Friday the 20th--Train Travel to Italy from Frankfurt
by Marc Gunn

Doing the Frankfurt Shuffle

Well, I arrived in Frankfurt and once again, I had first class travel as someone pushed me around the airport. It was too cool. No lines to wait through. I was one of the first people through Customs. Got my bags, and had them wheeled out to a shuttle bus. I then finally took out my digital camera when I saw a cool shot on the bus. But then the "real fun" began.

We arrived at the entry for the train station. And I had no clue where I was going. Fortunately, a German woman took pity and told me where I needed to go to catch the train. I felt bad for her. Her husband wasn't interested in having a dead weight, just wanted to get to the train. So she was looking back watching me as they took off at Mock 10. And what a pathetic sight I was.

Okay, picture it. There I am in the cold, dark and rainy German station. In one hand I have a big grey suitcase AND an autoharp. In the other, a slightly smaller, but still just as bulky brown suitcase, with a tote bag hanging down and two crutches in my hand. I'm shuffling like an old man down this terminal getting NO WHERE fast. My foots hurting, but there's no carts to be seen anywhere!

Well finally, I found someone with a cart and asked where they got it. And I was finally able to get one to put my luggage on. Then I could glide, pushing one foot, or push and hobble with a crutch. And mind you, I still wasn't used to those bloody crutches. So it was very slow and painful going.

But at long last, I got to the ticket counter and got a nice First Class ticket to Vicenza. I found my track and decided I should call my mom. But I searched and searched and found I lost the number!

So I tried to remember the number off the top of my head. I remembered one, so I tried to call it. But I'll be damned if I could figure out the phone system. None of the phones would take coins (I got some Euros at the airport), and I didn't have a phone card. My mom told me most take credit cards, but these didn't.

So I said screw it for now. I'll figure it out when I hit München (aka Munich). Boarded the train and at last relaxed watching the beautiful countryside whizz by me. Practiced some more with my camera and arrived in München.

I'd been to München before so it was nice to see a familiar place. But again, I was burdened with luggage and couldn't seem to get ahold of cart. And I was hungry. So I wandered around until I found a nice stand with some of the wurst sandwhiches I'd ever seen. They were very tasty. Then I hobbled back to the phones to try again.

On the train I found the phone number, but I still had no luck figuring out the phones. I remember using them in Italy, so I said screw it and decided to wait until I got there.

O-Town and The Lion Sleeps Tonight

I found a nice seat on the train and collapsed. Before long, a bunch of young German girls boarded the train heading for skiing vacation in the Italian alps. One gal, Tanya, was singing some American pop song that made me giggle.

They piled into my cabin and chatted away in German. At some point, they talked to me a wee bit, and I pulled out my autoharp to play. They were baffled and asking if I knew any songs by O-Town or whatnot. Not a clue. So I played some instrumental stuff and then at some prompting began playing some of the Christmas songs I was practicing earlier. The whole crew began singing along. Then I pulled out "The King's Song" and that began the Oldies sing-a-long from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to "The Gambler". Okay, actually they didn't know "The Gambler," but I sang it nonetheless.

Then fatigue started to hit, and they asked me to play some lullabies. So I sang, "An Irish Lullaby" and work my way through my favorite ballads. One German boy was there and took a special interest when I sang "The Ring of Hope" from our upcoming Tolkien CD. He lifted up his copy of Der Herr Der Ringe, and I laughed quietly as the young lasses slept. Finally, I put the autoharp up and took a wee nap myself.

Celtic Italy

An hour or so later, the lasses exited the train in Italy and I kept heading down to Vicenza. New people boarded, and I started practicing my new Tolkien Blues song. An Italian boarded and sat down in my cart. I was tempted to quit playing since someone else was here, but soon realized he picked this room to listen to some music. So I went back through some of my Celtic songs and then we talked a wee bit.

He was from Milano and said he was a big fan of Celtic music. He liked The Pogues and The Dubliners and other artists and occasionally would go listen to some Celtic music in Milano. So I asked him about some venues. He said there were a quite a few, including a great festival. It was great to finally chat with someone I could understand, even if it wasn't perfect understanding. We had a nice conversation.

Then a Frenchman joined us, and I played on. They both asked about the autoharp and I told 'em what I knew about it. We arrived in Verona and while chatting with the Italian, he helped me realize I needed to get off the train there! So in a "rush", I exited. And they helped me carry the luggage off the train.

Soon the Vicenza train arrived and an Italian student helped me get my bags on this train, and we raced to Vicenza.

Home At Last!

Finally, I made it to Vicenza, my home away from home. It's been a couple years since I've been back, and it was very happy. An Italian fellow helped me carry my bags out to a Taxi. Then I started scrounging again for the phone number I found in in München. It was no where to be found. Doh!

So at long last some taxi drivers drove up. I told them them where I needed to go. Obviously, they lost interest when some women stepped forward, but even then, they asked one another where it was I needed to go and with my shabby directions, they said they couldn't help me. I was SOl. Sh!t!

No way to contact mom. Cold. And Exhausted. Ugh!

Well soon another driver approached. I gave him the directions, and he decided to give it a go. We drove up Collini Berici and began searching the hills for mom's place. We even stopped at a couple houses to ask if they had any clue where my mom was. And just when he was about to give up, we found it. Whew! Home at last!

There I was met by my panting Pekes, Leah (short for Azalea or Azaleas) and Betta (short for Elizabetta, guess...). And I got to meet Mama Kitty. She didn't give a spit for me. And I saw my brother's aging cat Coco. She and Leah are like 19 I think. Molto vecchio, but Leah was doing pretty well for an old lass.

I got in snuzzled them all profusely. Betta was a bit drawn back since she didn't know me very well. Only met her once two years ago. And she was much much older now. Mom made me a wee bit of pasta before I stumbled upstairs and got to see my granddad's puppy (I'm under the belief that just about all cats and dogs are kitties and puppies), Shasta (short for She Hasta have this and that). Shasta's as hold as Leah, but was showing her age much worse, poor girl. She's half blind, very jumpy, and I think misses her daddy (my Granddad), something terrible.

My mom told me that the day Graddad passed away, Shasta ran away. That really worried Mom, but fortunately, she came back.

Finally, I got into bed, read and wrote a wee bit before passing out.

Sunday/Monday the 23rd, Recovering from my Air Travel to Italy

I think I lost a day somewhere in this grand vacation. I think I arrived on Sunday and just had no clue, because as I recall, Monday was a day of rest. Mom and I were both exhausted, and I slept until about noon. After waking, I took some pictures around the house of my pets and then set about going through them on mom's computer.

That evening, we went out for pizza, and saw a lovely presepio at a favored restaurant of mom's. The pizza? As I recall it had mushrooms, gorgonzola and speck. Speck is pretty much prosciutto smoked, but uncooked with the rest of the pizza. The pizza was delicious, though the mushrooms were obviously from a can. And I had my first glimpse of some cute Italian waitresses.

We went home that evening and watched a VHS of "Brother Cadfel", a British mystery TV show based in medieval England. It features a monk played by Derek Jacobi of I, Claudius and Gladiator fame. I was not looking forward to it, but mom was right. It really drew me in. Great show. I'd love to see some more episodes.

When it ended, I went off to bed. I continued reading "The Two Towers" until Coco came up and started nudging me to pet her. So I gave her a little kitty massage, all the while pulling out clumps of hair. Ugh. I stopped and turned out the light. But she continued to nudge my hand into her cold, wet nose. So I stroked her some more, turned over and fell asleep.

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