Life is random and familiar

Written July 26th

I am, indeed alive and doing well here in Italy! The past few days of entertainment have made me laugh. They consisted of seeing my friend Brandon from high school randomly in Cinque terre at the train station- I only spotted him by the Sammamish duffle bag he was toting around, which, of course, caught me by total surprise. We went to the beach for 7 hours in Monterossa (one of the 5 towns in Cinque Terre), at dinner at the hostel, and then slept in the basement of an elderly Italian couple. We then took a train to Milan at which point Patrick and I decided to takea little break from eachother to avoid murdering eachother. He headed off to greece early, and Brandon and I went into the suburbs of Milan to watch my friends softball game. 30 minutes of being lost in Milan, 3 cheesburgers, one small fry, 3 poppers at McDonalds, and 2.5 km of walking with all of our stuff on later, we arrived at the fiield for the last 20 minutes of the game. We got a free place to stay on their floor and I took an actual BATH for the first time this trip! I am now just outside the train station in Milan about to go to Ancona to catch a 21 hour ferry ride to Greece. Oh and the ferry has a pool, which I am very excited about.These days a 21 hour ferry ride sounds like cake. Much has changed in that department since I left home.