After about a week, Yani arrived, after a very eventful Mitfahrgelegenheit experience. Mitfahrgelegenheit is a sort of organised hitchhiking, with people advertising free spaces in their car on journeys they are making. Yani, like most young people in Germany, had opted to do this up to Berlin. She hadn’t banked on the car breaking down. Three times. And eventually exploding. Her description of green fluid spurting out from under the steering-wheel is hilarious to say the least - we giggled for hours, but eventually got to sleep because the next day Amy, Yani and I were off again – down to Dresden to stay with my host mum, Waltraud from my previous trip to Germany in 2001.

We also travelled with Mitfahrgelegenheit, but had a far less eventful trip. In fact, other than breaking the 200km/hr barrier, the trip was most uneventful, - which was probably a good thing! Our driver dropped us off in a hip part of town and we went into a very cool looking thoroughfare which actually is supposedly one of the places to ‘be’. We had a drink and entertained ourselves for about an hour, laughing at the numerous, blatant fashion crimes of socks and sandals walk past us. After seeing about ten in half as many minutes, we decided the only thing to do was collect images of this traditional German dress and make a collage. We continued collecting photos for the next few days, and lets just say the results are nothing but impressive. And numerous. My personal favourite was bright pink socks under dark pink sandals.

We did see a great deal other than socks and sandals, however. Waltraud works as a taxi driver, so she picked us up and took us to a gorgeous castle, then on a night tour of the Old Town, complete with a quick joyride in her Trabant when we got home! We were thoroughly spoilt! Then home to a wonderful meal and a good night’s sleep. Well, that was the idea at least. Waltraud lives in a little one-room flat in Dresden. It did have a bunk bed, but that meant that two of us got to sleep on the floor. As I wasn’t feeling too crash hot, I got the bed the first night, but realised we had positioned the top bunk (which came off) so that my head was in direct sunlight in the morning. There was only one thing to do – pull the covers up over my head and pretend the world didn’t exist! That day, Waltraud had somehow managed to get not only the morning off but also the taxi! So off we went to another palace, visited the world’s oldest Camellia, found out about the difference between edible and non-edible chestnuts, and then on to the Sachische Schweiz, - sort of like Germany’s answer to the Three Sisters, but evidently from a Catholic family.

That afternoon we met up with one of Amy’s friends, who took us on a tour of the Old Town again – this time by day – which was especially good for photographic results… We had dinner at his, rejoiced in his internet, and eventually made it home in one piece. The next day, I split up with Amy and Yani who were heading north to visit some more friends, and I headed down to Italy. Or at least I tried to! I had been trying, without success, to get in contact with my Cousins in Milano. I thought I would go to the train station nice and early to make a booking, given the last near-disaster, and use the phones there (since Waltraud also didn’t have a land line at home). Clearly, trains and me weren’t getting along. All trains to Milano were booked until one which left at midnight. It was before 11am. I had some time to waste, so I got out my phone card, cursed when it wouldn’t work and kept eating my credit, found a phone call center instead, and tried to get through to my cousins again. I eventually gave up trying to get through, left a few messages and called my parents instead. They said that they had heard from Geney a few weeks ago and he had said he would be in Milano, so they advised me to simply turn up on his doorstep, since I had the address! Easier said than done, but I went back and got a booking on train at midnight. I was hoping for a sleeper car, but, unfortunately, this was a regular train. So I hung around in the station for a good twelve hours before the train finally arrived and I managed to find three seats next to each other which I immediately bagsed by lying down on them. I fell asleep, to a certain degree, to be woken up occasionally by ticket collectors and then at 5am by commuters. The train was full – Monday morning rush. I plugged myself into my ipod and closed my eyes for another few minutes. Then on to make a quick change to another train through Switzerland, then on to another down to Milano. On the voyage I got a call from my Cousin, asking if I had organised accommodation. I laughed, and he said not to worry, he would organise everything! So on I went, eventually arrived in Milano, Geney took me out and showed me a few sights, and then we had a wonderful dinner. The next morning I realised I had bruises on my ribs and thigh, where the seat ridges of the night before had dug in. I resolved to be more organised in future in making train reservations, got up, and wandered around the castle in Milan. Now that’s what a castle is supposed to be like! Complete with moat! Complete, even, with tire marks or doughies in the moat pit! Milano was very nice, but I was eager to get out of the rain and down to sunny southern Italy, so I got another train down to Naples, where I was going to stay with Valentino, who I had met in Prague, and his family. I stayed in Napoli for a week and fell completely, and very unexpectedly, in love with the place. I promised that I would write all about Napoli properly, so I think I had better leave it at that for today and wait till I can dedicate more time! In the meantime, check out some photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/nickyringland