on the road again

Saying goodbye was hard. I managed to drag my tired arse out of bed at 6:30 this morning to get to the train station for my 7:23 train to Ravenna. After waking up Pietro and giving him goodbye kisses, I hauled my stuff over to the station. My body reacted to my gear worse than I would have hoped for. Turns out I'm a little outta shape. I can't begin to imagine why. Of course the signs were all wrong at the station so I missed my first train, but lucky for me there was a train soon after. I love the train. It is the most relaxing way to travel. No security lines. No driving, you just sit back and relax. I got into Ravenna at 11am just in time to drop my things at thru hostel before they close for the afternoon. I arrived at the same time as this lovely girl from Boston, Emily, was arriving. She is a student at Harvard and her summer job is working for Lets Go! Guidebooks. Needless to say she had all the good info on town and was super efficient. We decided to meet tonight for dinner, which was great so neither of us had to eat alone. I grabbed one of the loner bikes from the hostel and headed off to explore. There is a whole lot of biking going on here and no helmets. Babies are on the back of bikes without helmets. It's insane. It would be fine if it weren’t such a mess trying to navigate around. But traffic doesn't seem to be very organized, its really each man for himself out there. I freaked out trying to find the city center and headed out to the beach instead. Perfecto! It was 10 kilometers each way and the bike I used was a one speed that weighed around 75llbs. It was a bit of a struggle, but great for my tan! I relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours and remembered once again what a beach bum I am. I saw the kids playing in the sand and remembered how great it was growing up on the beach. Tuna fish sandwiches and sand castles till sunset. After, I trudged back to the hostel met my other roommates, two girls from Cupertino who just graduated from High School, sweet girls. Am I really a decade older than them?? Allora, I showered and met Emily for dinner. We ate some of the best food I've had and it was SO cheap compared to Venice. In fact Ravenna is CHEAP!! The hostel is 13e a night with free everything. It’s wonderful!!! After dinner Emily went on ahead to do some work and I wandered off into the park cause I saw some people doing Tai Chi. I took Tai Chi a few years ago and whenever I see people doing it I always want to play. So this time I joined in and ended up getting a free lesson from Andrea the teacher. It was a lovely way to get grounded and to work through some of the pain incurred this afternoon on the bike. Tomorrow I wake up to see the mosaics and head out to Florence. Yet another magical day spent on the road.