a weekend with the pellizzers

With about a week before I was to fly to Spain, I headed back to Italy to spend some time with the Pellizzers (my second host family, in San Zenone), and check out Cinque Terre, possibly the most talked about spot in Italy amongst travellers I'd met.

After flying from Berlin to Milan, I caught the train to Castelfranco where the whole family was waiting at the platform to welcome me (and had unfortunately been waiting a wee while as I'd missed the first train and had to wait another hour!). They all cheered when I arrived at the platform, and we headed out for pizza and gelato, which was fantastic.

The next morning, we all headed out on a really picturesque bike ride which wound through their little town, on a cycle path through shady bushes and alongside a stream until we climbed a steep hill to the site of the town's church, with an expansive panoramic view of the neighbouring towns. The boys played around for a bit before we started our trip home, stopping at Francesca's cousin's restaurant for a cold drink on the way.

That afternoon, we visited a basilica in Bassano, which had a really interesting design as kind of a mishmash between the Parthenon in Athens and the Pantheon in Rome. Both were designed by the same man, who was from Bassano and wanted to build a church in his home town to resemble his most famous work (I think!). We paid a small fee to climb to the top and, again, see some really special views. In my opinion visiting a monument like this, with only a very few visitors present, is far more enjoyable and special than joining the hoards of tourists who visit places such as the Parthenon and Pantheon just for a photo opportunity.

The view from the top of the church

Fabrizio (3), Fabio (10), Filippo (13) and Federico (6)

The following day, we went into Asolo to have lunch at Francesca's parents' home. Sunday lunches at one of the grandparents' are about as typical Italian as you can get, and I received a really warm welcome from Francesca's parents before being well fed with pasta and meats. Francesca and I then took a lovely long walk up into the old town of Asolo, to the dismay of the littlest boy, Fabrizio (3), who was inconsolable until his Mama came back and then insisted on going for a walk, too.

All in all it was a lovely, relaxing weekend and it was great to spend some time with such a lovely family. It was hard to say goodbye!

the rest of berlin

Playing table tennis on one of the public tables

Mmm, cheap beer

Checkpoint Charlie, the entrance to the former American quarter of Berlin

sachsenhausen

Having found the Third Reich tour really interesting, I decided to visit the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp memorial. Sachsenhausen was used primarily for political prisoners during Nazi rule, and during the Soviet occupation was used as a 'special camp' until 1950. Some 30,000 prisoners died here as a result of executions, exhaustion, disease, malnutrition, pneumonia and medical experimentation. Haunting stuff.

The gates to the main camp under the guard tower

Electric, barbed wire fence. Anyone caught on the pebbled area were shot without question

The prison yard (they only reconstructed two barracks so it wouldn't have been this barren)

The two barracks they reconstructed, one is a museum and one is exactly how it would have been during the camp's use

The memorial to those who served in the camp and those who freed them

an afternoon with Hitler

On Monday, I felt sufficiently relaxed and rested that I decided to start being a tourist. I'd paid a whirlwind four-day visit to Rhea in Berlin two years ago, where I saw a few of the sights, but to get a more in-depth view of the city I decided to do a couple of walking tours.

Helen, who I had met during orientation for the English camps (she was one of the instructors) was also in Berlin with her father so we decided to meet up and do the Third Reich tour of Berlin - Nazi Germany. The tour was run by Jared, a very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable American guide and there must have been about 30 of us at least on the tour.

Jarred took us by foot and bus to a lot of the major sites of Nazi Germany history, starting with the bombed-out Memorial Church, which was damaged in an air raid during World War II. The church was not restored and the remains of the church serve as one of many World War II memorials.

We then boarded a bus to East Berlin, where the battle of Berlin took place and saw bullet holes in buildings and learnt about the events that took place during the final battle of the war.

We visited the site of the Air Defence Ministry, where the Lufftwathe co-ordinated the Battle of Britain and Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry, buildings which are still used today for various governmental purposes. It was a strange feeling to stand in front of these buildings which once served a very different purpose, and seeing people going in and out, carrying out their everyday business in these sites which played such a huge part in history.

Possibly the most chilling part of the tour was the 'Topography of Terror', a street where Himmler's SS and Getapo headquarters were located. 

Berlin history three-fold - in the back, an example of a typical building erected during Hitler's rule. He wanted all buildings to be uniform and plain, intimidating, imposing. Few of these buildings survived WWII. In the middle, a one of the longest remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. In front, the foundations of the SS and Gestapo headquarters.

An outdoor and indoor museum, the Topography of Terror focuses on the cellars of these buildings, as the buildings themselves were demolished during the war. The tiled cellar of the Gestapo building, where many political prisoners were tourtured and executed,is a sobering site, and the exhibitions which run the length of the Topography of Terror give context to these buildings and provide a very brief overview of the history of Nazi Germany.

Indoors, the information is much more detailed, walking you through the events of Third Reich rule chronologically, and broken down into sections about before Hitler's rule, the formation of the SS and Gestapo, political prisoners, concentration camps and the events of World War II. One could spend hours in there, and as we only had 20 minutes, I came back the next day on my own for a more in-depth look.

We also visited a number of memorials, the most sobering being the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a 4.7 acre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying height arranged in a grid pattern on an undulating field, somewhat resembling a graveyard.

(Pic from Wikipedia)

Tthe grandest was one of the three the Soviet memorials, which was erected only months after the capture of Berlin. It is flanked by tanks and features a huge statue of a Soviet soldier atop a curved wall. It's also a burial site of around 2,000 fallen Soviet soldiers.

(Pic from Wikipedia)

We visited the site where Operation Valkyrie came to an end after a botched assassination attempt on Hitler, and spent some time at the exact location of the bunker where Hitler spent his final days and committed suicide, and learned an in-depth account of the last few days of his life.

The tour finished in front of the Reichstag, the site of the Reichstag fire in 1933, which was a turning point in the establishment of Nazi Germany as it was used as evidence by Nazis that the Communists were plotting against the German government. The president at the time, at the urging of Hitler (who had just been sworn in as chancellor), instituted mass arrests of Communists, including all of the Communist parliamentary delegates. With their bitter rival Communists gone and their seats empty, the National Socialist German Workers Party went from being the minority tomthe majority and thus allowed Hitler to consolidate his power.

The building was essentially destroyed during the Cold War, but was reconstructed in the 1990s afger the German reunification and was officially reopened in 1999. It again houses the German government (Bundstag).

The tour was so interesting, and it made me wish I'd paid more attention in History at school. It's amazing to see so many memorials and monuments pointing to World War II, it seems that Germany is determined not to forget the atrocities that were committed during the war. The Jewish memorial is right next to the Reichstag, serving as a warning to all the politicians who travel past it each day the consequences of abusing power.

a quick border-hop

On Saturday, we decided to venture further afield, across the border to Poland. For no other reason than just to check it out, see how different it was, add another country to the list. Rhea had never been to Poland, despite living in Berlin for three-ish years, so we hopped in the car and made a little road trip.

It took about two hours and then once we hit the border, EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT. Well no, not really, in fact we weren't even sure that we had crossed the border until we came across a big shopping centre / market with Polish signs. We carried on through a couple of tiny villages, they were so quaint and old-fashioned, with steep roofs and peeling paint.

We decided to buy some food at a local supermarket and have a picnic, and boy, was it cheap! It cost the equivalent of €9 to feed the three of us. On our way back to Berlin we stopped at a nature reserve, a huge wetlands which was lush and green and supposedly housed hundreds of species of birds and other creatures. We climbed a lookout tower and it was hard not to instead see a likely spot that thousands of Polish and German soldiers would have trudged through during World War Two.

Our favourite street sign on our wee road trip

After our lakeside picnic, we headed back to the apartment and chilled out with some beers and hilly competitive table tennis at the local park.

The next day, after having a delicious brunch with Rhea's friends Tracey and Steve, we headed to one of the biggest parks in Berlin (I think) to experience what has apparently become a Sunday afternoon institution - karaoke in the park.

Apparently it's been running for many years, and every Sunday afternoon, a thousand or so spectators gather to witness the good, the bad and the downright terrible, all in the name of an afternoon's entertainment.

Rhea had mentioned the karaoke in passing a few times when we'd caught up by email or Skype over the years, but I had always assumed these were talented singers and it was enjoyable because the singing was so good - but the exact reverse is true. There were a couple of really good singers, but for the most part, they were terrible - but they didn't seem to care and neither did the crowd, who would join in and sing along if the person holding the mic needed a lift.

After an hour or so of entertainment, we wandered the huge array of markets in the park, and past many families and groups of friends who were enjoying the afternoon sunshine with barbecues and beers.

change of pace in berlin

If someone had told me before I left New Zealand that the most relaxing part of my trip would be a 10-day visit to Berlin, I would have thought they were crazy, but that's exactly what my trip to Berlin was!

After spending nearly two months with essentially strangers (all very nice strangers, and ones who didn't stay strangers for long, but still) it was something of a relief to visit an old friend from New Zealand (well, she's not from New Zealand but I met her in NZ... Anyway...)

I'd decided a month or so earlier to make this trip of a couple of reasons - 1. Rhea is a great friend who I hadn't seen in nearly two years and 2. After spending the previous two months travelling every week or two weeks to a different place with a different host family, different colleagues and different students, I was pretty much exhausted. I loved the idea of being able to relax, sleep in, chill out, watch TV in English, and spend some quality time with great friend Rhea (and Anke).

I was greeted warmly at the airport by Anke which I really appreciated, to be honest I had always taken airport greetings for granted until recently, as a lot of my previous travel was to visit friends or family. After walking through arrivals gate after arrivals gate after arrivals gate with no one to greet me, it was so good to see a friendly face!

Having a beer on the balcony on my first night in Berlin

Rhea had made sure to stock the kitchen with Jo-friendly foods (CHICKEN HOW I MISSED YOU!!). We may have eaten chicken every night (sorry guys) and I was also super stoked with the English muffins and eggs which I made for breakfast every day.... It's the little things! Breakfast in Italy was always sweet, with biscuits and cakes on the breakfast table every day. Don't get me wrong, it was great but it was good to have something savoury.

I loved the food in Italy, but after nearly two months it was great to take a temporary break from pasta.

The next three days were spent sleeping late, watching TV (Orange is the New Black - great show) and just generally chilling out with Rhea and Anke and it was bliss! On my third day, I ventured out of the apartment with Rhea (she took the day off work) and we went for a bike ride / shopping / cheesecake hunting, tapas for dinner (very un-German but very, very good). I was still in chill-out mode for sure.

Photobooth fun in Berlin

como and clooney part two

For my second full day in Como, I again treated myself to a sleep in and relaxing morning, before making the hike into the town. This time, I took the scenic route, through the main part of the park and it was just a beautiful hour-long walk through dense bush, which was great as it kept me cool, for a while at least.

Today, I'd decided to check out one of the towns in the hills around Como, to get a fantastic panoramic view of the lake, and just check out a smaller town as opposed to the bustling, tourist-filled city.

The tiny town of Brunate is accessible by funicular (cable car), so I decided to take a ride roughly 1.4 kilometres up the steep hill to check out Brunate.

The view of the lake from the front of the funicular

Once at the top, I spent a few hours checking out the beautiful views and enjoying the sleepy little town, talking to a couple of locals, one of whom pointed out George Clooney's house to me in the distance, as well as another huge villa where some scenes from Ocean's 11 were filmed - it seemed like many of the locals are proud of their town's brush with celebrity. The same man also pointed out where Italy ends and Switzerland begins - so crazy to see another country so close!

The view of Lake Como from Brunate, George Clooney's house is somewhere in the distance and the Alps in the background is where Switzerland begins

clooney's backyard

With six consecutive weeks of teaching over, it's safe to say I was feeling pretty exhausted. I'd planned to visit my good friend Rhea in Berlin the following week, but I had three days until I was due to head to Berlin. As I was in the north, I decided to check out Italy's largest lake, Como, for those three days on the advice of my previous host father, Luca.

So, I caught five trains and found myself in Como on Saturday afternoon, with no real knowledge about the place except it's Italy's largest lake, and George Clooney has a house there. If it's good enough for Clooney, it's good enough for me!

I'd booked to stay at an Eco-hostel in the Spina Verde National Park, which was completely cut off from the town apart from a walking track and a very steep, very narrow road for authorised vehicles only. The hostel's policy was to pick up their guests from the bottom of the hill when they were checking in, and drop them off when they were checking out - the rest of the time guests had to make their way up the road or along the beautiful pat, which was quite a hike.

This was my first hostel experience in Europe, and it was a beautiful 11th-century building which so much character but it was still very comfortable and about as pleasant as a hostel could be. 

After catching up on some much-needed sleep, I spent my first full day in Como - it was very touristy with a lot of shops and restaurants, but I wanted to check out the lake. I went for a huge walk along the lakefront and found a Lido (outdoor pool) in the grounds of a grand old Villa which was a tourist destination in itself. 

Kids cooling off in some fountains along the lakefront 

Because it was a steaming hot day, and you can't really swim in the lake at the city end, I decided to spend the afternoon relaxing at the pool, taking turns between sunbathing, reading, sleeping and swimming. In Italy, swimming at a public pool means wearing a bathing cap, so I invested in one of these bad boys (which was way too small for my giant head).

 

View of the lake from the Lido with the New Zealand flag flying!

It was such a lovely, relaxing and refreshing afternoon and when the pool closed at 6pm I strolled back to the city, taking in the gorgeous scenery.

For dinner, I decided to treat myself to a non-Italian meal, as I was getting pretty sick of eating pasta. I found a Mexican restaurant on my walk back to the hostel, and I was so excited! I love Mexican food, so, even though it was a bit pricy, I decided it would be worth it..... Well, it wasn't. It was definitely the worst Mexican meal I've tasted, and it taught me an important lesson - in Italy, the only safe bet is Italian food unfortunately!

coredo.

My last camp was one short and sweet week in Coredo, a small mountain town in the north about 30 minutes from the Austrian border. This was my biggest camp, with eight tutors and around 80 kids.I bumped into two of the tutors on my third train of five - Eva, from my camp in Asolo, and Chris, who I hadn't worked with yet.

I was hosted by a lovely family of four: parents Susanna and Walter, six-year-old Daisy and two-year-old Kevin. Despite the family not speaking much English (and me speaking next-to-no Italian), we managed to communicate well enough to get by. They have a wonderful family and the children are very sweet and very well-behaved which was great - and Susanna is a great cook!

Daisy and Kevin playing with Photo Booth on my iPad

The family live in a typical arrangement in Italy - a very large home which is shared with other family members. In this case, Walter's mother lives in the self-contained ground level which was really convenient as Daisy could stay with her Nonna while I took over her room for the week. On my second day, Sunday, Nonna and Walter's sister along with her husband and baby took me to a potato festival in a neighbouring town as the family was out all day. Nonna even cooked me dinner when I got home from a trip to the lake with the other tutors.

It's very common for Italian families to live in this arrangement, in fact, all four families that I stayed with had lived in the same small town for their whole lives (the wife may be from a neighbouring town but the husband seems to stay in his hometown) and the husband's parents will either live downstairs, next door or just around the corner, in the family home. One of my camp directors explained that the family home is very important to Italians and once they put down roots, they simply do not move! The family unit is very tight and, in fact, most Italians I have spoken to cannot believe how far away from home I am and how long I plan to be away for - the typical response when I would tell them about my travel is "how do your parents feel about you being so far away". They can't believe I'm happily on the other side of the world to where I grew up and where all my friends and family are. 

It's just the Kiwi way though - most of us are raised to be independent and our parents take pride in the fact we can stand on our own two feet and not be overly dependent on them once we're adults.

Anyway, after our camp meeting on Sunday, our new director Valentina and her sister Nadia took us to a nearby lake for the afternoon, which was absolutely beautiful!

The tutors at the lake

Because we had one extra tutor, a really rare luxury at camp, I had the role of basically overseeing and planning all our afternoon games. We have lessons in the morning, and games in the afternoon, and usually all the tutors get together either before the day starts or at lunch time to arrange the afternoon's activities. As I didn't have a group in the morning, I could spend this time organising the afternoon, and it worked really well - I was feeling a bit burnt out and sick of teaching so it worked out really well.

The amazing view from the camp

 

Camp activities - making paper mâché volcanoes with Coke and Mentos

Our week ended with an absolutely delicious meal at a restaurant which serves local cuisine - which is very different from that of other parts of Italy. Polenta, beef goulash, cheeses, potatoes, coleslaw, cold meats (which you'll find everywhere in Italy), apple strudel for dessert and lots of red wine. The town had more of an Austrian or German feel to it which makes sense as it's so close to the border - the schools teach compulsory German as well as Italian and English.

On my last night, Walter and Susanna took me out for gelato to an amazing 400-year-old castle about 45 minutes from our town - it was really beautiful and I regret not taking my camera or phone (I thought we were just going down the road!) 

It was a great end to what had been a very full on six weeks,  I had decided while at the previous camp that this week would be my last so it was time to move on with my journey.

zero branco.

With my first two-week camp finished, I headed to an equally small town called Zero Branco, only two or three train stops away!

This camp was my biggest yet, with five tutors and around fifty kids. We were greeted warmly at the Treviso train station by the camp director, Valentina, and our host families, before I headed out with my new family for some gelato and a walk around the town, which is one of the biggest in the area.

My new host family was parents Luca and Chiara, 11-year-old Gaia and eight-year-old Filippo, who started off very shy but came out of his shell very, very quickly! We had dinner at a lovely pizza restaurant with another tutor, Austin from Colorado, and her host family, who are friends with my host family. No sooner had we been seated than a massive hailstorm started, so severe that the roof started to leak. It was quite funny as the day had been ridiculously hot, around 30*, but we soon learned these types of storms are common in summer here (and they were soon to be welcomed as a respite from the heat!)

Filippo and Gaia after messy games

On Sunday, the day before camp started, I got another taste of Italian Nonnas' (grandmother) hospitality and talent in the kitchen, as we walked around the corner to Luca's mother's house for lunch - and what a lunch it was! A huge plate of pasta followed by a selection of meats, bread, salad, and three types of desserts, along with free-flowing Prosecco and coffee to finish. For lunch! I still have not gotten used to the size of the meals Italians eat, especially the lunches! Luca's parents were lovely (despite nearly wanting to force-feed me) and we undoubtedly walked home a couple of kilograms heavier!

One aspect of Italian cuisine I just have not adjusted to is the coffee. I've never liked coffee but I decided to give it another shot a couple of times, but I just don't like the flavour. My Italian families have all been shocked when I decline coffee, because for them it is almost like oxygen, and unless it is breakfast time, they will nearly always drink it as a straight shot, like a short black, only ever a cappuccino or latte in the morning!

After lunch we took a walk down a beautiful river nearby, which was a really nice and relaxing way to walk off the meal. It was a lovely path which was brimming with families enjoying the sunshine and tranquility and we saw some interesting sights, including the "boat graveyard", where the locals literally just left the boats they no longer needed to become skeletones... it was quite eerie.

The camp at Zero Branco was the first of its kind in this small town, and all the parents, children and organisers were excited to see what each day would bring. It was challenging, as none of the children knew what to expect from the camp or what the activities, songs and games would be like and we really had to work hard to get them to leave behind their self consciousness and embrace our activities, but by the end of the two weeks it was really encouraging to see all the students' progress.

My host parents are only slightly older than me (31), which was quite funny as they are obviously at very different life stages to me! The small age gap was great though and meant we could relate to each other quite well - especially because both Luca and Chiara speak English well (no matter how much Luca claims he can't). It's quite funny here and in other parts of Europe, the locals are often embarassed about their level of English and will tell you they can only speak a little English, when in actual fact their English is very good!

My Zero Branco host 'papi', Luca

The other four tutors were great, and because we all lived close to each other and close to the school, we would walk to a nearby bar at the end of each day for a Spritz or two before heading home. We also went out a couple of nights, Luca taking us to a nearby town called Mirano for drinks one night, and dinner with all our host families at a lovely restaurant in Treviso later the same week.

On Saturday we headed to a popular beach about an hour and a half away from Zero Branco, which was a great way to spend a ridiculously hot day - relaxing in the sun, sleeping, reading and swimming in the wonderfully warm Mediterranean. Some of Luca's family were spending the week at the seaside, so we headed back to his sister's place for a great dinner, followed by gelato (of course) and a late-night walk through the town.

Sunday meant another huge, yet delicious lunch at Luca's parents' house and Monday was a special day for Chiara's family - her sister graduated from university, which meant a big party at Chiara's parents' house with around 80 guests. It was a really great evening - the highlight of which was a fun Italian tradition. When Italians graduate from university, their friends and family get together to write a poem about the graduate, kind of an embarassing thing similar to when friends make speeches at our 21sts here in New Zealand. The graduate has to read out the poem to all the guests and if they stumble over a word, she has to take a drink. Guests would try to put her off by throwing food and drinks over her as she read, it was really funny, even though I had no idea what was being said!

Another highlight of Zero Branco was another incredible hailstorm which hit right as the kids were leaving camp one day. It had been a stinking hot day, which is very challenging as the kids' attention span and enthusiasm just plummets. We couldn't believe when it started to hail, out of nowhere, and soon the small grassy patch in front of the school was flooded - so the tutors decided to cool down and have some fun by playing mud football - was a really fun afternoon!

On our final night, after the kids had put on their final show for parents and grandparents, us tutors headed back to my place for pizza and drinks, was a really nice way to cap off the two weeks, and most of us only had one more week of camps left.

The tutors and Luca on our last night