La Dolce Vita or I think I am moving to Italy

Today was Carrefour day. Yesterday was Zéfa day. Despite all that I cannot forget the beautiful week spent in Italy!

What is a Carrefour day? Well, when my fridge is empty and I start calling delivery food or stealing food from my flat mates’ cupboards it means it is time to put my strength together and make my way to Carrefour. Why do I hate a Carrefour day? Because it is expensive and I need to take a taxi in and out, plus carry all the shopping bags in my two arms all the way under a 45ºC heat! However today I decided to do it in style and went to the new Carrefour at the Mall of the Emirates. The famous mall, the biggest in the world outside of the USA and quite a trendy place. The Carrefour there is known to be the most modern in the world (all very Dubai, the biggest, the most modern, the better and so on). After shopping I roamed the mall with my supermarket trolley thinking how weird it is to go around a shopping mall with detergent and frozen chicken on a trolley. Once back at home I cooked a Brazilian steak with bell peppers and a fried egg. Now I am writing here waiting for the food to be processed in my intestines to be able to go to the gym with no indigestion.

And what is a Zéfa day? Well, cleaning the toilet, washing the dirty clothes, taking the uniform to the laundry, picking stuff from the carpet by hand (we have no vacuum cleaner) and I also changed the configuration of my room. Moved the bed and some furniture around, just out of boredom! The kitchen I don’t clean anymore because Mircea and Felipe leave it always in a desolate state so I decided to join them and be dirty!

Well, than what about Italy? I am in love with Italy!!! I love saying how much the Italians are a bit foolish and how they think Italy is the best in the world. I guess it is because it is true! The schedule was busy but amazingly nice!

Monday: after landing in Malpensa and getting to the hotel in downtown Milano, Andrew (a friend from South Africa who was on the flight) and I went to the Duomo to meet up with Annalisa, a great friend who used to work with me in Agilent, Barcelona. We met and had lots of mojitos before getting back to the Duomo to see the first part of the Italy-Ghana match! The square was full of people, Italian flags, horns, music… and I was with Annalisa after a year away! It was soooooo nice!!!

Tuesday: wake up early and decided to take the risk and fly to Napoli. We are not allowed to travel further than 50 miles from the hotel during a layover but half of the crew was going to Venice and a guy even went home to Slovakia so we said: what the hell and took a plane down south! Arriving in Napoli is fantastic, the city is beautiful and very colorful! Our hotel was in the Spaccanapoli, a pedestrian street that cuts through the whole city! I had to give up on my diet and eat pizza, drink wine and beer and have all the gelatti one can possibly stuff in!

Wednesday: from Napoli to Amalfi. I wanted to take the train but when we were leaving the hotel an old man said we must take the bus because it is cheaper, faster and goes through the beautiful countryside. We ended up following the man’s advice only to be stuck for 1h40min waiting for the bus, which arrived crammed with people and we could not buy a ticket inside, only in the tabaccheria. So we traveled without a ticket, standing up on the aisle, crammed amongst armpits, sweaty old ladies and dirty backpacks! For 3 hours!!! And we could not sit down and were shitting on our pants scared of the ticket controller. When we finally got to Amalfi a man asked for our tickets and I played the stupid tourist who could only speak English and wanted to buy a ticket from him. He lost his patience because I pretended not to understand him and left. But traveling for free was not worth it because I got so nervous during the 3 hours, thinking they would send me to the police station and so on that by the time the bus stopped all I could think of was going to the toilet!

Amalfi is one of those places in the world that one must see before dying! It is beautiful! Amazing views, little houses, blue ocean, good looking people, fantastic food! Difficult to explain the feeling! La dolce vita kind of thing…

Thursday: what a day! We left Amalfi by bus to Positano. Only 18 km but it took 40 minutes. The road is very narrow and sometimes two cars cannot pass at the same time. Can you imagine than 2 buses? Of course there was a lot of drama with drivers playing macho man. Positano is another one of those ‘the most amazing places in the world’. From Positano we took another bus to Sorrento and from there a train to Pompei! Visited some of the ruins in 45 minutes and got back on the train to Napoli airport. At the airport we managed to get the last two seats on the flight to Milan and just before getting on board the aircraft we were offloaded (taken out of the flight). They told us that two seats had broken down and since we were on stand by tickets there was no place for us. But the Alitalia lady than asked us if we did not mind sitting on the jumpseats with the crew. Of course not!!! But there was only 1 jumpseat. So I than came inside the cockpit, flying with the first officer and captain over Italy! It was GREAT!!! Once in Milan Andrew and I had another amazing dinner, a few more scoops of gelato and headed straight back to the hotel to sleep…

Friday: nothing lasts forever. Time to fly back to Dubai!

and now let's hope Brazil scores many goals against Australia!!!