#so might as well get the cheap $1 pasta that's not the greatest but still

[bearisweet]

being lactose intolerant & being allergic to nuts is literally hell when trying to find things for cooking. i try to have dairy but i wind up having stomach issues for like, days. so i really need to try and pull away from dairies.

then im trying to eat better and it's so expensive. like i got ingredients for pasta salad which can make 2 nights worth. but it cost almost $20 for a few ingredients e_e

why does it have to be so difficult to eat better.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 77

Very big day today! MIL got her test results in that prove that her mild fever really was just that nasty sinus infection (the fact that the antibiotics made her feel better immediately was a good sign, but the test was nice for corroboration.) Officially Fit for Outside once more, we embarked upon our greatest adventure yet: the shoe store! 

Now you may think that this trip is somewhat frivolous, but if you believe that, you have neither seen nor smelled my child's current pair of shoes. He has had them for six months, which is approximately one geologic age in ten-year-old's-shoes years, and they are basically ruined in every way. My shoes are less visibly ruined, but the sole is completely peeling off one of them and that is less than ideal. My mother in law, of course, had those two falls the other week because she was wearing slippy-soled shoes and has been wearing her sandals ever since despite the rainy weather. And my husband always buys the same pair of black shoes every time he shops, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to try things on. And carry stuff. At any rate, we all needed shoes very badly, so we have been discussing the big Shoe Store Visit for literally weeks now. 

The trip was complicated from the outset by the fact that kiddo's shoes were not only visibly ruined but still completely soaking wet from yesterday's water adventures. We tried unsuccessfully to tumble dry them, but Nana's high-tech dryer cannot understand the wetness level of shoes and kept thinking it was done. I eventually just made him wear them the way they were and bring along a second pair of socks so he wouldn't be trying on shoes with wet socks. That is rude even in normal times. 

He was pretty excited because this was his first time in a store that was not a convenience store since March. I have gone out shopping an average of once per week, and my husband went to campus until the powers that be allowed him to remote teach from home (more than a week after they sent the students home), but we've kept the kiddo pretty much away from anyplace where he might give or get germs. Some people have to take their kids with them to shop, I figure, so it's better if everyone with the luxury to shop alone does so. He has his own mask with Dr. Seuss characters on it, but he's only really had to wear it when we stop for gas on our long car rides. 

Kiddo was not wild about wearing the mask in the store, not least because the mask is a little bit big for his face and he couldn't look down very well, but he was good about keeping it on. As things open up and we can go out more with him, I'm going to have to see about getting him some masks that fit better. it's possible that if schools reopen on schedule in the fall, he might have to wear a mask for some or all of the school day. If that's the case, it had better be comfortable! Anyway, we went as fast as we could, splitting up so everybody could get shoes with maximum efficiency. I had to measure his feet myself and wound up getting it wrong, but we figured out the correct size by trying on several pairs that did not fit (but remained totally dry!).

He got a cool pair of tennis shoes in size five and a half, (holy puppy-dog feet, Batman!) and a pair of red socks with cats on them. I tried on shoes faster than I ever have before because everybody was waiting on me by the time I finished with the kid, and got myself a comfortable pair of walking shoes with both soles firmly attached. My husband found a two for one deal in the men's department because I have trained him to spot a bargain, coming away not only with his usual plain black shoes, but also black winter boots. I was very proud! My mother in law got a new pair of shoes with much better soles, so overall we came away with all objectives accomplished in only about forty minutes. Nearly everybody in the store was wearing a mask and distancing well, and the fact that it is a massive warehouse-sized store helped. 

So that was our big thing for today, a quarantine milestone! Today's lunch was salsa chicken again because we had lots of leftovers, but I dressed it up by making fresh tortillas. Learning to make pasta has considerably improved my kneading and rolling game since the days when I lived in Laredo and try to make tacos to fit in. While I would not characterize my efforts as round in any form, they were substantially less like pita pockets than the ones I used to make. In Laredo they sell raw corn tortillas in the grocery store so you can cook them yourself at home. I miss that! Dinner was a recipe for "fancy Hamburger Helper" that my husband found in the New York Times, which was good, and the lettuce greens I picked up at the farmer's market this afternoon. Everyone at the farmer's market wore a mask. I read an article that said doing pretty much anything you'd normally do indoors outdoors instead reduces the risk of sickness, so a farmer's market with everybody in masks and the booths 20 feet apart  is basically the shopping ideal. 

Also, if you want to try and make tortillas, they are great quarantine food so long as you have flour. I bought lard specially to make tortillas with, but I am told margarine also works. Lard is cheap and it keeps for a long time, though! You basically whisk together four cups of flour, a half teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of baking powder, then add two heaping tablespoons of lard and mix it with your hands until the lard is all spread throughout and has changed the consistency of the flour. Then you add a cup and a half of water and knead the resulting dough on a flat surface until it's smooth and stretchy. Then you divide it up into 24 little balls, roll them out individually, and cook them very quickly on a hot skillet, flipping them once each. It turns out that 24 tortillas is Very Many Tortillas for four people, so next time I will halve the recipe, but they were good! 

Also for some reason I spent nearly all day thinking today was Thursday. Eventually time will become real again, but it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Oh and for the record, for the Me keeping score from the future, today is May 27, a Wednesday. Today is notable because it marks 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US. We have been in quarantine since the schools closed on March 12, and away from home since May 1. Wow, May went by _really_ fast. 

[larpgourmet]

Herbs and Spices, a Primer

Image above taken from: https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/food/the-microbiology-of-herbs-and-spices/ -- a truly fascinating read if you’re interested!

This is going to be the first in a series, I think. With all following posts focused on a specific cuisine and what spices they use. For the start of this though, we’re going to go on a journey about the use of spices in cooking, and how to spice food to the greatest effect.

The Difference between Herbs and Spices Let’s start at the beginning, Spices come from the root, stem, seed, fruit, or flower of a plant. Herbs come from the leafy green part of the plant. There’s some plants that serve double duty that you may not even realize. For instance – cilantro is a well known herb, but it comes from the coriander plant! And, ground coriander and cilantro don’t taste at all the same.

There’s a few things that we use to spice food that are neither an herb nor a spice… the most common one is a mineral – salt.

The Basics Really, the backbone of any dish are salt and pepper. If you have both of those in the house, you’ll be fine for 90% of things you want to make. Though, they do get boring on their own!

Invest in good quality for both. When it comes to salt, the chef standard is kosher salt. (Though you may need a pickling variety if you get into making your own pickles! https://larpgourmet.tumblr.com/post/186377848864/homemade-pickles-the-snack-of-snacks

I still use iodized salt. I used to think it would help with my iodine intake, but recent science says it’s probably not enough on its own. If you’re worried about your iodine, get a vitamin pill for it, and switch to kosher anyway. I’ll be getting kosher salt as soon as my current salt container runs out. (I hate to waste money.)

Grind pepper yourself. Certain cuisines prefer certain peppers. Many, many cuisines call for white pepper, or black pepper. And I know they have a bit of a flavor variance, but I don’t want to own four pepper grinders for the different types of pepper I could potentially keep – so I prefer a mixed peppercorn blend, shown below:

(https://www.amazon.com/Starwest-Botanicals-Organic-Rainbow-Peppercorn/dp/B00DURIC8M/ref=asc_df_B00DURIC8M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312167861240&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16564574377351784513&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030820&hvtargid=pla-570914731898&psc=1)

When you’re adding salt and pepper to food, there’s two things to keep in mind. The first thing is to start early. If you neglect to salt and pepper a dish at the beginning, you’re going to need a lot more salt and pepper at the end to get the same effect. Giving the salt and pepper a chance to really mingle into the food is key. Second – watch out for sauces that you’re adding to the dish. You may not need to salt your dish if you’re adding soy sauce, for instance.

Salty Thoughts Let me get this out of the way. You really don’t need a salt grinder. You need a pepper grinder. There’s no preserved freshness of salt if it’s ground in advance. That said – salt grinders can look pretty, and if you’re doing it for the aesthetic, I can’t blame you.

There’s really two categories of salt. Cooking salt, and finishing salt. There’s going to be a chef or two in the audience who will say I’m oversimplifying that, but run with me for a second. You really don’t want, or need, to use finishing salt when you’re cooking. Good old table or kosher salt is well enough for cooking. Additionally, pickling salt is really just fine ground cooking salt. You can run it through a mill of some sort to get what you need (Though, it’s easier to just buy it.) Finishing salt is where you start getting the weird stuff. Himalayan pink rock salt, French sea salt, Hawaiian lava salt, smoked salts, red salts, etc. etc. etc. And I know what you’re thinking, “They can’t all taste different!” But they can, and they do. I went on a run for awhile trying different finishing salts. They’re fascinating and fun to use – but ultimately way more expensive than their more pedestrian counterparts.

If you’re interested in fancy finishing salts, have fun with them! I like them on salads when I’m making a simple vinaigrette dressing, they add a little crunch and a nice, salty bite. They also go nicely over some pastas, where a little added salt is welcome. I will say, they are ultimately fun, and not necessary to cooking. So, enjoy them, but won’t worry if you can’t afford them. And don’t use them as daily cook salts, get the cheap stuff for that!

Taste Early, Taste Often When you’re making a new dish, always start tasting the sauce as soon as you can. That way you know where you might need to make adjustments down the road. You’ll get used to where a dish may taste too salty, or not salty enough, but where it may mellow out as it cooks over time. Taste and make adjustments in small amounts. You can always add more spices, but adjusting when you added too much is much more difficult! Dry vs. Fresh When it comes to herbs, it sounds right to say that fresh herbs are better than dry, but that’s not necessarily the case. Speaking very broadly, use dry herbs if they’re going in at the start of a dish, when they’ll be subjected to heat for a longer time; and fresh herbs when they’re going in toward the end of a dish. You can use fresh and dry interchangeably if needed, at an exchange rate of 1x dry herbs to 3x fresh (or vice versa).

I would also say that I find dry herbs to have a different effect on a dish to fresh. Dry herbs permeate the flavor of a dish differently. So, if a recipe calls for dry or ground herbs, go with it, instead of using the fresh. (At least the first time you make the dish).

When it comes to spices, the dry or fresh becomes a bit more of a grey area. There’s very few spices that you would buy in a more wet-fresh state (ginger being one of them). I find less of a flavor variance between dry or ground spices than I do fresh ones, and they’re often used in the same way when cooking more so than herbs. The exchange rate is different for spices though, it’s generally more 1 to 1, unlike the above.

Whole vs. Fresh Ground Though we would all love to fresh grind everything we make, it’s not always feasible in modern life. Hell, my spice rack is full of plenty of pre-ground herbs and spices so I can use them quickly, especially when I’m cooking something fast on a busy Tuesday. The trick is to keep an eye on the expiration date, and let go of the spice when it expires.

If you can, and you have the time and inclination – always go with fresh ground. Get yourself a pulse coffee grinder for the purpose. The flavors are way better, and you’ll catch some of the oils for your dish. But don’t beat yourself up if you have a go to in a glass vial, your sanity is worth more than the extra flavor.

Flavor Categories When I think of herbs, I think of them in a couple of overarching categories. Those are: warm, spicy, fresh, citrus, and earthy.

Warm spices are things like clove, cinnamon, garlic, or ginger. They’ve got a bit of a bite to them, but even at high doses they don’t get hot. They can also be done as a sweet spice very easily.

Spicy takes warm to the next level. Cayenne, and crushed red pepper flakes are the easiest to come to mind. These make your nose run and your eyes water (and happen to be some of my favorites!)

Fresh as a flavor means things like mint, parsley, or cilantro. To me they’ve got a ‘cold’ quality about them, and taste best at the end of the dish. (Side note about Cilantro. I’m one of the people who thinks it tastes like soap, so I will almost never use it, nor put it in a recipe. I use parsley as my cilantro replacement.)

Citrus is an easy one! Lemon zest, or ground lemon powder are the best examples. Citrus is one of the few things I will almost exclusively do as a fresh spice instead of a dried spice. Dried citrus peel is just nowhere near as flavorful as its fresh counterpart.

And lastly, earthy: Oregano, tumeric, cumin, or thyme are among my favorites in this category. This adds a woodsy, earthy depth to any dish. Cumin and tumeric are especially useful as the backbone for whole cuisines.

I mention this to give you kind of a place to start. Develop favorites in each category that you keep around the house. You’ll be making a dish some day, and you’ll want a little something in it – and having at least one of each on hand to throw in as you need it can go a long way.

The Starting Spice Drawer Last, but not least, my list of ten starting herbs and spices (and one mineral!) to get for your kitchen, if you have none at all:

- Salt - Pepper - Basil - Cayenne - Chili Powder - Cinnamon - Cumin - Garlic Powder - Parsley - Tumeric

Bonus: invest in either lemon or lime juice in bottles, or keep a couple of fresh lemons and limes on hand, and you’ll be good to go!

Bonus Reading Material:

https://www.spicesinc.com/p-3746-most-popular-spices-by-cuisine.aspx

https://www.spicesinc.com/t-list-of-spices.aspx

https://www.spicesinc.com/p-3743-flavor-characteristics-of-spices.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spices

[bumblingtravels]

11. Venice

There and Back Again… an Interrailing Story

8 cities, 6 countries, 4 weeks, 2 rainbows, 1 camera

PART ONE — Venice

June 8th, 2018

Where to begin with our Venice adventure, the only thing I’ll say for sure is that it’s clearly the greatest city in the world and I want to live here forever. Barbara’s bed is the comfiest thing ever, and despite the dull day before we treated ourselves to a well deserved lie in - what? we’re students!

Emerging into the Italian day we went in search of a bakery and soon discovered that all of Italy decides to snooze on a Friday, and honestly? Mood. Deciding ‘who needs a well balanced breakfast?’ - see above ‘we’re students’ - we went to the geleteria that was open last night well past 11pm. We had the most Italian student breakfast ever a mega ice cream and cheesecake - lilikoi for me of course - that turned out to be the best ice cream an cheesecake either of us had ever had - that justifies it right?

The floating city of Venice is only a quick 30minute train ride away, quickly passed in one of the most comfortable trains ever - Crewe would never! The approach to Venice via train is magical in itself. The train track spans across a bridge allowing you a crystal clear view of the floating city and its many boat-owning inhabitants. As the buildings slowly get larger, we finished our approach into he city and set out for what would be one of my favourite days yet.

The train stations exits directly onto the boardwalk spanning the Grand Canal. For miles all you can see is boats, bridges and evidence of a bumbling tourism industry. We walked across the great stepped bridge that greets you and adeptly swerved around the characteristics paddlers who only seem tot know the words “selfie sticks”. On the other side of the bridge we visited a couple of gift stands and purchased another lot of leather bracelets because let’s face it, are you really a traveller if you don’t have at least three bracelets on at al times. A quick top for the toilets at one of the grandest burger kings I’ve ever seen - where I proved myself as an able pickpocket to get to the toilet code - we started our Venetian Ventures.

Venice is without a doubt one of the greatest and most beautiful cities ever. Already I’m hatching plans to get super rich and buy the whole island, but something tells me that might not exactly be plausible - plots of world domination never seem to work in the movies.

We spent an absolutely lovely day simply walking up and down the streets of Venice. My Duke of Edinburgh leader would’ve been proud as I easily navigated us all around and back again with having a map.

Along our adventure we stopped in lots of different shops ranging from masquerade specialists to Murano glass makers to the run of the mill tourist shops - you know, you’re post cards, magnets and cheap knock-off products that fall apart as soon as you get home bu try then what’s the point? The journey was also broken up by many photoshops as each bridge, building and canal combination got better and better - not to mention our branded rainbow pictures, can’t be neglecting the aesthetic.

As few hours into the Venetian venture, we found ourselves in the wildest of situations, we went into a masquerade mask shop and had a cheeky look around before spotting the shop keeper. He was a sweet little Italian man who makes all the masks in his shop and he showed us the one he was working on at the moment. It was all very sweet and really interesting and I brought a small hand-made fridge magnet off him as a sign of appreciation and a memento of the lovely city. Now, here’s where bizarro-land descends. He kept showing us masks to try and sell them to us, which fair enough that’s just tactics. But, at one point he got Meg in a mask and proceeded to drag a big ‘ole cloak around her in order to show us how you would dress for an actual masquerade festival.

 Following this, he took my phone and Meg unexpectedly found herself i the middle of a Venetian fashion show. We left the shop with one fridge magnet gained, yet several questions raised. As I said, wild.

Escaping the unexpected bambeezling shop, we continued on one Venice exploration with yet more breathtaking canals and bridges. It was around the seventh bridge and third patch of canal that we truly started to fall in love with this magical place and move our plans of retirement - after world domination of course - to this beautiful city.

Another ultimate selling point of Venice is their apparent obsession with cats - who can blame them they truly are the greatest. Every shop seemed to be selling a variation of cats dressed in elaborate outfits like some sort of Assassin’s Creed stealth mission : Cat Edition. I sent one such fancy-shmancy cat postcard to my parents which showed Perseus’s - again the cat not the demigod - new career or potential past life, who knows what that jazzy boy got up to.

Moving on from the cat shrine a couple more bridges and canals later - and about twenty gondola sitings - we stumbled upon one of Venice’s most well-known attractions. Let’s be honest by this point my confident navigation was basically a charade, or a masquerade *wink wink*, so I was as surprised at finding the Rialto Bridge as Napoleon was at being defeated by a little chill - read harsh Russian winter but that analogy doesn’t work as well so it’s being changed.

Taking the required pictures of the Rialto Bridge, we climbed over and spent some time admiring the beauty that is Venice.

Now that concludes the first chapter of our picturesque Venetian Venture. You know how part twos are always slightly disappointing and not as good as part one or three; see. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, all of Twilight - well brace yourself for a story of hardship, strife and woe.

It all started with a restaurant called Ganesh…

Earlier in the day, between the fourth and sixth bridge, we found a cute little restaurant that had a terrace by the river, all the pasta and pizza and most of all… student prices. Meg somewhat successfully navigated us back to the restaurant, and really our first clue should have been how empty it was. Deciding that it was still a bit early and someone has to be the first person, we went ahead and sat down. We ordered and settled in by the river surrounded by potted plants.

The food was amazing, but that is very much a side note to this epic saga. This place doubled as a curry house and all the other guests seemed to be Indian and they all got a curry menu that was not offered to us. When we finished the meal, we must have waited an hour for the plates to be cleared - a couple who arrived and ordered food after we finished left before we got served. Asking for the bill we gave up waiting and just walked up to the bar to pay - there was another British family there looking very baffled and I almost wanted to scream to them to ‘run, save yourself’! Getting the check they charged us €5 for two and a half breadsticks. We went to the toilet before we left, and had our revenge by smuggling out all the paper towels that will serve us well during our picnics.

Overall, a good meal but not worth the money and would be much nicer with some service - preferably but just some old greasy man and a lady in just a bra.

  Licking our Ganesh wound, we headed off in pursuit of ice cream. Finding an adorable gelateria by the river, we had a grade cone each and sat on the pier to enjoy the nighttime lights of Vencie.

Venice is absolutely magical at night, with dark blue lights and lanterns reflected by the Grand Canal. We wandered up and down the river soaking in the beauty as we waited for our train home. I will always maintain that one of my favourite things is European holiday nights.

A quick journey saw us back at the apartment and we quickly packed before Meg made herself a map blanket and we settle din for our last night in Barbara’s little AirBnB.

- Mira Sophia

[espanakatie-blog]

3 marzo

Okay, so now it’s been a really really long time since I’ve written. Sorry about that. In my defense, I wasn’t doing anything that new or exciting until Italy this past weekend. And my converter didn’t work in Italy so my laptop was muerto (dead). Since nothing of superb interest has happened since my last writing and Italy, I’ll just write about Italy (my very first solo trip!)

Day 1: Sevilla > Bologna

I got to the airport early because in America that’s what you do for international flights. Show up even earlier than normal. But I went to check in and the woman behind the counter (not so) nicely told me the Bologna flight wasn’t open yet so I should sit and wait off to the side. So I did, where I listened another (not so) nice couple bicker. Eventually I got to check in behind what I’m 95% certain was a sugar daddy/sugar baby situation. For a sugar daddy he was pretty cheap, flying Ryanair and all. In any case, I checked in and got through security to find that they wouldn’t announce where my gate was until about 40-45 minutes before take-off. This is a quality I’ve found happens more often than I realized and becomes particularly annoying for someone accustomed to waiting at their gate. All is fine though, I made it on time and got my seat.

While I was waiting for my flight, however, I was starting to wonder if I was going to regret traveling by myself. I was sitting next to a group of girls flying to Bologna as a group, excited for their girls’ weekend. I was pondering how comfortable I was really going to be alone for the weekend. Luckily, I finished a book right before going to Bologna called “What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding” by Kristin Newman. It’s a memoir about all her travel stories, group trips and alone, while all her friends were settling down and having kids. This book played a much larger role in my psyche during this trip than I expected. On a vacation to Russia with a friend, Newman describes being the only person at the dinner table unable to speak Russian. She felt out of place, but learned how important it was to be okay with just your own thoughts. I remembered this and tried my best to channel Kristin Newman. So, I got on the plane and went to Bologna.

Day 2: Bologna

I soon discovered that my converter didn’t work in Italy. So, I spent the first part of my morning walking around Bologna in hopes of coming across a store that would have converters (and a new phone charger because mine so conveniently broke while trying to charge my phone from what was left of my laptop battery!). It was a bit chilly (but manageable) in Bologna that day. While I was comfortable in a light cardigan, Italians were piled in layers upon layers and scarves and looked at me like I was crazy. I think they’re the crazy ones. Just yesterday I walked to the store by my apartment without a coat, while a Spanish woman wore a winter parka. Whatever your body is adjusted to, I suppose.

Anyway, my first day was nice but slightly boring as I bought lunch and went back to my hostel to eat it. I overestimated the amount of English speaking there would be in my hostel. As English is the lingua franca, I assumed people would speak it with each other in the hostel. While it would make an appearance sometimes, most people spoke Italian with each other while I was there. So I ate my lunch by myself and took a siesta because I am very adjusted to Spanish hours. This would come to bite me in the butt when it came to dinner. I stopped getting hungry for dinner before 8:30 PM, but a lot of restaurants in Bologna closed around 9. I ended up eating some middle eastern food because that’s how I am as a person. Goes to Italy, land of some of the greatest food in this world, and ate some of the greatest food in the world from somewhere else.

Now, I have been sick for quite some time now. But I had improved and just had a slight cough. However, in Bologna I conveniently got my deep, guttural cough again. It was worse when I was lying in bed and I think it’s because of the position I was in. Walking around I wouldn’t even notice that I had a cough because it wasn’t that often. I could tell the people sharing the room with me weren’t thrilled with my coughing but what can you do? I tried my best to suppress it, I took meds, I drank a lot of water, and still I was coughing. Oh, and my left ear was completely plugged up.

Day 3: Bologna

I decided to do the things you’re supposed to do in Bologna because the weather was better, I had a charged phone, and I was ready for what the day would bring me. I started by going to the tower in Bologna, to get the best view overlooking all of Bologna. I underestimated quite how tall it would be. I’m glad that this tour was hard for everyone, and I wasn’t just another out of shape American. And because the tower was made when people were much smaller, SOME STAIRS WERE EXTREMELY SMALL. I climbed all 29 stories (in 5-7 minutes might I add) to get an incredible view of Bologna. The climb was well worth it, but I would recommend bringing a bottle of water. After the tower I got one of the best slices of pizza I’ve ever had in my life in a nearby shop. It was gigantic and just two euros. I sat on the curb of the street and tried to take in that I was in Italy, by myself, eating a slice of pizza, and just had the most incredible view of Bologna. I was getting up to start finding the hidden canal views in Bologna when I was approached by a man who wanted me to buy him food. I could barely hear him and started to wish I knew any obscure language so I could’ve pretended to not understand him. Or that I was a man. Because men don’t deal with the creepy old men. I told him I had to go and used the best RBF that I have to seem more unapproachable to anyone else who would try to do the same.

Anyway, I started to look for the little canal views and found a few. My favorite is this little window in the street that has a view of the canal and some houses built along the sides. I also tried to do things in the old Jewish ghetto, but everything was closed. By the time I got to the Jewish museum I realized it was a Saturday (you know, the holy Sabbath day) and nothing was going to be open in the old Jewish ghetto.

I came back for another siesta and walked around Bologna and I settled for a bowl of spaghetti alla carbonara and I couldn’t even finish it. I can’t tell if it was because it was so rich or because the last time I got spaghetti alla carbonara I had awful food poisoning and threw up 14 times throughout the night :-). Luckily this time, I kept everything down.

Day 4: Bologna > Venice

I bought a train ticket to Venice the night before and set an alarm for 7 AM so I could walk to the train station (about a 25 minute walk) with plenty of time to eat breakfast and get ready. I don’t know if I slept through my alarm because of my plugged ear or if I was so tired that I don’t remember turning it off, but I didn’t wake up on times. I think my train was at 9:00, and I woke up at 8:35. Which was the time I needed to leave the hostel to just (barely) make it on time for the train. So I hopped out of bed, changed as fast as I could, grabbed my stuff and ran out the door. I basically sped walk/ran to the train station and made it with 2 minutes to spare before the train left. The perfectly manicured Europeans didn’t seem to thrilled with my makeup-less face and unbrushed hair. I did my makeup on the train, where someone sitting next to me asked if I have bronchitis. I think. He said something like bronchitia. I told him I don’t speak Italian (in English, lol). He, his wife, and the person next to me went on to say something in Italian and then laugh. Love it. I now have to try to make an appointment for the doctor here because I may or may not have acute bronchitis.

I got to Venice and entered a state of absolute euphoria. I have wanted to go to Venice since before I can remember, and I was finally there. I ate a lot of dessert that day too, which definitely helped. After finding out a gondola ride would cost me 80 euros, I was taken aback a little. But during lunch, I remembered that Kristin Newman says to always do the thing you’re supposed to do in the place you’re supposed to do it. That little piece of encouragement reminded me that my fantasy of being in Venice ALWAYS included a gondola ride, and I was gonna ride in a gondola even if it killed me. I went to the nearby gondola stop and got my own private gondola ride. My gondola person (driver? captain? what do you call these people?) told me a few facts about Venice in a thick Italian accent that I did not always understand, but I just nodded and gave a few “oohs” and “ahhs.” I am sure I am in at least 80 photos from my one ride, as every tourist took a picture of this gondola going down the canal. At one bridge, we came across my gondola person’s friend where they said something, and then his friend said hello to me and blew me a kiss. Again, I awkwardly wished I was a man because he was probably in his thirties. This kind of stuff only happens to me outside of America. I’m starting to question if foreigners are just that much more vocal or if American boys don’t appreciate the absolute beauty that I am (lol, I can sometimes be modest...ish).

I got off the gondola ride and walked around a little more and got gelato so I could sit on the edge of the canal in peace and soak in all that was Venice. I was in a more quiet part of Venice and I was feeling such bliss. It was carnaval in Venice and it was PACKED. Some of the main bridges took three to five minutes to cross because there were SOOOO many people. I would really love to come back when there are less people and take a more detailed, historical tour of Venice. But, I was content just buying a cookie and sitting by the edge of the canal watching gondolas go by. I know now you’re thinking, “Katie, that’s a lot of pasta, pizza, and dessert you’re eating. How did you manage?” Let me just tell you there are quite a lot more stairs than I had anticipated basically everywhere I went in Italy. I walked about 10 miles everyday because I didn’t take public transportation anywhere (except the trains between cities) and I think it’s fine and I encourage you to do the same. Indulge in all the beautiful Italian carbs because you’ll be walking everywhere anyway.

Before I left I grabbed a latte from a cafe and people watched by the canal. Kristin Newman talks about how she longed to be the girl who could sit alone in a cafe at Paris and enjoyed it. She did, and I’m glad she wrote about it because it inspired me to be that same girl, just in Venice.

Now this is when I discovered just how annoying the whole delayed announcement of where the gates/platforms is. They announced where the train would be not too much before the train was scheduled to leave, and people were RUNNING. It was HOARDS of people running toward the train. I didn’t think much of it because I was like “I don’t need any specific seat, I’ll be fine” and luckily got a seat. However, there were people standing in the aisle for the two hour train ride back to Bologna. I didn’t realize how packed the train was, and that’s why people were running.

When I got back to Bologna it was after 9 PM and the only thing that was open was an American diner by my hostel. I went in and soon discovered they had several hot sauces, that when combined, was HEAVEN. FINALLY SOME SPICE IN MY LIFE. It was magical, it was beautiful, and my life had changed for the better.

Day 5: Bologna > San Marino (?)

I woke up and decided I wanted to go to the Republic of San Marino. Unbeknownst to me, the Republic of San Marino and San Marino are not synonymous. I bought train tickets to get to what I thought was the Republic of San Marino. It would take 2 train changes to get there, and I thought I got it down. I missed my second train though, because the platform was “pf” which was not a real place? So I went to customer service to get a new train ticket and they didn’t say anything about the fact that the Republic of San Marino and San Marino are different, leaving me to not think anything was wrong. On my second train, the conductor scanned my ticket and asked “You are trying to go to the Republic of San Marino?” and I said “yes.” He chuckled and the rest of the conversation went like this:

Conductor: You’re on the wrong train

Me: I’m going to get off at the end of the Bassano del Grappa stop and from there would go to San Marino

Conductor: No no, the Republic of San Marino doesn’t have a train station. That San Marino is a small town of about 50 houses and nothing else. I don’t think you want to go there

Me: Oh

Conductor: A lot of tourists make this mistake

Me: So what should I do?

Conductor: To go to the Republic of San Marino, you need to go back to Padova, get a train to Bologna and from there you can take a train and then a bus to the Republic. Where are you staying in Italy?

Me: Bologna...

Conductor: [chuckles]

Me: Yeah...

Conductor: What did you want to do in the Republic of San Marino?

Me: Just walk around, see what it’s like

Conductor: By the time you get there, it’ll be 5-6 PM. You can get off at Bassano del Grappa, the last stop of this train. It’s a very nice town.

Me: Okay, I’ll do that instead then. Thank you.

So, that is how I bought a ticket to the wrong San Marino but ended up in Bassano del Grappa. This was the best thing I could’ve done for myself. I fell in love with Bassano del Grappa. I felt such a euphoric bliss in Bassano del Grappa, even more than I had felt in Venice. The best part about this mix up was that I got to decide on a whim to see Bassano del Grappa. I didn’t have to check in with anyone to see what they wanted to do, I did whatever I wanted to do when I got there, and no one was complaining. I walked past a cafe in Bassano del Grappa, and just walked in! There was no “do you want to eat here? Do you want to keep looking?” I just chose what I wanted. I spent an unnecessary amount of time by the river skipping rocks and no one could get annoyed with me for being happiest by the water. I walked wherever I wanted, bought tickets to whatever museums I thought were interesting, and I was happy to just walk around and see what Bassano del Grappa had to offer. I already started planning a trip back in my head, maybe with some family. I know where I want to stay, for how long, and what I want to do. Bassano del Grappa was hands down the best mistake I made and my favorite part of the whole trip. And there were no creepy men!

Day 6: Bologna

It was my last day in Bologna, and I tried to do things in the old Jewish ghetto but it started to rain and I didn’t want to have sopping wet stuff in my bags so I hung out in my hostel. I got another gigantic slice of pizza for two euros and was extremely happy about it. I ate one last cannoli in the Bologna airport and headed home.

I’m so glad I had this adventure alone. I honestly came back feeling more confident, even with it being just a couple days. I learned in those few days how to be comfortable with just the company of myself and my own thoughts. I’m capable of solo travel and I owe a big thank you to Kristin Newman for being an idol for how to do it. And a thank you to my mom for buying to book for me. And everyone who gave me money for travel for making this trip financially possible.