Leaving Southern Italy for Holland

Ciao a tutti il mio amici,
I went on one last photo expedition around Otranto the morning before I left, just in case I had missed something I wanted to memorialize. Then I muscled my luggage down 4 flights of stairs and down the hill to the bus stop to catch the bus from Otranto to Bari.
Darned good thing it was all downhill! I am still sore. I did not sleep well the last several nights before I left Otranto. One reason being the heat and another reason was "attacco della zanzare"! Because of the heat I left my window open one night and in my sleep I kicked off my covers. I became the feast of many mosquitoes and have at least, oh probably 50 bites on my backside. I think I may be a little anemic. The mosquitoes here are buff. They remind me of horses, LARGE and sort of broad-chested! Their bites are extremely itchy, painful and long-lasting too. I usually don’t get bothered much by mosquitoes. I had a theory that I ate so much garlic that they did not like the taste of my blood.
I think that Italian mosquitoes must love the taste of garlic, hahahaha.
The heat is really starting to set in here in Bari too. After resting up for a day from moving my luggage, I spent my last two days at an art exhibit at the convention center "Fiera del Levante". This is the same place where Mediterre was held. The name of the art show is "XIII Biennial of Youth Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean" I saw a few artists from America here to. It is amazing how much talent is gathered here. There is art of every possible medium, and a few mediums I did not know were possible too! I am actually posting this blog from the internet café and gaming pavilion that is set up here at the convention center. I walked for miles it seems around 3 huge pavilions, looking at the art installments. I actually have blisters from doing it. I took photos until my camera battery went dead. That made me sooooo sad.

People kept staring at me and it made me worry and feel very self conscious. I thought… hmmm are my shoes too funky? Maybe I look too strange and stand out. I wonder if these are the wrong clothes to wear? I was standing near a group of people who kept giving me funny looks. So I finally had to ask. "Parla Englese?" They all pointed to one man in their group and he stepped forward with a big smile. "Yes I do!"

"Can I ask you a question?" He says "of course". I say "I keep getting stares and funny looks. What is it? I mean do I look strange or something? Is it my shoes?". He says to me " Well, I think it must be because you are so beautiful." I CHOKED! Then his lady friend taps him on the shoulder and says something I don’t understand. He says "My friend wants to know if you are a celebrity?" Another man he is with also tells him something, then he says "Yeah, my friend here asked me to tell you, he thinks you are beautiful too". I laughed and said "Thank you!". We talked and laughed for a while. I turned down his "invitation" though! hehehe.
After that I did not feel so bad when people stared lol. I would have a very hard time choosing which art exhibits I thought were the best. So many were startlingly amazing. I really enjoyed the clothing design exhibits and the video art projects. I especially enjoyed some very funny videos that were made in Israel, with English subtitles.
I fell in with a group of young people at the café who were speaking English. We spent a few hours together at lunch time eating, drinking espresso, chatting and laughing. Some were Italian, some French, a German boy and two boys from Israel. It turned out that the two boys from Israel were the ones that made the videos I liked so much. You must see their videos. Awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/user/itamarrose



I saw a band that was especially hot called Toen. They were a hard rock band from Bari and included an electric violin with heavy metal folk riffs. WOW! I danced and danced. But there were only 5 of us dancing out of hundreds attending. I asked a new friend, Emilio why people from Bari were not dancing to such hot dance music. He says "oh it’s much too early (10pm) and they have not had enough wine yet". Hahaha "So let’s go get some" and we did. We went to an "Italian Party" with food, wine and poetry flash readings.

One really amazing thing about this event… every thing was free. Well except for the water, espresso and souvenirs. The shuttle bus, entrance, exhibits, video games, internet café, shows (fashion, dance, bands, poetry readings, movies etc) food and wine were all free! This made for a VERY happy Mama Bear. I think I had a little too much of the Negromaro Wine, green olives and the Barley w/Zucchini Pilaf though. Mmmmmmm. I arrived at 9:30 am and caught the shuttle bus back to town at 11:30 pm and fell into bed exhausted around midnight. What a day!
I did not see everything yet, so I recharged myself and my camera batteries and I am back for more today! I am pretty worn out though and I still have 12 days remaining on this trip! I better drink less wine and leave earlier tonight. I will have to move my luggage again tomorrow.
OH NO!

Jozè: I hope you will understand if I sleep a lot… and cry for Italy… for a day or two after I arrive in Holland.

Wishing you were all here with me to experience this (and help me move my luggage hehehe). I think my next blog post will be mostly photos of this event.

My love goes out to all of you.