The Adventure Continues

The Adventure Continues (or, better yet stated...)

On I Merrily Stumble

When I last left you, I was attempting to get to Brussels.

In the morning before my next attempt to travel correctly, I met up with the same crazy crew of lost souls. We ate breakfast in relative silence, with only a few chuckles here and there to break the silence. We are all thinking the same thing..."Let's try this again."

I got a cab from the hotel and arrived at the same little airport to tempt fate one more time. In line to get through securing, more familiar faces popped out here and there and friendly hopeful waves of greeting were exchanged.

I get to the gate and... SUCCESS!!

I FINALLY got to where I was supposed to be. Thank you Sweet Baby Jesus (a.k.a. Little Baby God). I spend less than an eventful day working and then get to a 'real' hotel.

Calgon, Take me Away!

Now..this is a hotel room! At least it is compared to where I was for cryin' out loud! Self delusion is often the key to sanity...

Huge bed, room service, ash tray, enormous tub....ahhhhh Heaven.

I had just enough time after turning myself into a tub prune to do a bit of touristy sightseeing in Brussels before I had to get some sleep for my next day at work.

I must admit it was a bit anticlimactic when I finally found my way Manneken Pis. He was just a wee (pun intended) bit smaller than I expected.

Nothing else really crazy happened here. I think I used up all of the zany reserves I had just trying to get here. I had a wonderful dinner in the city and made my way back to the hotel to enjoy some tasty beer in the comfort of my own non-hillbilly hotel.

More work the next day and then off to Italy...Ciao!

That's Amore

Surprisingly enough, my flight to Venice, Italy went off without a hitch. After renting a car at the airport, I was off to Pordenone. It was supposed to be a 45 min to 1 hour drive, but due to some required course corrections (a.k.a. getting lost) I finally got to the hotel a bit after midnight.

I was too tired to take any pics at the hotel. As a whole, this hotel was OK. Nothing fantastic, but a wonderful fantasy land compared to that hillbilly shack I stayed in a few days earlier.

As I got in so late, I had enough time to drink and smoke (of course) and then hit the sack. The next morning at breakfast, the only thing of interest was that the hostesses kept speaking to me in Italian.

Now, before you start having smart-assed thoughts like DUH, you're in Italy! Of course they will speak to you in Italian, DUH, you're in Italy! Of course they will speak to you in Italian,  read on.

Scusi! Grazie! Arrivederci! Prego!

Ordinarily this would not make it blog-worthy, but I figured even after I responded in English, as they did not respond back in my mother-toungue, I figured they must not speak it. Hey, I think that is solid piece of deductive reasoning on my part.

My theory was blown though when they spoke good English with other guests. I think they thought I was Italian while these other dudes were obviously from New Jersey. So they got the English, eh? and I gots the Italiano, eh? Whassamaddu eh? You no speaky dah Italiano eh? (I NEVER have stated that I was politically correct.)

So, I start to act as I always act when I know that (1) no one knows me (2) I will never see any of these people again in my life and (3) I will be leaving the vicinity shortly...basically like a frisky kitten who just found and cornered a pretty little butterfly. Translation: I decided to have fun.

So, in between my coffee and other breakfast goodies (which were hellagood) I started to try to respond back in my best Italian as learned via my official correspondence course materials I have absorbed over the long years of my life. Below are some of the 'Do it Yourself Italian Language and Culture' course material references I used in case you ever want to behave as badly as I do:

Now fully armed with everything any red-blooded American needs in order to function appropriately in a foreign country by using nothing but the culture sensitive nature of mass advertising and blitz marketing...I was ready to make my way seamlessly and smoothly into the Italian culture.

More later on the results....