Cervia, Italien 1. september - 28. november 2025
A very long travel to Italy…
“Today I was starting my own project of going to Italy, by myself, and it was a very long trip, so let’s hope it’s worth it.”
I went to bed early the day before, because my dad and I had to wake up early and drive to the Airport. We woke up at 4:40 so we could drive around 5:10 to Copenhagen. When we arrived, we found the area where I had to check in my suitcase, and fortunately, this time it wasn’t too heavy, so it went through. Then, we waited for my mom to come so I could say goodbye and proceed to security. She finally arrived, and we said goodbye. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to them again, but I knew I was embarking on a new adventure. In my wildest imagination, I couldn’t have predicted how sweet the restaurant was going to be, but I will come back to that later…
I went through security, it went well, or I got pulled out for a random test, but of course, because I don’t have any drugs on me, I went through with no problem…
Then I wanted to get some breakfast I could bring on the plane, and something to drink, so I got two pastries and a juice with apple, strawberry, and ginger. It was so good…
Then I needed to go to the gate, which said that boarding had started. I had a 14-minute walk there. Luckily, I had priority boarding, so I could skip the very long line that was there.
The plane was really late, so we just stood there, watching as it was emptied before we could board. However, we finally started. I was sitting in the 3rd row, by the window. I don’t really like that, but it was fine. The worst part was sitting beside an annoying kid who was almost on my lap. I was relieved it didn’t take longer than 2 hours; otherwise, I probably would have jumped off the plane…
The plane landed safely, and we got off onto a bus that drove us to the Airport, then we waited a long time for our luggage. It was remarkable how long it took, but finally we got it, and my suitcase wasn’t broken – happy me…
After walking out, I needed to find transportation from the airport to Bologna’s main central station, so I could take another train to Cervia. I found a metro line going to the station. Then I had a bit of trouble finding my train to Cervia, as I was a bit confused. I asked a very nice passenger to help me determine if it was the right train, and luckily for me, it was. I just needed to take all my luggage on the train and sit in that for one and a half hours…
I arrived in Cervia and walked just 5-7 minutes to the restaurant Locanda Dei Salinari, where I was greeted by a very nice woman, a child, and a teenager. We then walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted by the chef, who I would guess is the owner as well. I was shown to my room, where I was going to stay. I took some other clothes on and went back down to the kitchen, got a little introduction, and got a schedule for what my weeks was going to be, then I got told what time we eat lunch and dinner so I could come and get some food, and then I went back to my room, for some rest before dinner, i was really tired, so i also got a little sleep…
Dinner time was upon us, and I really felt like I was i an Italian home; we were all sitting around one table, having laud conversations, it was really nice to be a part of, so I was happy, then we finished eating, and I got a few information’s about the dinner service, and then I went back to my room because my first work day wasn’t today, its tomorrow, and man am I excited to dig deeper in the Italian cuisine…
I fell asleep very early tonight and slept a lot because I am starting work at 10…
“That was the end of the 1st day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
The first day of work and a short city walk!
Today started at 10 am, where my work began. I came down to the kitchen, and my first task was to remove the mussels from their shells and put them in the sauce they were cooked in. I did some small things to get a feeling of what the rhythm is in the kitchen, then we ate Lunch, and it was delicious, I was told they ate pasta once a day, and I wasn’t sad about that, but looking back I’m a little scared if I’m getting tired of pasta after this 3 months, let’s see its only week one…
Then the service started, and I was a little on the sidelines today, to see how it all works and how they do it. Then I was off work, because, like I did in France, there is a siesta in the middle of the day…
I was in my room, just relaxing, when I called my mom to come for a walk around the city.
I started going shopping for some shampoo and body wash. I haven’t brought it, because i knew i could buy it here…
Then I walked home with my groceries and went out to explore some of the city. I went to the big square, where the church and the town hall were, and down to the canals, to see some water and the boats, and then I walked home to take a shower and get some rest before I have to work again…
It was now 6 pm, and dinner time had arrived. We sat down like a big family and ate together. It is such a good time, I really like it…
I had my little smoke break before dinner service, and then it was time to work again. Throughout the day, they have asked me to try everything. I have a slight suspicion that they want to fatten me up, but it tasted really good, so I’m happy every time I get to put a spoonful of something in my mouth.
Service started, and they are really good at providing information about things. I already feel like I’m doing more work than I did on my Hungarian trip, unfortunately, but I’m also happy that this is the place I have gotten to work.
The rest of the evening, I was frying some bread in a pan for a little breadbasket you get when you are a guest here…
When I finished, I was ready to get to bed after a good first day…
“That was the end of the 2nd day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Italian grandma and I in the pastaria…
“My dream has come true, I have always wanted to work with an Italian grandma in her own cuisine, and the best was that we were making pasta, but the day started somewhere else…”
Again today, my day started at 10 am, and I had to do some shellfish. One of the types of shellfish was razor clams. I hadn’t seen them before, so it was interesting to try working with them. I had to clean the intestines from sand and shit, and then I had to put them on a tray with salt, pepper, parsley and breadcrumbs, before putting them in the fridge so they could be used in the evening.
After that, a guy came with what I think was the biggest mushrooms I have ever seen, they were so huge like some of them were bigger than my head, it was crazy, and then we had to clean them, first the chef, took them and cleaned with a knife, to remove all the bad parts and very dirty parts, and then I had to, with a wet towel clean them thoroughly but gentle…
After lunch, service started, and I helped out a bit. I didn’t do too much, as I wanted to observe how things were done and plated, but I still managed to contribute, which was really nice.
Lunch service ended, and I went to my room for some rest. Today I didn’t do much in my free time. I went grocery shopping, took a shower, and just relaxed before dinner. What I would count as the best thing in my life, I have literally hoped for so long to do this, and finally it happened, so I was happy…
I came down for dinner, and we enjoyed some delicious charcuterie made with their homemade meat, along with some cheese and bread – it was sooo good.
Then dinner service started, and I had to make pasta, one of the things I was most excited to try making in Italy. It was a pasta called “Strozza Preti,” which translates to “choke the priest.” I found that very amusing when they told me about it, and it was made from white pasta using egg whites instead of the whole egg…
So I had to roll the dough out with the pasta machine very very thin, and then cut them in long strips, and then do some very interesting hand movements to make the pasta correctly, it was so hard for me to really find a good rhythm, but then grandma came to me and said something in Italian, I didn’t understand but showed me how to do it, and for some time I made pasta with an Italian grandma, for some reason that was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Italy to work…
The whole evening, I was making that kind of pasta, so now I actually have a good idea of how to do it. I just hope it’s not the only type of pasta I’ll get to make in these three months…
“That was the end of the 3rd day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
My first 2 days off!!
“I got told there was an amazing beach, here in Cervia, so I needed to go there and see it, did I get tanned, of course not…”
Today I worked up early because I couldn’t sleep anymore, and I had a meeting with Alda, an English teacher at the hosting school here in Cervia, who is also one of Gitte’s friends.
We were going to a little cafe to grab breakfast, or I was going to get something to eat. Alda ordered an espresso, like a real Italian. We chatted about how I was settling into the apartment and work, and how I was feeling.
Then she asked if I wanted to come to the school, one day in the middle of October, because that´s their Erasmus day in the school, and she wanted me to go and talk about what it is like to be a student doing Erasmus projects and about my trips to the different countries I have been to…
She told me that in the evening, there was a little market just around the corner from where I live, and Alda would be there with her paintings. I had to go there to look later in the evening, but first, I had to go to the beach!!!
I went to my room, put on some sunscreen, changed into swimming trunks, and walked to the beach. I had some confusion when I got there because the whole beach looked like it was reserved to some hotels, lucky for me I had my mom on a video call so I wasn’t alone looking like an idiot or maybe I looked more like an idiot because I was facetiming my mom… finally I found someone to help me, I just needed to go further down the beach and then I would get to the free beach. It was a bit far but I didn’t take that long, then I went in and laid down on the sand three times during my stay on the beach I went into the water and it was great, a bit cold at first but when you got under I just wanted to stay in then I read some in my book and just did that for three to four hours…But since my phone was almost drained of power, I had to cut this short. However, it was also good because I needed to get home to take a shower before heading out to find some good food…
I took a shower and relaxed a bit before dinner. I stumbled upon a really cute Cafe/charcuterie and restaurant, and I ended up getting a pizza-looking meal with buffalo mozzarella and dried ham. It was really great, but a bit too much cheese for me. If I hadn’t taken some off the last few pieces, I would have either developed lactose intolerance or just got diarrhoea. I, of course, had a cocktail with my meal…
Then I went for a little walk down the main street, where I stumbled upon a small flea market. At first, I thought Alda was there with her stand, but no, I realised she hadn’t come. So, I walked toward the big Ferris wheel and down the canals to see that in the evening, and it was beautiful. I walked to the big main square and stumbled upon another market. Who knew I’d find Alda there, with her lovely paintings? I also came across a stand where a guy was crafting recycled metal pieces. They were really nice, so I couldn’t resist buying two.
I went back home after talking to Alda because I was tired and just wanted to go to bed. Tomorrow was another day at the beach, so I’ll see you when I wake up.
Good morning… Beach time!!! I waited a bit, and it took me some time to relax inside before heading to the beach. Around 12, I started putting on my sunscreen and walked towards the beach, knowing exactly where I needed to go. I did exactly the same as I did yesterday: reading, swimming, sunbathing, and enjoying all the good things and of course making my family jealous because it’s not that kind of weather in Denmark for beach trips. I remembered my power bank today, along with some water.
Then I finished on the beach, but my skin couldn’t take any more; it felt like I was red everywhere. Lucky for me, it was only a small area on my face and stomach, but I had after sun back home, so it wasn’t a problem…
While I was on the beach, I googled where I could get a haircut because I really needed it, and I found one, and I could already get a time at 5 pm the same day, I got back a half hour later and got my haircut, plus two hair wash I was so happy, and he did an impeccable job with my hair…
Then I went back to the restaurant for dinner with the staff, and afterwards, I headed to my room to recharge my phone.
Then I called my friend on FaceTime because I wanted to drink cocktails. I wanted her to do it with me, so she could make one back home in Denmark, and I could find a bar somewhere to make one for me. I started by visiting the canals to sit by the water. Then, I headed to the main square to grab a drink. As I was there, classical music began, and I felt a sense of culture watching Italian classical music…
Then I went back home and went to bed before I had some work the day after…
“That was the end of the 4th and 5th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
My first real dinner service…
“After some very nice days off, I was ready to come back to work and see more of the Italian cuisine…”
In the morning, I was introduced to preparing monkfish, which I found surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it. The process involved tearing off the skin and then cutting it into filets…
That took quite some time, so when I finished, it was lunch time, and “guess what we ate for lunch?” Of course, pasta was our main dish. Then, lunch service arrived, and we were assisted by Luca, the other second chef here. We were preparing a variety of dishes, including pasta, gnocchi, and fish. I was looking and helping a bit because I hadn’t seen all the dishes and couldn’t remember them yet…
Lunch service ended, and I headed to my room for some relaxation time. I didn’t do much today, but I’m looking forward to dinner at 6 pm. Let’s see if it’s pasta or something else. Usually, if we have pasta at lunch, we have something different for dinner…
It was not pasta, but it was something Italian. We had risotto, which I’m not a fan of. It tasted good, but rice isn’t really my thing. I ate it because I was hungry. Then, I went out to smoke, and before I knew it, it was dinner service time…
This dinner service was fun, I loved it so much, I felt for the first time that I was a bit busy without being busy, I was busy enough to not be still and do nothing for most of the time, but also have fun during the service, it was right after my handbook…
So, the chef was on one side of the kitchen doing some starters and mains, Luca. I was on the other site, helping with pasta and other tasks I had worked on earlier in the day. Still, this time I was plating the dishes. I have a good memory, so I remember dishes I’ve seen once or twice very well. The good thing is that the dishes here aren’t too hard to make or plate, so I felt very comfortable doing it.
It was pretty busy, with a lot of people through the restaurant, so it was really nice. I enjoyed it very much. When there were only a few tickets left, we started cleaning the kitchen. I took a break from work, went out for some fresh air, and then headed to bed. Tomorrow was even busier than today, so stay tuned and keep reading…
“That was the end of the 6th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Wild ducks with feathers and heads…
“Gianni (The chef) also goes out hunting, and what he brings home they use on the menu, and today wasn’t different because it was something he had shot…”
As I walked down the stairs to the kitchen, I had no idea what I would find. They had warned me a few days prior that there could be blood and animals, but I had already forgotten. I came down to Gianni’s skin wild ducks, they were with head, feet, tail feathers, just lying there dead, and now I was excited, I had never seen ducks being skinned before, and he did it with flair and ease, like he had done it a thousand times, maybe he has…
He walked me through how to skin a feathered animal, and when he was finished, it was my turn to work with them. I had to part them; they were really small, like double the size of a quail, so I had to be very precise with the knife to do it right…
I parted them in the breast, and thighs, and the meat from the wings, a little sidenote, I have noticed that Italians don’t waste anything, everything is used, from the little piece of risotto rice, to some random vegetable leftovers, it’s very interesting, and that is one thing i will take with me back home, to never throw anything out if you can use it…
Let’s get back to the ducks…
I had to part with approximately 20 ducks, which took some time. I had a little break to eat lunch, and then I went back to the ducks. I was in Duck Land, and if I wasn’t finished when I was, I would have been dreaming of ducks, too.
When I had finished parting the ducks, I thought that I was finished. Still, I was very wrong. Now I had to cut all the duck parts into small cubes and put them into a colander and bowl so they would sit in their own blood, which took some time. Finally, I was finished and could help with the last part of the service, before cleaning the kitchen, and then be off work, how nice…
During my siesta, I talked with my dad and walked around the city a bit. I went down to the canal to walk along the water, but upon arriving at the start, I was surprised to find a big market. This market was different, though, as it sold wine, honey, and a variety of food-related items. I didn’t buy anything. I just walked through, chatting with my dad. At some point, I headed down to the harbour, where I found a lot of boats and yachts. Then, I walked back to my room and relaxed until dinner time…
I will skip through the dinner service because nothing really interesting happened. We were quite busy with service, and it was really fun. I was off work at my normal hours today, so I got some air before bed. I will not spoil anything about tomorrow, but I will say it’s about something alive…
“That was the end of the 7th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next is going”
Lobsters, Champagne, and Collaborations.
“Monday was a boring day, we didn’t really do much, it was a slow day, so I will skip it and go directly to Tuesday, and that was quite a special day…”
One thing that happened on Monday was that the lobsters for Tuesday arrived alive, which meant they would be fun to prepare for Tuesday’s dinner. However, we didn’t kill them today; we will do that tomorrow. Let´s fast forward to tomorrow…
Tuesday;
Today was the day for our collaboration with another restaurant. I was a bit confused because Gianni had told me it was going to happen. Still, I had no idea what that meant… but we had a normal lunch time, and morning preparation, we killed the lobsters, and prepared them for tonight, and then we did lunch service, it was a slow service, not a lot of people were going out to lunch, so it was a bit boring. Still, I was busy parting pheasants, which was fun. I had done that before, unlike with the wild ducks I handled the other day.
Then I was off work and just relaxed before the big evening, where something incredible happened… but you have to wait a bit before I tell you about it.
Then I came down for dinner, and there were two new people I hadn’t seen before. It turned out to be the two chefs from “Maré“, a restaurant in Cesenatico, the city right under Cervia. They were going to collaborate with our restaurant for this dinner menu…
The menu was;
• Zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and shrimp, tempura-style with a sweet and sour sauce.
• Shrimp tartare, brioche, and robiola cheese.
• Steamed mantis shrimp, tuna sauce, and caper berries.
• Cappelletti with salted butter, lemon zest, and marinated pink shrimp.
• Lobster gratin with fresh thyme-infused porcini mushrooms.
• Mascarpone and pistachio pavlova with raspberry sorbet and gold leaf.
I started plaiting the mantis shrimps on some plates all around the kitchen, so they were almost ready for the servers to take them.
Then the service started, the run on the tempura was first, that was Lacy and one of the chefs from the other restaurant, who prepared them, and while they were busy, I prepared the tartare, with the help of Luca, because soon it was our turn to be busy, we had approximately 40-45 in the restaurant this evening, so we were going to be busy, then the first few tickets arrived to the kitchen with tartare so we finished plaiting them and send them out of the kitchen, and we just kept doing this for a half hour i think, before it was the mantis shrimps turn to be send out, and that was Gianni who finished plaiting them, we finished with the busy part for now, and prepared for the pasta dish, and that was Luca, the other chef from the other restaurant, and i who made those, they cooked them and i plaited, and it was a quite easy to plait, then the busy time for us came, and finally it was the last hot dish, that started again it was Gianni, who did those but we helped him with it because at some point he was extremely busy, and it was a lot of plates and stuff to put on them…
We had finished all the hot dishes, and now it was Lacy´s turn with the very delicious and pretty pavlovas.
We cleaned the kitchen and assisted the chef from the other restaurant by carrying some items out to their car. I then went out to smoke.
During the night and service, I was asked if I wanted to work at the other restaurant after completing these three months. Gianni mentioned a few days ago that he would ask some of his contacts if they’d like to hire me. The chef from “Maré” agreed to hire me if I was interested in the job… I was speechless when they told me, because I thought it was a joke at first, but they were totally serious. I wanted to make a good first impression, and I think I succeeded. We agreed to stay in touch, and now I’m likely heading back to Italy in the new year.
I went to bed after an amazing evening, and tomorrow is my day off. We’re going to dinner with the whole restaurant staff, so I’m really excited…
“That was the end of the 8th-9th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next is going”
Rainy days, and a huge dinner.
“My two days were nothing to write about, it was rainy on the first, and the other day I was too lazy to do anything, but I did go to a very nice dinner party, with my co-workers…”
I did one thing in the rain: I packed out my suitcases and put my clothes into my wardrobe. Besides that, I did nothing those days… so let’s skip in time a bit and go to the dinner party.
I was diving with one of the Waiters, and I discovered I wasn’t the only one; another waiter was joining us, along with Larcy. We picked her up at her house and then headed to the restaurant. It was out of nowhere, in some fields, but it was a very cute place. When we arrived, the others were waiting for us, and it was weird to see them in civil clothes instead of their usual working outfits, but it was nice…
We started the dinner with some charcuterie boards, and they were incredibly good. And I was extremely hungry, so I ate a lot of it. Then we got some pasta dishes, and we ate family style with all the food in the middle of the table, so we could help ourselves.
Then we went on a little smoking break, and the youngest girl wanted to bring me to a little playground while I smoked. Then we went back to the table, and by then I was very full. Still, I noticed that the waiter came with clean dinner plates, so I asked out loud, “Are we getting more food?” They just answered. This was just the starter; now we´re getting grill. I was seriously full, but I also had a small portion of the grill, since we were getting dessert. I got a tiramisu for dessert, but I shared it with someone because I would have exploded if I ate it all.
Then we got some alcohol, and I ended up pretty drunk, but I wasn’t driving home, so I could with a good conscience.
Then I got home and went to bed. It was really late…
On my second day off, I did absolutely nothing besides going to a restaurant in the evening to get some food…
“That was the end of the 10th-11th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
A weekend with a lot of things to do…!
“This weekend there isn’t planned anything new or interesting, so I have taken all the days and put them into one…”
Friday wasn’t that interesting. We had prep during the day and service in the evening, with a fair few guests in the restaurant both lunch and dinner, but not something wild like Saturday.
Saturday was a good day; it was busy, with many guests attending the two services. I was happy to do something, and fast I needed the adrenaline, we also is about to change the menu so we did a lot of prep for that, like potato gnocchi, tagliatelle which we make different from what they normally looks like ours is round not flat… but tomorrow I spend most of the day making a new type of pasta so I was very excited for that…
And as a little footnote before moving on to Sunday, I was told to go get the biggest tuna I have ever seen from the freezer. It was insanely big, almost as big as a little shark…
Let’s get into the pastaria again…
Today’s pasta was Curzul, which is very similar to the Strozzapreti pasta I made last week. It’s just longer, and I used a different hand movement, but it was still fun to do. I enjoyed it a lot…
It took all morning to make while the others did lunch service, but it was fine because I had learned a new type of pasta. I also learned that Strozzapreti and Curzul are pasta types unique to Emilia-Romagna. I’m not sure if they’re made elsewhere in Italy, but you can always find them here.
In the evening, we got busy again, mainly because it was the last weekend before the Italian summer break ended, and many people wanted to go out to eat. It was fun to have our pace pick up again, but nothing new happened…
Sunday was the last day of the international food market in Cervia, and I had wanted to go yesterday, but I was so tired that I decided to go today instead. It was also Barbara´s (one of the owners) birthday, so there was a little celebration in the restaurant, but that’s later…
So, let’s go to the food market; I had no idea where it was, but I thought it might be down by the canal like the last market was, and I was partially wrong and right, because it was not down at the canal, but it was at a big parking lot, to the right side of the canal…
When I got there, I was surprised by how big it was. There were maybe 50 stands with all kinds of things from all over the world, and a lot of people. Of course, I found some things I needed to buy, some of the stuff I purchased were small boxes with glass of hummus-like dips, made from truffle, and in one of the boxes I purchased was a little bottle of truffle oil, another thing I bought was a packet with 5 types of sausage marinated in different things…
Before going there, I had decided not to buy anything, but when I got there, I couldn’t help myself…
When I realised, I had spent too much money on stuff here, I went back home because I needed some time to relax before I had to go back to work…
I went down to the restaurant for some dinner with the others, and it was Barbara´s birthday, so we celebrated her with a song and a cake. It was so cute…
Then we started working again, but nothing special happened, so I will skip that…
Monday and Tuesday, I will skip too because we did the same as always and because it was weekdays not alot of people came to eat…
“That was the end of the 12th-16th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Treat myself to a great dinner…
“My patiently awaited days off, and I was so happy to have some days where I could relax… but at dinner, the first day, was amazing”
I haven’t planned anything for today besides dinner, so I spent most of the day in bed relaxing, and it was really nice. It was also time for me to clean my room, so I washed the floor, cleaned the tables and cleaned the bathroom. Then I needed to find somewhere to have dinner, but I had no idea where I wanted to go. Still, I knew I wanted to go somewhere where I could get some amazing food, so like anyone else would, I googled it and found this restaurant, “Sale Grosso,” which, on Google, was supposed to be the best in Cervia, so I had to go there…
I looked at the menu for what I thought I wanted, and I found this four-course menu I really wanted to get, so let’s see if I got it—a little teaser. I didn’t…
I put on some nice clothes and looked a little respectable as I walked to a nice restaurant, which was a 10-minute walk from my apartment. When I got there, I thought there would be more people, but of course, people here eat when I go to bed, so it wasn’t that surprising, and I sat down, got my menu, and found the menu I wanted to get, and I asked the waiter if I could get it, but he said no, it is only if it bought for two or more people and i was like wtf, then he said that i could just take the items from the menu, but that would be twice the price of the menu, so i found 3 dishes i wanted to get, and the thing I got was;
• Raw Scampi shrimps.
• Pasta with seafood, lobster, mussels and clams.
• Fried fish, calamari, and shrimp
And then I got some dessert —it was Tiramisu but made in a very special way. It was an incredible dinner; of course, I needed wine, and I got a port for my dessert. After all that food, I was so full that I didn’t think I needed to eat for the whole day tomorrow… that wasn’t completely true —I needed some food, of course, but it was dinner on a budget…
I went home to my apartment again and went to bed because I was a bit tired and I was so full.
My 2nd day off;
Today I did absolutely nothing; I just needed the time to relax before going to work tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like 2 days off isn’t enough, so I went shopping for some lunch and dinner. I ate a sandwich for lunch and dinner. I found it in the coop I’m shopping in…
So, nothing interesting today.
“That was the end of the 17th-18th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
New menu or almost.!.
“Over a period of approximately a week, there were menu changes, but not the whole menu…”
So, we start dish by dish —what was new? There were new types of pasta, new risotto, new starters, and one of the things I roll my eyes about every time I see it, we have snails on the menu also, but Lukas why is that’s so awful, we have to take every little snail out of the shell, and no its not a big snail that’s easy to work with, its snails as little as blueberries, and when we get 10kg of them it take shit loads of time to finish, so yeah I’m not happy when I see snails… the good thing about them is i have learned a new type of pasta with them they are called Cappelletti. They are a type of ravioli, just smaller and folded differently… Do you remember Curzul, the pasta I made a few chapters ago—one of the new dishes—with some fish sauce… Then there is a green risotto made with pesto, shrimps, and goat cheese cream; those are the new dishes from my side of the kitchen and the menu. The chef also has some new ones; one is calamari with some sauce and poached prawns.
Those are the majority of the new dishes; there are probably more, but to be honest, I don’t know what’s new and old…
It was fun to change the menu, so I could try some new dishes and new techniques…
“That was the end of the 19th-28th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Mum´s biggest bucket-list city…!
“This is the time my mom came to visit me, and I was extremely excited because we were going to Venice”
We start on Monday, when my mom is supposed to arrive here in Italy. I was working, but I also knew that when I got off, I could go down to the train station to pick her up, so let’s skip to the day that…
I got off work around 2 pm, but my mom won’t arrive till about 3:30 pm, so I had a little time to kill before she got here. But the time went by very slowly right there, but finally it was time for me to walk down to the train station to get her, and I did… I waited and waited; the train was a little late, but then it arrived, and out she came, and I gave her a big hug.
We walked back towards the city centre, where I live, because it was the way to the hotel where she was staying.
We walked by the restaurant and the place I was living to see if it was a bit of fun for her to see the places I had shown her on Facetime. So, she could get the ‘aha’ feeling, I have seen this before… we walked towards her hotel, it was a 15-minute walk from where I lived, so not that far, and I could show her a few things on the way. Our time was a bit short because I had to go back to work at 7 pm. After all, we decided to go for dinner before I went to work…
We arrived at the hotel and picked up the keys. It was a very nice room she was staying in, and I was a bit jealous of her for having WIFI in the room. Then we began walking back to the city centre, but before we reached it, we passed a laundromat. Tomorrow, I need to wash some clothes when I finish work, because I didn’t really have any more clothes left, so that was the plan. Luckily, we used the rest of today walking around Cervia. Still, there isn’t much to see, so I wouldn’t be able to spend 2 days in Cervia… we walked to the beach, the harbour and along the canal before getting back to my room before we went to get some dinner, there was a place we could eat that opened that early, so that was great… we got some delicious food. Then I went to change to work and that was really the most exciting things about today… and tomorrow wasn’t really that interesting either we just went to wash my clothes, got some ice creme and then my mom came to the restaurant to eat that was exciting, I made all her food, so that was fun and then we had the most annoying thing happening to us…
Because it was late, my mom wanted a taxi home. Still, it was also raining like crazy, so just 2 seconds out there would get you soaking, so I tried to get an Uber for her. The thing is, there aren´t Ubers in Cervia, so we were kinda fucked because we were leaving Cervia early tomorrow morning for Venice. My mom needed her things, of course, so I was a bit stressed because she couldn’t get back. We spent about 30 minutes or more looking for a taxi. Luckily, I found a local taxi driver who also spoke a bit of English, so I could get her into a cab. She got home safe and much cheaper than it would have been on Uber… that evening was stressful, but tomorrow was going to be amazing— we were going to Venice and having a little vacation there…
A good night’s sleep and an early morning, because we were going by train around 9:30 am. I was a bit surprised when I woke up, since we had agreed to take a taxi to the train station at 9:00 am. Still, then I woke up and a message from my mom saying we were going at 8:30, so we weren’t too late for the train, even though I was like, okay, now we have an hour before it leaves… it was fine, we got there and could sit and look if the train was late or going on the right time.
It arrived a bit late, unfortunately, because our time between the 2 trains we had to take was very close, so we hoped it would catch up by driving a bit faster, but it didn’t…
When we got to the Bologna train station, we were so far out from any other train stations, and we only had 10 min to get to it, soooo the time wasn’t with us and we didn’t catch our train by 10 seconds, so we were a bit mad, we literally stood watching the train driving in front of us… We had a bit of trouble finding a new train because another one was going 20 minutes later, but it was so far underground and there weren’t any tickets left, so we had to go back up and take the train an hour later.
The time went by fast, and our train came. We got on it and sat down, and now it was just smooth sailing to Venice, a few hours later. We arrived, got some food because I hadn’t eaten anything yet. It was like 2pm at the train station. There was a little 7-Eleven-type place where we could eat before going to the hotel we were staying at. We walked out and saw the canals, and we were both mesmerised. It was just amazing to look at. I was so excited to be here, and so was my mom. The hotel wasn’t that far away, so we walked there. Then we went down this little alley, found it, and got our room. Let me say I have been to nicer places, but I have also been to worse places. There was Wi-Fi, which is already better than the place I have back in Cervia, but we were only going to sleep there, so it was fine for us…
One of the things I really loved about this city was the small alleys and the stone buildings. It was so cute… of course, one of the first things we needed to figure out was the water buses because that was the only public transportation in the city, luckily us there was a stop very close to the hotel, so we found the “bus station” and looked there were these maps like at metro station to see what lines did what and how, but we had so much trouble figure them out. Still, we managed to buy some 2-day tickets so we could use them as much as we wanted while we were here. We started taking one towards a square because we wanted to see a few things now that we arrived so early. One of the things was the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, because how can you not when you´re in Venice, so that was one of our first stops. Good, I had my Google Maps on because we weren’t able to find it by chance. We went in. There were all his most famous paintings, some interactive features, and the Vitruvian Man, and you could actually see if you were the perfect body size standing in front of it… Then we saw stuff we didn’t know he had made, so we also learned stuff. Then we found things to drink, it was a vacation after all, so ALCOHOL… and now we were tired after a long day of travelling, so we went back to the hotel before going out for some dinner, and we just found the closest restaurant to eat at, got some nice food, and went back to the hotel for an early night…
“Tomorrow was going to be my birthday before my birthday, because my mom is leaving on my birthday, so we’ll spend tomorrow as my birthday”
Good morning. Today we have a packed program, so let’s get ready and head out on the road to the canal for our first water bus of the day…
We had to sail quite far to reach Marco Square because almost everything we were going to see was there. The first was the Saint Marco Church, which was really nice, but it was under renovation when we got there, so that was a bit sad. We got in and saw the inside, and, luckily for us, it wasn’t so warm that we weren’t allowed in because of the no-show on knees, shoulders, etc. Still, we saw the church things you need to see, and we almost lost track of each other, or I lost track of my mom, it was pretty fast, it wasn’t like the Vatican… So, we had to wait a bit because the next thing was a very tall tower right beside the church. We waited, then it was our turn to go up, and the view was really nice. We took some pictures and looked out, and that was all. Now we were hungry…
We found a restaurant pretty close to the next meeting point for the next thing we were doing, but I won’t tell you yet, for suspense.
We went in and got pizza, my first pizza while I have been here, and it was really nice. We had like a few hours to kill, so we just walked up and down the canal and found a really amazing garden where we sat for some time…
Now it’s time to tell what we are doing next, and what is one thing you have to do when you´re here, of course, a gondola ride down the canal, and through GetYourGuide, so it was an informational ride, we got down to the meeting point before anything we had to do a virtual reality info video, about the history of the gondolas and the costumes etc… then we walked down to the gondolas and my mom and another pair got in one, very nice couple from the UK I think or the US, we had a little information app to hear some small things about the places we were going to see… it was an amazing experience, then after we was a bit tired and went back for a little midday relax, before my birthday dinner. I found a really nice restaurant we wanted to go to… and we went there, and luckily, there was a table for us. We got some very delicious food and, of course, some dessert, too. Then we went home, and I got some presents… my mom had brought some letters from my sister and dad with pictures of my present, and she had brought her gift, too. I was so happy…
Then we went to bed because tomorrow was another early morning, and my mom had to catch an early bus to the mainland to catch a flight to the airport. I had to catch my train back to Cervia, so we did that. I said goodbye to my mom, then got on my train. So, I just went back home and spent my birthday like it was a normal day, but I went down to the restaurant to eat some dinner. So, I bought some small profiteroles for dessert, that’s the thing to do here when you have a birthday, and I also got a little birthday song and a candle to blow out. It was so sweet of them…
I just spent the rest of the day packing my suitcase and just relaxing because tomorrow is a workday again, and it’s Saturday, so it will be busy…
“That was the end of the 29th-33rd day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Sickness, lecture and hunter´s feast.!
“I have combined the next few weeks into one because one of them was me lying in my bed for a whole week, but also something exciting happened for me on the 15th of October, but I won’t tell yet, and the day before was a very interesting lunch service…”
So, I came back to work on Saturday, the day after I came home from Venice, and my birthday, and it was good. It worked fine and was good all day. I kinda felt something was wrong, but no alarms went off, so I didn’t think about it more. Sunday was a whole other story. During my lunch work time, I felt a bit ill, and at first, I just thought it was maybe something I had eaten that wasn’t good, so I worked through it, then I got my time off, and it didn’t really feel better, but there could be a lot of different things wrong, not only sickness…
Time for work again, and I got down to eat some dinner, but I didn’t really eat anything, and I felt worse. Then I went puking, and for quite a long time until Barbara came out and asked if I was good. I really wasn’t, so she sent me to my room and gave me some medicine and a thermomotor, i found out my temperature was on 39 so a good fever and I spend the next week in my bed because even though I was in bed and took medicine it didn’t work, I at some point I went to the doctor, to be looked at, amazing experience compared to the one I had in France, I got a thermomotor, and waited like 15 minutes and then a doctor came out and looked at me, he was fluent in English so that was incredible I got some prescriptions on some medicine which I bought at the pharmacy, and took that. Jeez, that was drugs that worked; it was amazing and worked incredibly.
On Saturday, I wrote to my chef to say I could start work again. Still, he replied back that he thought I should take Sunday too, to be sure that I was on my A-game, so I went back to work on Monday. It was good; I began to feel better because on Wednesday, Alda, the teacher at the school here in Cervia, asked me if I wanted to give a lecture or speak about being an Erasmus student. I was very excited to do so, I had prepared a slideshow with pictures to show…
But before all that, we started on Tuesday because we were busy. When I arrived in the kitchen in the morning, I was going full speed from the beginning. I had no idea what was going on, so I just did what they needed me to do… later on the day, I found out it was Gianni´s hunting friends coming for a feast and Jesus it was a feast they were getting and a fancy one, there were Fois gras, duck, risotto and dessert as some of the dishes they were getting. All of it was plated, and sometimes I felt like a headless chicken. It was fun, but still a bit exhausting after a week of sickness, when I didn’t really feel 100%. My taste buds and smell were still gone, which was why I had a feeling I had Covid. People around me were also under the weather, so I hope I didn’t infect anyone. Still, I caught it pretty early, so I don’t think so… Lunch service was done, and dinner wasn’t that interesting, so let’s go to sleep and see you tomorrow, where I was talking in front of a lot of students…
The day finally came, and I began to feel a bit nervous about it, even though I just needed to speak out of my heart. I have experienced this, so I just needed to talk about all the things I have done over the past year on and off. Still, in the morning, I dressed in something respectful and walked to school. When I got there, I tried to contact Alda to let her know I had arrived so she could come pick me up, but she didn’t answer. I walked into the school and found a teacher to ask. She told me where to go and pointed me in the right direction, and I finally found the place. I walked in; she was preparing to talk to the students and welcomed me, and I sat down at the teacher’s table. It was amazing sitting there, I felt so much better than the students… and I looked at her presentation to see when it was my turn. I noticed that I had an hour before it was my turn, so I had some time to calm my nerves, but nope, she whispered in my ear that I was going on in like 10 minutes, they had to change something and pushed me up. I gulped and was like, “Yeah, I’m totally ready.” I wasn’t my heart was pounding, and I was extremely nervous, but I went up and began talking. I started by talking about the Danish school system and CELF, but I messed it up so much, and I was hurrying so much with that, so I could get to TLT, and then everything went smoothly and great. I felt so good talking about it until Alda said I had to stop in the middle of the talk because the students had to leave.
A new group had to come in, and if some of these students had some questions for me, it was great. I answered them, and then they left. I was a bit confused, but the new group came. I had to reintroduce myself and reintroduce the TLT, and not begin from the start, no, continue where I left. It was all good, of course. I continued, and then Alda said, “You have 3 minutes left.” I wasn’t even halfway through Hungary when I skipped Croatia, then finished and got some more questions I didn’t expect. I know from my own school experience that students don’t ask questions, so I was happy to answer whatever they wanted to know…
Then I finished and sat down with the students because I didn’t really have other plans, so I stayed to watch the presentations in Italian, which I didn’t understand. Still, two students were in Denmark and in Nykøbing as Erasmus students, so I needed to see what they had experienced, then Pierluigi the Italian version of Gitte wanted to meet me and of cause I wanted to meet him as well, a very sweet man very happy and kind to talk to, I met another English teacher, who complimented my English, and then a Waitress student, asked if I wanted a tour of the school. I, of course, said yes; it was so sweet of her to do so. She was a bit nervous about her own English, but I really thought she was great, and she just needs to practise. Still, the school was really big, with both regular subjects like English, math, and French, and hospitality subjects, very interesting…
After my private tour, I got some food, a cup of tea and some cold water, and I listened to the rest of the presentations. When all was finished, we took some group photos, then I was off to go home. The sweet girl walked me out, and I walked home…
The rest of my off days I did absolutely nothing, I just relaxed, so nothing interesting there, so let’s see what happened the next weeks…
“That was the end of the 34th-46th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
Halloween, Big news, and a change in work schedule…
“The rest of October was work, work, work for me; there wasn’t anything new or exciting happening, it was very monotonous… but still there did happen some things…”
So, from yesterday until Halloween, it was just me working; everything special that happened was on Halloween or the day after. Let’s skip to that.
I didn’t incorporate Halloween because we had a special, scary meal. Still, I just thought I would tell you about all the things they did during Halloween here, because a lot of children came to the restaurant dressed up in costumes and got some candy, and there were scary shows on the main square and a haunted house out on one of the main streets, very scary…
Cheleste, the youngest daughter, and I played a lot of football during our eating break, so it was fun… but she was really scared of the zombies, so I scared her a bit…
But she and her sister were also going out trick-or-treating, so the restaurant was really quiet that night, haha.
In the middle or towards the end of service, I was told some pretty big news. At the time, I didn’t know how to take it, but later I thought it was pretty nice. I will tell you later why I’m saying it like this, but Barbara told me that the restaurant was closing from the 17th to the 27th of November, so my time at the restaurant was going to be shortened…
I was in shock, because it came so suddenly for me, that now I only had two weeks left, and I hurried to write to my mom and dad to tell them…
Because now I have one week alone before my dad comes, and then some days when he´s here, would I still be able to stay in the room? What do I do with food, all those things stressed me a bit… and now we come to the day after, where the change of schedule comes in from the title.
Because something was wrong with my body, I felt so awful, and people at the restaurant asked me if I was okay. I just said yes, I was totally fine, nothing wrong here, I totally lied, I wasn’t good, he asked me three times, and I kept saying I was good, so stupid of me. Still, I didn’t really know what I was feeling until I got the midday off, like I always do, and talked with my mom. I came to the conclusion that I had some kind of work-related stress, and it wasn’t good, so I decided to tell Barbara…
When I got down for dinner, I needed to take her aside and tell her. I was very emotional when I talked to her. I just told her exactly what was going on, and she was very understanding. We concluded that I needed to work less. So from now on, I only work either morning or night, the rest of my time here, but I also know the chef wouldn’t take it lightly, so now I would piss him off more than I already have, I don’t know why, but I think I have, but that’s not for this diary…
I was very happy that we could change it like this, and I also think it would help, so let’s see if it did…
“That was the end of the 47th-62nd day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
My almost last work weeks!
“The reason it almost is because the last day comes after this”
I was happy that my work was a bit shortened. I was tired, and sometimes I didn’t feel great working with the chef, his energy doesn’t match mine, and I really couldn’t stand him, and that’s why I’m also very happy with my new work schedule where i either work morning or night, because then i could take my time in the morning before work, or when i got home i had the whole afternoon and night. Still, he wasn’t happy. I could feel his frustration down to my bones, and to be honest, I don’t know why he would be. He didn’t pay for me; of course, I was there to learn, but I also learned as much as I could. Now, I was doing the same stuff every day. So if he wanted to be mad and frustrated, be my guest. At that time, I didn’t really care; my mental health was the most important. But the greatest person in that restaurant was one of the waiters; she was so funny. She didn’t speak English, but I still understood what she meant. She definitely hated the chef too, and she had her good right: he was rude, annoying, and loud towards her… and she was the only person who could make my time there a bit funnier and happier at the end of my time at the restaurant.
When my body got more relaxed after the stress, I also got better at work, I was excited and clearer in my head, so that was great, because the other thing wasn’t good…
Of course we were busy at work still, and that was nice, Monday and Tuesday not so much, but then we had time to prep and chill, I liked those days, and that was actually was happened all the days towards my last day on the 16th of November, and I couldn’t wait, because that meant I only had two weeks left before I went home…
“That was the end of the 63rd-76th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going”
The very last day at Locanda Dei Salinari.
“MY LAST DAY… wow, that went by fast. I can’t believe that it’s my last day, but… let it go fast, OK, a little for shadowing it didn’t…”
My workday started early because when I got the new schedule, I began work at 9:30 in the morning instead of 10:00, which was fine, but I started as I always did, by putting some stuff away. Then it cleaned every f*cking fridge in the kitchen, like very thoroughly, taking out everything in it, cleaning the shelves, everything, also the small fridges behind the chef, I really felt now they had to use the last of me, a bit annoying because they didn’t really do sh*t but OK. After I had done some small tasks, I had done before, it was really just muscle memory. We did all those things until we had to eat lunch. One thing I was also excited about was not working: not eating pasta once a day. I like pasta, don’t get me wrong, but after 2,5 months of eating it, you get tired of it… Then we got to the busiest service of all my days. We had so many people in the restaurant, and we were so busy. It was nice because time goes faster when we are busy, but I wished for a more chill day. Still, we got to the end of the service. Now it was time to clean, Yay, more cleaning I was so happy, well no not really, because again they didn’t do sh*t, I cleaned the stove, the pasta cooker all the tables, took all the stuff down from the hangers and shelves, cleaned the freezer, and what did the others do, i have no idea not cleaning I guess… and the dishwasher was slammed with dishes so I also had to wait for her to wash the stuff to put back, but finally i was finished I of cause went out to the waiters and Barbara to say goodbye I got a hug from some of them then I got my signatures on my papers and I tried to say goodbye to the chef he was too busy going home, and just said “Ciao” to me gesticulated to him that I wanted to give him a handshake, and I did, but there wasn’t a goodbye or a smile it was a two second handshake and he didn’t look at me while, rude and that also proved to me that he’s a freaking psychopath, who didn’t at one moment care about me, and I’m really sorry these people are working with him and Barbera is married to him… Enough of the bitching about him, he´s the past now, it’s my time to relax, take some time to myself before my dad comes on the 25th of November and we travel to Florence before going back home to Denmark on the 29th, and get home to my family, friends, David and Chloe…
That was the end of the 77th day in Italy, and let’s see how the next one is going
My last days in Italy!
“I will combine the last 2 weeks, you will know why in a few seconds…”
Finally, I’m finished. I’m so excited to go home in a few weeks, to see my friends and family, but it’s also a bit weird, my last trip in Europe, back to Denmark, to a normal day, normal work, everything…
But let’s get to what I did the last few days before my dad came: I explored Cervia a bit more than I already had, I went places I hadn’t yet, I cleaned my clothes, and I relaxed, ALOT, and was counting the days for my dad to arrive so I could spend some time with him and going home with him, i had planned a few things for us to do while he was in Cervia and we would decide what to do while we were in Florence…
Let’s skip to the day when he came…
Before we get to my dad, I talked to Alda about going to the school to see her and say goodbye before leaving, and then I would meet one of her classes to talk to them about my stay and about Denmark. That was really fun, and I enjoyed it very much.
At the time, we were on our way to Italy. I had packed a lot of luggage, and I was a bit scared that my checked baggage was too heavy because I had bought a lot of gifts, but we figured out how to take some of the weight off. My dad finally arrived at 3:30 pm, and I was so happy to see him. I went down to the train station to welcome him, and then we walked a bit so he could see a bit of the city. At that time, it was getting quite cold in Italy, so it wasn’t as hot as when my mom was here, but we managed.
We went to his hotel to drop off his luggage, then we went for a little walk along the beach, the canal, and a bit in the city centre… After a quick tour, we wanted to get some food, so we walked along the canal to see if any restaurants were open, but we couldn’t find any. Nothing was open, but with enough searching, we found a nice place to get some food. We ate and went home. My dad was very tired from all the travelling, so we called it an early evening…
Tomorrow, I had planned for us to go to Ravenna to see some stuff about Dante, so that’s exciting. Read you tomorrow.
Time to go to Ravenna, we went by train. When we got there, we went directly to the tomb of Dante, and to see the museum about him; unfortunately, it was mostly in Italian, so we didn’t understand anything. Still, I was a bit confused because we wanted to see the flooded tomb, but we couldn’t really find it. It turned out it was inside the church of San Francisco, and then we found it. We also went into Dante´s house, but it was quite boring…
Then we just wanted to walk around without Google Maps, just to look, and we walked down some nice roads and to the main square before deciding to go back to the train station so we could go back to Cervia and eat dinner there…
But that wasn’t easy at all, so I looked up restaurants on Google to see which were open and which weren’t. Still, it wasn’t updated, because all the places I found were closed. It was pouring rain, so it was also cold and wet to walk around looking for a place; fortunately, I remembered a place I had eaten before. They were open, so we went there, and my dad was happy because there was a football game on the TV in the restaurant, and it was Denmark playing…
Then I was tired and just needed to go to bed before the trip to Florence, and I had to clean the apartment and leave Cervia… very sad, but I was also excited…
Florence time… today was the day of my last few days in Italy, and spending them with my dad in Florence, how nice. A little backstory before going to Florence: I really wanted to see Michelangelo´s sculpture of David, so we bought some tickets. Still, I bought the wrong time because we couldn’t get to the museum before 5 pm, which were the last time to get in, so I tried to change the time for the ticket that wasn’t possible, then I tried to get my money back they couldn’t do that, they could give me 10% credits on the next ticket, how amazing… NOOOOT… I was so mad, but I bought another ticket… but let’s get back to the morning before leaving Cervia…
We needed to leave quite late because there weren’t any trains going to Bologna between 10 am and 1 pm, so we took the 1 pm train. So, we had some time to kill, we went to a little piadina stand for some lunch, really delicious, I have to add, one of the specialities in the area. Then I finished cleaning the room, and we went down to the train station.
We went on the train, and it was on time. It was actually smooth sailing to Bologna. Before the chaos began, we arrived in Bologna and had to find the train to Florence, which was in the lower area of the train station. We started walking down there, and everything was fine until the train didn’t arrive on time. Someone spoke through the speakers in Italian, of course, so we didn’t understand anything, but everyone on the same platform as we began to run towards the elevator. Now I was in panic. We found a nice guy to tell us what happened, and our train was 10 minutes late and had changed platforms to one up on the surface. I felt shitty and stressed. Luckily for us, the train was 5 minutes later, so we managed to get there in time. Still, our whole schedule was fucked up with the museum we were going to see, and on top of that, the train was even later when we got on it and were on our way, so I wasn’t sure if we even could get to the museum in time…
We got to Florence and walked towards the hotel. We decided that my dad would check in and put down our luggage. Then I would go get our tickets, but what we didn’t see coming was that on one of the streets close to our hotel was full of people and police because there was a big football game in Florence, between Florence and some Greek football team, and they were so loud and annoying… We got to the hotel, and I began walking to the pickup point for our tickets, but I looked at my maps to see where I was going. I was going directly towards the football hooligans, and I said, “Nope, not gonna happen,” so I walked back to my dad and said, “We are not going.” So we spent money on 4 tickets to something we didn’t even see, which was a great start to our vacation… We went to the room, stayed for a while, then went out to find a place for dinner, and we found this very nice place. It was really cosy and had a great atmosphere. We got some pizzas and wine, my dad got a beer, and then we went back home and went to bed early. We were both exhausted; it had been a long day…
But tomorrow was going to be fun with a lot of sightseeing…
Good morning I haven’t slept a wink, and neither has my dad we have kept each other up all night with our snoring, so we woke up quite tired, but we started the day by going to eat some breakfast and then get ready for our visit of Florence, we had a few things we wanted to see but then also get surprised for what to see…
Our tour started at the big cathedral, but the line to get inside was ridiculously long, so we just looked at it from the outside, and it was beautiful. We walked towards a bridge my dad wanted to see, a shopping bridge, because there were stores on the bridge. Still, on the way there were a lot of things to see it was kinda we walked looked to one side there were something big and beautiful like a big arch then we walked a bit more looked to the other side was a church or some big building, of cause we took the time to walk there to see, we didn’t know what it was but we saw it…
Then we got to the bridge, walked on and to the sides to see it from inside and out. A nice bridge: it wasn’t really beautiful, but it was different in a good way. I haven’t seen anything like it before, and it was nice in that way. We were hungry and wanted to get some lunch, but it was actually quite late for a normal Danish lunch, so we found a place and got some food. We went to the train station because we wanted to see how long it would take to walk there tomorrow when we are going back to Denmark, and on the way, we found a long, marked road that was really nice, and then we walked back to the hotel for some rest before we went out for dinner… We needed to repack some of my luggage into my dad’s because mine was too heavy, but we actually managed to make it lighter, so now we are crossing our fingers that it’s under 23 kg tomorrow…
I wanted to treat my dad to a really nice dinner, as I did with my mom when we went to Venice, so we found this steakhouse and got some really delicious steak and salad, and, of course, a dessert… it was a really good meal. It was time to get back, and to bed we were so tired, and tomorrow was going to be so long as well with the travelling, but also this was my last day in Italy tomorrow, I have to say goodbye, how sad is that…
Travel day is upon us, and we woke up really early because we wanted to be prepared if the train was late so we took a train at a little over 8 am and then we would be in Bologna at approximately 9 am, we had to be at the airport at least 10 am but we was prepared the train was a little late it but only 5 minutes, we got on the train and sat down it was actually on track of cause with the 5 minutes time delay, we got to Bologna station and tried to find the speed train to the airport, that wasn’t that hard, and we got our tickets and got into the train, and there were a lot of people going there we were like glued together inside that train good it’s only a 5-10 min train ride, then we got to the airport I found a toilet and we went down to find the place to check in my baggage, and it was already open for check in and i was almost the first in line, and it was 22 kg I was so happy everything worked out with the weight, then we went through security without any problem only they pulled me aside because of my power bank… then we found a place to get lunch and we were next to a boarding line for Ryanair and it was a flight to Paris so I said to my did, wouldn’t it be funny if this was our gate, and actually it was we was so close to our gate.
We got to the little bus to go to the plane, and after some time we took off and 1 hour 50 minutes later we landed in Denmark and I was finally home, from my last trip on this incredible year of travel, work and fun…
That was the end of the 78th-90th and final day in Italy, Goodbye
My final thoughts!
This Experience I have done the last year has been the most amazing I have ever done in my life, I knew I wanted to travel but I also knew I would be able to do it like my sister and just doing it as a vacation, I wanted to see how people in other counties work, and I have seen it in at least three countries, and that is everything I have ever wanted, my goal has been complete, and I’m really proud of myself for have done this, I think it takes a lot of courage to do this, and not only once, not twice but three times, meeting people, getting to know yourself and your limits when you’re on your highest and your lowest, I think I have been both a lot of times this past year, with the TLT group problems, but also the friendship I have with David and Chloe now I’m so appreciative about them. They are in Denmark, working out our goodbye in Hungary was only a see you soon, now I can really show them exactly what I didn’t get to last time they were here…
And to all these different people who have made all my trips possible, I’m so happy I said yes when I got asked if I wanted this and didn’t turn it down. I would definitely have missed out on so much progress and growth, personally and work-wise. This is a time of my life I will never forget. Still, if I really want to relive it in a few years to really feel back in time, I will be able to read all these diaries to remind me of an amazing time with friends, a lot of laughter and drama, basically what my life is about… Thank you for everything.