06.23.01 to 06.24.01: Planes, Trains but no Automobiles
06.25.01: Cortina, here we come!
06.26.01: Our first climb - Via delle Guide
06.27.01: Locked in the hut but at least Torre Lusy is conqured!
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We were very happy that we could fit all of our clothes and
climbing gear into 2 full size carry ons and 2 small backpacks,
so we didn't have to check anything in.
We flew directly from Seattle to Amsterdam Saturday afternoon.
We have never seen SEA-TAC airport so crowded, we were so glad
we didn't have to stand in what looked like a 2 hour line!
While we were waiting for the plane, we noticed a young guy
dressed to the nines in a cowboy outfit with a pink and purple
fanny pack and a large Alaska belt buckle. i thought it was very
strange and michael guessed that he was a tourist that thought
that's how Americans dressed. Sure enough, we sat right next to
him and it turns out he was a Dutch guy who went on a camping
tour from Seattle to Alaska. He loves his western wear (his
previous trips to the states have been to Montana and Colorado)
although he left his cowboy boots at home since he couldn't fit
it in his backpack. We (mostly Michael) had a good time talking
to him about the mountains in Washington.
The flight wasn't too bad and we felt pretty good at the
Amsterdam airport. It was a 9+ hour flight and Amsterdam is 9 hours
ahead so we arrived at 8am. It wasn't a huge culture shock as
all the signs were in Dutch and English. We had a bad experience
there though. I have heard from various sources that there is a chance that
the airport security x-ray machines will ruin film, no matter
what speed film it is. I didn't want to pass my film through
the x-ray machine but the security guy said that it was my problem and not
his. He then threw my whole bag of film through the machine! I
was very upset!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that none of
the rolls are ruined.
From there, we took a KLM flight to Milan and we were very pleased
that the chairs on the flight were HUGE - almost business class!
On a plane that usually has 3 chairs on each side, they have 2 on
one and 3 on the other and made the chairs/armrests bigger to take
up that extra space. We flew over the Swiss alps and got a breathtaking
view!
When we got out of the airplane, we walked towards the exit and
realized that we didn't get our passports stamped. We talked to other US
citizens that were around us and they said "oh yes, you NEED to get it
stamped". It was hell trying to get back in to where the customs
agents are. I found out that if you have a US passport, you do not
need to get it stamped in Europe. I asked three different people
at the airport to confirm this. There are hardly any signs in
English and only few people speak English so we felt very lost.
All the books we read did not prepare us for this!
After that adventure, we found our way to an ATM got some
money and promptly put it into our money belts. We went to the
train shuttle station and bought a ticket to the central train
station in Milan. We went down to the tracks and there was a
train waiting there that said "Milan Nord". We weren't exactly
sure if that was our train so we asked around and no one spoke
English and we didn't have our phrasebook handy. We finally
found someone who did speak English and told us that we were
on the right train (this is after we were halfway there).
If it wasn't our train, we don't know what we would've done!
We got off at the main train station and went to the window to
buy our tickets to Bolzano. We found out that we were at the
wrong station (Cordona) and we needed to take the subway to
the main train station. There is no direct train from the
airport to the central station. Going down into the subway
was quite an experience, very dark and dirty and again, we had no idea
which train to get on. We saw a whole bunch of people bording a
train so we decided to get on too. Whether it was the right one
or not, we had no idea. We found a map on the train and figured
out that it was the right one. The subway train is very loud and screechy!
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Inside Milano Centrale train station
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We got off at the right stop and took an escalator to the street.
It was a really cool sight to surface onto the streets of Milan
looking up to the huge structure of the train station. It was
incredibly hot and we were not prepared for it! We were both wearing
long sleeved shirts. We bought our tickets to bolzano, although we
were confused as to which train to board. We needed to take a
train first to Verona, then from Verona to Bolzano. The woman
at the window told us to catch the 14:05 train, but didn't tell
us which track. There was a train to Venice that left at 14:05
and a train to Verona at 14:15. It was 13:50 so we had very little
time to figure out which train we needed to board. Michael ran
around trying to ask someone with no luck. We saw an official
looking person that spoke very little English that told us that
the Venice train was the correct train.
So, we got on and crossed our fingers!
We were very thirsty as there are no water fountains hardly
anywhere and we didn't have time to stop and buy some water.
Michael left the bags with me and went out to find some.
After about 20 minutes, he came back and i was so relieved,
I was dying of thirst! I think the last time I was that
dehydrated was when we ran out of water climbing at Red Rocks
near Las Vegas. I opened the bottle and was so happy to be
FINALLY drinking some water. I took a sip and nearly gagged.
It turns out that it was carbonated water. How do people
drink this stuff? It was the only water I had, michael said
I had to suffer with it. Going back to get another bottle
would have taken too long.
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Michael on the train to Verona
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We first sat in a compartmnet but then we got kicked out
because it was reserved for a bunch of loud teenage German
girls. So we had to sit in the aisle, they had these "pop out"
chairs that we could use. About half way to Verona, a woman
in another compartment left and the people in there made room
for Michael and I. They were a family from New York and we
started talking about climbing. They said that they live
near the "gunks" and that we should visit them. We were
amazed at their generosity and exchanged addresses.
There was slight confusion as to which train to transfer to
but we found a timetable and figured out where we needed to go.
I found a water fountain that i could empty out my carbonated
water and put in regular water. Ahhh, it was very nice!
We found some seats and was amazed at how less crowded that
train was. It turned out that we were sitting in the first
class section and we were booted into the second class section.
I cannot describe the heat we endured! That second train was
long and slow, so it took awhile to get to Bolzano. The only
chairs we found was next to this girl that was sleeping and she '
had her legs up next to the chair across from her. Michael had
to "form-fit" around her with one leg up and over one of
the arm rests. Funny, I always pictured train riding as almost like
taking a plane - air conditioned and pleasant.
Michael used the bathroom and heard a strange sound. He then
realized that the toilet was just a "hole" and everything was
being emptied directly onto the tracks! hmmm...
We finally made it to Bolzano but then realized that we had
no idea how to get to our hotel (Kolpinghaus). Michael left the
bags with me and ran around Bolzano to find it - they did say
that they were five minutes away from the station. He came back
15 minutes later with no luck. I saw a "local" looking guy and
decided to ask him for directions. He spoke very little English
but with Michael's knowledge of German (in the South Tyrol region
of Italy, most people speak German first and Italian second), we
managed to understand his directions. We started walking and I
think we looked so pathetic that he offered to walk us there.
He even carried one of our bags! We were on guard as we were
just reading about all the petty theft that happens - Michael
and I were ready to run after him should he decide to take off with our bag.
It turns out that he was a very genuine guy and extremely nice.
He liked the opportunity to practice his English. Since he was
so nice, we invited him to come to dinner with us after we
checked into our hotel. He was really surprised that we offered
and gladly accepted.
His name is Daniel and he was born in Bolzano and is a
musician (clarinet and accordian teacher) and also loves to ski.
He is currently practicing some pieces to play in a worldwide(?) symphony
and has concerts in Switzerland in July. We went to his favorite
pizzeria - Pizzeria Partenope - and had a lot of fun talking
about so many things. It's amazing what you can do with a
German/English dictionary and hand gestures.
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Michael with our new friend Daniel
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Michael's
gesturing of "crowded" and "fence" were extremely funny (at
least to me). It was so wonderful to have Daniel there!
I found a new drink that I like - Spetzi - which is Coke and
Fanta mixed together.
Michael liked Radler, which is beer and
coke mixed together. I also had my first grappa, which is a
really, really strong drink, sort of like vodka but it burns as
it goes down. You can sip it or do it as a shot. Someone at our
work said that the locals drink grappa, so we had to at least
try it! We ordered pizza, of course, and this restaurant has
80 combinations of pizza! It was wonderful! It turns out that
Daniel loves computers so he was really impressed that we both
work for Microsoft. His girlfriend called on his cell phone (every
Italian has at least one) during dinner and so we got on that
subject - turns out he has many girlfriends all over Italy and
he said that it's hard to keep them from finding out about each other.
Quite the player! It was a fun evening and he was just so blown
away when we told him that he would pay for his meal. Dinner for
three including drinks came out to about $25! After dinner,
he gave us his personal tour of the central area of Bolzano and
it was such an amazing place - just what we pictured small town
Italy to be like! Very romantic with narrow streets and tall
buildings crowding on each other and people walking at night.
He also told us where to get the best gelati in Bolzano, but
it was closed so we couldn't get any that night.
We went back to the hotel and discovered lots of strange things.
We were confused about the towels, imagine that! There is a big
linen sheet that I'm guessing is a washcloth (still trying to
figure that one out) and then a more absorbent cloth, which we
used as a towel, we don't know for sure if it is one - but it
was in the bathroom so it must be. The room was very narrow so
the twin beds couldn't be put side by side, It was top to bottom.
I think in Europe there is almost no such thing as a king or queen
sized bed. It's usually two twins put together. The beds were
very HARD and forget about air conditioning! We slept with the
window opened and listed to the birds, people passing by, motor
scooters and cars. We were so tired that the noise didn't bother
us at all! What a day!
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Morning in Bolzano
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Alleyway in Bolzano
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I got up at 2am because I was just too excited to stay
asleep and because we had to keep the window open
since the room was so hot. We both finally got out
of bed at 5:30am (can you believe it? For those of
you who don't know our sleeping habits, we're NOT
morning people) and walked around Bolzano.
It was such a neat experience, It made us really like
Bolzano, it was a very quiet morning (but still hot) and
we went to a bakery and bought something that looks and
tastes like a very large donut and an apple something or another.
We also saw some very strange looking cars, some that were
smaller than 6 feet long!
We went back to our room and I took a short nap - falling
asleep to the sounds of cars, scooters and someone playing
the flute from the music conservatory next door. Michael
went on an adventure to find some shaving cream and a
phone card. He first went to a farmacia (pharmacy),
which is strictly a pharmacy and is not like our "drug store".
When he couldn't find it there, he stopped and asked
someone where to get shaving cream (had
a hard time explaining what he wanted but suddenly
remembered the italian word for it - crema da barba) and
the guy told him that he had to go to a tabacci shop,
which probably has the most products per square foot than
any other type of store.
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Streets of Bolzano in the shadow of a terraced hillside
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We picked up our rental car - a Fiat Punto - and I
was so relieved that the guy said that it had air
conditioning! The car was small, but not "funny" small.
It was more like a small Honda Civic hatchback.
And of course, it DIDN'T have air conditioning!
We had to make do with rolling the windows down.
There is a button marked "city" and we have no idea
what it is for.
We made our way to Cortina d'Ampezzo via the
direct and scenic, but stressful and scary route!
The road was much curvier than the map made it look.
Picture a residential two way street "on a diet" then
make it go through very hilly landscape with a billion
switchbacks. Then picture motorcycles, cars and very
large tour busses in your lane going around blind curves
at 50mph! The roads resemble hiking trails more than
driving terrain! After about 2 hours of this, I got
motion sickness and we had to stop and walk around for awhile.
We got the first look at the Dolomites and they were
just incredible! We eventually made it to Cortina after
3 very stressful hours. Michael did very well though,
he said that he feels "at home" with driving here.
Maybe it reminded him of being 18 again?
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Rifugio Cinque Torri
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We then drove up a ONE lane street to the rifugio
cinque torri. If you thought the two lane streets
were bad, this was way worse! At least we went at a
good time when there wasn't too many cars going the
opposite direction. There is one very blind curve at
the top that we nearly had a head on collision! ACK!
We made it there alive and well but found out that
the Cinque Torri Hutte was full for the night.
There was another rifugio that was 5 minutes away (for
a Sasquatch, 30 minutes for the lay person) but they didn't open
until July 1. We noticed that the air was very thin - we were at
7000 ft - so it was very hard to walk uphill. At first
I thought I was just way out of shape, but Michael was
having a hard time also and since he is experienced being
at high elevations, he knew that it was the air.
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Hotel San Marco - Our home for about 1.5 weeks
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We decided to stay in Cortina that night and an
Italian couple helped us make a reservation at the
hut for the next night. The husband said that he
didn't speak English then later went on to tell us
about his trip to Aspen, Colorado! We were a little
disappointed with Cortina (especially after liking
Bolzano so much) - it is a resort town with no real
culture. It has a billion places to stay and 80
restaurants serving only Italian food. The views are
incredible though and Winter and August are the busiest
times. A lot of places were still closed (open July 1)
but we kind of liked that it was empty. We stayed in a
place called the Hotel San Marco, right across from
the main church. Our friends, Peter and Kim, stayed
here last year and highly recommended it.
It is very resonable and centrally
located so we don't have to drive when we're in town.
The rooms are very quiet since it has double doors.
Right when we arrived, there was a funeral procession
going on - the chruch bells were ringing and hundreds
of people walked out of the church almost single file
following a hearse through town. I'm so used to seeing
cars in a line, not people, it was very interesting
and humbling. We took a nap and woke up too late
to have dinner so we just went hungry.
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On the way to our first climb
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Leading the first pitch of Via delle Guide
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Kris on the route
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On the summit!
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Michael scrambling unroped!
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I was so excited! It was time to climb in Italy!
What would the rock be like? From the pictures,
I expected it to be chossy and horrible, ready to
break off at any moment. In fact, while I was
writing this, a Canadian man walked up and asked
me what the rock was like. He was so sure it would
be bad that he didn't bring his rope. tsk tsk...No
more "soup" for him! We made that horrid drive up
to the hut again, this time with no scary incidents!
[Michael was rushing me since he saw a busload of climbers coming. -Kris]
We hiked up, making a few routefinding mistakes, but
finally coming beneath the 300-foot high face of Torre
Grande's West Summit. The route was the "
Via delle
Guide", first climbed in 1930. In front of us, another
party was finishing the first pitch. There is an
overhanging section of rock here, and the follower
above was having a nervous time. Fidgetting and murmuring
in german, he was making Kris nervous too! But then I
was climbing, and finally after much speculation found
that the rock was wonderful. What looks like "choss",
is just a mottled pattern of black and grey rock. And
the holds can be gripped like video-game joysticks.
Quickly, I arrived at the overhang, and overcame it
with a large baseball bat hold. I found a belay station
made up of one cemented piton. Cement? Soon I would grow
used to this, but for the first time, I had to back it
up with gear. Kris surprised herself by climbing through
the overhang with no fuss, no muss! Wow, the sun was out
and we were climbing!
We climbed another pitch up easy rock, then a delightful
climbing traverse to beneath a great overhang of rock.
Stopping to take pictures at every chance, we were enjoying
ourselves greatly. Then a pitch with a hard start,
protected by an iron piton. In general, it was hard to
find protection with my gear. I felt that you need pitons,
especially knifeblades for the compact rock here. I used
small to medium cams, and small nuts, but I finally quit
carrying larger cams, as I never found a place for them.
Anyway, back to the climb.
There was one pitch left, and it ends spectacularly with
fun climbing right to the summit - an isolated block
about 20 feet square. Here we took more pictures, hugged,
hung out a while, and made the first of three rappels to
a steep trail. We had really had the route to ourselves,
something we wouldn't get again. On the short-but-steep
hike back to our boots, we met Carl from Spokane, WA. He
had just finished the "via Miram" on the South Summit.
Everybody's happy!
There was a local pinnacle that looked close enough to
climb while Kris took a nap. I got my boots on and ran
down into a valley, up the other side and met up with a
trail going to Passu Giau. I followed this beautiful
trail through heather down a gully, then to a long traverse
of a mountain side. I kept my eyes open for a way over
to the peak, and finally found a ridge that should work.
Enjoying the exploration, I was soon below the peak,
where I followed steep scree and heather to a saddle with
a cairn. I found an expensive tripod head here! Steeper,
exposed scree and rock led to the summit, which had a
spectacular view in all directions. It took 50 minutes
to get here, but it was special because there were no
signs of previous passage, and I didn't even know what
it was called. I looked down on the rifugio for a while,
then carefully descended. I tore my pants on sharp rock,
and Kris repaired them for me with the tiny sewing kit
that came with our toiletry bag!
I came back and took a
small nap with Kris but that was a big mistake because
we missed dinner! The couple that runs the place felt
bad for us and gave us some speck (smoked pork) and awful
smelling cheese. It was really bad smelling. It was gross.
We gagged. Michael said it was like a decomposing rhinoceros.
Like the night before, we went to bed hungry.
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Enjoying the view
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Kris and I on a belay ledge
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Kris in awe of the incredible view
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The Cinque Torri
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Sunrise picture from the Rifugio balcony
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Sunrise picture from the Rifugio balcony
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Wednesday we were up at 4 am to take pictures of
the sunrise, but to our surprise the rifugio door
was locked! We had figured to take pictures then get
an early start on the climbing, but endured a few
tortured hours in our room and the upstairs balcony.
I figured I could escape via the W.C. window, and we
also could have rappelled from the balcony, but it
probably wasn't worth the furor it would cause. I was
especially worried about the bus full of climbers that
arrived at nine yesterday and took over the tower we
wanted to climb. It might happen again.
But finally, since we missed dinner the night before,
we had to stay until breakfast at 7:30. We had yet more
bread, and a sort of applesauce/babyfood "juice drink,"
and finally left the hut at 8 am. It was already quite hot.
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Michael off route
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Max on the first pitch of Torre Lusy
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With a vague conception of where Barranco tower was, we
climbed up the trail behind the hut. We came to snowy scree
gullies and decided to follow a way trail around the towers.
Up and down we went, guessing about the tower and being wrong
several times. Finally, we circled all the way to the start
of via della Guide, hiked up the gully to our rappel point
from the day before, and realized our tower was down steep
scree all the way back to where we started! And even worse,
the climber bus had arrived, and I counted 16 climbers
milling around the base of the route we wanted! Eeeyyy...
It turns out we were mistaken about the tower names, and
also, the climbers at the base were cueing up for Torre Lusy.
But not knowing that, I started climbing a more intimidating
route just to the right (via del diedro on Torre Romana).
It was well protected, but went up
a steep, even overhanging at parts, corner with some reachy
moves. Coming out on a ledge, I was a little worried about
how Kris would find it. I then followed a line of bolts onto
a face and a belay point. Estimating the climb to be a
stiff 5.7, I thought about rappelling from there, since
I had just enough rope. Kris came up halfway, then I
lowered her because it was just too hard for her. She had to
pull on every piece of pro and still couldn't make it. I
had used all my slings so it was difficult to set the rappel
and finally escape. Once down, we walked around the corner
to the more classic climb, and ran into two guys inspecting
it. The crowds had disappeared.
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Kris belaying on the last pitch
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Michael on the 40m free hanging rappel
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These two were Max, an Italian living in St. Louis, and Carl,
a fellow Washingtonian from Spokane. The route looked quite steep,
and with Kris having just been repelled from a climb, we wanted
something easy. Carl's guidebook described a route just to the
left on Lusy, 5 pitches of 5.4 (Via Lusy Pompanin).
It looked like a fun route.
There was a crowd of climbers above, but we wouldn't run into
them. We needed to do a 50 meter rappel, so we combined our
teams and ropes (we each had one 60 meter).
Max and Carl went first, and Kris and I came behind. The climb
started out tough, with steep polished holds in a moat between
snow and rock. But once the ridge is gained, the climb was really
fun, having the same beautiful holds as Via Della Guide. Carl
and Max climbed slowly, Carl had just ended a two year moratorium
on leading, and Max felt that leading a climb was a sure way
to die! So we spend time conversing with Max on ledges,
and admiring the views of Tofana. Each pitch had one small
difficulty, such as a crack or polished holds. The day was
clouding up, and there was a wind blowing.
Abruptly, on pitch 4, a swarm of 6 climbers came up rapidly
while Carl was leading out. One was unroped, and the others
were from Val Garnena (Italy). Max said that townspeople
there learn to climb at age 3. Indeed, they were a swarm, and it was
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Carl, Max and Michael waiting out the hailstorm
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all I could do to lead up right on Max's tail to prevent
them from swarming over and passing in a huge glut. Kris,
belaying me on the ledge with this group later said they
were trying to find a way around me, and only quieted when
they realized they couldn't do it. Still, they weren't rude,
just a bit unnerving. Naturally, Kris climbed this interesting
and steep pitch quickly. As the clouds darkened, Carl went up
for a final pitch to a ledge below the summit. I climbed just
behind Max, clipping to their gear to save time, since a light
rain had started. Kris arrived and we soon were at the rappel
point. Thunder had started, and we were filled with a sense
of urgency. Kris and I enjoyed the 40m long free rappel, and
the knot came down easily.
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Us with the very hard working Rifugio owner
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Once on the ground, a hailstorm
developed, and we took shelter under a (suitably bolted!)
overhang while painful bullets of ice fell and lighting
cracked in the sky. Carl shared some food he had - sandwiches
and smoked (?) sausages that were very prehistoric looking,
old and wrinkled like it was 50 years old. I enjoyed
the sausage but Kris couldn't eat it once she found out it was made
out of mountain goat! Soon we were drinking back at the hut
with Carl, Max and their travelling companions - Doug, Cindy and
Mary Frances. Kris had a spetzi (coke and fanta), and I had a beer.
Max shared his Williams, kind of a pear vodka, which is
now one of Kris's favorite drinks.
We headed back to Cortina and went to the local climbing shops
and ate dinner at the 5 Torri restaurant (pretty crappy).
michael discovered that he doesn't like polenta and the
spaghetti tasted like fast food. they are also not big on garlic. bummer.
Kris decided to make some calls to home and spent about 10 minutes
trying to figure out how to use the phone card. You need to break
off this piece of plastic in the corner
before the machine would take it. Go figure!
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