8:30 pm – sitting in the train station
Tonight will be a very long night. A very long night. We are going to catch a train from Ivrea to Turin at 9:30. Then, we leave Turin for Bolognia at 10:45. After arriving at 2:30 am, we will catch another train at 3:00 for Venice to arrive at 5:30… a very long night. Last time, the overnight train worked very well. We were able to take one train the whole way. I guess this time didn’t work so well. Oh well, you win some you lose some. And we will save the price of a hotel room tonight. However, at 3:00 while waiting for the train… we may wish we had done otherwise. Well, we wanted an adventure and that’s what we are getting!
So today we slept in a bit (9:15) and then planned on taking the car to a castle which was on the way to Aosta (same direction we went yesterday). However, first we decided to drive to the train station and get our tickets before the day started (and in case the station was closed when got back (good choice cuz it is now closed)). Driving to the train station, however, turned out to be not that good of an idea. We decided to do so because we were parked overnight in a lot that we were not sure was free so we wanted to get the car out. Brigette suggested that we just walk to the station and walk back. Well, she turned out to be right, it would have been faster to walk there and back.
First off, we had no idea where the train station was. When you are walking, you cant get that off course. When you are driving at 45 miles an hour, you can get very far from your destination very quickly not only because of your speed but because you must follow the direction the road wants you to go. Which is exactly what we did. We drove on the highway, away from Ivrea (the train station is in Ivrea). And when we ‘took the next exit’ it put us into an abandoned indrustrial district with no one around and no way to get over to the city (which we could clearly see). We finally got back on the highway (after doing many circles) and found our way back into town. By this point, both of us were very grumpy. And I finally ended up stopping the car and giving Bwige a long hug and a kiss. We calmed down a bit and drove on. And guess what? The train station was not but a quarter of a mile ahead of us! YAH! We were very excited. We bought our tickets and headed for the castle.
We got to the castle about 1:30 and bought tickets for the 2:00 tour (only in Italian). While we waited I went around and took lots of pictures of the castle. This was a very cool castle. It had towers and walls and shooting holes just like the ones in the story books. It had 2 rings of walls to repel the pesky invaders that tried to take over the land. I circled the whole thing taking pictures (it wasn’t that big, just cool). While I circled, Bwige sat and read the brochure that was in English. Also waiting was a family with a little girl, Mariella (about 4), and a little boy Christiano (about 2). The little girl was excited about the castle and was running around vanquishing (stabbing) the evil invaders (the bushes) with her sword (her Barbie doll). Bwige said it was very cute. By the time I returned, she was getting a bit antsy. She did not have to wait long as the tour was about to start.
Once inside the castle, I took some cool shots of the towers and other fun things while we waited for the lady to finish getting tickets. Then we were all ushered inside the courtyard where I took some nice pictures of the old frescos. And *insert ominous music* that’s when he struck again…... The docent of destruction, the curator of chaos, the GRUMPY OLD MAN! *insert screams of terror* I WAS TOLD NOT TO TAKE PICTURES!!! AAHH!! Why!?!?!! Why?! Why cant I take pictures of your stinking castle. Aren’t people supposed to enjoy it? Huh? Well aren’t they? Then why cant I take a few freaking pictures! (can you sense my frustration here?) The whole tour was now useless to me. I couldn’t understand a word she said, I couldn’t take pictures, all I could do was walk around and look (but not touch). Arg…
Then, in one of the rooms (a kitchen I think because it had a hearth and a bit old table) Christiano (remember him) was doing what all 2 year olds do and was running around exploring. Well, being a 2 year old and doing what 2 year olds do, he ran to the table and knocked over a chair. Not a huge deal except that this table is several hundred years old and he broke off a leg. Not so good. They eventually just propped up the chair against the table to fix it later.
Here is why I include this in my rant…. Why is it that chair-destroying children are allowed in the castle, but a harmless camera isn’t? Huh? Does my camera steal the soul of your castle? Does it compromise the integrity of your walls? Does it rearrange the molecular structure of your rocks and make them crumble before your eyes? No? THEN WHY CANT I TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR STINKIN CASTLE!!?!!?! Please, can someone tell me why… I really don’t get it. I don’t understand. Am I going to casue you to lose business? Am I going to … I don’t know…
And I realize that I am making a big deal out of this… but it’s a big deal to me! I enjoy a place because I can take pictures of it and remember it and enjoy it again and again. When I cant take pictures, the tour is just about useless. I cant understand what shes saying. I get nothing out of it. Its just the inside of a castle. And I know that I can still enjoy it because it’s a castle, but it’s the principle of the thing! The whole thing is tainted because its owned by the grumpy old man. It was such a beautiful picturesque castle. The towers were magnificent! Why must they taint the whole thing by not allowing pictures? Arg… arg… arg… Oh well… life goes on. I did get some pretty pictures of the outside.
We sat down at the base of the castle to have lunch. We got an appetizer of tomatoes with mozzarella cheese. Yum Yum. The cheese here is different than the wanna-be cheese that we have back home. The mozzarella comes in little balls about the size of a tennis ball. And when you buy it in the store, it isn’t shrink wrapped either. It is sealed in a little bag full of water (to hold in the moisture). As a result, its much tastier than what we get at home. I am very pleased.
Then we got ordered sandwiches for lunch. I got one with mozzarella and tomatoes, and Bwige got mushrooms and mozzarella. Except we really didn’t know what we were ording because they were called paninios. The lady said they were kinda like crepes. Whatever, we ordered them ready for something new. What we got was anything but new. After a bit, they brought us out, 2 quesadillas. Yup. The Italian version of Mexican quesadillas. 1 tortilla, a few slices of tomato, and a few slices of cheese, all grilled. Kinda. It was very obvious to us that we are very, very, very (yes, 3 very’s) far from Mexico. The cheese inside was not melted and the outside of the tortillia was only light brown on a few small spots. *sigh* The itallians do food so well. They do, however, need some lessons in preparing Mexican food. Don’t get me wrong, they tasted good. It’s just that with a few small improvement, they could be fabulous!
After that we drove back to Ivrea. We returned the car and walked in the direction of the train station. On the way there we sat at a fruit stand for a few hours and ate watermelon. Then, a bit later, saw them putting fruit salad inside a cantaloupe and decided to order one for ourselves. Yum Yum! Since we had 5 hours till our train left, we decided that the shade at the fruit stand was a good place to sit.
As we ate, we discussed life and our schedules when we get back. While we were dating, we did a fabulous job of praying together. Since the wedding, we have done lousy. The main problem is that Bwige gets up earlier than me and so we don’t pray together in the mornings. Also, we don’t study scripture together which we really want to do, but just haven’t. We were trying to figure out a good time to do both. I really want to do some in depth study of scripture instead of always just reading a passage. Its like a buffet; you cant get all the food in one pass. You must go back multiple times and chew slowly.
The problem came when we tried to figure out when to study. In the mornings we are mostly asleep. In the evenings we have schedule conflicts. … what to do? So what we finally agreed to do is to pray together in the mornings and study in the evenings. Since we are slashing our schedules, the evenings should work out… we will see.
For the in depth part, we are going to start with an overview of the book. This means reading through a whole book each day for the first 5 days (long books we will read the whole thing only the first day and then alternating halves for 4 more days). After that we will study a section a day till we get through the whole book. At the end, we will read through the whole thing once more.
The point of doing this is to get a better understanding of the books as whole. So much of our scripture study is done in little bits. Its like studying just the little finger of the statue of liberty. Then you study just one nose of Mt. Rushmore. Then you study 3 square feet of the grand canyon. Yes, you are getting information when you do that, but if you do only that, just the crown could make someone think the statue of liberty was a porcupine! You need the big picture. That’s what we hope to get.
Well, after that, we headed for the train station, again on foot. We stopped and asked directions from a man from France who spoke decent English. He, however, didn’t know so he asked another man who was ahead of us buying cigarettes. We were told to basically follow the road we were on all the way to the other side of the city. Great. Oh well, only 15 minutes. So we walked on.
Then, as we were walking, a Federica pulled over ahead of us and came to greet us! She and her coiusin and their husbands were on the way to the memorial service. They said hello, but since their car was full, couldn’t give us a ride. Oh well. It was very nice seeing her one last time. However, we were not done seeing old friends. A while later, another car pulled over and it was the Frenchman! He gave us a ride to the station. How nice! It was, however, very cramped in his car as I sat in the front seat with my bag (which is almost 3 feet tall). Haha.
Anyways. That’s about it. We are on the train to Turin. I very much look forward to being home. I miss my bed. I miss not moving around all the time. I long for home. But I am ok with traveling a few more days. I know that this is temporary and my permanent home is waiting for me.
Maybe that’s how we are supposed to feel about heaven. We are temporarily traveling here but we long for something more permanent. We long for where we were made to be, with our Father. Just a thought.
OK, time to go. I look forward to seeing all of you soon. May God richly bless you and every day give you greater visions of heaven that you may, like I do, yearn for Home.
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