic.

1:30am- after standing a while a man offers us a taxi. we almost take it. reallll sketch. a big legit one comes up and all 5 of us get in with our new friends nora and something who were american and also studying in florence. just like us. only they saw iron and wine and we didn't. they said it was hands down the best concert they've seen. we were happy for them. and trying hard not to be sad.

2am- we make it back to the hostel. the taxi costs way less than we thought it would and we are happy, tired, done. we pass out.

9am- we are up and out on our way to the boys' hostel to get denny. he calls and says the bus we need leaves in ten minutes and if we miss it we're screwed. we decide to run but then these dogs come out of nowhere in the field across the street. sprinting toward us. we suspect they are wolves. we get a little(lot) scared. the are not wolves but follow us on the other side of the street staring at us like we're breakfast. they quit so we run the rest of the way. backpacks and all. like 7th graders late for school.

9:10am- we make the bus!!!!

9:30am- we get off on the wrong stop. again. walk to the train station. another wonderful man changes our tickets so we can leave earlier.

11:10am- we say bye to denny. we board our train. it's the right one. we are in a cabin with this funny american couple who we talk to the whole time.

12:18pm- we arrive at rifredi station

12:20pm- we run and magically catch our transfer to santa maria novella RIGHT before it leaves.

12:45pm- we come home. the key doesn't work for 7-8 minutes. that's actually a long time.

1pm- we are home. we shower. take naps. chill. so hard. we made it. we did not see iron and wine. but some girl did who may not have if we all had tickets. we met lovely people. and we made it home.

^backpacking on the streets of bologna.

it is hard to understand the insanity of this weekend. overall, every single thing that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong. ridiculous. mind blowing misfortune. but we trust. and god came through. and we actually kind of had fun. and now i sleep.

i will see iron and wine someday.