Allison's Wonderland

You know what the problem is with being an Au Pair? You don’t have a car. One thing I miss from home is my little Toyota Yaris named Scuttle. I absolutely despise not being able to just jump in my car and go. Here I’m constantly having to rely on other people and it is difficult for me to do.

Besides that fact, little Jen has come to see me!! We found her a ticket from Denver, Colorado to Turin, Italy for only $589 bucks! She said if I could find her a ticket under 600 dollars she would come and guess what? I did! She booked it and now I had to go get her little butt from the airport. This is where the problem of not having a car comes in. Jen was arriving in Torino at 11:25 in the morning on the 16th. Simona had to work and take Mattia to school so she could not take me to the train station. So I phoned my friend Anne. Luckily, she was able to get me to the station at 8:40 in the morning. Unfortunately for me, I missed the 8:45 train and had to get on the 09:05 which didn’t leave me that much time. The train ride was about an hour and a half and I still had to catch a bus from who knows where to the airport. I mapped everything out the night before so I was seriously prepared, but sometimes you can’t plan for everything. I got off the train and was in a world I had never been in before. I was under the impression that you could take the metro into the airport station. Wrong idea. I bought my ticket for 1.50 went through the little ticket booth and stood there looking lost. I had written out the night before questions I might need to ask in Italian. I’m a smart girl! One being “Where do I get a train to the airport?” I found a nice little lady who in so many words told me that the Metro doesn’t go to the airport and she directed me to Saracchia Street or something like that to catch a bus. Then once I got there, I was lost again. So I asked a semi-nice looking Asian girl who when I asked her if she was going to the airport, gave me a look of death. I don’t know what she thought of me, but I’m sure I didn’t smell or anything. Maybe Torino is one of those places where people don’t talk to each other like in New York City. Whatevers. I then asked another woman and she pointed around the corner. Grazie little lady. So I got around the corner and guess what? Lost again. Where the heck was the bus to the airport? UGH! I then decided to go through the line of buses and ask every bus driver if they’re the bus to the airport.

Finally after bus number 3, I get a “SI”! Meaning “Yes this is the bus to the airport”. I wanted to hug the bald little bus driver. When I went to give him my ticket I had purchased at the Metro station he then told me that it was not the right ticket. I had to buy a different one. Oh crap waste of 1.50! He pointed in the direction of this coffee bar to buy one. So I got off the bus and ran fast to the bar because the guy told me I only had cinque minuti (5 Minutes). The lady there was the absolute rudest person I think I’ve met in Italy so far besides the lady who works at the Post Office in Villanova. She was on the phone the whole time and didn’t even acknowledge my presence. I started getting panicky because I thought she was going to ignore me for the next five minutes meaning my bus would leave without me. So I got up my big girl gumption and was like, “Hey you woman! Sell me a ticket!” Now it didn’t go quite like that, but that’s what I wanted to say. She sold me one and I jumped on the bus to get my gill. I got to the airport at 11:45 when Jen’s plane was supposed to arrive at 11:25. I waited for about 20 minutes with no sign of Jen. Then I got a call on my phone and guess who it was?!? Jennifer Gill! She was upstairs, and I was down. No wonder we missed each other. HA! I found her and gave her a big huge bear hug and we of course had to talk about life. We had an hour bus ride and an hour and half train ride so we were set. Lala was gracious enough to get us from the train station in Mondovi so we didn’t have to get on yet another bus. Grazie LALA!! Oh and I also was able to buy a Torino pin in the train station! SWEET! My total pin count is now up to 3. My map will be looking good when I get home! Can't wait for the next adventure Jen and I will go on!