You may ask to this: PFFT, how canadian are you?
and remember, I'm not actually...
so on that note.
Bologna has set up an ice rink near the train station. The other day my friends and I went to check it out. To see prices and all the things around it. By it there are speakers blasting a mix of Reggae ( I don't know) Italian Pop songs and random English music I've never heard...and not sure If I want to hear again. The rink is in the midst of a Christmas market, set up with stalls of jewlery, food that they'll heat for you on the spot and other crazy cra
ft decorations.
When we arrived to the rink- I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES.
There were children learning how to CURL on the ice rink.
Please do not tell me this sport is spreading.
We decided not to go ice skating that day. And Instead opted for Yesterday (Dec 17, which I'm pretty sure from a 13 year old fact-finding knowledge and a very strange memory...is Brad Pitts birthday... let me double check.
Curses, one day off. Good thing too
So we arrived
in the morning and paid for rental and skates (6.70 E) but it's skating, in Italy. You can't really put a price on that.
It was so fun! I tried to go backwards, which I just learned last year. My friend Anna used to figure
skate (and met last years Male Gold Winner before he was huge....jealous) and we skated along to strange Reggae, attempting spins. Me attempting to stay up. ( I haven't fallen while skating maybe for 4 years...unless dragged down, like in first year by my RA... and I'm trying to keep the record of not falling keep going as long as I can)
We skated around for maybe an hour and a half. Then disembarked from the ice and took a chilly walk around Bologna. Then three things happened, in this succession that were very strange and coincidental.
1. We passed by the market which is usually only on weekends.
2. I bought a pair of heels for 1 Euro. ( Which I then proceeded to wear.....)
3. Someone tried to pick pocket me
Now, 1 and 2 aren't that great, but 3. Let me get into that. But I'm sure 1 caused 2 and 2 made me look like a tourist (doesn't help we were speaking english), and 3 happened.
I was pick pocketed once before. In a crazy busy market in Thailand. I actually felt the person smash against me and I remember thinking "I just got pick pocketed" but before I could turn around, I was sure the person was gone into a sea of people. We exited the market and sure enough. All documents and the little money I had (when traveling with parents, after all) was gone.
This time was so blatantly obvious I wanted to scream. And yet I said it so matter of factly to people when I tell them.
We're walking down the street and the thing is, It's not crowded at all. Frankly, there's maybe a woman ahead of us 2 meters down and some behind us, but virtually the street is empty. Save for the regular beggar women. The first one come up to me, latches herself on my side and keeps muttering
"Money please, some coins, best wishes, please signora" and I shove her off. She's in my personal bubble, and I'm going to be assertive. When this happens AGAIN not 2 steps later, something is definitely up. As I push the second woman out of my bubble, I catch a glance of her hand exiting my bag from my peripheral vision.
Now I'm wearing one of those loose bags you usually take to the beach. It's a Thailand Beach Bag. There is no zipper. Just a button that fastens it together. Not really doing anything at all. The thing is, you have to stick your whole arm in (probably until almost your elbow) to reach anything in your bag. Or pull it higher towards yourself. Ironically, this is what saved me from getting my new leather wallet (that my grandfather sent me) stolen.
I just don't understand. I always thought of pick pocketing as something sneaky. Maybe a casual brush or bump that you won't notice. But I think I noticed two women clinging to my side. The odd thing is, had I been wearing my other bag...I may not have zipped it up in time. And right now I may have been wallet-less and sad.
Paranoid doesn't even begin to cover how I feel right now about my bag.
But onto lighter things, Like light snow.
Last night my Columbian friend took me to a little known cafe in the center. There are two picnic tables, a small make-shift stage, a bar and barely any room to stand. The problem now is that every Friday, a new music group plays there. We sat around and watched the 5 person band, two guitars, a trumpet, accordion and drummer in a crowd of moving, talking and shoving people.
The songs were sung in english and the guitar and bad acoustics make it hard to hear them properly, but from what I can tell, they're fantastic. We exit shortly after, it's too crowded and the musicians take long breaks, still figuring technical things out. We see snow fall from the sky, but I tell my friend ( who can't speak english) that It's not sticking to the ground.
How wrong I am.
We've got inches of snow here today.
I'm going to go explore it now. Pictures soon.
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