Italy - Lost in Space and Time

The past two weeks have been exciting and we have experienced a lot: saying goodbye to Albania, couch surfing in Italy, visiting family in Rome, New Year's Eve, and continuing our journey to South America.

We crossed overnight by ferry from Durres in Albania to Bari in Italy and slept on deck with our sleeping mats. We both feel sad to leave Albania behind. In Bari, we are picked up by our Couchsurfing host Fabio and spend a day with him and his family. He and his girlfriend show us around Bari, we drink coffee and beer together, and have pasta with his family. Especially his father, who has Mauritian roots, talks a lot with us. The next day, we continue our journey by bus from Bari to Rome. Since we arrive in Rome one day before our family, we have to find a place to stay for the night. To save money, we set up our tent once again. In the dark, we arrive in Fregene, a suburb of Rome, where we are supposed to stay in a booked house the next day. However, the train station in Fregene is far from the city center, and in all the stress of the past few days, we forgot to download offline maps and our phone batteries are almost dead. So here we are, lost and unprepared in the dark. We ask the only passerby for directions, but she can only point us in the general direction due to her lack of English skills. We start walking straight ahead, but the city center seems to be getting further away instead of closer. Eventually, there are no more streetlights, we get hungry, and we run out of water. We ring the doorbell of a house, but the family seems skeptical and doesn't open the door. However, they toss down a bottle to us, though we don't dare to ask for bread. We keep walking, no longer thirsty, and try to hitchhike, but without success. We approach a parked car and ask the man for a restaurant or supermarket. He takes us and our backpacks in his tiny car and drives back the way we came, where we find a pizza place in a side street. Unfortunately, it's a bit fancy and not ideal for our budget, so we share a pizza between the two of us. Still hungry, Jakob asks in the kitchen for leftovers and they give us a smoky, but still good loaf of bread. Finally, we set out to find a place for our tent and run into the person we first asked for directions: she is visibly relieved that we found the restaurant. We set up our tent on a field path and can finally sleep. Throughout the night, planes fly over us every half hour. The next morning, we walk the remaining 6 km to our accommodation.

We are overjoyed when our families arrive at the door in the afternoon, only Ida is missing, as she arrived with 12 people in a taxi. We spend twelve wonderful days together: since Fregene is by the sea, we take walks on the beach, sit in small cafes, some of us go swimming in the sea, and we enjoy the sun every day. In the evenings, we cook delicious meals and squeeze around the slightly too small dining table. On New Year's Eve, we play fun games (Who am I?, Werewolf, Family Questions) and watch the fireworks from the rooftop terrace of our house. Of course, we also explore Rome, which surprisingly works well for our large group. The days pass quickly, and this time it is probably a farewell for a longer period, as it will be harder to meet in South America.

We are on the plane in Rome, flying via Madrid to Argentina. In the past few days, we didn't have time to mentally prepare ourselves to leave Europe. We feel a bit down about having to give up our record-snail pace. So far, we were able to feel the distances, first by bike, then by public transport, and by ship: the landscape and culture changed slowly. But now we tumble out of the airplane, and in Buenos Aires, it's 30 degrees; four hours earlier than in Europe, and it's suddenly bright until late in the evening again. Surprisingly, there are almost fewer people speaking English here than in Albania. It takes time to adjust to summer, and we allow ourselves that time. We are excited to see where our journey will take us!