...Verona?

I know I am like the worst blogger ever. I like never post anything new, but from now on I'll work harder on it! Okay so like the first week of December, I went to Verona to celebrate my friend Emily's birthday! Emily is also a rotary exchange student and she is from Canada. So after school that Saturday, I got home from school, ate, packed my stuff, and then got on a bus and headed to Vicenza. When  I got there, Anika and Ellen were at the bus station waiting for me. I got off the bus and met them and we walked together to the train station. Our train was already there, so we quickly jumped on and found three seats together. It was a nice train so it only told around forty minutes to get to Verona. When we got there, we met up with Emily and Sarah and walked together to the center of the city. Beforehand, Emily had told us that the station and the center were really close together. However, it was about a 10 minute walk. Which may not sound like very far, but I was considering them to basically be connected like they are in Bassano and Vicenza. When We got there, there were people everywhere. Verona is definitely bigger than I'm used to. I remembered that many people had told me about pickpockets being really bad in Italy so I made sure to keep my backpack close. A little while later as we were standing looking into a shop window someone tried to reach into Ellen's backpack, but fortunately they didn't take anything before she noticed what they were doing. We did some good shopping that night in the shops and Christmas market. Then we met up with Maddie, another exchange student in Verona. As it started getting later, we headed to a cute little café to grab something to eat. After dinner, we went back to the area close to the arena and ran into some street performers. Although they are really interesting to watch, I've realized that it's better to just stay away because they are always expecting money in return and will follow you for it. After, we walked Maddie to her bus stop and waited on Emily's host dad to pick us up (she lives about 20 minutes outside of Verona). When we got to her house, there was a coke waiting for us. We all sat down and ate and talked to her father on Skype and then later we went to bed. The next morning, we woke up and caught a bus back to Verona. We then met with Emily's friends from school and all went for a pizza together. After lunch, we set off for some more shopping (exchange students love to shop!) After a long day we headed back to the train station to get our train home. However, we were a little late and ended up having to run because Sarah didn't have her ticket yet and you can't buy regional tickets a half hour before they leave. So she would have had to buy a 20 euro ticket instead of 4 euro. Fortunately, we got there in time and we all made it back to our host cities without problems. 

Emily with her birthday artichoke. 

(Anika decided to get Emily a Artichoke from the Saturday day market while they were waiting for me at the station.)

 

Me and Ellen after eating our candy treat bags!

The arena

(It was too dark to get a good picture)

 

The arena again with Christmas decorations

 Emily with a street performer

 

 The cute café we ate in!

 Me, Sarah, and Emily on the bus in Verona.

 A candy store (there is usually one in every town like this, and we always find them!)
 

 Our successful day of shopping!
 

 Life-like candy
 

Taking selfies while I was riding the bus home alone.

 

All the girls at dinner!

 

Us before we left with Emily's school friends

I hope to go back to Verona soon and actually see the city!