So the last bit of night in Teramo was mostly uneventful. It was fun to be about the city in the evening, but I couldn’t find any bars/evening spots that I felt truly comfortable socializing with the locals (especially after the day I had). I did go to a bar that was on one of the main squares alone, and looked like a confused tourist trying to read the menu. I thought it was more a food establishment, but it was more of just drinks and appetizers. So I asked the waiter and he spoke English, and said they do the classic Italian happy out if you order a drink. I was indecisive (as I pretty much always am) so I told him to bring the best drink they made. He brought me the house drink that was just named after the bar “grande Italia” and it was a blended drink of fresh fruit/alcohol, don’t ask me what (I did try to ask, but they did not understand what I was asking, I could only tell that there was definitely peach in it big surprise). They also gave me bites of pizza, and a bunch of little delicious sandwiches and things, most of which I had no idea what they were. A highlight of this trip into town was also meeting “Antonio” a giant polar bear dog who laid in the middle of the square all night, and apparently all of the locals knew his name and would pet him and feed him. He was super old and adorable, I couldn’t help wondering if he just lived in the square getting fed.
The following morning I tried eating the horrible B&B breakfast, but decided to go and try and find a bar, I knew there were some close. Sadly I discovered that Sunday morning in a small town like this meant everything was closed. I ventured out further and finally came to the same bar that I went to happy hour the night before and they were open. I think this was lucky though, they had the most AMAZING pastries. I wish I’d taken a picture, but the waiter from the night before was there so I didn’t want to look like even more of a tourist fool. Slightly late for my bus I hurried back to my apartment, to be assaulted en route. An old guy on a bike stopped and started talking to me in Italian, he was pretty old so I considered him harmless, tried to tell him I don’t speak Italian, but he didn’t care and decided to grab my ass and take me by the arm and pull me somewhere. I freaked out yelling “scuzi” and pushed him away, finally making it to my apartment. I headed to bus stop, but missed my bus, meaning I got to sit at the bus stop for an hour during the heat of the day. Luckily a really cute 15 year old girl came to sat by me and was really chatty, wanting to practice her English. She told me she really liked Lady Gaga and wanted to study in the US someday. Apparently most of teenagers and students in Teramo take this bus to the beach on the hot weekends, so it was quite croweded.
I finally made it back to Pescara though! Later that day was the Italia vs. England soccer game which was the quarter final in the European cup (bear with me I’m just going by what I think the guys told me, it may be wrong). Enzo (host dad) had some family friends over and prepared some food. Basically a bunch of break and garlic tomatoes to put on it. I wish I had a picture before it was sliced up, it was the biggest loaf of break I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t follow much of the soccer game, but found it way more entertaining that I thought I would. When good teams are playing and actually keeping possession of the ball instead of it randomly being kicked about it can be thrilling, even though nobody ever scored. I learned that England’s goalie is really attractive, even though he got beat in the shoot out. I also learned that number 16 of Italia is the sexy version of Charlie Day from It’s Always Sunny. That about sums it up. I also ended up eating about a whole watermelon. Which was amazing.
Italy ended up winning which means we play Germany tomorrow in the semi finals. After the game everyone drove around honking and waving flags and lighting off fireworks. It reminded me of when I was in Vancouver for the gold medal hockey match and Canada won. So fun!
Summer in Pescara 