Woa! I just arrived at my favorite cafe/bar here in Como.. and my girlfriend is working right now! Too bad Sanna had to leave today because I may have to get really silly tonight. There's an Italian train strike going on right now so it was a little difficult to get Sanna back to Switzerland. After several trains didn't come we figured something was wrong. Sanna had overheard some conversation in the hostel this morning that there was a train strike. We confirmed that after talking to the ticket lady. Fortunately the buses were running, so Sanna just caught a bus to the border where she will hopefully get a train to Locarno. Most of the rest of the day we spent in an Internet cafe. In fact I returned to the same Internet cafe for three more hours to answer e-mail and write new e-mails. I hope to convince a few people to head out with me to Alessia's party in Venice.
Anyway back to my border story. I had been sitting with Sanna in the smoking section of the train, they were the only seats we could find. I should have been suspicious when the immigration officer asked me if I had anything to declare. They then wanted me to let them search my bag. Shit, that guy really messed up my packing job. About halfway through his search of my bag he asked me if I had any marijuana. I told him I didn't smoke so he proceeded to do some more searching. He made me open up my lip balm and for a while he was interested in my ibuprofen. After a little while the dog came by and must have sniffed my bag about 15 times. I think they thought I really had something. When the officer was done he accidentally knocked some of my shit out of my bag. I must have spent a few minutes trying to get some of my stuff in order so I could close my bag. While I was doing that one of the local Italians was harassing me in Italian. I said, "cosa" and told him in English to go back to his room. After I fixed my bag and I was sitting back down making jokes about what just happened the guy inched his way out of his little room to call me a terrorist, it was all in good humor. After getting to our stop we said Ciao to the locals and made our way off the train.
At that time we didn't know if we were in the right Como or not, but somehow we were. Our first night in Como was really great. Last night was also very cool. During the day we had thought we could walk around the lake, but that is just insanity. Lago di Como is really huge! We walked for about 5 hours just taking it easy, it was really fun. We made our way to this small bar with a bunch of locals. The old guys were really nice to us. They gave us a tip to drink the wine so they were really happy when we ordered vino! They bought some chips for us to share, it was really nice.
After we got back from walking we walked around town and tried to find some place to eat. Sanna really wanted pizza so we eventually found a place and she got a vegan pizza. It was really good pizza even though the lady at the restaurant didn't like us very much. Afterwards we were disappointed to discover my favorite bar was closed. We also wandered down to the Irish Pub, but we didn't like it much so we went on a quest to another place. We tried the Egyptian pizza place but it was really just another restaurant so we left. We ended up at this place pretty close to the hostel and had a really fun time there. They were playing some really wacko music, it was funny. At about 22:30 we decided to get some food. It arrived at about 23:10 so we really had to hammer it down to make it back to the hostel on time before lockout. We managed to make it so everything was cool. It really sucks that we have to be back so early since people are really just starting to come out at about 23:00.
Today we decided to meet for our Italian breakfast at 9:00. I was really glad to sleep in a little. We actually met at about 8:30 by chance since Sanna was already awake and sitting in the common room. I came down a little early to try to get an additional night. After we hung out for a little while we made our way to the train station to hopefully find a locker for Sanna's bag, but no such luck. We eventually made our way to the Internet cafe where I spent my first hour going through my e-mail. Sanna walked around while I was banging away at the keyboard. Afterwards we wasted a bunch of time at the train station and then I saw Sanna off at the bus stop. I must have e-mailed a dozen people: Noam, Fiona, Rachel, Alberto, Francesco, Hilde, Pedro, Natasa, Kuba, Gábor, Jana and Tak. Woa! Gábor is having a birthday party on 15 December and Natasa's birthday is on 7 December. It would be really cool to be able to make both! I'm pretty sure I can, it's just going to be brutal. I also e-mailed Alessia to find out what's going on with her party in Venice. I'm really looking forward to visiting her and meeting her friends. I already e-mailed Pedro, Alberto and Francesco to let them know what's going on. I gotta move, my bella just told me they are closing.
Ok, I just moved down to the bar Sanna and I ended up in last evening and I'm working on my third Cuba Libre! Anyway, I blasted an e-mail out to my Italian buddies, it would be really cool if we all made it to Alessia's party to have a good time. I also invited Kuba and Natasa so we'll see what happens, it should be mad! Hmmm, maybe I should also invite Gábor as well, that might be mad! For Kuba, I let him know what I was going to be up to for the next few months. I left him know about going to Berlin and, I think, about going to visit Natasa and New Year's eve in Vichy, France. That would be mad if a bunch of people crashed our workcamp. It would be super cool to see Kuba at one of these functions. I also invited Natasa to Alessia's gig, so if she is super hip she will drive her silly ass to the party, that would be great. I also e-mailed Fiona today and let her know about some of my mad adventures. I told her that there is a very good possibility that I would be making my way to Berlin for Gábor's party. I hope I see her in Berlin and we have a good time. I also e-mailed Rachel to see how she was doing. I'm really glad I met her, she is a real sweet person. I really enjoyed the time I spent with her. Maybe I can make a stop in Boston on my way back to the States to visit her. That might be cool to visit her, then head down to Atlanta to hang out with Ivan and Susan for a while. That might be too far in the future but I thought I'd write it down. I also e-mailed Tak, that poor bastard. I really miss him. I think Tak is my Japanese brother, it would be super awesome if he came out to the States. We would get very silly. It's still very early and I'm on to my forth Cuba Libre. I was going to head back to the hostel and hang out there and flip through the guide book they have to hopefully figure out where I'm going to head tomorrow or sometime in the near future!