156

156

Friday. Finally. Forth attempt at writing this post. So many things happened this morning that I kept changing what I wrote and now I don’t know what to write. And it’s so late!!
This morning everything was under two inches of snow, I know it’s not much but it’s more than enough to bother me. I couldn’t ride my bike so I had to do everything walking. And of course, walking on the soft snow is not easy. Walking on ice is not easy either. But I learned my lesson and it’s less painful to fall if you are walking than if you are cycling. Many years ago I tried cycling on snow. Never again. I fell down.
When I knew I was falling, I tried to fall somehow on my feet but the ground had ice and it was very slippery, so I have no idea what I did and fell on my bike. I had a bruise on my butt and low back the size of a small plate and a few more bruises all over.

My bathroom window last night.

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The street and my bike trailer that works as buggy if you add a wheel in front.

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I opened the door this morning to bring the kids to school and found only one track of footsteps. It made me smile. My kids took care of the snow so they could play with it later. So the three of them walked on the same footsteps. Team work (so rare in my house!!)
And this is how much I love my kids when they do this kind of things.

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For me there is nothing nicer than to walk on the clean snow and leave my trace, but this time I didn’t do it.

A couple of days ago, Kate from talktokate.wordpress.com wrote this post asking for tips because she’s planning to travel soon and would like to know where she could go and what we (readers) could advise her.
I told her I love traveling by train and it was cheap at the time (20 years ago). We had a train pass calle Eurailpass. That pass was valid for almost all the trains, and the boats and ferries to go to Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey, UK and Ireland.
Also that for me it was more important meeting people than places. I didn’t go to many museums or points of interest. We just picked a place we thought it was nice and we went there. Walked around and try to find a place to sleep. That was the hardest part always.
Some places were just full and there were no youth hostels or cheap places to sleep.
We had a daily budget so when we couldn’t afford to stay somewhere, we just took the train and went to a city around eight hours away so we could have a place to sleep (the train). Now that I think of it I can’t believe it. But ok, I wasn’t scared of anything at the time.

So one day in August (1995), we arrived in Rome. We went straight to the Tourist Information Office (TIO) to get a list of the places where we could sleep. Please remember that at the time, there was no Internet, so we depended on the TIO, the people around and our luck.

We got the list and started calling hotels, hostels, guest houses, campings. Everything was full. We walked for a long time searching and no luck at all. It was past 1.00am and we were alone one the streets.
At one point, two homeless guys came to us (3 girls) and asked why we were wandering the streets SO late at night. We explained that we were waiting until 2.00am to take a train because we couldn’t find a place to sleep.
“Are you crazy???”
“Why?”
“You can’t imagine how dangerous the surrounding of the train station are at night, you’ll get robbed”
“Is that true?”
“Yes, we live here, we know”
“But we can’t find any place to sleep”
“I have an idea, what don’t you sleep ‘there’? You have sleeping bags.” (‘There’ was the Pantheon).
“Now, are you insane? What if the police comes?”
“If the police comes, we explain the situation. Now just unroll the sleeping bags there in that corner and we stay here and take care of you”

Ok… Imagine our faces at the time. It was really late. We were exhausted after walking with our heavy backpacks for hours. We had to decide, and soon, what we wanted to do.

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As you can see, we slept under the Pantheon columns. I woke up a few times at night to check if the men were still there. They were still there, a few meters ahead, sitting on the front steps.
You see only us in the picture, but at the time it was around 9.00am and it was full of people around (of course, everyone was looking at us).

pantheon

Kate, here is my tip: If you go to Rome in summer, book a place in advance 🙂

And… It’s Friday I’m in Love!!
For today I chose a short song from the movie “The Wedding Singer”. You are right, that’s from my last date with Adam Sandler. I love this song and the meaning, and the idea of it. It just makes me smile and have hope. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKs3bybeTO8
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Grow Old with You
(written by Adam Sandler)

I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
Oh all I wanna do is grow old with you

I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you

I’ll miss you
Kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold

Need you
Feed you
Even let ya hold the remote control

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you’ve had too much to drink
I could be the man who grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you

I specially like the dishes part? I REALLY love this song!!

source: http://www.lyricsmode.com

~ by DotedOn on January 30, 2015.

31 Responses to “156”

  1. Reblogged this on SURVIVORS BLOG HERE.

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  2. So much here from riding a bike in the snow to sleeping on a public street (outside the Pantheon no less!!) Two things I have never done, and I might add, might never appear on my bucket list. You are quite the adventuress, nonetheless.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I used to do a lot of stupid things before (and now too!!) 😀
      The problems mostly appear when you have to choose between two things that suck… You know how it’ll end up… Between sleeping on the street or being robbed, sleeping on the street (with our personal body guards!!), seemed the best option. More stupidity coming soon! 😀

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  3. Very adventurous experience! I totally adored the guts you all had sleeping under the Pantheon columns!!! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

  4. How awesome, you should have told Kate to sleep in the Pantheon! lol

    and I did love the song/movie!

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I’m so fatigued by the snow and cold weather, the multiple layers of clothes and the barren trees. April can’t arrive quickly enough….

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Aw! Thanks for writing this! Really loved reading it! Thanks for all the great tips and insight too! I am bookmarking this one!! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Very cool adventure! What those homeless men did, warmed my heart. I love that song from The Wedding Singer. It makes me tear up every time!

    Liked by 1 person

    • We couldn’t believe it either! I would have kissed them in the morning but you know, I clean a soda can too, so I have my limits!! 😀

      And the song is SOOOO sweet!! 🙂

      Like

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